Proteins are molecules that do most of the work in our cells and are made following blueprints encoded in genes. They are essential for the structure, function, and regulation of the body’s tissues, and are often the target of drugs or therapies. Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) help us establish the genetic basis of disease by linking specific genes to diseases. To determine how those genes contribute to disease, we need to understand the function of the proteins they encode and link specific biological processes to diseases....

These robots aren’t replacement doctors, but will extend the reach of most physicians. The company’s new robot, RP-VITA (Remote Presence Virtual + Independent Telemedicine Assistant) was shown at the Wired Health Conference. InTouch developed the humanoid-looking robot with iRobot, the company most famous for developing Roomba robotic vacuums, and it can also interface with third-party apps. Enough bandwidth needs to be ensured so that there is no lag in the Internet connection....

Researchers, including those from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, say it’s largely due to aquatic invasive species in Lake Michigan — primarily quagga and zebra mussels — that have upended the food web and forced fish to seek atypical food sources enriched in mercury. Mercury, or methylmercury as it exists in fish, is a neurotoxin that can cause damage to the nervous system if consumed by people or animals. The study has consequences for health officials and natural resource managers who need the best science possible to inform their decisions, says lead author Ryan Lepak, a postdoctoral researcher at the UW–Madison Aquatic Sciences Center (ASC)....

The snow is made of tiny particles of iron – much heavier than any snowflake on Earth’s surface – that fall from the molten outer core and pile on top of the inner core, creating piles up to 200 miles thick that cover the inner core. The image may sound like an alien winter wonderland. But the scientists who led the research said it is akin to how rocks form inside volcanoes....

A new study finds a particular class of stars called K stars, which are dimmer than the Sun but brighter than the faintest stars, may be particularly promising targets for searching for signs of life. Why? First, K stars live a very long time — 17 billion to 70 billion years, compared to 10 billion years for the Sun — giving plenty of time for life to evolve. Also, K stars have less extreme activity in their youth than the universe’s dimmest stars, called M stars or “red dwarfs....

Scientists have confirmed the identity of the youngest known pulsar in the Milky Way galaxy using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This result could provide astronomers with new information about how some stars end their lives. The pulsar, known as Kes 75, is located about 19,000 light-years from Earth. After some massive stars run out of nuclear fuel, then collapse and explode as supernovas, they leave behind dense stellar nuggets called “neutron stars”....

A recently published study shows that ketamine, a N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist, produces rapid antidepressant responses in patients who are resistant to typical antidepressants. Many chronically depressed and treatment-resistant patients experience immediate relief from symptoms after taking small amounts of the drug ketamine. For a decade, scientists have been trying to explain the observation first made at Yale University. Today, current evidence suggests that the pediatric anesthetic helps regenerate synaptic connections between brain cells damaged by stress and depression, according to a review of scientific research written by Yale School of Medicine researchers and published in the October 5 issue of the journal Science....

The study in the journal Nature Geoscience could shed more light on the causes of long-term climate change. It centers on the long-term cooling that occurred before the recent global warming tied to greenhouse gas emissions from humanity. “The findings of our study, if substantiated, raise more questions than they answered,” said senior author Yair Rosenthal, a distinguished professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University–New Brunswick....

Chemists have studied a new magnetic material that could boost the storage capacity and processing speed of hard drives used in cloud-based servers. This could enable people using cloud data systems to load large files in seconds instead of minutes, researchers say. A team led by scientists from the University of Edinburgh created the material — known as a single-molecule magnet — in the lab. They discovered that a chemical bond that gives the compound its magnetic properties can be controlled by shining rapid pulses from a laser on it....

A new three-dimensional imaging technique has shown the spiraling movements that human sperm accomplishes while swimming. Previously, these movements had only been inferred from two-dimensional data. The scientists published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The high-resolution recordings in three dimensions tracked more than 1,500 cells over several hours. The heads of human sperm are only 3 to 4 micrometers long, and can only be seen under high magnification, but zoom around at up to 100 micrometers per second, ducking in and out of focus, or darting out of range....

Now, a promising new study developed by one Vanderbilt astrophysicist may give us a method for finding the number of available stars in the history of the universe that collide as binary black holes. The research, which was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on January 31, 2020, will help future scientists interpret the underlying population of stars and test the formation theories of all colliding black holes across cosmic history....

“When we look at modern ecosystems, and we see a bare surface like a rock, oftentimes lichens are the first thing to grow there, and eventually you’ll get plants growing on there too,” says Matthew Nelsen, lead author of the paper and a research scientist at the Field Museum. “People have thought that maybe that’s the way ancient colonization of land worked, but we’re seeing that these lichens actually came later in the game than plants....

According to an open-access article published in ARRS’ American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), lung ultrasound (US) was highly sensitive for detecting abnormalities in patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19), with B-lines, a thickened pleural line, and pulmonary consolidation the most commonly observed features. “In addition,” concluded Yao Zhang of at China’s Beijing Ditan Hospital, “our results indicate that lung US findings can be used to reflect both the infection duration and disease severity....

Between January 7–9, 2021, a moist, low-pressure weather system over the ocean collided with a cold air mass sitting over western Europe. The result was the heaviest snowfall over Spain in fifty years. After barely seeing significant snowfall for a decade, the capital city of Madrid was blanketed with widespread accumulations of 20 to 30 centimeters (8 to 12 inches). Some suburban and rural areas in central, northern, and eastern Spain were coated with up to 50 centimeters (20 inches) of snow....

“The issue facing each and every one of us is how we manage and react to the stressful situation unfolding so rapidly in our lives and communities. Here we can draw on the remarkable powers of strength and cooperation that we also, fortunately, possess as humans. And that is what we must try to focus on to respond most effectively to this crisis as individuals, family and community members, friends and colleagues,” said Dr....

On Sunday, NASA launched a bold mission to fly directly into the sun’s atmosphere, with a spacecraft named the Parker Solar Probe, after solar astrophysicist Eugene Parker. The incredibly resilient vessel, vaguely shaped like a lightbulb the size of a small car, was launched early in the morning from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Its trajectory will aim straight for the sun, where the probe will come closer to the solar surface than any other spacecraft in history....

At the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the state of Massachusetts assembled a manufacturing emergency response team as part of its efforts to respond to the desperate need for personal protective equipment (PPE), particularly masks and gowns. The Massachusetts Emergency Response Team (M-ERT) — aided by MIT faculty, students, staff, and alumni — helped local manufacturers produce more than 9 million pieces of PPE as well as large volumes of hand sanitizer, disinfectants, and test swabs....

Deleting a single gene in the cerebellum of mice can cause key autistic-like symptoms, researchers have found. They also discovered that rapamycin, a commonly used immunosuppressant drug, prevented these symptoms. The deleted gene is associated with Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC), a rare genetic condition. Since nearly 50 percent of all people with TSC develop autism, the researchers believe their findings will help us better understand the condition’s development. “We are trying to find out if there are specific circuits in the brain that lead to autism-spectrum disorders in people with TSC,” said Mustafa Sahin, Harvard Medical School associate professor of neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital and senior author on the paper....

Dave Leigh, a synthetic chemist at the University of Manchester, UK, and his team published their findings in the journal Science¹. The machine is much simpler than the ribosome, and at about one-tenth of the size and very slow. It destroys the code it reads and only produces short chunks of peptides, but some of these tactics could be used to make useful chemicals. The machine built by Leigh and his team relies on a rotaxane, a large molecular ring threaded into another molecule that acts like an axle, which is lined with three amino acids....

Mocha Swirls in Jupiter’s Turbulent Atmosphere During its 36th low pass over Jupiter, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this view of striking cloud bands and swirls in the giant planet’s mid-southern latitudes. The dark, circular vortex near the center of the image is a cyclone that spans roughly 250 miles (about 400 kilometers). The color at its center is likely to be the result of descending winds that cleared out upper-level clouds, revealing darker material below....