348 articles from THURSDAY 14.5.2020

Designing vaccines from artificial proteins

Scientists have developed a new computational approach to create artificial proteins, which showed promising results in vivo as functional vaccines. This approach opens the possibility to engineer safer and more effective vaccines.

Malaria parasite ticks to its own internal clock

Researchers have long known that all of the millions of malaria parasites within an infected person's body move through their cell cycle at the same time. They multiply in sync inside red blood cells, then burst out in unison every few days. But how the parasites keep time was unclear. Now, a study finds that malaria has its own internal clock that causes thousands of genes to ramp up and down at...

Fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and major diseases at the same time

Researchers, politicians and funding bodies find themselves in front of a unique situation: The mounting pressure to accelerate and intensify efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic while handling the growing threat from all other diseases endangering our society. This balancing and how well the scientific community will respond to it will define health across the globe for years to come, argue...

Mouse and human eye movements share important similarity

Scientists have used a lightweight eye-tracking system composed of miniature video cameras and motion sensors to record head and eye movements in mice without restricting movement or behavior. Measurements were made while the animals performed naturalistic visual behaviors including social interactions with other mice and visual object tracking.

Study tracks COVID-19 spread in pediatric dialysis unit

As COVID-19 continues its sweep around the globe, dialysis units have continued to be hotspots for the virus' spread. Researchers hope to combat that threat, through a novel study that used antibody testing on patients, doctors, nurses and staff within the unit to track symptomatic and asymptomatic spread in a confined space.

Seeing the universe through new lenses

Like crystal balls for the universe's deeper mysteries, galaxies and other massive space objects can serve as lenses to more distant objects and phenomena along the same path, bending light in revelatory ways.

Multiscale crop modeling effort required to assess climate change adaptation

Crop modeling is essential for understanding how to secure the food supply as the planet adapts to climate change. Many current crop models focus on simulating crop growth and yield at the field scale, but lack genetic and physiological data, which may hamper accurate production and environmental impact assessment at larger scales.

Researchers seek to reduce food waste and establish the science of food date labeling

Minimizing food waste is top of mind right now during the COVID-19 global pandemic, with the public concerned about the potential ramifications for our food supply chain. But even before COVID-19, given concerns about a rapidly growing population and hunger around the world, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) issued a global call for zero tolerance on food waste....

Quarter of people who died in UK hospitals with Covid-19 had diabetes

NHS’s first breakdown of underlying health conditions also finds 18% had dementia Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageOne in four people who have died in hospital with Covid-19 also had diabetes, the NHS’s first breakdown of underlying health conditions among the fatalities shows.Of the 22,332 people who died in hospital in England between 31 March and 12 May, 5,873...

Large rockfish leave Chesapeake Bay to become ocean migrators

A new electronic tagging study of 100 Potomac River striped bass sheds light on rockfish migration in Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Coast. University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science researchers found that when rockfish reach 32 inches in length they leave Chesapeake Bay and become ocean migrators. Small fish stayed in the Bay had higher mortality rates than those that undertook...

Ancient DNA unveils important missing piece of human history

Newly released genomes from Neolithic East Asia have unveiled a missing piece of human prehistory, according to a study conducted by Prof. Fu Qiaomei's team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Cahokia's rise parallels onset of corn agriculture

Corn cultivation spread from Mesoamerica to what is now the American Southwest by about 4000 B.C., but how and when the crop made it to other parts of North America is still a subject of debate. In a new study, scientists report that corn was not grown in the ancient metropolis of Cahokia until sometime between A.D. 900 and 1000, a relatively late date that corresponds to the start of the city's...

How range residency and long-range perception change encounter rates

From vast herds of wildebeest thundering across the Serengeti to a malaria-laden mosquito silently stalking a human host, the movement of animals has effects that reverberate throughout the biosphere. The way that animals move governs many ecological interactions including predation, disease transmission, and human-wildlife conflict. Encounter rates, which quantify how often moving individuals...