Many pathogens are destroyed by silver and copper ions. As a result, these metals are often used to coat implants and medical instruments. Researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUBMolecular )’s and Medical Virology and Materials Research departments, in collaboration with Surgical Research at the Bergmannsheil University Hospital in Bochum, investigated whether these metals could also help contain the COVID-19 pandemic by rendering the Sars-Cov-2 virus harmless. They demonstrated that a copper coating eliminates the virus....

Debora Rodrigues, Ezekiel Cullen Professor of Engineering at the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering, in collaboration with Francisco C. Robles Hernandez, professor at the UH College of Technology and Ellen Aquino Perpetuo, professor at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil offered conclusive research for understanding how bacteria found in copper mines convert toxic copper ions to stable single-atom copper. In their co-authored paper, “Copper Mining Bacteria: Converting toxic copper ions into a stable single atom copper,” their research demonstrates how copper-resistant bacterium from a copper mine in Brazil convert CuSO4 (copper sulfate) ions into zero-valent Cu (metallic copper)....

Some have claimed the Australian government has plans to rely on “herd immunity” to control the outbreak. That’s not the case. The decision not to close schools is based on data from China, which show that there’s no sign of children and young people playing a role in “chains” of transmission. In addition, closing schools, without making similar arrangements for working parents, might lead to children being looked after by grandparents, who we need to protect at all costs from exposure to the virus....

Now, a team of infectious disease, pulmonary and regenerative medicine researchers at Boston University, studying human stem cell-derived lung cells called type 2 pneumocytes, infected with SARS-CoV-2, have shown that the virus initially suppresses the lung cells’ ability to call in the help of the immune system with interferons to fight off the viral invaders and instead activates an inflammatory pathway called NFkB. “The infected lung cells pour out inflammatory proteins....

The final stage of cataclysmic explosions of dying massive stars, called supernovae, could pack an up to six times bigger punch on the surrounding interstellar gas with the help of cosmic rays, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Oxford. The work was presented by PhD student Francisco Rodríguez Montero on July 19, 2021, at the virtual National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2021). When supernovae explode, they emit light and billions of particles into space....

Researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine report that children and adolescents who contracted COVID-19 were more prone to developing T1D in the six months following their COVID diagnosis. The study was published on September 23 in the journal JAMA Network Open. The findings showed a 72% increase in new diagnoses of T1D in COVID-19 patients 18 years old and younger—although the research emphasized that it is unclear whether COVID-19 triggers new onset of T1D....

Although productivity has been mostly restored, initiation of new projects has dramatically declined. More than a year-and-a-half after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the scientific community is still feeling the effects of the vastly disruptive event — and may for many years to come. A new Northwestern University-led study found that although researchers’ productivity levels have mostly returned to pre-pandemic highs, scientists who did not pursue COVID-19-related research initiated 36% fewer new projects in 2020 compared to 2019....

A team of researchers from Okayama University recently conducted a study to examine this link. They recruited 49 university staff and students who had not previously had COVID-19 and found that there is a relationship between the incidence of fever and antibody counts, particularly after the third dose of the vaccine. Their findings were published in the Journal of Epidemiology. mRNA vaccines mimic the surface structure of SARS-CoV-2 in the body....

The SEROCOV study also provides evidence that pre-existing antibodies to common cold coronaviruses may be protective. The levels of IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein remain stable, or even increase, seven months after infection, according to a follow-up study in a cohort of healthcare workers coordinated by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by “la Caixa” Foundation, in collaboration with the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. The results, published in Nature Communications, also support the idea that pre-existing antibodies against common cold coronaviruses could protect against COVID-19....

The work, published in the journal The Lancet Microbe, was led by scientists from Imperial College London. In the research, the high-speed tests, which do not require a laboratory and can be performed in cartridges smaller than a mobile phone, were used on 386 NHS staff and patients. The Lab-in-Cartridge rapid testing device, which can be performed at a patient’s bedside, was shown to have over 94% sensitivity and 100% specificity, which meant it had a high level of accuracy and produced very few false negatives and no false positives....

The body’s immune system is critical to attacking the hookworm, but these parasites are masters of escape and individuals typically remain infected throughout their lifetime, often resulting in death or complications stemming from anemia. Monash University researchers have uncovered a key way that hookworms evade the immune system — providing new hope in the search for a vaccine. Importantly, the researchers, led by Professor Nicola Harris from Monash University’s Central Clinical School, may have discovered why people are unable to kill hookworms....

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity is driving toward a flat rock with pale veins that may hold clues to a wet history on the Red Planet. If the rock meets rover engineers’ approval when Curiosity rolls up to it in coming days, it will become the first to be drilled for a sample during the Mars Science Laboratory mission. The size of a car, Curiosity is inside Mars’ Gale Crater investigating whether the planet ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life....

A new computational analysis suggests that a vaccine or medication that could shorten the infectious period of COVID-19 may potentially prevent millions of cases and save billions of dollars. The study was led by Bruce Lee along with colleagues in the Public Health Informatics, Computational, and Operations Research (PHICOR) team headquartered at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy and the Lundquist Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and publishes in the open-access journal PLOS Computational Biology....

Do such boycotts or “buycotts” have any impact on brand sales? A recent study examined the impact of these actions on Goya’s sales in both the short and long term. The researchers found that the immediate increase in sales due to the buycott was significant, but not sustained over time. On the other hand, the boycott had a temporary impact on sales in heavily Democratic counties. The researchers’ study, which was recently published in the journal Marketing Science, was conducted by Jūra Liaukonytė of Cornell University, Anna Tuchman of Northwestern University, and Xinrong Zhu of the Imperial College Business School in London....

In Baltimore, Maryland, leaky sewage infrastructure delivers tens of thousands of human doses of pharmaceuticals to the Chesapeake Bay every year. So reports a new study in Environmental Science & Technology that monitored an urban stream network over a yearlong period. Drug concentrations detected were persistent, variable, and occurred at ecologically relevant levels. Pharmaceutical pollution to freshwaters is a global problem that is poorly quantified. Mixtures of drugs in lakes, rivers, and streams can disrupt animal biology and behavior, algal growth, and other ecological processes – with harmful cascading effects....

Multi-institutional research team finds declining nitrogen availability in a nitrogen-rich world. Since the mid-20th century, research and discussion have focused on the negative effects of excess nitrogen on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. However, new evidence indicates that the world is now experiencing a dual trajectory in nitrogen availability. Following years of attention to surplus nitrogen in the environment, our evolving understanding has led to new concerns about nitrogen insufficiency in areas of the world that do not receive significant inputs of nitrogen from human activities....

“We have just raised the probability that many rocky planets are like the Earth, and there’s a very large number of rocky planets in the universe,” said co-author Edward Young, UCLA professor of geochemistry and cosmochemistry. The scientists, led by Alexandra Doyle, a UCLA graduate student of geochemistry and astrochemistry, developed a new method to analyze in detail the geochemistry of planets outside of our solar system. Doyle did so by analyzing the elements in rocks from asteroids or rocky planet fragments that orbited six white dwarf stars....

Frances Deegan, the study’s first author and a researcher at Uppsala University’s Department of Earth Sciences, summarizes the findings. “Magma is formed in the mantle, and the composition of the mantle under Indonesia used to be only partly known. Having better knowledge of Earth’s mantle in this region enables us to make more reliable models for the chemical changes in magma when it breaks through the crust there, which is 20 to 30 kilometers thick, before an eruption....

RNAs are best known as the molecules that translate information encoded in genes into proteins with their myriad of activities. However, because of their structural complexity and relative stability, RNA also has attracted great attention as a valuable biomaterial that can be used to create new types of therapies, synthetic biomarkers, and, of course, potent vaccines as we have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. Delivering a synthetic RNA molecule into a cell essentially instructs it to produce a desired protein, which can then carry out therapeutic, diagnostic, and other functions....

This detailed photograph, taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), shows dark surfaces in the hyper-arid eastern Sahara Desert in Sudan. These surfaces are flat-topped mesas that rise 230–460 feet (70–140 meters) above the surrounding lighter-toned landscape. The mesas are defined by vertical cliffs cut into by numerous small gullies, producing a heavily indented pattern. For scale, the smaller mesa measures about 6 miles (10 kilometers) long. The bed of a dry river winds across the middle of the image....