307 articles from WEDNESDAY 12.5.2021

Scientists decode the 'language' of immune cells

Scientists have identified 'words' immune cells use to call up immune defense genes -- an important step toward understanding their language. The scientists also discovered that in an autoimmune disease, Sjögren's syndrome, two of these words are used incorrectly, activating the wrong genes and triggering the disease.

A delicate balance: Learning new ways that gut microbes educate the immune system

An immune system that mistakes our good gut bacteria for an enemy can cause a dangerous type of inflammation in the intestines called colitis. An immune system that looks the other way while gut microbes spill past their assigned borders is equally dangerous. Understanding how the immune system learns to make a brokered peace with its microbial residents, called the microbiota, is therefore an...

Backyard chickens, rabbits, soybeans can meet household protein demand

In 2020, stores sold out of garden seed, coops and rabbit cages. Meat shortages led many to wonder what to eat for protein when supply chains are disrupted and some people turned to gathering eggs, raising animals and growing their own food. A team assessed backyard protein sources: They looked at how a typical household with a typical backyard can raise chickens, rabbits or soybeans to meet its...

COVID-19 is not influenza, but it offers lessons on beating it, say researchers

A study of the 2020 influenza figures from Canada, the United States, Australia and Brazil shows that there is a clear relationship between COVID-mitigation measures such as hand-washing, masking and social distancing and the spread of the annual flu, researchers report. They write that these preventive measures all but eliminated the flu in countries where it can kill tens of thousands of people...

Lemon trees showed less response to citrus greening disease pathogen than orange trees

Citrus greening disease was first discovered in Florida in 2005. Since then, production of oranges in the United States for processing has declined by 72 percent between the 2007-2008 growing season and the 2017-2018 growing season, primarily in Florida. The disease was discovered in California in 2012, and now the state is beginning to see a rapid increase of citrus greening disease.

Earthquake early warnings launch in Wash., completing West Coast-wide ShakeAlert system

When the Big One hits, the first thing Washington residents notice may not be the ground shaking but their phone issuing a warning. The U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Washington-based Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, and the Washington Emergency Management District on Tuesday, May 4, will activate the system that sends earthquake early warnings throughout Washington state. This...

New method for producing synthetic DNA

Chemically synthesized short DNA sequences are extremely important ingredients with countless uses in research laboratories, hospitals, and in industry, like in the method for identifying COVID-19. Phosphoramidites are necessary building blocks in the production of DNA sequences, but they are unstable, and break quickly. Ph.D. Alexander Sandahl (Professor Kurt Gothelf's group, Aarhus University)...

New ebolavirus vaccine design seeks to drive stronger antibody defense

Scientists have unveiled a new Ebola virus vaccine design, which they say has several advantages over standard vaccine approaches for Ebola and related viruses that continue to threaten global health. In the new design copies of the Ebola virus outer spike protein, known as the glycoprotein, are tethered to the surface of a spherical carrier particle.

Study reveals structure of key receptors involved in memory and learning

Scientists have for the first time revealed the structure surrounding important receptors in the brain's hippocampus, the seat of memory and learning. The new study focuses on the organization and function of glutamate receptors, a type of neurotransmitter receptor involved in sensing signals between nerve cells in the hippocampus region of the brain. The study reveals the molecular structure of...

The triple threat of coronavirus

Immense research efforts are invested in figuring out how the virus manages to mount an effective invasion while throwing the immune system off course. A new study reveals a multipronged strategy that the virus employs to ensure its quick and efficient replication, while avoiding detection by the immune system.

Study finds six degrees celsius cooling on land during the last Ice Age

Researchers show that prior studies have underestimated the cooling in the last glacial period, which has low-balled estimates of the Earth's climate sensitivity to greenhouse gases. The rather high climate sensitivity is not good news regarding future global warming, which may be stronger than expected using previous best estimates.