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Water has been detected in the most massive galaxy in the early Universe, according to new observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Scientists studying SPT0311-58 found H20, along with carbon monoxide in the galaxy, which is located nearly 12.88 billion light years from Earth. Detection of these two molecules in abundance suggests that the molecular Universe was going strong shortly after the elements were forged in early stars....

It’s easiest to understand the emotions of the people around you by taking in all the hints they’re dropping, on purpose or otherwise. Yet when people cover some of their facial expressions, they take some of those cues away. “We now have this situation where adults and kids have to interact all the time with people whose faces are partly covered, and a lot of adults are wondering if that’s going to be a problem for children’s emotional development,” says Ashley Ruba, a postdoctoral researcher in UW-Madison’s Child Emotion Lab....

To better understand this solid-liquid interface, researchers at Berkeley Lab developed a platform to explore these interactions under real conditions (“in situ”) at the nanoscale using a technique that combines infrared light with an atomic force microscopy (AFM) probe. The results were published in the journal Nano Letters. The team explored the interaction of graphene with several liquids, including water and a common battery electrolyte fluid. Graphene is an atomically thin form of carbon....

Though approved vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are highly effective at preventing severe disease and death during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine availability is extremely limited in many low-income countries, and new, vaccine-resistant strains of the virus could emerge in the future. Moreover, the vaccines’ effectiveness is already reduced in immunocompromised individuals unable to form sufficient numbers of antibodies or T cells that specifically target the viral spike protein. These individuals are susceptible to chronic, long-term SARS-CoV-2 infections....

Now a team of Brown University researchers has developed a way to measure the forces involved in this type of clustering. It’s the first time, the researchers say, that these forces have been experimentally measured in objects at the millimeter/centimeter scale. And the implications of the work go far beyond cereal bowls — the results could be useful in guiding the self-assembly of micromachines or in designing microscale robots that operate in and around water....

The scientists published their findings in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity. The study followed 1,054 adults over 5 years. The researchers examined the way personality traits influence biology, finding that neuroticism was associated with decreased levels of IL-6 and the association grew stronger for patients who scored high for conscientiousness. The 441 subjects who scored moderate to high for these personality traits had lower IL-6 levels than those who were high in only one or the other....

The adrenal gland, located above the kidneys, is vital for maintaining overall health. It produces hormones that regulate essential functions such as blood pressure, metabolism, and fertility, in response to signals from the brain. Individuals with adrenal gland disorders, such as primary adrenal insufficiency, where the gland does not produce enough hormones, can experience symptoms such as fatigue, low blood pressure, coma, and even death if left untreated. Currently, there is no cure for primary adrenal insufficiency and the hormone replacement therapy used to treat it has significant side effects....

Orion: Trial By FireOrion is in the final stages of preparation for the uncrewed flight test that will take it 3,600 miles above Earth on a 4.5-hour mission to test many of the systems necessary for future human missions into deep space. Orion will be launching into space for the first time in December 2014, on a flight that will take it farther than any spacecraft built to carry humans has gone in more than 40 years and through temperatures twice as hot as molten lava to put its critical systems to the test....

New mathematical model incorporates human behavior—and the fears that drive it—to better predict multiple waves of infections. A new mathematical model for predicting infectious disease outbreaks incorporates fear—both of disease and of vaccines—to better understand how pandemics can occur in multiple waves of infections, like those we are seeing with COVID-19. The “Triple Contagion” model of disease and fears, developed by researchers at NYU School of Global Public Health, is published in the Journal of The Royal Society Interface....

For the first time, academics developed a systematic literature review of the causes and cures of poor megaproject performance. They identified six key themes and looked at areas where a project might fail, analyzing the problems and solutions. The study, published in Project Management Journal, found that no isolated factor can account for the poor performance of megaprojects. Instead, the paper is the first to identify several causes and suggest a systemic approach to enhance the understanding of megaprojects....

Despite the presence of these adult pluripotent stem cells (aPSCs) in various animal species such as sponges, hydras, planarian flatworms, acoel worms, and some sea squirts, the mechanism of how they are produced remains unknown in any species. In a new study published in the journal Cell researchers in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University have identified the cellular mechanism and molecular trajectory for the formation of aPSCs in the acoel worm, Hofstenia miamia....

A recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports found that maintaining water clarity in coral reefs is crucial for preserving coral biodiversity and avoiding reef degradation. The study analyzed the productivity and biodiversity of the world’s symbiotic coral communities “Coral reefs are one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth,” said Tomás López-Londoño, a postdoctoral scholar at Penn State and lead author on the study. “To better understand that diversity, we looked at the role sunlight plays in the symbiotic relationship between coral and the algae that provide the oxygen for its survival....

“Most reactions involving free radicals take place at the site of the unpaired electron,” explained Brookhaven Lab chemist Matthew Bird, one of the co-corresponding authors on the paper. The Princeton team had become experts in using free radicals for a range of synthetic applications, such as polymer upcycling. But they’ve wondered whether free radicals might influence reactivity on other parts of the molecule as well, by pulling electrons away from those more distant locations....

The study, published today (February 16, 2023) in the journal Nature Biotechnology, assessed thousands of different DNA sequences introduced into the genome using prime editors. These data were then used to train a machine learning algorithm to help researchers design the best fix for a given genetic flaw, which promises to speed up efforts to bring prime editing into the clinic. Developed in 2012, CRISPR-Cas9 was the first easily programmable gene editing technology....

NIAID-sponsored study assessed dose in adults fully vaccinated with any EUA or approved COVID-19 vaccine. In adults who had previously received a full regimen of any of three COVID-19 vaccines granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an additional booster dose of any of these vaccines was safe and prompted an immune response, according to preliminary clinical trial results reported in The New England Journal of Medicine....

Joint university research finds some air purifiers may actually increase harmful airborne chemicals. The market for air purifiers is booming, but a new study has found that some air cleaning technologies marketed for COVID-19 may be ineffective and have unintended health consequences. The study, authored by researchers at Illinois Tech, Portland State University, and Colorado State University, found that cleaning up one harmful air pollutant can create a suite of others....

In a new study in the journal eLife, researchers at Columbia University show how an algorithm for filtering spam can learn to pick out, from hours of video footage, the full behavioral repertoire of a tiny, pond-dwelling Hydra. A close relative of coral, jellies, and sea anemones, Hydra is so primitive that it lacks a backbone or brain. But when it moves, feeds, and evades predators, it behaves in predictable ways that a computer can recognize....

Candida auris’s story begins in 2009 when a Japanese woman in her 70s is admitted to the Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital. Her ear sometimes discharges something, and the doctors routinely use a cotton swab to collect samples of it. To determine what is causing the infection, they analyze the sample. It turns out that a yeast, different from other known yeasts, is at play. We’ve all heard of baker’s yeast, a friendly microorganism used to make beer and bread....

The color-enhanced image was taken on February 7 at 5:42 a.m. PST (8:42 a.m. EST), as Juno performed its eleventh close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 5,086 miles (8,186 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of the planet at a latitude of 39.9 degrees. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill processed this image using data from the JunoCam imager. JunoCam’s raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at: www....

The research might assist doctors in determining when and how to most effectively screen for anxiety during pregnancy to help avoid preterm birth. It examined the link between pregnancy duration and several measures of anxiety. “Anxiety about a current pregnancy is a potent psychosocial state that may affect birth outcomes,” said lead study author Christine Dunkel Schetter, Ph.D., of the University of California Los Angeles. “These days, depressive symptoms are assessed in many clinical settings around the world to prevent complications of postpartum depression for mothers and children....