As an infectious disease doctor, I’ve been fielding a lot of questions from my patients as well as my friends and family about whether the COVID-19 vaccine will still work if people are late receiving their second dose. Why you need two doses 3-4 weeks apart Two doses, separated by three to four weeks, is the tried-and-true approach to generate an effective immune response through vaccination, not just for COVID but for hepatitis A and B and other diseases as well....

Recent research indicates that you might not need to take a second blood thinner if you already take one. In fact, a Michigan Medicine study reveals that patients’ risk of bleeding complications significantly decreases when they stop taking aspirin while using a commonly prescribed blood thinner. Over 6,700 patients who were being treated for blood clots (venous thromboembolism) and atrial fibrillation (abnormal heart rhythm that can lead to stroke) at anticoagulation clinics in Michigan were studied by researchers....

A group of leading researchers in astronomy, biology, and geology have come together under NASA’s Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, or NExSS, to take stock of our knowledge in the search for life on distant planets and to lay the groundwork for moving the related sciences forward. “We’re moving from theorizing about life elsewhere in our galaxy to a robust science that will eventually give us the answer we seek to that profound question: Are we alone?...

Scientists from the RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) and collaborators in Japan have discovered particular neurons in the brain that monitor whether predictions made by fish actually come true. By making use of a new virtual reality-outfitted aquarium where brain imaging of zebrafish can be done as they learn and navigate through virtual reality cues, researchers found neurons that allow efficient risk avoidance and create a “hazard map” in the brain that allows for escape to safety....

For 72 straight hours, the study volunteer lay in a bed at UT Southwestern, the monotony broken only at night when researchers placed his lower body in a sealed, vacuum-equipped sleeping bag to pull down body fluids that naturally flowed into his head while supine. New research published in JAMA Ophthalmology shows that by suctioning these fluids and unloading brain pressure, the specially designed sleeping bag may prevent vision problems astronauts endure in space, where fluids float into the head and continually push and reshape the back of the eyeball....

In the special report, “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency 2022,” the authors note that 16 of 35 planetary vital signs they use to track climate change are at record extremes. The report’s authors share new data illustrating the increasing frequency of extreme heat events, greater prevalence of the mosquito-borne dengue virus, and rising global tree cover loss because of fires. Further, they note that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have reached 418 parts per million (0....

The research also found that effective active learning methods use not only hands-on and minds-on approaches, but also hearts-on, providing increased emotional and social support. Interest in active learning grew as the COVID-19 pandemic challenged educators to find new ways to engage students. Schools and teachers incorporated new technologies to adapt, while students faced negative psychological effects of isolation, restlessness and inattention brought on by quarantine and remote learning. The pandemic made it clear that traditional approaches to education may not be the best way to learn, but questions persisted about what active learning is and how best to use it to teach and engage and excite students....

In simulations, collisions cause smaller star groupings to lose material. An international team of astrophysicists report how, when tiny galaxies collide with bigger ones, the bigger galaxies can strip the smaller galaxies of their dark matter — matter that we can’t see directly, but which astrophysicists think must exist because, without its gravitational effects, they couldn’t explain things like the motions of a galaxy’s stars. The new study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy,was by an international team led by astrophysicists from the University of California, Irvine, and Pomona College....

More than 8 out of 10 cruise ship passengers testing positive for infection had no symptoms. The prevalence of ‘silent’ symptomless COVID-19 infection may be much higher than thought, reveals a study charting the enforced isolation of cruise ship passengers during the current pandemic, and published online in the journal Thorax. More than eight out of 10 of passengers and crew who tested positive for the infection had no symptoms....

The research was led by Egor Verbitskiy, the director of the Postovsky Institute of Organic Synthesis Ural Branch of RAS and a member of the Laboratory of Medical Chemistry and Advanced Organic Materials at the Ural Federal University. He states that physicists were aware that introducing cyanogroups to fluorophores can enhance the OLEDs’ properties and overall efficiency. “Therefore, we modified the pyrazine-based push-pull system with cyanogroup and studied how this affected the photophysical properties of the fluorophores and the performance of OLEDs based on it....

Health care, mass shootings, 2020 election causing Americans significant stress. Stress about health care on par with stress related to mass shootings. A year before the 2020 presidential election, Americans report various issues in the news as significant sources of stress, including health care, mass shootings, and the upcoming election, according to this year’s Stress in America™ survey by the American Psychological Association (APA). More than half of U.S. adults (56%) identify the 2020 presidential election as a significant stressor, an increase from the 52% of adults who reported the presidential election as a significant source of stress when asked in the months leading up to the 2016 contest....

Two 305-million-year-old insect nymphs were scanned in high resolution in order to construct three-dimensional portraits. The two insects were scanned using fossils from the Carboniferous Period, which lasted from 359.2 Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Permian Period, at 299 Ma. The researchers published their findings in the journal PLoS ONE. One of the specimens has sharp spines on its body and head, and belongs to an unknown species and genus....

A pair of newly discovered stars is the third-closest star system to the Sun, according to a paper that will be published in Astrophysical Journal Letters. The duo is the closest star system discovered since 1916. The discovery was made by Kevin Luhman, an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University and a researcher in Penn State’s Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds. Both stars in the new binary system are “brown dwarfs,” which are stars that are too small in mass to ever become hot enough to ignite hydrogen fusion....

The Necklace Nebula — which also goes by the less glamorous name of PN G054.2-03.4 — was produced by a pair of tightly orbiting Sun-like stars. Roughly 10,000 years ago, one of the aging stars expanded and engulfed its smaller companion, creating something astronomers call a “common envelope.” The smaller star continued to orbit inside its larger companion, increasing the bloated giant’s rotation rate until large parts of it spun outwards into space....

An international team of astronomers have for the first time found a jet of high-energy particles emanating from a dying star. The discovery, by a collaboration of scientists from Sweden, Germany and Australia, is a crucial step in explaining how some of the most beautiful objects in space are formed – and what happens when stars like the sun reach the end of their lives. The researchers publish their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society....

The body’s immune system plays a crucial role in its ability to fight off tumors and prevent cancer from taking hold and growing. Immunotherapy treatments work by strengthening the immune response to better target and attack cancer cells. Previous research from the University of Geneva and the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich has shown that the effectiveness of the immune system varies according to the time of day, with a peak of efficiency in the morning for humans....

A spooky spider web, magical dragons, or wispy trails of ghosts? This beautiful tapestry of colors shows the ghostly remains of a gigantic star after a cosmic catastrophe. It was captured here in remarkable detail with the VLT Survey Telescope, hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Paranal site in Chile. All that remains of a massive star that ended its life in a powerful explosion around 11,000 years ago is this wispy structure of pink and orange clouds....

Infant planetary systems are usually nothing more than swirling disks of gas and dust. Over the course of a few million years, this gas gets sucked into the center of the disk to build a star, while the remaining dust accumulates into larger and larger chunks — the building blocks for terrestrial planets. Astronomers have observed this protoplanetary disk evolution throughout our galaxy — a process that our own solar system underwent early in its history....

According to a new study, stars like our own may not be as stable as previously thought. While observing EK Draconis, a G1.5V yellow dwarf located 110.71 light-years away, an international team of astronomers witnessed a massive coronal mass ejection that dwarfed anything we’ve ever seen in our Solar System. These observations suggest that these ejections can worsen over time, which could be a dire warning for life here on Earth....

Baleen plates – the signature bristle-like apparatus toothless whales use to feed – reveal how these large aquatic mammals adapt to environmental changes over time. Baleen from filter-feeding whales – that is, the bristle-like structures toothless whales like the humpback and southern rights rely on to feed – holds a chemical record of their feeding patterns, which can help researchers understand changes in the whales’ movements and behaviors over time....