New research shows that brain structure may predict risky behavior, revealing that those with a larger volume in a particular part of the parietal cortex were willing to take more risks than those with less volume in this part of the brain. Some people avoid risks at all costs, while others will put their wealth, health, and safety at risk without a thought. Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have found that the volume of the parietal cortex in the brain could predict where people fall on the risk-taking spectrum....

A research group led by Susumu Kitagawa of Kyoto University’s Institute for Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS), Japan and Cheng Gu of South China University of Technology, China have made a material that can effectively separate heavy water from normal water at room temperature. Until now, this process has been very difficult and energy intensive. The findings have implications for industrial – and even biological – processes that involve using different forms of the same molecule....

New research presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), held online this year, suggests that people with COVID-19 frequently pass it on to their pets. Cats that sleep on their owner’s bed seem to be at particular risk of infection. Previous studies have shown that cats and dogs can catch COVID-19 from their owners but it wasn’t clear how susceptible they were and what, if anything, increased their odds of becoming infected....

Cannabidiol, or CBD, may help reduce the cytokine storm and excessive lung inflammation that is killing many patients with COVID-19, researchers say. While more work, including clinical trials to determine optimal dosage and timing, is needed before CBD becomes part of the treatment for COVID-19, researchers at the Dental College of Georgia and Medical College of Georgia have early evidence it could help patients showing signs of respiratory distress avoid extreme interventions like mechanical ventilation as well as death from acute respiratory distress syndrome....

For solar cells to be widely used in the coming decades, researchers must resolve two major challenges: increasing efficiency and lowering toxicity. Solar energy works through a process that converts light into energy called the photovoltaic effect. Certain light-sensitive materials when packaged together in a “cell” have the ability to convert energy from light into electricity. Most of today’s solar cells require a highly processed form of Silicon. The processing results in toxic effects on humans and the environment....

Doctors have long recognized a link between alcoholism and anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Those who drink heavily are at increased risk for traumatic events like car accidents and domestic violence, but that only partially explains the connection. New research using mice reveals heavy alcohol use actually rewires brain circuitry, making it harder for alcoholics to recover psychologically following a traumatic experience. “There’s a whole spectrum to how people react to a traumatic event,” said study author Thomas Kash, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine....

In a study presented at the Europlanet Science Congress 2022 in Granada, a group of researchers led by the University of Bern and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS demonstrate how one of the greatest problems of our time, anthropogenic climate change, is now even affecting our view of the cosmos. The study was recently published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. A blind spot in the selection process “Even though telescopes usually have a lifetime of several decades, site selection processes only consider the atmospheric conditions over a short timeframe....

Less processed meat and being breastfed also confer protection. Sip a Venti dark roast and eat a salad. A new Northwestern Medicine study shows coffee consumption and eating lots of vegetables may offer some protection against COVID-19. The authors believe this is the first study using population data to examine the role of specific dietary intake in prevention of COVID-19. “A person’s nutrition impacts immunity,” said senior author Marilyn Cornelis, associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine....

University of Manchester and National University of Singapore researchers have shown how building multi-layered heterostructures in a three-dimensional stack can produce an exciting physical phenomenon exploring new electronic devices. The breakthrough, published in Science, could lead to electric energy that runs entire buildings generated by sunlight absorbed by its exposed walls; the energy can be used at will to change the transparency and reflectivity of fixtures and windows depending on environmental conditions, such as temperature and brightness....

A new study recently presented at the annual conference of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Stockholm, Sweden, reveals a high association between a common group of viruses and type 1 diabetes (T1D). According to the Australian study, those with T1D had an eight-fold higher risk of contracting an enterovirus infection than people without the condition. T1D is the most prevalent form of diabetes in children, and its prevalence has been rising globally in recent decades....

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia in older adults and the 7th leading cause of death in the United States, according to the National Institute on Aging. It is a debilitating progressive illness that slowly destroys cognitive function and memory. It can begin almost imperceptibly, often masquerading in the early months or years as forgetfulness that is very common in older age. What causes Alzheimer’s disease remains largely a mystery....

Researchers at Yale have identified an ancient slithering creature from the time of T. rex as the most primitive known snake, a finding with implications for the debate over snake origins. “It’s the missing-link snake,” said Nicholas Longrich, a postdoctoral fellow in Yale’s Department of Geology & Geophysics and the lead author of a paper about the lizard-like snake published July 25 online in the journal Nature. “It’s the ‘Lucy’ of snakes....

This observation is part of an ongoing project to fill short gaps in Hubble’s observing schedule by systematically exploring the most massive galaxy clusters in the distant Universe, in the hopes of identifying promising targets for further study with both Hubble and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This particular galaxy cluster lies at a vast distance of 4.6 billion light-years from Earth. Each year, the Space Telescope Science Institute is inundated with observing proposals for Hubble, in which astronomers suggest targets for observation....

Cedars-Sinai Investigators Found Evidence of an Overactive Immune Response. Infection with the virus that causes COVID-19 can trigger an immune response that lasts well beyond the initial infection and recovery—even among people who had mild symptoms or no symptoms at all, according to Cedars-Sinai investigators. The findings are published in the Journal of Translational Medicine. When people are infected with a virus or other pathogen, their bodies unleash proteins called antibodies that detect foreign substances and keep them from invading cells....

By analyzing the first 160 complete virus genomes to be sequenced from human patients, the scientists have mapped some of the original spread of the new coronavirus through its mutations, which creates different viral lineages. “There are too many rapid mutations to neatly trace a COVID-19 family tree. We used a mathematical network algorithm to visualize all the plausible trees simultaneously,” said geneticist Dr. Peter Forster, lead author from the University of Cambridge....

Drinking two to three cups a day was associated with greatest heart benefits. Drinking coffee—particularly two to three cups a day—is not only associated with a lower risk of heart disease and dangerous heart rhythms but also with living longer, according to studies being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 71st Annual Scientific Session. These trends held true for both people with and without cardiovascular disease. Researchers said the analyses—the largest to look at coffee’s potential role in heart disease and death—provide reassurance that coffee isn’t tied to new or worsening heart disease and may actually be heart protective....

As seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, a shortage of personal protective equipment, including surgical masks and respirators, can impede efforts to help infected patients, as well as efforts to protect medical providers and first responders. N95 respirators are protective devices that filter airborne particles. The “N95” designation means that the respirator blocks at least 95 percent of very small (0.3 micrometers or larger) test particles. They are typically used a single time in health care settings because the respirators can be contaminated when treating infected patients, thereby posing a risk to caregivers who continue wearing a contaminated device, as well as other patients treated by the provider....

A new study from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Canada shed light on how a class of medications that help regulate blood sugar for patients with Type 2 diabetes can also protect against heart disease. The findings from the EMPA-HEART CardioLink-6 Trial, presented today at the ESC Congress 2019, organized by the European Society of Cardiology, and simultaneously published in Cell Metabolism, focus on the effect of diabetes medication — empagliflozin — on cell repair in blood vessels and the resulting risks of heart disease....

Rust – iron oxide – is a poor conductor of electricity, which is why an electronic device with a rusted battery usually won’t work. Despite this poor conductivity, an electron transferred to a particle of rust will use thermal energy to continually move or “hop” from one atom of iron to the next. Electron mobility in iron oxide can hold huge significance for a broad range of environment- and energy-related reactions, including reactions pertaining to uranium in groundwater and reactions pertaining to low-cost solar energy devices....

The sophisticated electronics used by warfighters in everything from radios, remote sensors and even phones can now be made at such a low cost that they are pervasive throughout the battlefield. These electronics have become necessary for operations, but it is almost impossible to track and recover every device. At the end of operations, these electronics are often found scattered across the battlefield and might be captured by the enemy and repurposed or studied to compromise DoD’s strategic technological advantage....