Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 7, 2020 at 9:51am

SARS-CoV-2-Reactive T Cells Found in Patients with Severe COVID-19

A small subset of uninfected people also had SARS-CoV-2-fighting T cells, a finding that scientists are still trying to figure out.

In May, researchers showed that people with mild forms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, have circulating T cells that respond to the virus. Now, in a Science Immunology study published last week (June 26), a collaborating research team has determined that people who are sick enough with COVID-19 to be hospitalized in the intensive care unit also make SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells. In both studies, the researchers found that a subset of healthy, unexposed people also had some of these T cells that react to the virus, perhaps due to previous exposures to other coronaviruses that cause symptoms of the common cold.

The latest study provides more solid evidence that there are SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells that are induced by the infection

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/sars-cov-2-reactive-t-ce...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 7, 2020 at 9:41am

A new color-changing ink could aid in health and environment monitoring—for example, allowing clothing that switches hues when exposed to sweat or a tapestry that shifts colors if carbon monoxide enters a room. The formulation could be printed on anything from a T-shirt to a tent.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/color-changing-ink-turns...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 7, 2020 at 8:16am

Scientists synthesize novel artificial molecules that mimic a cell membrane protein

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-scientists-artificial-molecules-mimic...

--

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/the-coronavirus-may-not-have-orig...

** The coronavirus may not have originated in China, says Oxford professor

--

https://theconversation.com/marriage-and-money-help-but-dont-lead-t...

Marriage and money help but don’t lead to long-lasting happiness

--

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/flesh-eating-bac...

 Flesh-Eating-Bacteria

--

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53304576

India scientists alarmed over 'unrealistic' Covid vaccine deadline

--

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200706140905.htm

Age-related impairments reversed in animal model: Frailty and immune decline are two main features of old age. Researchers now demonstrate in an animal model that these two age-related impairments can be halted and even partially reversed using a novel cell-based therapeutic approach.

--

https://www.sciencealert.com/fake-accounts-are-constantly-manipulat...

Fake Accounts Are Constantly Manipulating What You See on Social Media. Here's How

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 7, 2020 at 8:01am

Coconut oil production may be more damaging to the environment than palm oil, researchers say.

According to the study, production of coconut oil affects 20 threatened species (including plants and animals) per million tons of oil produced. This is higher than other oil-producing crops, such as palm (3.8 species per million tons), olive (4.1) and soybean (1.3).

The study shows that the main reason for the high number of species affected by coconut is that the crop is mostly grown on tropical islands with rich diversity and many unique species.

Impact on threatened species is usually measured by the number of species affected per square hectare of land used—and by this measure palm's impact is worse than coconut.

Coconut cultivation is thought to have contributed to the extinction of a number of island species, including the Marianne white-eye in the Seychelles and the Solomon Islands' Ontong Java flying fox.

Species not yet extinct but threatened by coconut production include the Balabac mouse-deer, which lives on three Philippine islands, and the Sangihe tarsier, a primate living on the Indonesian island of Sangihe.

Consumers need to realize that all our agricultural commodities, and not just tropical crops, have negative environmental impacts.

 Source: Erik Meijaard et al, Coconut oil, conservation and the conscientious consumer, Current Biology (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.05.059

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-coconut-reveals-consumer-conundrum.ht...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 7, 2020 at 7:47am

Expalined:the dead-water phenomenon

What makes ships mysteriously slow down or even stop as they travel, even though their engines are working properly? This was first observed in 1893 and was described experimentally in 1904 without all the secrets of this 'dead water' being understood. An interdisciplinary team from the CNRS and the University of Poitiers has explained this phenomenon for the first time: the speed changes in ships trapped in dead water are due to waves that act like an undulating conveyor belt on which the boats move back and forth. This work was published in PNAS on July 6, 2020.

In earlier times ships wwere slowed by a mysterious force and he could barely maneuver, let alone pick up normal speed. In 1904, the Swedish physicist and oceanographer Vagn Walfrid Ekman showed in a laboratory that waves formed under the surface at the interface between the salt water and freshwater layers that form the upper portion of this area of the Arctic Ocean interact with the ship, generating drag.

This phenomenon, called dead water, is seen in all seas and oceans where waters of different densities (because of salinity or temperature) mix. It denotes two drag phenomena observed by scientists. The first, Nansen wave-making drag, causes a constant, abnormally low speed. The second, Ekman wave-making drag, is characterized by speed oscillations in the trapped boat. The cause of this was unknown. Physicists, fluid mechanics experts, and mathematicians at the CNRS' Institut Prime and the Laboratoire de Mathématiques et Applications (CNRS/Université de Poitiers) have attempted to solve this mystery. They used a mathematical classification of different internal waves and analysis of experimental images at the sub-pixel scale, a first.

This work showed that these speed variations are due to the generation of specific waves that act as an undulating conveyor belt on which the ship moves back and forth. The scientists have also reconciled the observations of both Nansen and Ekman. They have shown that the Ekman oscillating regime is only temporary: the ship ends up escaping and reaches the constant Nansen speed.

Source: Johan Fourdrinoy el al., "The dual nature of the dead-water phenomenology: Nansen versus Ekman wave-making drags," PNAS (2020). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1922584117

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-dead-water-phenomenon.html?utm_source...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 7, 2020 at 7:10am

How to protect people from radiation exposure.

A safe and powerful treatment for the body against deadly radiation

Researchers have reported a highly effective and safe nanocrystal to combat dangerous doses of radiation. By growing manganese oxide (Mn₃O₄) nanocrystals on top of Cerium oxide (CeO₂) nanocrystals, the research team boosted the catalytic activity of the CeO₂/Mn₃O₄ nanocrystals in their ability to stave off side effects of deadly radiation.

Excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) are found in a number of major diseases including sepsis, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Parkinson's disease, just to name a few. A powerful antioxidant that can work at low doses only can ensure sustainable applications of radiation in medical, industrial and military settings and more. These new CeO₂/Mn₃O₄ hetero-structured nanocrystals are five times stronger than when CeO₂ or Mn₃O₄ does the job alone.

When our body is exposed to high levels of radiation, a massive amount of ROS are generated within milliseconds due to the decomposition of water molecules. These ROS severely damage cells, eventually leading to their death. The research team looked to CeO₂ and Mn₃O₄ nanoparticles for their outstanding ROS scavenging abilities. The challenge was how to apply these antioxidant nanomaterials in a safe and economic way. Though effective, CeO₂ and Mn₃O₄ nanoparticles can remove ROS only in high doses. They are also rare materials and difficult to obtain.

The researchers drew on the approach usually taken in the field of catalysis: stacking nanoparticles with different lattice parameters results in surface strain and increases oxygen vacancies on the surface of the nanocrystal. "The synergistic effect of the strain generated on Mn₃O₄ and the increased oxygen vacancy on the CeO₂ surface improved the surface binding affinity of the ROS, boosting the catalytic activity of the nanocrystals.

These CeO₂/Mn₃O₄ nanocrystals prove their powerful antioxidant effects to protect our whole body effectively just in small doses.

Sang Ihn Han et al, Epitaxially Strained CeO₂ /Mn₃ O₄ Nanocrystals as an Enhanced Antioxidant for Radioprotection, Advanced Materials (2020). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202001566

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-safe-powerful-treatment-body-deadly.h...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 7, 2020 at 6:35am

WOW: a stunningly lifelike fleet of robo-birds that glide through the air with guidance from an ultra-sideband radio system.

Each of the five swallows weighs 42 grams. They each are powered by three tiny motors for direction, lift and descent. Their wingspan extends to 26 inches.

Artificial lamellae and quill are designed to replicate realistic motion. When the BionicSwift models rise, the lamellae bunch up to help provide lift. When they descend, they fan out to allow air to pass through. They can glide gracefully, make sharp turns and fly in loops.

The intelligent interaction of motors and mechanics allows the frequency of the wing beat and the elevator's angle of attack to be precisely adjusted for the various maneuvers," according to a report on the BionicSwift on Festo's web site.

The birds carry a 6 gram battery and they are guided by GPS sensors located throughout the enclosed flying area. The birds follow a preprogrammed flight  path, but if an unexpected factor arises, such as a gust of air, radio communication enables instantaneous flight rerouting.

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-07-german-firm-bionic-birds.html?u...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 7, 2020 at 6:19am

Dying stars breathe life into Earth: study

As dying stars take their final few breaths of life, they gently sprinkle their ashes into the cosmos through the magnificent planetary nebulae. These ashes, spread via stellar winds, are enriched with many different chemical elements, including carbon.

Findings from a study published today in Nature Astronomy show that the final breaths of these dying stars, called white dwarfs, shed light on carbon's origin in the Milky Way.

"The findings pose new, stringent constraints on how and when carbon was produced by stars of our galaxy, ending up within the raw material from which the Sun and its planetary system were formed 4.6 billion years ago.

The origin of carbon, an element essential to life on Earth, in the Milky Way galaxy is still debated among astrophysicists: some are in favor of low-mass stars that blew off their carbon-rich envelopes by stellar winds became white dwarfs, and others place the major site of carbon's synthesis in the winds of massive stars that eventually exploded as supernovae.

Using data from the Keck Observatory near the summit of Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii collected between August and September 2018, the researchers analyzed white dwarfs belonging to the Milky Way's open star clusters. Open star clusters are groups of up to a few thousand stars held together by mutual gravitational attraction.

From this analysis, the research team measured the white dwarfs' masses, and using the theory of stellar evolution, also calculated their masses at birth.

The connection between the birth masses to the final white dwarf masses is called the initial-final mass relation, a fundamental diagnostic in astrophysics that contains the entire life cycles of stars. Previous research always found an increasing linear relationship: the more massive the star at birth, the more massive the white dwarf left at its death.

But when Cummings and his colleagues calculated the initial-final mass relation, they were shocked to find that the white dwarfs from this group of open clusters had larger masses than astrophysicists previously believed. This discovery, they realized, broke the linear trend other studies always found. In other words, stars born roughly 1 billion years ago in the Milky Way didn't produce white dwarfs of about 0.60-0.65 solar masses, as it was commonly thought, but they died leaving behind more massive remnants of about 0.7—0.75 solar masses.

The researchers say that this kink in the trend explains how carbon from low-mass stars made its way into the Milky Way. In the last phases of their lives, stars twice as massive as the Milky Way's Sun produced new carbon atoms in their hot interiors, transported them to the surface and finally spread them into the surrounding interstellar environment through gentle stellar winds.

Carbon star formation as seen through the non-monotonic initial–final mass relation, Nature Astronomy (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-1132-1 , www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1132-1

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-dying-stars-life-earth.html?utm_sourc...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 7, 2020 at 6:11am

Group genomics drive aggression in honey bees

Researchers often study the genomes of individual organisms to try to tease out the relationship between genes and behavior. A new study of Africanized honey bees reveals, however, that the genetic inheritance of individual bees has little influence on their propensity for aggression. Instead, the genomic traits of the hive as a whole are strongly associated with how fiercely its soldiers attack.

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-group-genomics-aggression-honey-bees....

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-simulations-magnetic-field-faster-pre...

Simulations show magnetic field can change 10 times faster than previously thought

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-reveals-secret-life-lithium-sun-like....

Study reveals secret life of lithium in Sun-like stars

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-parasite.html?utm_source=nwletter&...

Parasite research heats up

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-bacteria-natural-products.html?utm_so...

How do bacteria build up natural products

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 6, 2020 at 9:49am

https://theconversation.com/how-the-brain-builds-a-sense-of-self-fr...

How the brain builds a sense of self from the people around us – new research

Hundreds of elephants are mysteriously dying in Botswana – a conservationist explains what we know

https://theconversation.com/hundreds-of-elephants-are-mysteriously-...

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-tiny-ancient-relative-dinosaurs-ptero...

A tiny ancient relative of dinosaurs and pterosaurs discovered

Dinosaurs and flying pterosaurs may be known for their remarkable size, but a newly described species from Madagascar that lived around 237 million years ago suggests that they originated from extremely small ancestors. The fossil reptile, named Kongonaphon kely, or "tiny bug slayer," would have stood just 10 centimeters (or about 4 inches) tall.

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-atomic-swiss-army-knife-precisely.htm...

Atomic 'Swiss Army knife' precisely measures materials for quantum computers

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-approach-yet-unconfirmed-rare-nuclear...

Researchers develop novel approach to modeling yet-unconfirmed rare nuclear process

Researchers develop novel approach to modeling yet-unconfirmed rare nuclear process: a theoretical first-principles description of neutrinoless double-beta decay.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 828
• 829
• 830
• 831
• 832
• …
• 1110
• Next ›
• Page