How does the switch to a high-deductible health plan affect children with asthma? A new study suggests that enrollment in a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) may not be associated with changes in asthma medication use or asthma exacerbations when medications are exempt from the deductible.

A team of scientists has developed the cameras for an astronomical instrument built to perform all-sky surveys in the x-ray wavelength regime. They highlight the features of the cameras, a key part of a telescope called eROSITA, describing the hardware development and ground testing, and report the performance aboard the satellite, opening doors to a deeper understanding of our cosmos.

Researchers have analyzed the PCR samples of more than 25,000 persons with COVID-19. The team determined the viral loads of each individual sample and used their results to estimate levels of infectiousness. The research provides a clear idea of the infectiousness of the disease in different age groups and at different levels of disease severity.

A new paper brings together research findings from COVID-19 researchers around the world. The results are striking: human T cells can target more than 1,400 sites on the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

After a wildfire, soils in burned areas often become water repellent, leading to increased erosion and flooding after rainfall events - a phenomenon that many scientists have attributed to smoke and heat-induced changes in soil chemistry. But this post-fire water repellency may also be caused by wildfire smoke in the absence of heat, according to a new article.

Researchers have determined that viral particles remaining in the gut long after an initial COVID-19 infection can travel into the bloodstream, instigating the condition called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C).

A novel compound similar in structure to the psychedelic drug ibogaine, but lacking its toxic and hallucinogenic effects, has been found to rapidly reverse the effects of stress in mice. Researchers found that a single dose of tabernanthalog (TBG) can correct stress-induced behavioral deficits, including anxiety and cognitive inflexibility, and also promotes the regrowth of neuronal connections...

Researchers recently developed an innovative technique to capture the unused solar energy that illuminates a solar panel. They created special holograms that can be easily inserted into the solar panel package. This method can increase the amount of solar energy converted by the solar panel over the course of a year by about five percent.

Fly ash from coal burning contributes between 37 and 72 percent of the organic carbon particles in the Yangtze River basin.

Researchers know cosmic rays originate from the multitude of stars in the Milky Way and other galaxies. The difficulty is tracing the particles to specific sources, because the turbulence of interstellar gas, plasma, and dust causes them to scatter and rescatter in different directions. Researchers developed a simulation model to better understand these and other cosmic ray transport...

As antibiotic-resistant bacteria become more prevalent, silver has seen steep growth in its use in things like antibacterial coatings. Still, a better understanding can provide clues on how to best apply it. Researchers have now monitored the interaction of silver nanoparticles with a nearby E. coli culture and found the silver undergoes several dramatic changes. Most notably, the E. coli cells...

A new study suggests that, among men, low testosterone levels in the blood are linked to more severe COVID-19. The study contradicts widespread assumptions that higher testosterone may explain why men, on average, develop more severe COVID-19 than women do.

In work that could one day help athletes as well as aging adults regenerate tissue more effectively, scientists increased the regeneration of muscle cells in mice by activating the precursors of muscle cells.

Computational tools are indispensable in almost all scientific disciplines. Especially in cases where large amounts of research data are generated and need to be quickly processed, reliable, carefully developed software is crucial for analyzing and correctly interpreting such data. Nevertheless, scientific software can have quality quality deficiencies. To evaluate software quality in an automated...

From shamans and mystics to cult leaders and divine kings, why have people throughout history accorded high status to people believed to have supernatural powers? According to a new study, this tendency to attribute social dominance to such individuals is rooted in early development.

Researchers have investigated what happened to a specific kind of plasma - the first matter ever to be present - during the first microsecond of Big Bang. Their findings provide a piece of the puzzle to the evolution of the universe, as we know it today.

When it comes to distinguishing a healthy cell from an infected one that needs to be destroyed, the immune system's killer T cells sometimes make mistakes.

Graphene is an ultrathin material characterized by its ultrasmall bending modulus, superflimsiness. Now researchers have demonstrated how an experimental technique called optical forging can make graphene ultrastiff, increase its stiffness by several orders of magnitude.

Alzheimer's disease is the main cause of dementia and current therapeutic strategies cannot prevent, slow down or cure the pathology. The disease is characterized by memory loss, caused by the degeneration and death of neuronal cells in several regions of the brain, including the hippocampus. Researchers have identified a small molecule that can be used to rejuvenate the brain and counteract the...

Scientists explore racemases and propose strategies for finding drugs that target these important enzymes.

Cells sense and respond to the mechanical properties of the cellular microenvironment in the body. Changes in these properties, which occur in a number of human pathologies, including cancer, can elicit abnormal responses from cells. How the cells adapt to such changes in the mechanical microenvironment is not well understood.

Scientists have identified a new type of defect as the most common source of disorder in on-surface synthesized graphene nanoribbons, a novel class of carbon-based materials that may prove extremely useful in next-generation electronic devices. The researchers identified the atomic structure of these so-called 'bite' defects and investigated their effect on quantum electronic transport. These...

With a global impetus toward utilizing more renewable energy sources, wind presents a promising, increasingly tapped resource. Despite the many technological advancements made in upgrading wind-powered systems, a systematic and reliable way to assess competing technologies has been a challenge. Researchers have used advanced data science methods and ideas from the social sciences to compare the...

An investigation carried out by the astrophysicists questions one of the most interesting findings about the dynamics of the Milky Way in recent years: that the precession, or the wobble in the axis of rotation of the disc warp is incorrect.