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University of Chicago Medicine’s Emily Landon discusses herd immunity, possible return to pre-pandemic lifestyle. As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout gains steam across the country, an increasing number of people are finding themselves with more protection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But just because you’ve been fortunate enough to get a vaccine doesn’t mean you can return to your pre-pandemic lifestyle—at least not yet. “Your new vaccine will protect you from serious disease and will very likely keep you from getting COVID-19 at all,” said Assoc....

Through a number of imaging experiments at KAUST’s Visualization Core labs in the past five years, Dr. Calì was able to produce three-dimensional models of astrocytes, necessary to simulate with spatial accuracy the metabolic coupling between neurons and glial cells using mathematical models developed by the BBP. “Astrocytes are cells that store energy, and give energy to neurons at multiple levels,” Dr. Cali explains. “To do that, it was important to produce accurate 3D reconstructions of these astrocytes....

Do a Google search for dark-field images, and you’ll discover a beautifully detailed world of microscopic organisms set in bright contrast to their midnight-black backdrops. Dark-field microscopy can reveal intricate details of translucent cells and aquatic organisms, as well as faceted diamonds and other precious stones that would otherwise appear very faint or even invisible under a typical bright-field microscope. Scientists generate dark-field images by fitting standard microscopes with often costly components to illumate the sample stage with a hollow, highly angled cone of light....

A team of researchers led by Khalil Ramadi, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), have developed a new, non-invasive system to facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal motility disorders. To track the movement of an ingestible “smart pill” through the Gastrointestinal (GI) tract, the researchers have generated 3D magnetic field gradients using high-frequency electromagnetic coils that encode each spatial point with a distinct magnetic field magnitude....

This research, which was recently published in the journal Science, is the first time that advanced computational techniques have been applied to a field that has traditionally progressed through trial-and-error experimentation and the use of pre-existing molecules rather than synthetic ones to engineer cells. The advance allows scientists to predict which elements – natural or synthesized – they should include in a cell to give it the precise behaviors required to respond effectively to complex diseases....

The compound, called cloacaenodin (chloa-say-nodin), is a short, slip-knotted chain of amino acids known as a lasso peptide, encoded by gut-dwelling bacteria as a defense mechanism. Peptides do all kinds of things in the body and have been used in a wide range of medical treatments. This peptide works by attacking rival bacteria, and it’s a very potent killer, according to A. James Link, professor of chemical and biological engineering....

Controlling your food intake can be even more difficult than you think. Osaka Metropolitan University scientists show that visual food cues can affect your eating behavior even when you are not aware of them. Their findings were published recently in the journal PLOS ONE. Obesity is one of the major pathological conditions that constitute lifestyle-related diseases and is known to be associated with myocardial infarction, stroke, and carcinogenesis. Approaches to regulating eating behavior are widely used in an effort to control obesity, but it has been reported that about half of those who receive dietary guidance return to their original weight within five years....

These stars make up the globular cluster Messier 79, located about 40,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Lepus (The Hare). Globular clusters are gravitationally bound groupings of up to one million stars. These giant “star globes” contain some of the oldest stars in our galaxy. Messier 79 is no exception; it contains about 150 000 stars, packed into an area measuring just roughly 120 light-years across. This 11....

This galaxy has something known as an active galactic nucleus. While this phrase sounds complex, this simply means that astronomers measure a lot of radiation at all wavelengths coming from the center of the galaxy. This radiation is generated by material falling inward into the very central region of ESO 021-G004, and meeting the behemoth lurking there — a supermassive black hole. As material falls toward this black hole it is dragged into orbit as part of an accretion disk; it becomes superheated as it swirls around and around, emitting characteristic high-energy radiation until it is eventually devoured....

NGC 3972 has had its fair share of dramatic events. In 2011 astronomers observed the explosion of a type Ia supernova in the galaxy (not visible in this image). These dazzling objects all peak at the same brightness, and are brilliant enough to be seen over large distances. NGC 3972 also contains many pulsating stars called Cepheid variables. These stars change their brightness at a rate matched closely to their intrinsic luminosity, making them ideal cosmic lighthouses for measuring accurate distances to relatively nearby galaxies....

Wealthier northeastern US states and Western European countries tended to have significantly lower mortality rates during second-wave COVID-19 infections, new research from the University of Sydney and Tsinghua University has shown. However, the pattern was not as general as expected, with notable exceptions to this trend in Sweden and Germany. Researchers say mortality change could have several explanations: European first-wave case counts were underestimated;First-wave deaths disproportionately affected the elderly;Second-wave infections tended to affect younger people;With some exceptions, lower mortality rates occurred in countries with more socialized and equitable health systems....

The efficiency of solar panels is hampered by a Goldilocks problem: photons need to have just the right amount of energy to be converted into free electrons, which contribute to the voltage. Too little energy, and the photons pass right through the solar panel. Too much, and the excess energy disappears as heat. Perovskites The latter is due to the creation of hot (high-energy) electrons. Before they can be extracted from the solar cells, these hot electrons first give off their excess energy by causing vibrations in the crystalline material of the solar panel....

Refraction is the bending of light as it passes from one transparent medium to another, such as when light passes from air to water or from air to a glass lens. When light enters a new medium, such as water or glass, it changes speed and direction, which causes it to bend or change its path. The amount of bending that occurs depends on the angle at which the light hits the surface of the medium and the difference in the refractive indices (a measure of how much the speed of light changes in the medium) of the two media....

The scientists published their findings in the journal Nature Communications. Other symptoms, like respiratory distress and fatigue can accompany heart failure. High blood pressure of valvular heart defects will lead to cardiac hypertrophy, which in turn, once it has developed in a patient, will lead to heart failure since the heart muscles enlarge to boost pumping performance. The microRNAs are more prevalent in cardiac muscle cells of mice suffering from cardiac hypertrophy....

Young kids often harbor the misconception that the moon is chasing them or that they can touch it with their hands, as it seems much closer than its actual distance. During our daily movements, we tend to think that we navigate space in a linear way. However, scientists at Salk Institute have found that spending time exploring an environment can cause neural connections to develop in unexpected ways. According to a study recently published in Nature Neuroscience, neurons in the hippocampus, which play a crucial role in spatial navigation, memory, and planning, represent space in a way that aligns with nonlinear hyperbolic geometry....

CELMoDs are a new class of cancer drugs that function by binding to cereblon, a regulatory protein, which causes the degradation of proteins that drive cancer. Researchers found that for CELMoDs to work effectively, they must cause a specific shape change in cereblon upon binding. This discovery, recently published in the journal Science, allows for the reliable design of effective CELMoDs. “There are a lot of research groups that have spent considerable time making drugs that bind very tightly to cereblon, but have then scratched their heads in puzzlement that these drugs fail to work,” says study senior author Gabriel Lander, Ph....

NASA announced the results of the demonstration, called the Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology (KRUSTY) experiment, during a news conference Wednesday at its Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The Kilopower experiment was conducted at the NNSA’s Nevada National Security Site from November 2017 through March. NASA is pursuing development and research of the Kilopower project in order to meet the agency’s anticipated future planetary surface power needs. The objective of NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Kilopower project is to demonstrate space fission power systems technology to enable crewed surface missions on planetary bodies....

Retraction: This article has been retracted by 3 of its 4 authors after they were unable to independently verify their data. A large observational study suggests that treatment with the antimalarial drug chloroquine or its analog hydroxychloroquine (taken with or without the antibiotics azithromycin or clarithromycin) offers no benefit for patients with COVID-19. The study analyzed data from nearly 15,000 patients with COVID-19 receiving a combination of any of the four drug regimens and 81,000 controls....

The labs of Rice chemist James Tour, which discovered the original method to turn a common polymer into graphene in 2014, and Tennessee/ORNL materials scientist Philip Rack revealed they can now watch the conductive material form as it makes small traces of LIG in a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The altered process, detailed in the American Chemical Society’s ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, creates LIG with features more than 60% smaller than the macro version and almost 10 times smaller than typically achieved with the former infrared laser....

Today, the American Cancer Society (ACS) released Cancer Statistics, 2023, the organization’s annual report on cancer facts and trends. According to the report, overall cancer mortality has dropped 33% since 1991, averting an estimated 3.8 million cancer deaths. Based on ACS data, in 2023 there are projected to be 1,958,310 new cancer cases and 609,820 cancer deaths in the United States. These major findings were published today in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, alongside its consumer-friendly companion, Cancer Facts & Figures 2023, available on cancer....