162 articles from FRIDAY 10.7.2020

Cause of oversized placentas in cloning found after two decades

One reason a technique for cloning animals often results in oversized placentas, and hence failed births, has been uncovered in mice by an all-RIKEN team. This finding will help improve the success rate of the cloning method and could also shed light on fertility treatments for people.

NASA is making new rules to prevent space from being contaminated with Earth germs

NASA has updated its Planetary Protection Policies to reduce the spread of Earth germs in the vastness of space. In any case, no matter how small we -- and especially our germs -- are compared to the cosmos, dirt is dirt, and the US's National Aeronautics and Space Administration wants to keep outer space contamination to a minimum. To prevent humans from ever getting into a spat with...

A trio of Mars missions in the starting blocks

The summer race to land a space probe on Mars is off to a hot start. Three countries -- The Hope Probe (United Arab Emirates), Tianwen-1 (China) and Mars 2020 (United States) -- have all taken their positions, hoping to take advantage of the period of time when the Earth and Mars are nearest: a mere 55 million kilometres (34 million miles) apart. Space agencies from all three nations plan to...

8 million people, 14 alerts: why some covid-19 apps are staying silent

When France launched its app for digital contact tracing, it looked like a possible breakthrough for the virus-ravaged country. After going live in June, StopCovid was downloaded by 2 million people in a short time, and digital affairs minister Cédric O said that “from the first downloads, the app helps avoid contamination, illness, and so deaths.” But officials soon had to walk their...

Age-related features of facial anatomy for increase safety during plastic surgery

Researchers from the Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine together with colleagues from Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, University of Munich and Sechenov University used computed tomography to analyze the individual anatomy of the nasolabial triangle. They identified possible options for the distribution of blood vessels on three-dimensional course.

Basel study: Why lopinavir and hydroxychloroquine do not work on COVID-19

Lopinavir is a drug against HIV, hydroxychloroquine is used to treat malaria and rheumatism. Until recently, both drugs were regarded as potential agents in the fight against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. A research group from the University of Basel and the University Hospital has now discovered that the concentration of the two drugs in the lungs of Covid-19 patients is not sufficient to fight the...

Collective behavior research reveals secrets of successful football teams

Collective behaviour researchers have applied a new tool for analysing the movement of football players that goes beyond looking at individual athletes to capturing how the team operates as a whole. The tool, which comes from statistical physics but has never been used for sports analysis, finds clear differences in collective dynamics between winning and losing teams and can even predict the...