Culture
Twenty shacks destroyed in five minutes. That's how quickly fires can spread in informal settlements.
This is one of the major results of the world's largest informal settlement fire experiment consisting of twenty homes.
Epileptic seizures often originate in small, localized areas of the brain where neurons abnormally fire in unison. These electrical impulses disrupt proper brain functioning and cause seizures. But what makes regions where seizures start different from parts of the brain where electrical impulses remain normal? More importantly, what prevents these epileptic centers from growing?
Coronavirus antibodies can last at least three months after a person becomes infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a new study published today in Science Immunology.
Researchers from the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute (LTRI) at Sinai Health and the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto used both saliva and blood samples from COVID-19 patients to measure and compare antibody levels for over three months post-symptom onset.
Researchers from the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research have made observations of a new magnetar, called Swift J1818.0-1607, which challenges current knowledge about two types of extreme stars, known as magnetars and pulsars. The research, just published in The Astrophysical Journal, was done using the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), an X-ray instrument aboard the International Space Station.
Zoologists from Trinity College Dublin, working in tropical Southeast Asia, have uncovered a modern-day example of rapid evolution in action.
The zoologists have discovered that male and female Sulawesi Babblers (Pellorneum celebense, a species of bird) have evolved to attain different sizes on small islands, and in quick-fire time. They believe this is most likely due to evolutionary pressure favouring such "dimorphism" because the birds are able to reduce competition with each other by feeding on different, scarce resources.
Samples from the lungs of patients show a runaway immune system reaction could be one mechanism behind severe COVID-19 cases.
When infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, many people experience mild and moderate symptoms, but for some people infection can be severe or fatal. Scientists are urgently seeking to understand how COVID-19 can become severe.
Now, a study led by Imperial College London researchers has revealed how an overreaction of part of the immune system could be linked to severe cases of COVID-19.
The CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing tool is one of the most promising approaches to advancing treatments of genetic diseases - including cancer -, an area of research where progress is constantly being made. Now, the Molecular Cytogenetics Unit led by Sandra Rodríguez-Perales at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) has taken a step forward by effectively applying this technology to eliminate so-called fusion genes, which in the future could open the door to the development of cancer therapies that specifically destroy tumours without affecting healthy cells.
Point-of-care-testing for suspected COVID-19 reduces time to results and may improve infection control, suggesting these tests might have clinical advantages over widely used laboratory PCR methods.
An interventional study tracking SARS-CoV-2 testing on admission to a UK hospital finds that the wait for results was just 1.7 hours using point-of-care testing (POCT) close to the patient's bedside, compared with 21.3 hours using the standard process of PCR testing in a centralised lab within the hospital.
Two separate studies have documented the persistence of antibodies that target SARS-CoV-2 in hundreds of patients with COVID-19 at least 3 months after symptom onset. Both studies point to the IgG class of antibodies as the longest-lasting antibodies detectable in the blood and saliva of patients during this timeframe, suggesting that SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG antibodies may serve as promising targets to detect and evaluate immune responses against the virus.
In plants, many proteins are found at only one end of a cell, giving them a polarity like heads and tails on a coin.
Often, cells next to each other have these proteins at the same end, like a stack of coins with heads all facing up. This protein patterning is critical for how plant cells orient and coordinate themselves to produce the leaves, flowers, stems and roots that adorn our gardens and provide us with all our food and the oxygen we breathe.
Athletes using legal performance enhancing and medical sport supplements are more likely to dope than those using sport foods and superfoods, a new study reveals.
While some sport supplements may be necessary for an athlete's programme, taking ergogenic and medical sport supplements may inadvertently lead to sports people developing favourable attitudes towards doping
While the world waits eagerly for a safe and effective vaccine to prevent infections from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers also are focusing on better understanding how SARS-CoV-2 attacks the body in the search for other means of stopping its devastating impact. The key to one possibility -- blocking a protein that enables the virus to turn the immune system against healthy cells -- has been identified in a recent study by a team of Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers.
The intertidal mudflats of Barr Al Hikman, a nature reserve at the south-east coast of the Sultanate Oman, are crucial nursery grounds for numerous crab species. In return, these crabs are a vital element of the ecology, as well as the regional economy, a new publication in the scientific journal Hydrobiologia shows. 'These important functions of the crabs should be considered when looking at the increasing human pressure on this nature reserve', first author and NIOZ-researcher Roeland Bom says.
Blue swimming crab
It is only 120 millionths of a millimetre in size but can bring entire countries to a standstill: the Corona virus. Even if it were to disappear one day, viral infections will still be among the most frequent and difficult-to-treat diseases in humans. Even decades of research have only produced a few standardized vaccines and strategies for treatment to combat just a small number of viruses. Nor has there been much research into viral mechanisms of action - which was a reason for Prof.
Unforeseen circumstances force low-income families to quickly move from one home to the next, a process that helps to perpetuate racial and economic segregation in the United States, research shows.