Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is currently an incurable lung disease, in which sufferers lose the ability to absorb adequate oxygen. Although the word ‘idiopathic’ means that the cause is unknown, the disease primarily affects former and active heavy smokers from the age of 50. An important role in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is played by connective tissue cells called fibroblasts. These cells provide structure to the air sacs (alveoli) in the lungs....

Researchers from the University of Nottingham and Duke University have uncovered high levels of Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) receptors (LDLR) on the blood vessels supplying high-grade glioma brain tumors. This discovery opens up the possibility of utilizing drugs that are already being developed at both institutions to target these receptors, thereby allowing the drugs to be taken up by the tumors. The findings have recently been published in the journal Pharmaceutics....

Now, however, a coalition of European researchers says that already approved drugs might hold the key to treating the new virus. Their findings have been published as a pre-proof in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. “Drug repurposing is a strategy for generating additional value from an existing drug by targeting diseases other than that for which it was originally intended,” said Denis Kainov, the senior author on the paper and an associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)....

The objects within galaxies have two basic types of motions: orbiting around the galaxy center in a regular organized disc, or in orbits oriented at random without a clear direction of rotation. If we imagined that galaxies behave in the same way as the Solar System we could think that as the objects move further away from the center their orbital velocities decrease. However, this is not necessarily the case for galaxies, as there are several factors that affect the rotational velocity of these objects, such as the dimensions of the galaxy, the gravitational pull of other galaxies, and the quantity of dark matter in a given galaxy....

A team of Caltech researchers that has spent years searching for the earliest objects in the universe now reports the detection of what may be the most distant galaxy ever found. In an article published August 28, 2015 in Astrophysical Journal Letters, Adi Zitrin, a NASA Hubble Postdoctoral Scholar in Astronomy, and Richard Ellis—who recently retired after 15 years on the Caltech faculty and is now a professor of astrophysics at University College, London—describe evidence for a galaxy called EGS8p7 that is more than 13....

The scientists published their findings in the journal Science. Shawn Douglas, a research fellow at the Wyss Institute, describes a method for creating cellular robots, roughly the size of a virus, out of strands of protein and DNA. He’s dubbed the devices “DNA nanorobots,” and they are short, hexagonal tubes made of interwoven DNA that open along their length like a clamshell. At one end, there is a DNA hinge and at the other, there is a pair of twisted DNA fragments that act like latches to hold the device shut....

Even if you are a non-smoker who exercises and has no genetic predisposition to cardiovascular disease, skimping on sleep—or getting too much of it—can boost your risk of heart attack, according to a new CU Boulder study of nearly a half-million people. The research, published September 2, 2019, in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, also found that for those at high genetic risk for heart attack, sleeping between 6 and 9 hours nightly can offset that risk....

The Jellyfish Nebula, also known by its official name IC 443, is the remnant of a supernova lying 5,000 light years from Earth. New Chandra observations show that the explosion that created the Jellyfish Nebula may have also formed a peculiar object located on the southern edge of the remnant, called CXOU J061705.3+222127, or J0617 for short. The object is likely a rapidly spinning neutron star, or pulsar. When a massive star runs out of thermonuclear fuel, it implodes, forming a dense stellar core called a neutron star....

Astronomers have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to find evidence our Milky Way Galaxy is embedded in an enormous halo of hot gas that extends for hundreds of thousands of light years. The estimated mass of the halo is comparable to the mass of all the stars in the galaxy. If the size and mass of this gas halo is confirmed, it also could be an explanation for what is known as the “missing baryon” problem for the galaxy....

In 2012, Washington and Colorado became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana. Since then, several other states have joined them, and cannabis-infused edibles, including gummy bears, cookies, and chocolates, have flooded the market. But these sweet treats have created major headaches for the scientists trying to analyze them for potency and contaminants. Researchers now report that components in chocolate might be interfering with cannabis potency testing, leading to inaccurate results....

The past nine years have been the warmest years since modern recordkeeping began in 1880. This means Earth in 2022 was about 1.11°C (2°F) warmer than the late 19th century average. The map above depicts global temperature anomalies in 2022. It does not show absolute temperatures; instead, it shows how much warmer or cooler each region of Earth was compared to the average from 1951 to 1980. The bar chart below shows 2022 in context with temperature anomalies since 1880....

There is ongoing debate among policymakers and the general public about where SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, came from. While researchers consider bats the most likely natural hosts for SARS-CoV-2, the origins of the virus are still unclear. Recently, in the journal Current Biology, researchers describe a recently identified bat coronavirus that is SARS-CoV-2’s closest relative in some regions of the genome and which contains insertions of amino acids at the junction of the S1 and S2 subunits of the virus’s spike protein in a manner similar to SAR-CoV-2....

The latest trajectory of comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) generated by the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, indicates the comet will pass within 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) of Mars and there is a strong possibility that it might pass much closer. The NEO Program Office’s current estimate based on observations through March 1, 2013, has it passing about 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) from the Red Planet’s surface....

Chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA) are widely used in the synthesis of plastics and are found in numerous consumer products. Most humans are exposed to BPA on a daily basis. BPA disrupts the body’s endocrine system by mimicking the hormone estrogen. BPA exposure has been linked with high blood pressure. Based on studies over the last few decades, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2012 banned the use of this chemical in baby bottles and infant formula packaging....

Rensselaer research team studying Tetris players to better understand expertise. In a fraction of a second, a colorful digital block shaped like the letter “L” falls from the top of the computer screen. In even less time, fingers float across a controller, striking the arrow keys in rapid succession to rotate the figure so it falls in line with a computerized stack of shapes. Form after form falls, faster and faster....

Not least because of the COVID-19 pandemic, conspiracy theories are more topical than ever. They are reported and discussed in almost all media and communication channels. But what influence do they have on our behavior? Scientists led by behavioral economist Loukas Balafoutas investigated this question in a recently published study. The result: We don’t need to believe in conspiracy theories for them to have an impact on us. Merely being confronted with them suffices....

New interdisciplinary research from the University of Chicago quantifies how COVID-19 has attacked large U.S. cities at much higher rates—growing roughly 2.5 times faster, for example, in the New York metropolitan area (pop. approx. 20 million) than in Oak Harbor, Washington (pop. approx. 84,000). But these numbers only represent part of the story of the pandemic, said Prof. Luis Bettencourt, a leading researcher in urban science and ecology and evolution....

Like the legendary falling apple that hit Isaac Newton and led to his groundbreaking insight on the nature of gravity, COVID-19 could provide unintended glimpses into how complex Earth systems operate, according to a new Stanford-led paper. The perspective, published on July 29 in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, hypothesizes outcomes of unprecedented changes in human activity wrought by worldwide sheltering orders, and outlines research priorities for understanding their short and long-term implications....

The cluster of neurological symptoms associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, the virus that causes COVID-19, suggests the virus can enter the brain and affect neural function. New findings were presented at Neuroscience 2021, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health. Although much of the attention on COVID-19 centers on its respiratory effects, the virus has significant neurological manifestations as well....

CDC analysis of National Healthcare Safety Network data compares infection rates before and during pandemic. After years of steady reductions in healthcare-associated infections, significantly higher rates of four out of six routinely tracked infections were observed in U.S. hospitals, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of data from the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) published today (September 2, 2021) in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America....