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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 12, 2021 at 1:32pm

Most Covid-19 patients have at least one symptom 6 months on: study

More than three quarters of people hospitalised with Covid-19 still suffered from at least one symptom after six months, according to a study published Saturday that scientists said shows the need for further investigation into lingering coronavirus effects. The research, which was published in the Lancet medical journal and involved hundreds of patients in the Chinese city of Wuhan, is among the few to trace the long-term symptoms of Covid-19 infection. It found that fatigue or muscle weakness were the most common symptoms, while people also reported sleeping difficulties. "Because Covid-19 is such a new disease, we are only beginning to understand some of its long-term effects on patients' health," said lead author Bin Cao, of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine. The professor said the research highlighted the need for ongoing care for patients after they have been discharged from hospital, particularly those who have had severe infections.

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 12, 2021 at 1:29pm

Reasons to study science communication beyond the West

All cultures have communicated their knowledge in diverse and marvellous ways throughout time. Failing to see the significance of this is racist and lazy.

https://theconversation.com/3-reasons-to-study-science-communicatio...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 12, 2021 at 1:22pm

Bacterium produces pharmaceutical all-purpose weapon

Study should significantly facilitate research into the promising substance

Cornelia Hermes, René Richarz, Daniel A. Wirtz, Julian Patt, Wiebke Hanke, Stefan Kehraus, Jan Hendrik Voß, Jim Küppers, Tsubasa Ohbayashi, Vigneshwaran Namasivayam, Judith Alenfelder, Asuka Inoue, Peter Mergaert, Michael Gütschow, Christa E. Müller, Evi Kostenis, Gabriele M. König & Max Crüsemann:
Thioesterase-mediated side chain transesteri ?cation generates potent Gq signaling inhibitor FR900359; Nature Communications; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20418-3

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/uob-bpp011121.php

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 12, 2021 at 1:15pm

Five ways to manage your screen time in a lockdown, according to tech experts

1. Setting limits

2. Online Support Groups

3. Self-reflection

4. Know your triggers

5. Prioritise the social

https://theconversation.com/five-ways-to-manage-your-screen-time-in...

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-01-ways-screen-lockdown-tech-exper...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 12, 2021 at 1:04pm

There's no way to measure the speed of light in a single direction

Special relativity is one of the most strongly validated theories humanity has ever devised. It is central to everything from space travel and GPS to our electrical power grid. Central to relativity is the fact that the speed of light in a vacuum is an absolute constant. The problem is, that fact has never been proven.

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Unveiling the double origin of cosmic dust in the distant Universe

Two billion years after the Big Bang, the Universe was still very young. However, thousands of huge galaxies, rich in stars and dust, were already formed. An international study, led by SISSA—Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, now explains how this was possible. Scientists combined observational and theoretical methods to identify the physical processes behind their evolution and, for the first time, found evidence for a rapid growth of dust due to a high concentration of metals in the distant Universe. The study, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, offers a new approach to investigate the evolutionary phase of massive objects.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 12, 2021 at 1:02pm

Neuroscientists identify brain circuit that encodes timing of events

When we experience a new event, our brain records a memory of not only what happened, but also the context, including the time and location of the event. A new study from MIT neuroscientists sheds light on how the timing of a memory is encoded in the hippocampus, and suggests that time and space are encoded separately.

In a study of mice, the researchers identified a hippocampal circuit that the animals used to store information about the timing of when they should turn left or right in a maze. When this circuit was blocked, the mice were unable to remember which way they were supposed to turn next. However, disrupting the circuit did not appear to impair their memory of where they were in space.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that when we form new memories, different populations of neurons in the brain encode time and place information, the researchers say.

There is an emerging view that 'place cells' and 'time cells' organize memories by mapping information onto the hippocampus. This spatial and temporal context serves as a scaffold that allows us to build our own personal timeline of memories.

Christopher J. MacDonald el al., "Crucial role for CA2 inputs in the sequential organization of CA1 time cells supporting memory," PNAS (2020). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2020698118

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-neuroscientists-brain-circui...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 12, 2021 at 10:45am

Inspired by kombucha tea, engineers create 'living materials'

Engineers at MIT and Imperial College London have developed a new way to generate tough, functional materials using a mixture of bacteria and yeast similar to the "kombucha mother" used to ferment tea.

Using this mixture, also called a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast), the researchers were able to produce cellulose embedded with enzymes that can perform a variety of functions, such as sensing environmental pollutants. They also showed that they could incorporate yeast directly into the material, creating "living materials" that could be used to purify water or to make "smart" packaging materials that can detect damage.

 This work shows diverse materials could be grown at home or in local production facilities, using biology rather than resource-intensive centralized manufacturing.

Living materials with programmable functionalities grown from engineered microbial co-cultures, Nature Materials (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-020-00857-5 , www.nature.com/articles/s41563-020-00857-5

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-kombucha-tea-materials.html?utm_sourc...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 12, 2021 at 10:41am

Galaxy mergers could limit star formation

Astronomers have looked nine billion years into the past to find evidence that galaxy mergers in the early universe could shut down star formation and affect galaxy growth.

New research  shows that a huge amount of star-forming gas was ejected into the intergalactic medium by the coming together of two galaxies.

The researchers say that this event, together with a large amount of star formation in the nuclear regions of the galaxy, would eventually deprive the merged galaxy—called ID2299—of fuel for new stars. This would stop star formation for several hundred million years, effectively halting the galaxy's development.

Astronomers observe many massive, dead galaxies containing very old stars in the nearby Universe and don't exactly know how these galaxies have been formed.

Simulations suggest that winds generated by active black holes as they feed, or those created by intense star formation, are responsible for such deaths by expelling the gas from galaxies.

Now this  study offers galaxy mergers as another way of shutting down star formation and altering galaxy growth.

 A titanic interstellar medium ejection from a massive starburst galaxy at redshift 1.4, Nature Astronomy (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-01268-x , www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-01268-x

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-galaxy-mergers-limit-star-formation.h...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 12, 2021 at 10:07am

Scientists discover bizarre new mode of snake locomotion

A team of researchers from Colorado State University and the University of Cincinnati have discovered a new mode of snake locomotion that allows the brown tree snake to ascend much larger smooth cylinders than any previously known behaviour.

This lasso locomotion, named because of a lasso-like body posture, may contribute to the success and impact of this highly invasive species. It allows these animals to access potential prey that might otherwise be unobtainable and may also explain how this species could climb power poles, leading to electrical outages.

Researchers said they hope the findings will help people protect endangered birds from the snakes.

For nearly 100 years, all snake locomotion has been traditionally categorized into four modes: rectilinear, lateral undulation, sidewinding and concertina.

This new discovery of a fifth mode of locomotion was the unexpected result . Even though they can climb using this mode, it is pushing them to the limits. The snakes pause for prolonged periods to rest.

Current Biology, Savidge et al.: "A novel mode of locomotion expands the climbing abilities of snakes"
www.cell.com/current-biology/f … 0960-9822(20)31763-2 , DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.11.050

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-scientists-bizarre-mode-snake-locomot...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 11, 2021 at 12:04pm

Scientists developing new solutions for honeybee colony collapse

Scientists at four University of California campuses, including UC San Diego, are leading a new effort to stop and reverse a worldwide decline in honeybees, which threatens food security and prices. Honeybees pollinate more than 80 agricultural crops, which account for about a third of what we eat. Several factors, including pesticide exposure and the spread of parasites and environmental changes, are to blame for the widespread collapse of bee colonies over the past decade. To boost dwindling honeybee populations.

Researchers  will be testing how nutritional supplements may help bees that have been exposed to pesticides and on how to harness the natural honey bee microbiome against a very common bee gut disease.

Researchers have also focused a great deal on the harms caused by pesticides and this has helped improve some aspects of regulation.

Research is also aimed at understanding the complex genomes of feral honey bees. These bees have genomes that are a complex mixture of genomes of honey bee varieties from Africa, Europe and the Middle East. They are highly genetically diverse and ecologically successful. Their genomes likely hold variation useful to breeding domesticated honey bees with increased levels of resistance to the common diseases that currently plague the honey bee industry. They seek to identify and breed bees that are better able to cope with environmental stress

A second goal of the new network is to develop medications and treatments for sick bees. Certain types of honeybees generate molecules that make them more tolerant of pesticides and parasites. New technology will enable the scientists to isolate those molecules and use them as a basis for drugs.

Finally, the group is looking to give beekeepers tools to better monitor bees’ health. Small devices will be able to “listen” and “smell” inside hives to give beekeepers indications about the health of the hive.

“We know bee queens have a special pheromone they give off when they’re hungry or dying, and these can be traced,” Baer said. “We are essentially building ‘electronic veterinarians.’”

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https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/scientists-developing-new-so...

https://researchnews.cc/news/4531/Scientists-developing-new-solutio...

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