97 articles from FRIDAY 19.5.2023

World’s largest ‘scent arena’ reveals bloody preferences of mosquitoes

In the dead of night, 200 bloodthirsty creatures make their way through a tented mesh arena the size of an ice rink. Scientists study them from afar, pumping in air scented with the aroma of human prey. They’re hoping to reveal just what triggers these deadly predators. This isn’t the setup for an upcoming zombie movie. “It’s the world’s largest multichoice smell test...

Ketamine no better than placebo at alleviating depression, unusual trial finds

Ketamine is a powerful anesthetic and sometimes recreational drug that causes people to feel dissociated from their own bodies. Recent studies suggest the drug may help treat people with depression who have tried more conventional treatments without success. But there are major questions about what makes it work. Is it the weird dissociative experience? Some molecular effect on the brain?...

Human ancestry has been shaped by mixing and matching alleles, show two recent studies

The course of human history has been marked by complex patterns of migration, isolation, and admixture, the latter a term that refers to gene flow between individuals from different populations. Admixture results in a blending of genetic lineages, leading to increased genetic diversity within populations. In addition to admixture among modern human populations, ancient humans reproduced with other...

Examining puppeteer fungus' targeted takeover of zombie flies

In a new study published in eLife, lead author Carolyn Elya, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard, reveals the molecular and cellular underpinnings behind the parasitic fungus, Entomophthora muscae's (E. muscae), ability to manipulate the behavior of fruit flies.

New images released by Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope released eight new images of the sun, previewing the exciting science underway at the world's most powerful ground-based solar telescope. The images feature a variety of sunspots and quiet regions of the sun obtained by the Visible-Broadband Imager (VBI), one of the telescope's first-generation instruments.

Radiant protostars and shadowy clouds clash in stellar nursery

The massive, star-forming interstellar cloud Lupus 3 is captured with the 570-megapixel US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera at NSF's NOIRLab's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The dazzling central region of this sprawling cloud reveals a pair of infant stars bursting from their natal cocoons of dust and gas to illuminate the reflection nebula known as Bernes 149....

Uncovering the mechanism of photoexcited nucleobases: Is decay fast or suppressed?

The nucleobase molecules carrying the genetic codes are the most important ingredients for life, but they are also very vulnerable. When the ultraviolet component in the sunlight irradiates these molecules, the electrons in the molecules will be excited, and the excited nucleobase molecules may result in irreversible changes or even damages to the DNA and RNA chains, leading to the "sunburn" of...

A guide through the genome of crops

Plants show enormous variety in traits relevant to breeding, such as plant height, yield and resistance to pests. One of the greatest challenges in modern plant research is to identify the differences in genetic information that are responsible for this variation.

The FDA just approved rub-on gene therapy that helps “butterfly” children

Antonio Vento is 13 years old. He’s a tiny figure in bandages who doesn’t walk and, until recently, couldn’t see more than shadows. He has dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, an inherited disease that makes his skin so fragile that kids with the illness are called “butterfly children.” But now, thanks to a novel gene therapy squirted onto his skin and dripped into his eyes, things are...

'Mini kangaroos' hop back in South Australia

The brush-tailed bettong—a rare, very cute marsupial resembling a rabbit-sized kangaroo—is bouncing back on the South Australian mainland, more than 100 years after disappearing from the region.

Mapping the shallow seabed of the Mediterranean coast using satellite images

Satellite-derived bathymetry continues to advance and improve rapidly. A recent study has confirmed the effectiveness of a methodology developed to obtain bathymetric data from satellite images in the Western Mediterranean. The results of this research, published in the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, reaffirm the value of this tool for monitoring coastal...

FDA advisers agree maternal RSV vaccine protects infants, but are divided on its safety

A committee of advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday voted unanimously that a vaccine from Pfizer, given as an injection during pregnancy, is efficacious at protecting infants from severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease during the first 6 months of life. If approved by the agency, the vaccine would be a major advance against a disease that is the...

A simple way to improve employee well-being without denting productivity

During the coronavirus lockdowns, 50% of European workers were estimated to engage in some form of smart working—smart working at its worst, though, because it was unplanned and in many cases full-time, with a strong potential to create a sense of social isolation. The flip side of the coin is that this experience revealed that smart working is feasible both for routine and for non-routine...

Could NASA resurrect the Spitzer space telescope?

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope served the astronomy community well for 16 years. From its launch in 2003 to the end of its operations in January 2020, its infrared observations fueled scientific discoveries too numerous to list.

Fatty acids might exist in space

A team of physicists have discovered that the environment of a molecular cloud in interstellar space can support the existence of fatty acids, a key component of life on Earth.

Did life evolve more than once? Researchers are closing in on an answer

From its humble origin(s), life has infected the entire planet with endless beautiful forms. The genesis of life is the oldest biological event, so old that no clear evidence was left behind other than the existence of life itself. This leaves many questions open, and one of the most tantalizing is how many times life magically emerged from non-living elements.

Scientists prevent signs of aging in zebrafish by targeting the gut

When it comes to slowing aging in humans, telomeres have long been a tempting target. These complex, repetitive sequences of DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes tick away the years by shortening each time a cell divides, eventually causing the cell to die. The jury’s still out about whether reversing this shortening could be a molecular fountain of youth, but a...