But for a team of physicists from the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms and the California Institute of Technology, things are actually much tougher. Working in a Harvard Physics Department lab, a team of researchers led by Harvard Professors Mikhail Lukin and Markus Greiner and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Vladan Vuletic developed a special type of quantum computer, known as a quantum simulator, that is programmed by capturing super-cooled rubidium atoms with lasers and arranging them in a specific order, then allowing quantum mechanics to do the necessary calculations....

In recent years, meteorologists and climate scientists have been awed by the rapid intensification of several tropical cyclones around the world—a phenomenon that is believed to become more likely in a warming world. This week, Super Typhoon Chanthu provided another stark example of how quickly a storm can strengthen. Chanthu first became a tropical depression in the early afternoon on September 6, 2021. Within 48 hours, it had increased to super typhoon strength....

1. Why might vaccines need to be updated? Basically, it’s a question of whether a virus has changed enough so that antibodies created by the original vaccine are no longer able to recognize and fend off the new mutated variant. Coronaviruses use spike proteins to attach to ACE-2 receptors on the surface of human cells and infect them. All mRNA COVID-19 vaccines work by giving instructions in the form of mRNA that direct cells to make a harmless version of the spike protein....

Our fond or fearful memories — that first kiss or a bump in the night — leave memory traces that we may conjure up in the remembrance of things past, complete with time, place and all the sensations of the experience. Neuroscientists call these traces memory engrams. But are engrams conceptual, or are they a physical network of neurons in the brain In a new MIT study, researchers used optogenetics to show that memories really do reside in very specific brain cells, and that simply activating a tiny fraction of brain cells can recall an entire memory — explaining, for example, how Marcel Proust could recapitulate his childhood from the aroma of a once-beloved madeleine cookie....

The genus Idris was described in 1856 and now contains over 300 species and many more species are still undescribed. Species of Idris were previously known to only parasitize spider eggs. It was thus very unexpected when specimens of Idris were found to emerge from eggs of the bagrada bug by Dr. Refugio Lomeli-Flores and his team in Guanajuato. Advanced methods in molecular forensics were used by Dr. Tara Gariepy (AAFC) to match the DNA of the adult wasp with DNA left behind in the stink bug egg from which it emerged, independently confirming the results....

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory are reinventing the mirror, at least for microwaves, potentially replacing the familiar 3-D dishes and microwave horns we see on rooftops and cell towers with flat panels that are compact, versatile, and better adapted for modern communication technologies. “Our new reflectors offer lightweight, low-profile alternatives to conventional antennas. This is a potential boon for satellites, where minimizing weight and size is crucial,” said Abul Azad, of the MPA-CINT group at Los Alamos National Laboratory....

The findings may inform decisions on holding large outdoor gatherings amid future public health crises. At the time it was unclear what impact such large sporting events would have on COVID-19 case counts, particularly at a time when vaccination against the virus was not widely available. Now, MIT engineers have taken a look back at the NFL’s 2020 regular season and found that for this specific period during the pandemic, opening stadiums to fans while requiring face coverings, social distancing, and other measures had no impact on the number of COVID-19 infections in those stadiums’ local counties....

Who made more accurate predictions about the course of the COVID-19 pandemic — experts or the public? A study from the University of Cambridge has found that experts such as epidemiologists and statisticians made far more accurate predictions than the public, but both groups substantially underestimated the true extent of the pandemic. Researchers from the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication surveyed 140 UK experts and 2,086 UK laypersons in April 2020 and asked them to make four quantitative predictions about the impact of COVID-19 by the end of 2020....

Chameleons can famously change their colors to camouflage themselves, communicate, and regulate their temperature. Scientists have tried to replicate these color-changing properties for stealth technologies, anti-counterfeiting measures, and electronic displays, but the materials have limitations. Now, researchers have developed a flexible film that changes color in response to stretching, pressure, or humidity. They report their results in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Watch a video of the chameleon-inspired material here:...

Atmospheric nitrogen is not directly usable by most living things. In nature, specialized microbes in soils and bodies of water convert nitrogen into ammonia — a crucial form of nitrogen that life can easily access — through a process called nitrogen fixation. In agriculture, soybeans and other legumes that facilitate nitrogen fixation can be planted to restore soil fertility. An additional obstacle in the process of making nitrogen available to the plants and ecosystems that rely on it is that microbial nitrogen “fixers” incorporate a complex protein called nitrogenase that contains a metal-rich core....

SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than 600 million people worldwide, resulting in 6.57 million confirmed deaths. But information about factors affecting the probability of infection or suffering from a severe course of the disease remains insufficient and often speculative. Preregistered longitudinal studies about the risk factors of infection are surprisingly rare. Many factors such as contact with animals have been suggested only on a theoretical basis or discussed in non-scientific sources....

Patients with undiagnosed flu symptoms who actually had COVID-19 last winter were among thousands of undetected early cases of the disease at the beginning of this year. In a new paper in The Lancet’s open-access journal EClinicalMedicine, epidemiological researchers from The University of Texas at Austin estimated COVID-19 to be far more widespread in Wuhan, China, and Seattle, Washington, weeks ahead of lockdown measures in each city. Lauren Ancel Meyers, a professor of integrative biology and statistics and data sciences who leads the UT Austin COVID-19 Modeling Consortium, worked with her team of researchers to extrapolate the extent of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan and Seattle based on retested throat swabs taken from patients who were suffering from influenza-like illnesses during January in Wuhan and during late February and early March in Seattle....

Half of the Danish population are overweight, while 17 percent live with obesity. Worldwide, almost 40 percent are overweight and 13 percent live with obesity. The condition is associated with increased risk for early death, as well as sequelae such as Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and infertility. Weight regain after an initial successful weight loss in people with obesity, constitutes an important and unsolved problem. Until now, no well-documented study on which treatment method is best for maintaining a healthy weight loss has been available....

Specialized ETFs invest in trendy, overvalued areas, study finds. “Buy low and sell high” says the old adage about investing in the stock market. But a relatively new type of investment fund is luring unsophisticated investors into buying when values are at their highest, resulting in losses almost immediately, a new study has found. The lure? Buying into trendy investment areas like cannabis, cybersecurity and work-from-home businesses. “As soon as people buy them, these securities underperform as the hype around them vanishes,” said Itzhak Ben-David, co-author of the study and professor of finance at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business....

The researchers will present their results today at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2019 National Meeting & Exposition. ACS, the world’s largest scientific society, is holding the meeting in San Diego through Thursday, August 29, 2019. It features more than 9,500 presentations on a wide range of science topics. “The long-term stability and clinical properties of a cream are determined by its fundamental structure,” says Delaram Ahmadi, the graduate student who performed the study....

There has been a significant rise in cases of celiac disease over the years. Experts suggest that this increase may be due to two reasons. Firstly, the number of individuals with celiac disease may be on the rise due to environmental factors. Secondly, improved and increased diagnoses may also be a factor. It is important to note that gluten can trigger other disorders besides celiac disease. The rise in cases of celiac disease has garnered public attention, which has resulted in a concerning issue....

A crucial part of the global effort to stem the spread of the pandemic, therefore, is the development of tests that can rapidly identify infections in people who are not yet symptomatic. Now, Caltech researchers have developed a new type of multiplexed test (a test that combines multiple kinds of data) with a low-cost sensor that may enable the at-home diagnosis of a COVID infection through rapid analysis of small volumes of saliva or blood, without the involvement of a medical professional, in less than 10 minutes....

Coronavirus outbreaks have occurred periodically, but none have been as devastating as the COVID-19 pandemic. Vivek Govind Kumar, a graduate student, and colleagues in the lab of Mahmoud Moradi at the University of Arkansas, have discovered one reason that likely makes SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, so much more infectious than SARS-CoV-1, which caused the 2003 SARS outbreak. Moradi will present the research on Thursday, February 25 at the 65th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society The first step in coronavirus infection is for the virus to enter cells....

Methanogens are tiny organisms that generate methane in an oxygen-deprived environment. Their production of methane, such as in the digestive system of ruminants, plays a significant role in the global carbon cycle as methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas. However, methane can also serve as an energy source for heating homes. A toxic base for growth The object of the study now published in Nature Chemical Biology are two marine heat-loving methanogens: Methanothermococcus thermolithotrophicus (lives in geothermally heated sediments at around 65 °C) and Methanocaldococcus jannaschii (prefers deep-sea volcanos with around 85 °C)....

The research also revealed that both those who feel poorer and those who feel wealthier are more likely to engage in bullying. The study’s findings suggest that feeling a sense of economic equality among friends is associated with the best outcomes for mental health and social behavior. While economic disadvantage on a society-wide spectrum has long been linked to mental health and social problems in young people, the new study is one of the first to show that just feeling poorer compared to those in your immediate social sphere may be related to negative psychological outcomes....