Existing conservation efforts are insufficient to protect Antarctic ecosystems, and population declines are likely for 65% of the continent’s plants and wildlife by the year 2100, according to a study by Jasmine Rachael Lee at the University of Queensland, Australia, and colleagues, publishing December 22 in the open access journal PLOS Biology. Implementing ten key… Read More »
People suffering from blood cancer often have a weak immune system, putting them at higher risk of falling seriously ill with COVID-19. Some cancer therapies, moreover, result in these patients forming few or no antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 after COVID-19 vaccination. However, vaccination can also activate so-called T cells, which are particularly responsible for the long-term… Read More »
New research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine speaks to the benefits of a COVID-19 booster. The new findings shed light on how mRNA boosters — both Pfizer and Moderna — affect the durability of our antibodies to COVID-19. A booster, the researchers report, made for longer-lasting antibodies for all recipients, even those… Read More »
Researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine have discovered a molecular “clamping” mechanism within a male-specific protein-DNA complex whose mutation causes sex reversal: children with XY chromosomes but female bodies, a condition called Swyer Syndrome. The clamp exploits a water molecule bridging the male factor (designated SRY) and DNA control sites at the tenuous beginnings… Read More »
The risk of firearm death in the US is on the rise: in 2020, firearms became the leading cause of death for children, adolescents and young adults. Yet the risk is far from even — young men in some US zip codes face disproportionately higher risks of firearm-related injuries and deaths. To better understand the… Read More »
Researchers have developed a novel machine-learning framework that uses scene descriptions in movie scripts to automatically recognize different characters’ actions. Applying the framework to hundreds of movie scripts showed that these actions tend to reflect widespread gender stereotypes, some of which are found to be consistent across time. Victor Martinez and colleagues at the University… Read More »
Middle-aged smokers are far more likely to report having memory loss and confusion than nonsmokers, and the likelihood of cognitive decline is lower for those who have quit, even recently, a new study has found. The research from The Ohio State University is the first to examine the relationship between smoking and cognitive decline using… Read More »
Researchers at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), ICREA, CIBERNED, CNIC and Altos Labs, among other national and international collaborators, have characterized how damaged cells (senescent cells) that inevitably arise after injury negatively impact tissue regeneration, and how this mechanism operates actively in old age, but surprisingly also in young age. This negative action can be… Read More »
The reason some people fail to recover their sense of smell after COVID-19 is linked to an ongoing immune assault on olfactory nerve cells and an associated decline in the number of those cells, a team of scientists led by Duke Health report. The finding, publishing online Dec. 21 in the journal Science Translational Medicineprovides… Read More »
How did the complex organisms arise on Earth? This is one of the big open questions in biology. A collaboration between the working groups of Christa Schleper at the University of Vienna and Martin Pilhofer at ETH Zurich has come a step closer to the answer. The researchers succeeded in cultivating a special archaeon and… Read More »