253 articles from TUESDAY 1.9.2020

Can sunlight convert emissions into useful materials?

A team of researchers has designed a method to break CO2 apart and convert the greenhouse gas into useful materials like fuels or consumer products ranging from pharmaceuticals to polymers. Typically, this process requires a tremendous amount of energy. However, in the first computational study of its kind, the research team enlisted a more sustainable ally: the sun.

COVID-19 antibodies present in patients four months after recovery: study

In previous studies, antibody levels dropped sharply within a few months after COVID-19, raising questions about the duration of immunity that infection may provide. The new finding may have implications for reinfection risks and vaccine durability, said Kari Stefansson, chief executive of deCode Genetics, which conducted the study. To get a sense of how many people in Iceland had been infected...

Large antibody study offers hope for virus vaccine efforts

Tuesday’s report, from tests on more than 30,000 people in Iceland, is the most extensive work yet on the immune system’s response to the virus and is good news for efforts to develop vaccines. If a vaccine can spur production of long-lasting antibodies like natural infection does, it gives hope that “immunity to this unpredictable and highly contagious virus may not be fleeting,”...

Fish invasions follow Panama and Suez canal expansions

World maritime trade grows each year, aided by canal waterways that connect oceans and reduce shipping time, energy consumption and carbon emissions. Following recent expansions of the Panama and Suez canals, non-native fish species are invading new habitats according to a new report in Nature Ecology and Evolution by researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama and...