Deliberately exposing people to the coronavirus behind covid-19 in a so-called challenge study has helped us understand why some people seem to be immune to catching the infection. As part of the first such covid-19 study, carried out in 2021, a group of international researchers looked at 16 people with no known health conditions who Read more about We finally know why some people seem immune to catching covid-19[…]

The proliferation of microplastics (MPs) represents a burgeoning environmental and health crisis. Measuring less than 5 mm in diameter, MPs have infiltrated atmospheric, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, penetrating commonplace consumables like seafood, sea salt, and bottled beverages. Their size and surface area render them susceptible to chemical interactions with physiological fluids and tissues, raising bioaccumulation Read more about Seven types of microplastics found in the human penises, raises questions about sexual function[…]

Mathematicians have reinvented the wheel with the discovery of shapes that can roll smoothly when sandwiched between two surfaces, even in four, five or any higher number of spatial dimensions. The finding answers a question that researchers have been puzzling over for decades. Such objects are known as shapes of constant width, and the most Read more about Mathematicians find odd shapes that roll like a wheel in any dimension[…]

Nearly a third of U.S. adults have tattoos, so plenty of you listeners can probably rattle off the basic guidelines of tattoo safety: Make sure you go to a reputable tattoo artist who uses new, sterile needles. Stay out of the ocean while you’re healing so you don’t pick up a smidgen of flesh-eating bacteria. Read more about What’s Actually In Tattoo Ink? No One Really Knows[…]

When the Brazilian nutritional scientist Carlos Monteiro coined the term “ultra-processed foods” 15 years ago, he established what he calls a “new paradigm” for assessing the impact of diet on health. Monteiro had noticed that although Brazilian households were spending less on sugar and oil, obesity rates were going up. The paradox could be explained Read more about “Deny, denounce, delay”: ultra-processed food companies fighting using big tobacco type tactics[…]

Scientists have developed brain implants that can decode internal speech — identifying words that two people spoke in their minds without moving their lips or making a sound. Although the technology is at an early stage — it was shown to work with only a handful of words, and not phrases or sentences — it Read more about Device Decodes ‘Internal Speech’ in the Brain[…]

People who develop long covid after being hospitalised with severe covid-19 have raised levels of many inflammatory immune molecules compared with those who recovered fully after such a hospitalisation, according to a study of nearly 700 people. The findings show that long covid has a real biological basis, says team member Peter Openshaw at Imperial Read more about Long covid linked to signs of ongoing inflammatory responses in blood[…]

Accumulation of microplastics in the natural environment is ultimately due to the chemical nature of widely used petroleum-based plastic polymers, which typically are inaccessible to biological processing. One way to mitigate this crisis is adoption of plastics that biodegrade if released into natural environments. In this work, we generated microplastic particles from a bio-based, biodegradable Read more about Rapid biodegradation of microplastics generated from bio-based thermoplastic polyurethane in compost[…]

In this article we’ll investigate what makes airplanes fly by looking at the forces generated by the flow of air around the aircraft’s wings. More specifically, we’ll focus on the cross section of those wings to reveal the shape of an airfoil – you can see it presented in yellow below: We’ll find out how Read more about The flow of air over Airfoils, or how planes fly[…]

From the very early days of the pandemic, brain fog emerged as a significant health condition that many experience after COVID-19. Brain fog is a colloquial term that describes a state of mental sluggishness or lack of clarity and haziness that makes it difficult to concentrate, remember things and think clearly. Fast-forward four years and Read more about COVID-19 Leaves Its Mark on the Brain. Significant Drops in IQ Scores Are Noted.[…]

A chemical element so visually striking that it was named for a goddess shows a “Goldilocks” level of reactivity — neither too much nor too little — that makes it a strong candidate as a carbon scrubbing tool. The element is vanadium, and research by Oregon State University scientists has demonstrated the ability of vanadium Read more about Key advance for capturing carbon from the air[…]

Global warming is largely caused by carbon dioxide and other gases absorbing infrared radiation, trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere – known as the greenhouse effect. The most accurate climate models use precise measurements of the amount of radiation CO₂ can absorb to calculate how much heat will be trapped in the atmosphere. These models are Read more about Fermi Resonance explains why carbon dioxide causes global warming[…]

Researchers have profiled the entire immune system in young children to compare their response to SARS-CoV-2 with that of adults. The results, published in Cell, show that infants’ systems mount a strong innate response in their noses, where the airborne virus usually enters the body. And unlike adults, babies don’t exhibit widespread inflammatory signaling throughout Read more about Here’s Why Infants Are Strangely Resistant to COVID[…]

Delivering medication to the lungs with inhalable nanoparticles may help treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In mice with signs of the condition, the treatment improved lung function and reduced inflammation. COPD causes the lungs’ airways to become progressively narrower and more rigid, obstructing airflow and preventing the clearance of mucus. As a result, mucus Read more about COPD: Inhalable nanoparticles could help treat chronic lung disease[…]

The rainbow looks different to a human than it does to a honeybee or a zebra finch. That’s because these animals can see colors that we humans simply can’t. Now scientists have developed a new video recording and analysis technique to better understand how the world looks through the eyes of other species. The accurate Read more about Animals Can See Colors We Can’t. A New camera method gives us a good idea.[…]