Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 6, 2020 at 5:06am

Scientists build ultra-high-speed terahertz wireless chip

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-scientists-ultra-high-speed-terahertz...

--

Tested positive for COVID-19? Here’s what happens next – and why day 5 is crucial

https://theconversation.com/tested-positive-for-covid-19-heres-what...

--

Here’s how we’re growing meat in labs instead of in animals

A tissue engineer writes the cultured meat explainer you’ve been looking for

https://massivesci.com/articles/what-is-cultured-meat/?utm_source=d...

--

These five scientific fields win the most Nobel Prizes

https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/these-five-scientific-fields-...

--

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200804134737.htm

Increased global mortality linked to arsenic exposure in rice-based diets

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 6, 2020 at 5:03am

**The yin and yang of inflammation controlled by a single molecule

Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have now identified a protein called histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) as the orchestrator of the immune system's inflammation response to infection. By using both specially cultured cells and small animal models, HDAC3 was found to be directly involved in the production of agents that help kill off harmful pathogens as well as the restoration of homeostasis, the body's state of equilibrium. This work, published in Nature, shows that some of the methods being tested to fight cancer and harmful inflammation, such as sepsis, that target molecules like HDAC3 could actually have unintended and deadly consequences.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-08-yin-yang-inflammation-molecu...

--

Research reveals microplastic content levels in seafood

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-reveals-microplastic-content-seafood....

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-drivers-world-poorest-cities-windows....

Drivers from the world's poorest cities who keep their windows down are exposed to 80 percent more air pollution

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 6, 2020 at 4:53am

Image cloaking tool thwarts facial recognition programs

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-08-image-cloaking-tool-thwarts-fac...

--

Study suggests embryos could be susceptible to coronavirus

Genes that are thought to play a role in how the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects our cells have been found to be active in embryos as early as during the second week of pregnancy, say scientists at the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The researchers say this could mean embryos are susceptible to COVID-19 if the mother gets sick, potentially affecting the chances of a successful pregnancy.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-08-embryos-susceptible-coronavi...

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-disparities-common-air-pollutant-visi...

Disparities in a common air pollutant are visible from space

--

Land use changes may increase disease outbreak risks

Global changes in land use are disrupting the balance of wild animal communities in our environment, and species that carry diseases known to infect humans appear to be benefiting, according to a new study

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-disease-outbreak.html?utm_source=nwle...

--

New study reveals lower energy limit for life on Earth

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-reveals-energy-limit-life-earth.html?...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 5, 2020 at 6:39am

Can a quantum strategy help bring down the house?

https://www.sciencecodex.com/can-quantum-strategy-help-bring-down-h...  

--

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/water-beetle-frog-eaten-alive-escape-death-butt-excretion?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=latest-newsletter-v2&utm_source=Latest_Headlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest_Headlines

Water beetles can live on after being eaten and excreted by a frog

One insect crawled through the amphibian’s insides in just six minutes

--

** Some spiders may spin poisonous webs laced with neurotoxins

Droplets on the silk strands contain proteins that subdue prey, a study suggests

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/spiders-poisonous-webs-neuro-to...

--

How Do Scientists Determine the Ages of Human Ancestors, Fossilized Dinosaurs and Other Organisms?

Experts explain how radiometric dating allows them to reconstruct ancient time lines

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 5, 2020 at 6:12am

“I keep a series of Post-it notes at my desk, which I update each day with the number of lives lost to Covid… When I’m feeling drained, I look at that number.”
How scientists are working selflessly to help the world … and how they are getting motivated to work day and night …

In their own words : “I keep a series of Post-it notes at my desk, which I update each day with the number of lives lost to Covid … When I’m feeling drained, I look at that number.”

And get back to work - Virologist Katherine McMahan who is working on a potential vaccine for covid 19

“I keep a series of Post-it notes at my desk, which I update each d...

Virologist Katherine McMahan is working on a potential vaccine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts (with Dutch Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutica), that has shown promise in monkeys. (The New York Times | 13 min read)
Reference: Nature paper

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 5, 2020 at 6:03am

Indian vaccine producer Bet Big on Head Start in Coronavirus Vaccine Race

The world’s largest vaccine producer, the Serum Institute, announced a plan to make hundreds of millions of doses of an unproven inoculation. It’s a gamble with a huge upside. And huge risks.

The Serum Institute of India makes 1.5 billion doses of vaccines every year. It has put its might behind the coronavirus-vaccine candidate being develo..., UK, and is preparing to produce 500 doses each minute in the hopes that trials will prove the vaccine’s efficacy. The company’s output will be split 50–50 between India and the rest of the world, with a focus on poorer countries.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/01/world/asia/coronavirus-vaccine-i...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 5, 2020 at 5:43am

Casimir force used to control and manipulate objects

The weirdness of quantum physics. In reality a perfect vacuum does not exist—even in empty space at zero temperature, virtual particles, like photons, flicker in and out of existence.

"These fluctuations interact with objects placed in vacuum and are actually enhanced in magnitude as temperature is increased, causing a measurable force from "nothing"—otherwise known as the Casimir force.

This is handy because we live at room temperature. We have now shown it's also possible to use the force to do cool things. But to do that, we need to develop precision technology that allows us control and manipulate objects with this force.

Researchers were able to measure the Casimir force and manipulate the objects through a precision microwave photonic cavity, known as a re-entrant cavity, at room-temperature, using a setup with a thin metallic membrane separated from the re-entrant cavity, exquisitely controlled to roughly the width of a grain of dust.

"Because of the Casimir force between the objects, the metallic membrane, which flexed back and forth, had its spring-like oscillations significantly modified and was used to manipulate the properties of the membrane and re-entrant cavity system in a unique way.

"This allowed orders of magnitudes of improvement in force sensitivity and the ability to control the mechanical state of the membrane."

J. M. Pate et al. Casimir spring and dilution in macroscopic cavity optomechanics, Nature Physics (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-020-0975-9

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-casimir.html?utm_source=nwletter&...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 5, 2020 at 5:36am

Droplet spread from humans doesn't always follow airflow

The flow physics of someone coughing is complex, involving turbulent jets and droplet evaporation.

And the rise of COVID-19 has revealed the gaps in our knowledge of the physics of transmission and mitigation strategies."

One such gap in the physics is a clear, simple description of where individual droplets go when ejected.

As a person breathes, they emit droplets of various sizes that don't necessarily follow the airflow faithfully.

"We represent breathing as a point source of both air and droplets and include a point sink to model the effect of extraction of air and droplets. 

To take their size and density differences into account, we use the Maxey-Riley equation, which describes the motion of a small but finite-sized rigid sphere through a fluid."

This work gives researchers a general framework to understand the droplet dispersion. The model simplicity demonstrates that bimodality could actually be a property of the droplets themselves, and the group provides formulas to predict when such droplets will have short ranges.

"Our study shows there isn't a linear relation between droplet size and displacement—with both small and large droplets traveling further than medium-sized ones

We can't afford to be complacent about small droplets. PPE is an effective barrier to large droplets but may be less effective for small ones."

As a solution, Mehendale came up with the idea of creating an aerosol extractor device. The team is working on plans to manufacture the aerosol extractor to keep clinicians safe during a wide range of aerosol-generating procedures routinely performed in medicine and dentistry. Extraction units placed near the droplet sources can effectively trap droplets, if their diameters fall below that of a human hair.

"This has important implications for the COVID-19 pandemic," said Cummins. "Larger droplets would be easily captured by PPE, such as masks and face shields. But smaller droplets may penetrate some forms of PPE, so an extractor could help reduce the weakness in our current defense against COVID-19 and future pandemics."

Mehendale said a better understanding of the droplet behavior will help "inform the safety guidelines for aerosol-generating procedures, and it will be relevant during the current and future pandemics, as well as for other infectious diseases. This mathematical model may also serve as the basis of modeling the impact on droplet dispersion of ventilation systems existing within a range of clinical spaces."

 "The dispersion of spherical droplets in source-sink flows and their relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic," Physics of Fluids, aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0021427

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-droplet-humans-doesnt-airflow.html?ut...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 5, 2020 at 5:30am

Why microwaving liquids is different from other heating techniques, and how this issue can be resolved

Water heated in a microwave just isn't the same. 

Typically, when a liquid is being warmed, the heating source—a stove, for example—heats the container from below. By a process called convection, as the liquid toward the bottom of the container warms up, it becomes less dense and moves to the top, allowing a cooler section of the liquid to contact the source. This ultimately results in a uniform temperature throughout the glass.

Inside a microwave, however, the electric field acting as the heating source exists everywhere. Because the entire glass itself is also warming up, the convection process does not occur, and the liquid at the top of the container ends up being much hotter than the liquid at the bottom.

By designing a silver plating to go along the rim of a glass, the group was able to shield the effects of the microwave at the surface of the liquid. The silver acts as a guide for the waves, reducing the electric field at the top and effectively blocking the heating. This creates a convection process similar to traditional approaches, resulting in a more uniform temperature.

Placing silver in the microwave may seem like a dangerous idea, but similar metal structures with finely tuned geometry to avoid ignition have already been safely used for microwave steam pots and rice cookers.

"After carefully designing the metal structure at the appropriate size, the metal edge, which is prone to ignition, is located at weak field strength, where it can completely avoid ignition, so it is still safe. 

Solids don't undergo convection, so getting your leftovers to warm up uniformly is a completely different challenge.

"For solids, there is no simple way to design a bowl or plate in order to achieve a much better heating result. 

We can change the field distribution, but the change is very small, so the improvement is limited."

The group is considering other ways to improve nonuniformity in solid foods

"Multiphysics analysis for unusual heat convection in microwave heating liquid," AIP Advances (2020). aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/5.0013295

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-microwaving-liquids-techniques-issue....

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 5, 2020 at 5:20am

Malignant bone cancer diagnosed in a dinosaur for the first time

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-malignant-cancer-dinosaur.html?utm_so...

--

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-08-blood-baby-brain-hours-birth...

Blood test could diagnose baby brain damage just hours after birth

An early blood test could detect which babies deprived of oxygen at birth are at risk of serious neurodisabilities like cerebral palsy and epilepsy.

--

Large study confirms vitamin D does not reduce risk of depression in adults

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-08-large-vitamin-d-depression-a...

--

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-cern-indications-rare-higgs-boson.htm...

CERN experiments announce first indications of a rare Higgs boson process

--

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-08-windows-thumbs-ccleaner.html?ut...

Windows 10 turns thumbs down on CCleaner

--

https://theconversation.com/these-dogs-are-trained-to-sniff-out-the...

Dogs are being trained to sniff out the coronavirus. Most have a 100% success rate

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 548
• 549
• 550
• 551
• 552
• …
• 843
• Next ›
• Page