Many animals, like zebrafish, may recover their hearing after injury through the regeneration of hair cells, however, human hair cell loss cannot be restored. The regenerating properties of zebrafish hair cells inspired researchers to use this species to better understand certain fundamental properties of regeneration. About 37.5 million Americans suffer from hearing loss, and the majority of these instances are caused by the loss of hearing receptors called “hair cells” in the inner ear....

Sharing their discoveries in a newly published article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team found that if the world’s largest hornet gains a foothold in Washington state, it could spread down much of the west coast of the United States. The Asian giant hornet could also find suitable habitat throughout the eastern seaboard and populous parts of Africa, Australia, Europe, and South America, if humans inadvertently transport it....

The Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) at the University of Colorado School of Medicine has uncovered 45 genes linked to body mass index (BMI) through a study using a multiethnic cohort. This study reveals potential new biomarkers for obesity and many of these genes have not been previously studied in obesity research. The research was conducted by analyzing data from a diverse and extensive cohort collected in 2000. “Until now, few genetic studies of BMI have been conducted in ancestrally diverse cohorts,” lead author Luciana Vargas explains....

The Medusae Fossae Formation is a massive, unusual deposit of soft rock near Mars’s equator, with undulating hills and abrupt mesas. Scientists first observed the Medusae Fossae with NASA’s Mariner spacecraft in the 1960s but were perplexed as to how it formed. Now, new research suggests the formation was deposited during explosive volcanic eruptions on the Red Planet more than 3 billion years ago. The formation is about one-fifth as large as the continental United States and 100 times more massive than the largest explosive volcanic deposit on Earth, making it the largest known explosive volcanic deposit in the solar system, according to the study’s authors....

Scientists from the UK, Europe and the USA, including experts from the University of Birmingham, have published a vitamin D consensus paper warning against high doses of vitamin D supplementation. According to the study, there is currently insufficient scientific evidence to show vitamin D can be beneficial in preventing or treating COVID-19. Its authors advise that the population adhere to Public Health England guidance on supplementation. Following unverified reports that high doses of vitamin D (higher than 4000IU/d) could reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19 and be used to successfully treat the virus, the new report published in the journal BMJ, Nutrition, Prevention and Health, investigated the current scientific evidence base on the vitamin and its use in treating infections....

Neurological symptoms that have been reported with acute COVID-19 include loss of taste and smell, headaches, stroke, delirium, and brain inflammation. There does not seem to be extensive infection of brain cells by the virus, but the neurological effects may be caused by immune activation, neuroinflammation, and damage to brain blood vessels. Acute COVID-19 infection can sometimes lead to long-lasting effects, that have collectively been termed “Long Covid,” and can include a wide variety of symptoms in the brain and nervous system that range from a loss of taste and smell, impaired concentration, fatigue, pain, sleep disorders, autonomic disorders and/or headache to psychological effects such as depression or psychosis....

Importantly, the researchers discovered that eating any sort of fish appears to be safe since the fish’s essential nutrients may act as protection against the mercury the fish contains. What mattered more was whether or not the woman ate fish. This is in contrast to existing guidelines cautioning women who are expecting not to consume certain fish types that have comparatively high levels of mercury. Despite the fact that several studies have considered this question, this investigation examined two contrasting studies of populations where mercury levels were assessed during pregnancy and the children were followed at frequent intervals throughout childhood....

Nanotechnologists are using DNA, the genetic material present in living organisms, as well as its multifunctional cousin RNA as the raw material in efforts to build minuscule devices that could potentially function as drug-delivery vehicles, tiny nanofactories that produce pharmaceuticals and chemicals, or highly sensitive elements of electric and optical technologies. Like genetic DNA (and RNA) in nature, these engineered nanotechnological devices are also made up of strands comprised of the four bases known in shorthand as A, C, T, and G....

The next full Moon will be Tuesday morning, November 8, 2022, appearing opposite the Sun in Earth-based longitude at 6:02 a.m. EST. While this will be on Tuesday for most of the Earth, it will be late on Monday night for the International Date Line West Time Zone and early Wednesday morning from the New Zealand Time Zone eastward to the International Date Line. The Moon will be close enough to opposite the Earth from the Sun that it will pass through the Earth’s shadow in a total lunar eclipse....

This sound helps scientists study what can’t be observed with the naked eye. “Waves are traveling and bouncing around inside the Sun, and if your eyes were sensitive enough they could actually see this,” said Alex Young, associate director for science in the Heliophysics Science Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Sun is not silent. The low, pulsing hum of our star’s heartbeat allows scientists to peer inside, revealing huge rivers of solar material flowing around before their eyes — er, ears....

Using a laser sintering process and powdered metals, Solid Concepts manufactures the world’s first 3D printed metal gun. Austin, TX – Solid Concepts, one of the world leaders in 3D Printing services, has manufactured the world’s first 3D Printed Metal Gun using a laser sintering process and powdered metals. The gun, a 1911 classic design, functions beautifully and has already handled 50 rounds of successful firing. It is composed of 33 17-4 Stainless Steel and Inconel 625 components, and decked with a Selective Laser Sintered (SLS) carbon-fiber filled nylon hand grip....

“These new findings demonstrate that the human body still surprises us in space,” notes Dr. Auñón-Chancellor, who also remains a member of NASA’s Astronaut Corps and is board certified in both internal and aerospace medicine. “We still haven’t learned everything about Aerospace Medicine or Space Physiology.” Eleven astronauts were involved in the vascular study, which sought to help close gaps in knowledge about circulatory physiology that will not only benefit patients on Earth, but could be critical for the health of astronauts during future space exploration missions to the moon and Mars....

Strictly following a diet— either healthy low-carb or healthy low-fat — was what mattered for short-term weight loss during the first six months. But people who maintained long-term weight loss for a year ate the same number of calories as those who regained weight or who did not lose weight during the second six months. So what explains this difference? According to the study, the bacteria living in your gut and the amounts of certain proteins your body makes can affect your ability to sustain weight loss....

Households with private wells were recruited by researchers from the Desert Research Institute and the University of Hawaii Cancer Center through the Healthy Nevada Project. Households were supplied free water testing kits, and participants were advised of their water quality findings as well as suggested actions. The study included more than 170 homes, the bulk of which were from Northern Nevada around Reno, Carson City, and Fallon. “The goals of the Healthy Nevada project are to understand how genetics, environment, social factors, and healthcare interact....

The virus that causes COVID-19 has adopted some stealth moves to stay alive and kicking, and one secret to its success is hiding from the immune system by spreading through cell-to-cell transmission, a new study has found. Cell culture experiments showed that SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, limits the release of viral particles that can be inactivated by antibodies, instead staying tucked within cell walls and spreading between cells. “It’s basically an underground form of transmission,” said lead author Shan-Lu Liu, a virology professor in the Department of Veterinary Biosciences at The Ohio State University and an investigator in the university’s Center for Retrovirus Research....

PE (pseudomembranous colitis) is a debilitating inflammation of the colon caused by infection with the microbe Clostridium difficile (and sometimes Staphylococcus aureus). The sugar- or carbohydrate-containing antibiotic known as vancomycin is taken by mouth to kill the infecting microbe. To be effective, vancomycin needs to stay in the GI tract (gut) close to where it is needed and not be diluted away or lost through the lining of the gut and into the bloodstream....

An increase in either the discipline gap or the academic achievement gap between black and white students in the United States predicts a jump in the other, according to a new study published on October 16, 2019, in AERA Open, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association. This is the first published peer-reviewed nationwide study on this topic. According to the study—conducted by Francis Pearman (Stanford University), F....

Foods fried in vegetable oil are popular worldwide, but research about the health effects of this cooking technique has been largely inconclusive and focused on healthy people. For the first time, UMass Amherst food scientists set out to examine the impact of frying oil consumption on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colon cancer, using animal models. In their paper published August 23 in Cancer Prevention Research, lead author and Ph....

The researchers compared cancer rates for 42,441 HIV-positive veterans with those of 104,712 demographically matched uninfected veterans from 1999-2015 to determine whether long-term viral suppression (defined as two years or more) was associated with decreased cancer risk. For all cancers combined, the researchers found that cancer risk was highest in the unsuppressed state, lower in early suppression, lower still in long-term suppression, and lowest in uninfected patients. However, patients with long-term viral suppression still had a higher cancer risk than uninfected persons....

In a study published in the journal Small, scientists utilized the dual-responsive artificial skin for various purposes, including controlling virtual game characters, navigating electronic maps, and scrolling through digital documents. The artificial skin was able to distinguish different signals from approaching targets, enabling touchless object identification. The advance provides a proof-of-concept application for rendering a robot to classify materials including polymers, metals, and human skin in an entirely touchless mode....