432 articles from THURSDAY 29.10.2020

A wave of ransomware hits US hospitals as coronavirus spikes

American hospitals are being targeted in a wave of ransomware attacks as covid-19 infections in the US break records and push the country’s health infrastructure to the brink. As reports emerge of attacks that interrupted healthcare in at least six US hospitals, experts and government officials say they expect the impact to worsen—and warn that the attacks could potentially threaten...

NorthStar satellite system to monitor threat of space debris

Space-based service will alert users to potential collisions between satellites and orbital junkThe Canadian company NorthStar Earth and Space has contracted Thales Alenia Space to build the first three satellites of its Skylark space traffic monitoring system, with LeoStella, a Seattle-based firm, overseeing the final assembly. This will make NorthStar the first commercial company to monitor...

Tuning biomolecular receptors for affinity and cooperativity

Our biological processes rely on a system of communications -- cellular signals -- that set off chain reactions in and between target cells to produce a response. The first step in these often complex communications is the moment a molecule binds to a receptor on or in a cell, prompting changes that can trigger further signals that propagate across systems. From food tasting and blood oxygenation...

Models show how COVID-19 cuts a neighborhood path

Researchers have created a new model of how the coronavirus can spread through a community. The model factors in network exposure -- whom one interacts with -- and demographics to simulate at a more detailed level both where and how quickly the coronavirus could spread through Seattle and 18 other major cities.

World's first agreed guidance for people with diabetes to exercise safely

An academic has helped draw up a landmark agreement amongst international experts, setting out the world's first standard guidance on how people with diabetes can use modern glucose monitoring devices to help them exercise safely. The guidance will be a crucial resource for healthcare professionals around the world, so they can help people with type 1 diabetes.

Fungal species naturally suppresses cyst nematodes responsible for major sugar beet losses

The plant pathogenic nematode Heterodera schachtii infects more than 200 different plants, including sugar beets, and causes significant economic losses. Over the past 50 years, the primary management tool in California has been crop rotation. When the number of H. schachtii in a soil exceeds a threshold, growers are contractually required by the local sugar factory to plant crops that do not...

Researchers develop a method for tuning biomolecular receptors for affinity and cooperativity

Our biological processes rely on a system of communications—cellular signals—that set off chain reactions in and between target cells to produce a response. The first step in these often complex communications is the moment a molecule binds to a receptor on or in a cell, prompting changes that can trigger further signals that propagate across systems. From food tasting and blood oxygenation...

Losing ground in biodiversity hotspots worldwide

Between 1992 and 2015, the world's most biologically diverse places lost an area more than three times the size of Sweden when the land was converted to other uses, mainly agriculture, or gobbled up by urban sprawl.