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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 22, 2021 at 1:51pm

Microscope that detects individual viruses could power rapid diagno...

A fast, low-cost technique to see and count viruses or proteins from a sample in real time, without any chemicals or dyes, could underpin a new class of devices for rapid diagnostics and viral load monitoring, including HIV and the virus that causes COVID-19. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign described the technique, called Photonic Resonator Interferometric Scattering Microscopy, or PRISM, in the journal Nature Communications. 

Researchers have developed a new form of microscopy that amplifies the interaction between light and biological materials. One can use it for very rapid and sensitive forms of diagnostic testing, and also as a very powerful tool for understanding biological processes at the scale of individual items, like counting individual proteins or recording individual protein interactions.

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 22, 2021 at 6:38am

Carbon pawprint: is man's best friend the planet's enemy?

Is your adorable puppy as bad for the planet as a gas-guzzling SUV?

While the precise carbon pawprint of our pets is the source of scientific debate, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: lovable, they may be, cats and dogs have an impact on the planet.

No doubt, they bring a lot of good to people, both working animals and companion animals. But they mostly eat meat. 

However, some argue that because most pet foods are based on secondary products from the human food industry, especially the ingredients that are animal-based, the environmental costs of those ingredients are not the same as those being consumed by humans.

Yet in some countries meat is reared specifically for animal consumption. As with humans—animal carbon footprints "depend on where you live in the world".

But scientists can agree on at least one thing: a large dog, logically, eats more than a small cat and therefore has a bigger environmental impact. It si not possible to make a dog fully vegetarian.

So what can the environmentally conscious animal lovers out there do to mitigate the damage caused by their furry friends?

Experts suggest considering other species of animals to have as pets, such as hamsters or birds. But if you don't want to have an ecological pawprint, don't have a pet at all. Let them live in wilderness using natural resources and  bound by natural laws.

But one environmental impact from outdoor cats  can't be avoided. A massacre all around your home: dead birds, shrews, lizards...

One solution for animals and the planet would be to cut down or diversify the protein in their diet.

Several dried food producers already use insects in their kibble, although there is still debate over the environmental merits of various animal foods and their production.

https://phys.org/news/2017-08-truth-cats-dogs-environmental-impact....

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-carbon-pawprint-friend-planet-enemy.h...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 21, 2021 at 12:50pm

World's smallest origami bird shows potential of nanoscale machines

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 20, 2021 at 11:19am

Study shows stronger brain activity after writing on paper than on tablet or smartphone

Unique, complex information in analog methods likely gives brain more details to trigger memory.

A study of Japanese university students and recent graduates has revealed that writing on physical paper can lead to more brain activity when remembering the information an hour later. Researchers say that the unique, complex, spatial and tactile information associated with writing by hand on physical paper is likely what leads to improved memory.

"Actually, paper is more advanced and useful compared to electronic documents because paper contains more one-of-a-kind information for stronger memory recall.

Contrary to the popular belief that digital tools increase efficiency, volunteers who used paper completed the note-taking task about 25% faster than those who used digital tablets or smartphones.

Keita Umejima, Takuya Ibaraki, Takahiro Yamazaki, and Kuniyoshi L. Sakai. 19 March 2021. Paper Notebooks vs. Mobile Devices: Brain Activation Differences During Memory Retrieval. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.634158

Sakai lab: https://www.sakai-lab.jp/english/

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences: https://www.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/eng_site/

https://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/uot-sss031821.php

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 20, 2021 at 11:04am

Finger tap-operated virtual realities

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 20, 2021 at 11:01am

Teamwork makes light shine ever brighter

If you’re looking for one technique to maximize photon output from plasmons, stop. It takes two to wrangle. Rice University physicists came across a phenomenon that boosts the light from a nanoscale device more than 1,000 times greater than they anticipated. When looking at light coming from a plasmonic junction, a microscopic gap between two gold nanowires, there are conditions in which applying optical or electrical energy individually prompted only a modest amount of light emission. Applying both together, however, caused a burst of light that far exceeded the output under either individual stimulus. 

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 20, 2021 at 10:59am

Covid reinfection rare, more common over 65: study

Surviving Covid-19 protects most people against reinfection for at least six months, but elderly patients are more likely to be laid low by the virus a second time, researchers reported Thursday. An assessment of reinfection rates in Denmark last year showed that just over half a percent of people who tested positive for Covid during the first wave from March to May did so again during the second wave, from September to December. Among these, the researchers found that initial infection with Covid-19 was likely to bestow 80 percent protection from reinfection among under-65s, but that dropped to just 47 percent in older people. "We did not identify anything to indicate that protection against reinfection declines within six months of having Covid-19, say the researchers.

The researchers said this meant that initial infection with Covid-19 was likely to bestow 80 percent protection from reinfection among under 65s.

For those aged over 65, however, the protection level diminished sharply.

Of the more than 1,900 over-65s who tested positive during the first wave, 17 (0.88 percent) tested positive again during the second.

This compared to 1,866 out of more than 90,000 over-65s (two percent) who tested positive during the second wave but not the first -- a protection difference of 47 percent.

The study confirms what a number of others appeared to suggest: reinfection with Covid-19 is rare in younger, healthy people.

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 20, 2021 at 10:20am

Past Climate Change: Geologists Explore the History of Cave Ice

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 20, 2021 at 10:17am

Researchers find evidence of elusive Odderon particle

For 50 years, the research community has been hunting unsuccessfully for the so-called Odderon particle. Now, a Swedish-Hungarian research group has discovered the mythical particle with the help of extensive analysis of experimental data from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland.

In 1973, two French particle physicists found that, according to their calculations, there was a previously unknown quasi-particle. The discovery sparked an international hunt.

The Odderon particle is what briefly forms when protons collide in high-energy collisions, and in some cases do not shatter, but bounce off one another and scatter. Protons are made up of quarks and gluons, that briefly form Odderon and Pomeron particles.

And now a research team, involving researchers from Lund University, has succeeded in identifying the Odderon in connection with an advanced data analysis study at the particle accelerator CERN.

 T. Csörgő et al. Evidence of Odderon-exchange from scaling properties of elastic scattering at TeV energies, The European Physical Journal C (2021). DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-08867-6

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-evidence-elusive-odderon-particle.htm...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 20, 2021 at 10:13am

Bioengineers learn the secrets to precisely turning on and off genes

In a recent study , scientists have shown how to simultaneously harness multiple forms of regulation in living cells to strictly control gene expression and open new avenues for improved biotechnologies.

Engineered microbes are increasingly being used to enable the sustainable and clean production of chemicals, medicines and much more. To make this possible, bioengineers must control when specific sets of genes are turned on and off to allow for careful regulation of the biochemical processes involved.

Although turning on or off a gene sounds simple, getting a living cell to do it on command is a real challenge. Every cell is slightly different, and the processes involved are not 100 percent reliable. To solve this issue, the team took inspiration from nature where key events are often controlled by multiple processes simultaneously.

The team showed that by using this type of multi-level regulation, they could create some of the most high-performance switches for gene expression built to date. They demonstrated that even when used outside of living cells, these multi-level systems offered some of the most stringent control over gene expression yet seen.

Harnessing the central dogma for stringent multi-level control of gene expression, Nature Communications (2021).

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-bioengineers-secrets-precisely-genes....

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