Posts

While gut microbiota play a critical role in the induction of adaptive immune responses to influenza virus infection, the role of nasal bacteria in the induction of virus-specific adaptive immunity is less clear. New research published this week in mBio, an open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, explores the role of nasal bacteria and provides clues to developing better intranasal vaccines for flu and COVID-19. “Our study shows that both integrity and amounts of nasal bacteria may be critical for effective intranasal vaccine,” said study principal investigator Takeshi Ichinohe, Ph....

Investigators found that even low exposure to aerosols from JUUL—a brand of e-cigarettes popular with youth and young adults—had significant impacts. “The health consequences of vaping are not known. Our results show that inhalation of the vapor generated by a popular brand of e-cigarette causes widespread changes inside the lungs, data that further highlight that these products are not inert and may lead to lung damage if used long term,” said corresponding author Carolyn J....

“Since the late 1970s, coronal mass ejections have been assumed to resemble a large Slinky – one of those spring toys – with both ends anchored at the sun, even when they reach Earth about one to three days after they erupt,” said Noe Lugaz, research associate professor in the UNH Space Science Center. “But our research suggests their shapes are possibly different.” Knowing the shape and size of CMEs is important because it can help better forecast when and how they will impact Earth....

The study was published in JAMA Neurology. Alzheimer’s disease affects 5.7 million Americans, and that number is expected to reach 14 million by the year 2050. To date, most of the research on the disease’s effects on the brain has been done postmortem. To investigate new treatments, researchers have recently explored methods for measuring memory loss in living patients. This was a collaborative study between researchers at the Yale PET Center and the Yale Alzheimer’s Disease Research Unit (ADRU) to explore a new strategy for measuring synaptic loss — an established indicator of cognitive decline....

In research published in Nature Communications recently, scientists from UNSW Sydney, Griffith University, and Swinburne University of Technology showed that capturing hydrogen by splitting it from oxygen in water can be achieved by using low-cost metals like iron and nickel as catalysts, which speed up this chemical reaction while requiring less energy. Iron and nickel, which are found in abundance on Earth, would replace precious metals ruthenium, platinum, and iridium that up until now are regarded as benchmark catalysts in the ‘water-splitting’ process....

Chance galactic alignments such as this provide astronomers with the opportunity to delve into the distribution of dust in these galaxies. Galactic dust adds to the beauty of astronomical images — it can be seen in this image as the dark tendrils threading through both NGC 4496A and NGC 4496B — but it also complicates astronomers’ observations. Dust absorbs starlight, making stars seem dimmer and shifting their light towards longer wavelengths, a process that astronomers refer to as “reddening” (not the same thing as redshift)....

In a move that will help tackle one of the biggest and most solvable contributors to the climate crisis, major players in the oil and gas industry agreed today to report methane emissions with a new, much higher level of transparency. “To win the race to net zero emissions, we need everyone on board. We need ambitious action from the oil and gas industry. UNEP is committed to supporting efforts that reduce methane emissions, and we recognize the leadership of companies that have joined such an ambitious methane reporting framework,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP....

The scientists published their findings in the journal PLoS ONE. The first mosasaur was discovered in 1764, and since then, thousands of specimens have been discovered. Until now, paleontologists had no evidence that they lived in freshwater environments and it was assumed that they were exclusively marine predators. In 1999, a vertebra was discovered alongside a variety of fish and crocodile teeth in a waste dump of a coal mine in an industrial town in Western Hungary....

Autistic adults, adults with intellectual disability, and adults with mental health diagnoses have multiple risk factors for infection with COVID-19 and for experiencing more severe disease if they contract COVID-19, according to research from the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute at Drexel University. Identifying risk factors for COVID-19 among autistic adults, adults with intellectual disability and adults with psychiatric diagnoses is important for prioritizing public health initiatives and clinical practice – including vaccination, testing, masking and distancing....

Half of COVID survivors experience lingering symptoms six months after recovery. More than half of the 236 million people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 worldwide since December 2019 will experience post-COVID symptoms — more commonly known as “long COVID” — up to six months after recovering, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. The research team said that governments, health care organizations, and public health professionals should prepare for the large number of COVID-19 survivors who will need care for a variety of psychological and physical symptoms....

An international team of physicists has found the first direct evidence of pear-shaped nuclei in exotic atoms. The findings could advance the search for a new fundamental force in nature that could explain why the Big Bang created more matter than antimatter—a pivotal imbalance in the history of everything. “If equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created at the Big Bang, everything would have annihilated, and there would be no galaxies, stars, planets or people,” said Tim Chupp, a University of Michigan professor of physics and biomedical engineering and co-author of a paper on the work published in the May 9 issue of the journal Nature....

Nonlinear systems are extensively studied in a wide range of physical systems, notably in photonics. In such systems, interactions between particles lead to a whole range of novel effects such as nonlinear transitions between different basic states of matter including polaritons, solitons and Bose-Einstein condensates. “Polaritons are quasiparticles formed due to the hybridization of matter and light. Once they are supplied with additional energy and densities, they form collective excitations, solitons....

A new analysis finds that swift action by politicians is the single most important factor in limiting global warming. The costs of delays outweigh any possible benefits of waiting for more scientific research into the mechanisms of climate change. The scientists published their findings in two studies in the journal Nature. This contradicts claims by governments stating that they should delay action on climate change until there is more scientific evidence....

The majority of parents feel informed and confident about pandemic protocols as kids resume sports but some are proceeding with caution. For young athletes, the new normal on soccer fields and basketball courts means temperature checks before practice, wearing masks through games and a sparse in-person fan base. But that hasn’t kept children and teens from playing. Close to a fourth of parents say their child has participated in school, travel, or community sports during the fall or winter months, according to the C....

These antibodies could be produced in large quantities by pharmaceutical companies to treat patients, especially early in the course of infection, and to prevent infection, particularly in the elderly. “We now have a collection of antibodies that’s more potent and diverse compared to other antibodies that have been found so far, and they are ready to be developed into treatments,” says David Ho, MD, scientific director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and professor of medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, who directed the work....

Research shows that certain segments of the population who contract SARS-CoV-2, the strain of the virus that causes COVID-19, tend to get sicker and are at higher risk for worse outcomes, and that includes pregnant women and infants under two months. In a new study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine’s (SMFM) annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting™, researchers will unveil findings that suggest that women who contract COVID-19 during pregnancy are able to make antibodies, but that transfer of these antibodies to their infants is less than expected....

Although various methods of generating skin tissue in the lab have already been developed, their ability to imitate real skin falls short. While real skin consists of 20 or more cell types, these models only contain about five or six. Most notably, none of these existing skin tissues is capable of hair growth. Karl Koehler, an assistant professor of otolaryngology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, originally began using pluripotent stem cells from mice, which can develop into any type of cells in the body, to create organoids–miniature organs in vitro–that model the inner ear....

The star Eta Carinae is ready to blow. 170 years ago, this 100-solar-mass object belched out several suns’ worth of gas in an eruption that made it the second-brightest star after Sirius. That was just a precursor to the main event, since it will eventually go supernova. Supernova explosions of massive stars are common in spiral galaxies like the Milky Way, where new stars are forming all the time. They are almost never seen in elliptical galaxies where star formation has nearly ceased....

“Our main aim was to create a convenient scientific platform that could enhance CO2 fixation, which can help address challenges related to the sustainable production of food and fuels and global warming caused by CO2 emissions,” says senior author Ron Milo, a systems biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science. “Converting the carbon source of E. coli, the workhorse of biotechnology, from organic carbon into CO2 is a major step towards establishing such a platform....

A research team at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is using the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) to study an enzyme found in plants, bacteria, and some animals that repairs DNA damage caused by the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) light rays. By studying this enzyme, called DNA photolyase, with the ultrabright and ultrafast pulses of the LCLS X-ray laser, researchers finally have the opportunity to watch the enzyme in action as it catalyzes a chemical reaction in real time and at the atomic scale to resolve longstanding debates about how these enzymes work....