The phase 3 SURPASS trials, which were published in 2021, proved that tirzepatide reduces blood sugar and promotes weight reduction better than other type 2 diabetes (T2D) drugs. Now, a new study evaluating the time required to achieve blood glucose goals shows that tirzepatide meets blood sugar control and weight reduction goals quicker than existing diabetes drugs. The latest analyses of the SURPASS-2 and SURPASS-3 trials, which were presented at 2022’s European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, discovered that adults treated with various doses of injectable tirzepatide (5, 10, and 15 mg) reached blood glucose targets about four weeks sooner than those treated with injectable semaglutide (1 mg), and between four and 12 weeks sooner than those treated with once-daily insulin (degludec; iDeg), along with diet and exercise and oral glucose-lowering medications....

While the phenomenon of superconductivity — in which some materials lose all resistance to electric currents at extremely low temperatures — has been known for more than a century, the temperature at which it occurs has remained too low for any practical applications. The discovery of “high-temperature” superconductors in the 1980s — materials that could lose resistance at temperatures of up to negative 140 degrees Celsius — led to speculation that a surge of new discoveries might quickly lead to room-temperature superconductors....

The term “metabolic syndrome” refers to a group of diseases, including hypertension, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol levels, that increase the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke. “The study showed that cutting protein intake to 0.8 g per kg of body weight was sufficient to achieve almost the same clinical results as restricting calories, but without the need to reduce calorie intake....

The study revealed that China has seen a sharp rise in the production of NO3 during nighttime hours, while Europe and the US have experienced a decrease. This increase is expected to result in significant air pollution consequences for China and other developing nations, such as India. Current production of NO3 radicals in eight representative Chinese cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xi’an, Jinan, Zhengzhou, and Shijiazhuang – is comparable to that in 1990s Los Angeles, but with an overall increasing trend....

A single x-ray can unravel an enormous molecule, physicists report in the March 17 issue of Physical Review Letters. Their findings could lead to safer medical imaging and a more nuanced understanding of the electronics of heavy metals. Medical imaging techniques such as MRIs use heavy metals from the bottom of the periodic table as “dyes” to make certain tissues easier to see. But these metals, called lanthanides, are toxic....

Presenting the work at the European College for Neuropsychopharmacology Congress in Vienna, lead researcher, Professor Jonathan Repple said: “This means that the brain structure of patients with serious clinical depression is not as fixed as we thought, and we can improve brain structure within a short time frame, around 6 weeks. We found that if this treatment leads to an increase in brain connectivity, it is also effective in tackling depression symptoms....

A computation shows air purifiers in elevators and other confined spaces can actually increase saliva droplet dispersal, spreading COVID-19. The positions of air inlets and outlets in confined spaces, such as elevators, greatly affect airborne virus transmission. In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, researchers from University of Nicosia in Cyprus show while air purifiers would be expected to help, they may actually increase the spread. Air quality in small spaces can quickly degrade without ventilation....

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientists reveal potential of swine coronavirus jumping from animals to people. The coronavirus strain, known as swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), emerged from bats and has infected swine herds throughout China since it was first discovered in 2016. Outbreaks of such an illness have the potential to wreak economic havoc in many countries across the globe that rely on the pork industry....

An estimated 43 percent of the variability in U.S. COVID-19 mortality is linked with county-level socioeconomic indicators and health vulnerabilities, with the strongest association seen in the proportions of people living with chronic kidney disease and living in nursing homes. The study by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health researchers suggests that allocating vaccines based on these factors could help minimize severe outcomes, particularly deaths. Results are published in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine....

Astronomers announced that they have found the organic molecule methyl alcohol, or methanol, in the TW Hydrae protoplanetary disk. This is the first such detection of this chemical compound in a young planet-forming disk. Because methanol forms on the icy coatings of small dust grains, this discovery provides a window into the region where comets likely are forming. “When looking at methanol vapor in the TW Hydrae disk, we’re probing the precursors of exo-comets,” says study co-author Karin Oberg of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA)....

During tests of a new camera, Víctor Buso captured images of a distant galaxy before and after the supernova’s “shock breakout” – when a supersonic pressure wave from the exploding core of the star hits and heats gas at the star’s surface to a very high temperature, causing it to emit light and rapidly brighten. To date, no one has been able to capture the “first optical light” from a normal supernova (one not associated with a gamma-ray or x-ray burst), since stars explode seemingly at random in the sky and the light from shock breakout is fleeting....

Dinosaur fossils are well-known from Alaska, most famously from areas like Denali National Park and the North Slope, but there are very few records of dinosaurs from the Alaskan Peninsula in the southwest part of the state. In this study, Fiorillo and colleagues document abundant dinosaur trackways from Aniakchak National Monument, around 670km southwest of Anchorage. The trackways were preserved in the Chignik Formation, a series of coastal sediment deposits dating back to the Late Cretaceous Period around 66 million years ago....

The coronavirus neutralizing antibody, called S309, is on an accelerated path toward clinical trials. An antibody first identified in a blood sample from a patient who recovered from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003 inhibits related coronaviruses, including the cause of COVID-19. The antibody, called S309, is now on a fast-track development and testing path at Vir Biotechnology in the next step toward possible clinical trials. Laboratory research findings on the S309 antibody are reported in the May 18, 2020, edition of Nature....

“It’s exciting that our study shows making specific diet choices may lead to a slower rate of cognitive decline,” said study author Thomas M. Holland, MD, MS of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. “Something as simple as eating more fruits and vegetables and drinking more tea is an easy way for people to take an active role in maintaining their brain health.” Flavonols are a type of flavonoid (also called bioflavonoids), a group of phytochemicals found in plant pigments known for their beneficial effects on health....

After having been deemed unsafe by the Australian government a couple of weeks back, iPhone users now have access to Google Maps and it hasn’t come soon enough, as a new study indicates that Apple Maps is three times more likely to give you false directions than Google Maps. CrowdFlower related their findings yesterday, and the company compared Google’s, Bing’s, and Apple’s maps performance. 1,000 business listings were picked randomly in the USA and another 100 in the UK....

The research finding tells about the mortuary practices of the Corded Ware culture. The soil sample under investigation originated in a grave structure discovered in the 1930s in Kauhava, western Finland. The grave and its perimeter were encircled by a layer of dark soil resembling the dimensions of an animal skin. Since the hairs were found in the sample collected from the feature in question, it can be assumed that they are connected with a goat skin placed in the grave....

Sudanese Islamic burial sites are distributed according to large-scale environmental factors and small-scale social factors, creating a galaxy-like distribution pattern, according to a study published July 7, 2021, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Stefano Costanzo of the University of Naples “L’Orientale” in Italy and colleagues. The Kassala region of eastern Sudan is home to a vast array of funerary monuments, from the Islamic tombs of modern Beja people to ancient burial mounds thousands of years old....

Planetary nebulae are the glowing shells of gas and dust formed from the outer layers of stars like our own Sun, which they throw off during the final stages of their evolution. In many cases, interaction with a nearby companion star plays an important role in the ejection of this material and the formation of the elaborate structures seen in the resulting planetary nebulae. The planetary nebula M3-1 is located in the constellation of Canis Major, at a distance of roughly 14,000 light-years....

New research examines the appearance of a cloud of dicyanoacetylene ice in Titan’s stratosphere. The puzzling appearance of an ice cloud seemingly out of thin air has prompted NASA scientists to suggest that a different process than previously thought – possibly similar to one seen over Earth’s poles – could be forming clouds on Saturn’s moon Titan. Located in Titan’s stratosphere, the cloud is made of a compound of carbon and nitrogen known as dicyanoacetylene (C4N2), an ingredient in the chemical cocktail that colors the giant moon’s hazy, brownish-orange atmosphere....

DeeDee has a current distance of about three times Pluto from the Sun and is the second most distant known trans-Neptunian object (TNO) with a confirmed orbit; it surpassed only by the dwarf planet Eris. Scientists estimate that there are tens-of-thousands of these icy bodies in the outer solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune. The new observations from ALMA reveals that DeeDee is roughly 635 kilometers across, or about two-thirds the diameter of the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest member of our asteroid belt....