Video Transcript: So I am in week 3 of self quarantining, and now we’re in week(dramatic music)47! Last spring, we talked with a bunch of experts about what was then a new coronavirus. A virus that since then has killed almost 500,000 people in the U.S. and over 2 million people globally. So today, we’re checking back in with some of those experts and asking what do we know now that we didn’t know then?...

When SARS-CoV-2 infects a cell, it introduces its RNA into it and re-programs it in such a way that the cell first produces viral proteins and then whole viral particles. In the search for active substances against COVID-19, researchers have so far mostly concentrated on the viral proteins and on blocking them, since this promises to prevent, or at least slow down, replication. But attacking the viral genome, a long RNA molecule, might also stop or slow down viral replication....

Experts have known that viral illnesses such as COVID-19 can cause respiratory infections that may lead to lung damage and even death in severe cases. Less is known about the effects on the cardiovascular system. “It is likely that even in the absence of previous heart disease, the heart muscle can be affected by coronavirus disease,” said Mohammad Madjid, MD, MS, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of cardiology at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth....

The study, published this month in the journal Nature Communications, focused on influenza and has implications for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. By modeling the impact of a pair of leading flu drugs, the team found significant differences in effects between oseltamivir, an older antiviral treatment for flu that patients know by the name Tamiflu, and a newer one, baloxavir, which is sold under the brand name Xofluza. The researchers found that the newer treatment — by effectively and rapidly stopping virus replication — dramatically reduced the length of time that an infected person is contagious and, therefore, better limited the spread of flu....

“Intuitively you would think that if there is a major lockdown situation, we would see dramatic changes, but we didn’t,” said Melanie Hammer, a visiting research associate at Washington University in St. Louis and leader of the study. “It was kind of a surprise that the effects on PM2.5 were modest.” PM2.5 describes particles, produced by both human activities and natural processes, that are smaller than 2.5 micrometers, or roughly 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair....

In an effort to determine the potential for COVID-19 to begin in a person’s gut, and to better understand how human cells respond to SARS-CoV-2, the scientists used human intestinal cells to create organoids — 3D tissue cultures derived from human cells, which mimic the tissue or organ from which the cells originate. Their conclusions, published in the journal Molecular Systems Biology, indicate the potential for infection to be harbored in a host’s intestines and reveal intricacies in the immune response to SARS-CoV-2....

But the fact that it was accelerating away from the sun in a way that astronomers could not explain perplexed scientists, leading some to suggest that it was an alien spaceship. Now, a University of California, Berkeley, astrochemist and a Cornell University astronomer argue that the comet’s mysterious deviations from a hyperbolic path around the sun can be explained by a simple physical mechanism likely common among many icy comets: outgassing of hydrogen as the comet warmed up in the sunlight....

But databases of genomic information pose privacy risks. From people’s raw genomic data, it may be possible to infer their surnames and perhaps even the shapes of their faces. Many people are reluctant to contribute their genomic data to biomedical research projects, and an organization hosting a large repository of genomic data might conduct a months-long review before deciding whether to grant a researcher’s request for access. In a paper appearing today in Nature Biotechnology, researchers from MIT and Stanford University present a new system for protecting the privacy of people who contribute their genomic data to large-scale biomedical studies....

“It was surprising to see how quickly the cuttlefish adapted their eating behavior — in only a few days they learned whether there was likely to be shrimp in the evening or not. This is a very complex behavior and is only possible because they have a sophisticated brain,” said Pauline Billard, a Ph.D. student in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Psychology and Unicaen, France, and first author of the report....

Now, a new analysis suggests earlier studies underestimated potential dark matter’s role in the creation of the gamma radiation cluster. Scientists Rebecca Leane and Tracy Slatyer reexamined the earlier research, testing the method that previously claimed the gamma ray glow was likely from pulsars. They found that the earlier method could potentially overlook dark matter signals, misidentifying them as pulsar signals. The results suggest that dark matter may still be contributing to gamma radiation from the Milky Way’s center....

New data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory suggest a highly distorted supernova remnant may contain the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy. The remnant appears to be the product of a rare explosion in which matter is ejected at high speeds along the poles of a rotating star. The remnant, called W49B, is about a thousand years old as seen from Earth and located about 26,000 light-years away....

The best known mass extinction happened at the end of the Cretaceous period, 66 million years ago. This is when dinosaurs, pterosaurs, marine reptiles and ammonites all died out. This event was caused primarily by the impact of a giant asteroid that blacked out the light of the sun and caused darkness and freezing, followed by other massive perturbations of the oceans and atmosphere. Geologists and paleontologists agree on a roster of five such events, of which the end-Cretaceous mass extinction was the last....

Around 300,000 years ago, our ancestors lived in small communities as hunters and gatherers. This lifestyle likely played a central role in humanity’s success, as it enabled humans to start sharing and combining their individual knowledge with others and in this way come up with innovative solutions. This unique capacity is what distinguishes us from our closest relatives, the chimpanzees. Insights into this process can be gained by studying the few remaining hunter-gatherer societies, such as the Agta people, who live in the Philippines....

An international team of astronomers led by Satoshi Mayama (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Japan) and Ruobing Dong (Princeton University, U.S.A.) has made observations with the Subaru Telescope and captured the first vivid infrared image of a curved arm of dust extending over a hole on a disk around a young star–2MASS J16042165-2130284 (J 1604). This feature indicates the probable existence of unseen planets within the hole. The image shows the dynamic environment in which planets may be born and gives information about constraints on the distance at which planets can form from a central star....

The new invention is recently published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, and the research has been featured in the Nature Communications Editors’ Highlights webpage. HKU’s Technology Transfer Office has filed for the invention’s US provisional patent and PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) patent. Low-grade heat is abundantly available in industrial processes (80 to 150°C or 176 to 302°F), as well as in the environment, living things, solar-thermal (50 to 60°C or 122 to 140°F) and geothermal energy....

Researchers from Yale University have discovered an immune system reaction that may open a new avenue in the fight against HIV. The discovery of the innate immunity system’s role in mobilizing the body’s defenses against invading microorganisms has been long studied at Yale. Now in the November 17 issue of the journal Nature Immunology, Yale researchers led by Margarita Dominguez-Villar and David Hafler have discovered a surprising twist to the story that may open a new avenue in the fight against HIV....

Diverse languages, from English to Hindi, can trace their roots back 8,000 years to Anatolia (Asia Minor), a region that’s centered around modern-day Turkey. The study assessed 103 ancient and contemporary languages using a technique that’s normally used to study the spread and evolution of diseases. Languages such as English, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Greek and Hindi might sound very different, but there are some similarities. More than a hundred languages from across Europe and the Middle East, stem from one progenitor....

Yale Cancer Center geneticists, biochemists, and structural biologists have painted the most comprehensive picture yet of the molecular landscape of melanoma, a highly aggressive and often deadly skin cancer. The study appears in the July 29 advance online publication of Nature Genetics. Melanoma, precipitated mainly by excessive exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation, causes the vast majority of all deaths related to skin cancer. There will be around 76,000 new cases of melanoma and 9,000 deaths from the disease in the United States this year....

Currently available COVID-19 vaccines rely on mRNA strands to teach the human immune system to recognize the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Now, researchers reporting in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases have reported the successful development of a vaccine that instead uses DNA encoding the virus’ spike protein. While both DNA and mRNA vaccines use genetic material encoding part of a virus to elicit an immune response, DNA vaccines can often be produced more quickly and at lower cost and transported without the requirement of cold temperatures....

From humans to animals, probiotics are having a moment. The microbiome is a hot topic and for good reason — it can affect your immune system, brain function, and digestive health. And when you have a dog in your home, you have the added worry of ensuring that there is a proper balance of bacteria in all that fur. While pet probiotics aren’t as popular as their human counterparts, you can still find a wealth of probiotics made for dogs....