A team of University of Arizona Health Sciences researchers at the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson found that a combination of bacterial extracts used in Europe to treat respiratory infections may offer a new way to prevent or reduce infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, showed that a specific combination of bacterial extracts known as OM-85 inhibited SARS-CoV-2 infection by reducing the virus’s ability to attach to lung cells....

Mass extinctions of land-dwelling animals — including amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds — follow a cycle of about 27 million years, coinciding with previously reported mass extinctions of ocean life, according to a new analysis published in the journal Historical Biology. The study also finds that these mass extinctions align with major asteroid impacts and devastating volcanic outpourings of lava called flood-basalt eruptions — providing potential causes for why the extinctions occurred....

In the aftermath of a heart attack, muscle cells within the region most affected shut down. They stop beating. They die. And they become entombed in scar tissue. Once that muscle dies, it cannot be brought back to life. For a heart attack survivor, this means living the rest of his or her life with heart failure—and having a damaged heart that can no longer beat at full capacity. Survivors often have difficulty exercising, walking long distances or even climbing a flight of stairs....

A critical piece of personal protective equipment (PPE), face shields protect health care workers from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as they treat patients. When Northwestern researchers Chad A. Mirkin and David Walker heard about the PPE shortage in hospitals, their team sprang into action. In October, Mirkin and his research group, in a breakthrough article in the journal Science, unveiled a new 3D printing technique called “high-area rapid printing” (HARP), a 13-feet-tall printer with a 2....

A proof-of-concept trial has identified a drug that may offer benefit some patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia. A proof-of-concept trial led by the Universities of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust has identified a drug that may offer benefit some patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia. The CATALYST trial tested UK-based bio-pharmaceutical company Izana Bioscience’s namilumab (IZN-101) as a potential therapeutic to treat patients who are hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia, and receiving ‘usual’ care, as well as having high levels in their blood of a marker of inflammation known as C reactive protein (CRP)....

“Ada,” a responsive, photoluminescent fiber pavilion designed to “smile back at you,” has just opened, suspended in a light-filled atrium at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington. Sabin is the Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture, director of graduate studies, and associate dean for design initiatives in the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. Among her recent works was “Lumen,” a temporary outdoor installation in 2017 that functioned as a work of art and provided shade, seating, and cooling for visitors to the Museum of Modern Art PS1 in Long Island City, Queens....

For several days this month, Greenland’s surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations. Nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its 2-mile-thick (3.2-kilometer) center, experienced some degree of melting at its surface, according to measurements from three independent satellites analyzed by NASA and university scientists. On average in the summer, about half of the surface of Greenland’s ice sheet naturally melts....

The discovery represents a powerful new mechanism with potential uses in quantum computing, cryptography, and quantum communications. The research is led by the Yale laboratory of Robert Schoelkopf and appears in the journal Nature. Quantum calculations are accomplished with delicate bits of data called qubits, which are prone to errors. To implement faithful quantum computation, scientists say, they need “logical” qubits whose errors can be detected and rectified using quantum error correction codes....

Using a zinc-porphyrin electrocatalyst, chemists from Yale University and Oregon State University have discovered the framework for a new method of electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction. Chemists at Yale and Oregon State University have discovered a new process for converting carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, potentially establishing a framework for creating fuels and chemical products from carbon emissions. Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction — the idea of using electricity to change CO2 to value-added products — is widely considered to be a promising approach for improving energy technology....

Lead author Dr. Duncan Cook, an associate professor of Geography at the Australian Catholic University, said: “Mercury pollution in the environment is usually found in contemporary urban areas and industrial landscapes. Discovering mercury buried deep in soils and sediments in ancient Maya cities is difficult to explain until we begin to consider the archeology of the region which tells us that the Maya were using mercury for centuries.” Ancient anthropogenic pollution For the first time, Cook and colleagues here reviewed all data on mercury concentrations in soil and sediments at archeological sites across the ancient Maya world....

However, when paired with interactive art-based activities, the same digital technology that let workers connect remotely might help older adults become more physically, mentally, and socially healthy. This is the conclusion of a recent study, which is the first to show how trips to virtual museums may considerably improve the quality of life for elderly people who are confined to their homes. The researchers’ findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine....

Since the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts in 1958, space scientists have believed these belts encircling the Earth consist of two doughnut-shaped rings of highly charged particles — an inner ring of high-energy electrons and energetic positive ions and an outer ring of high-energy electrons. In February of this year, a team of scientists reported the surprising discovery of a previously unknown third radiation ring — a narrow one that briefly appeared between the inner and outer rings in September 2012 and persisted for a month....

By coupling magnetic behavior to a superconducting circuit, Argonne scientists pave the way for quantum information systems. Quantum computing promises to revolutionize the ways in which scientists can process and manipulate information. The physical and material underpinnings for quantum technologies are still being explored, and researchers continue to look for new ways in which information can be manipulated and exchanged at the quantum level. In a recent study, scientists at the U....

The surprising finding is being reported this week in the journal Science, in a paper by senior author Ming Dao, a principal research scientist in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering; MIT postdoc Daniel Bernoulli; senior author Subra Suresh, former MIT dean of engineering and now president of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University; graduate students Amit Banerjee and Hongti Zhang at City University of Hong Kong; and seven others from CUHK and institutions in Ulsan, South Korea....

Although the total magnitude of the T-cell responses induced by mRNA and inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are comparable, the similarity ends there. This is according to a new study led by scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School. They discovered that the inactivated vaccines, which expose the immune system to the entire non-viable virus, elicit a broad immune response against different proteins on the virus. The findings, which were recently published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, add to the growing literature that will help researchers improve vaccine strategies for an ever-changing virus....

The evolutionary history of our own species can be traced back to fossils from Jebel Irhoud (Morocco) dated about 300,000 years ago. Last year’s analysis of these fossils by researchers from the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig was highlighted as one of the top science stories of 2017 by a diverse range of print and online media. Together with crania from Florisbad (South Africa, 260,000 years old), and Omo Kibish (Ethiopia) dated to 195,000 years ago, the Jebel Irhoud fossils document an early evolutionary phase of Homo sapiens on the African continent....

Gentoo penguins should be reclassified as four separate species, say scientists at the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, after analyzing the genetic and physical differences between populations around the southern hemisphere. The researchers say that counting them as four separate species will aid in their conservation because it will make it easier to monitor any decline in numbers. Gentoo penguins, with the Latin name Pygoscelis papua, live in a range of latitudes in the southern hemisphere and are currently split into two subspecies, P....

Influenza viruses can spread through the air on dust, fibers, and other microscopic particles, according to new research from the University of California, Davis and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai. The findings, with obvious implications for coronavirus transmission as well as influenza, are published today (August 18, 2020) in the journal Nature Communications. “It’s really shocking to most virologists and epidemiologists that airborne dust, rather than expiratory droplets, can carry influenza virus capable of infecting animals,” said Professor William Ristenpart of the UC Davis Department of Chemical Engineering, who helped lead the research....

The three most distant quasars currently known were discovered since 2018 – each located more than 13 billion light-years away. The James Webb Space Telescope will offer researchers new views of these objects in high-resolution infrared light. With these powerful data, a research team aims to refine the calculations of the masses of their black holes, detail the stars in their host galaxies, and survey the galaxies in their neighborhoods....

The findings also imply that selenium, an essential trace element found in all kingdoms of life, may have a more important biological role in bacteria than scientists previously thought. The findings, which were published in the journal Nature, were authored by Chase Kayrouz, Jonathan Huang, Nicole Hauser, and Mohammad Seyedsayamdost. “This was kind of a closed field. Nobody had found a new pathway in selenium metabolism in 20 years,” said Kayrouz....