Glass nanoparticles trapped by lasers in extreme vacuum are considered a promising platform for exploring the limits of the quantum world. Since the advent of quantum theory, the question at which sizes an object starts being described by the laws of quantum physics rather than the rules of classical physics has remained unanswered. A team formed by Lukas Novotny (Zurich), Markus Aspelmeyer (Vienna), Oriol Romero-Isart (Innsbruck), and Romain Quidant (Zurich) is attempting to answer precisely this question within the ERC-Synergy project Q-Xtreme. A crucial step ...

A group of scientists from Durham University and University of York have twisted molecules to their breaking point in order to challenge the understanding of chemical bonds. The researchers explored how far the chemical bonding in an aromatic ring can be twisted before its aromatic bonding breaks. They achieved this by making overcrowded aromatic rings. Rather than benzene, they used tropylium, which shares electrons around a ring of seven carbon atoms. Each of these carbon atoms can be functionalised and having seven attachment points in the ring, rather than the six carbon atoms of benzene, allowed ...

Siblings of a child suspected of experiencing physical abuse should also be screened for abusive injuries, according to a new international consensus statement led by researchers at UCL (University College London) and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH).  The team of 27 researchers, from six different continents, are calling for a policy change to stop inconspicuous injuries being missed in contact children (i.e. siblings, cohabiting children, or children who are under the same care), and to help prevent further ...

Offering a tiny cash reward for accuracy, or even briefly appealing to personal integrity, can increase people’s ability to tell the difference between misinformation and the truth, according to a new study. The findings suggest that fake news thrives on social media not only because people are tricked into believing it, but also due to a motivational imbalance: users have more incentive to get clicks and likes than to spread accurate content.  Social psychologists from the University of Cambridge and New York University argue that their study, published in the journal ...

Research from scientists at Louisiana State University and Indiana University reveals new information about the role humans have played in large-scale land loss in the Mississippi River Delta—crucial information in determining solutions to the crisis. The study published today in Nature Sustainability compares the impacts of different human actions on land loss and explains historical trends. Until now, scientists have been unsure about which human-related factors are the most consequential, and why the most rapid land loss in the Mississippi River Delta occurred between the 1960s and 1990s and ...

As countries around the globe seek sustainable energy sources and the U.S. endeavors to become a net-zero emissions economy by 2050, renewable energy sources such as solar panels are in high demand. However, solar panels can take up significant space and are often difficult to scale. Enter the new field of agrivoltaics, which focuses on the simultaneous use of land for both solar power generation and agriculture. For example, replacing the glass in greenhouses with solar panels could power the lamps and water controls in the greenhouse, or even the whole farm. But how does one build solar panels that can absorb energy from sunlight without blocking the light ...

Sometimes in the laboratory there are unexpected results. "Previously it had been observed that autoantibodies are common in severe Covid patients, those who end up in intensive care," says Jonathan Muri, postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB, affiliated with the Università della Svizzera italiana) and co-author of the study. "Instead, in this case we discovered the opposite." The autoantibodies in question neutralize chemokines, molecules that direct immune cell trafficking. "Chemokines are a bit like traffic lights: they tell our immune cells when and where to go in the case ...

Rice, a major food crop, is cultivated on nearly 162 million hectares of land worldwide. One of the most commonly used methods to quantify rice production is rice plant counting. This technique is used to estimate yield, diagnose growth, and assess losses in paddy fields. Most rice counting processes across the world are still carried out manually. However, this is extremely tedious, laborious, and time-consuming, indicating the need for faster and more efficient machine-based solutions. Researchers from China ...

In our quest for clean energy and carbon neutrality, all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries (ASS-LIBs) offer considerable promise. ASS-LIBs are expected to be used in a wide range of applications including electric vehicles (EVs). However, commercial application of these batteries is currently facing a bottleneck—their output is reduced owing to their high surface resistance. Moreover, the exact mechanism of this surface resistance is hitherto unknown. Researchers have alluded it to a phenomenon called the “electric ...

New Curtin research has found the spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2, a strain of coronaviruses that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, become trapped when they come into contact with silicon, gold and copper, and that electric fields can be used to destroy the spike proteins, likely killing the virus. Lead researcher Dr Nadim Darwish, from the School of Molecular and Life Sciences at Curtin University said the study found the spike proteins of coronaviruses attached and became stuck to certain types of surfaces. “Coronaviruses have spike proteins on their periphery that allow them to penetrate host cells and cause infection and we have found these proteins becomes stuck to the surface ...

Approximately one billion people are infected with influenza around the world each year, with more than half a million deaths estimated to result from the disease. Despite the disease’s potential severity, especially among older populations and those with cardiometabolic risk factors, approximately 30 percent of U.S. adults over age 65 were not vaccinated during the 2019-2020 flu season. To evaluate best strategies for increasing vaccination rates, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare ...

Genetic variations, such as mutations, recombinations, or transpositions occur naturally in cultured microorganisms and are often considered nonneutral mutations. Neutral mutations are neither beneficial nor harmful to an organism and only affect a small proportion of the total population. On the other hand, nonneutral mutations can affect a larger proportion of the population by potentially changing the gene pool, depending upon the advantages or disadvantages provided by the genetic variant. These ...

The recent public health emergency declarations in New York and London due to polio infections and detection of the virus in these cities’ wastewater strongly indicate that polio is no longer close to being eradicated. Now, four members of the Global Virus Network (GVN) proposed changes in global polio eradication strategy to get the world back on track to one day eliminating polio’s threat. Authors of the recommendations included University of Maryland School of Medicine Institute of Human Virology’s ...

SAN ANTONIO — March 6, 2023 —A Southwest Research Institute team has developed a mechanical testing device to analyze fluids and lubricants formulated for electric vehicles. The team modified a commercial tribology testing device to give it the capability to evaluate the impact of electric currents in fluids, measuring the wear and friction on the automobile parts in the presence of an applied voltage. “The electrification of the automotive industry has accelerated over recent years, ...

Fetal alcohol exposure at any stage of pregnancy can lead to congenital malformations, as well as cognitive, behavioral, and emotional impairments in offspring. New research conducted in mice and published in The FASEB Journal indicates that even very early embryos exposed to alcohol can experience growth restriction, brain abnormalities, and skeletal delays, but feeding pregnant mothers certain nutrients prior to conception and throughout pregnancy can reduce the incidence and severity of the alcohol-induced defects. The beneficial effects were seen with a combination of four nutrients—folic acid, choline, betaine, and vitamin B12. The authors stress that the ...

What explains persistent racial disparities in policing, despite police departments’ repeated investments in bias-training programs? A wide range of data indicate that police in the United States tend to stop, arrest, injure, or kill more Black people than White people. Calvin K. Lai (Washington University in St. Louis) and Jaclyn A. Lisnek (University of Virginia) analyzed the effectiveness of a day-long implicit-bias-oriented diversity training session designed to increase U.S. police officers’ knowledge of bias, concerns about bias, and use of evidence-based strategies to mitigate bias. Their ...

March 6, 2023-- The adoption of laws around naloxone use is not associated with changes in adolescent lifetime heroin or injection drug use (IDU), finds a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. According to latest results, naloxone access and pharmacy naloxone distribution were more consistently associated with decreases rather than increases in lifetime heroin and IDU among adolescents. While some critics contend that naloxone expansion may inadvertently promote high-risk substance use behaviors among adolescents, until now this question had not been directly investigated. The ...

DALLAS, March 6, 2023 — What people eat and drink affects heart and brain health and is essential for managing health conditions like blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol. Hispanic adults are at higher risk for Type 2 diabetes and have some of the highest prevalence of poorly controlled blood pressure,[1] two major risk factors for heart disease.[2] As a champion for health equity, today the American Heart Association, the leading global voluntary health organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke for all, launched ‘Together at the Table/ Juntos En La Mesa.’ The campaign is designed to inspire ...

NEW YORK, March 6, 2023—With the COVID-19 pandemic highlighting the critical importance of biomedical research and new questions being raised about society’s capacity to generate world-changing scientific breakthroughs,1, Roy and Diana Vagelos have made a $175 million gift to Columbia University to address this need. The Vagelos Institute for Biomedical Research Education created with this gift will be home to PhD students pursuing the most creative, potentially disruptive ideas in biomedical science, and will spur the training of more physician-scientists able ...

DALLAS, March 6, 2023 — Scientific researchers have noticed a marked increase in heart attacks and strokes in the days following the change to daylight saving time each spring. However, the American Heart Association, the leading global health organization dedications to fighting heart disease and stroke, says losing sleep anytime can be a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. “Getting a good night’s sleep every night is vital to cardiovascular health. Adults should aim for an average of 7-9 hours, and babies and kids ...

In the fight against pollution, several regions in the U.S. have banned the use of plastic straws. Alternative materials exist, but most options are either too expensive to scale up, go limp in drinks or taste bad. But now, a team reporting in ACS Omega has developed a new type of bioplastic film from all-natural, degradable materials that can be rolled into a straw that doesn’t get soggy and is stronger than plastic. As efforts to reduce plastic waste take hold, many researchers and companies have turned to plastic alternatives to fabricate straws that comply with new laws and regulations. But so far, most options either end up breaking ...

PARAMUS, N.J. (March 6, 2023) – Octapharma USA presented research at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) Annual Meeting evaluating the efficacy and safety of cutaquig® (Immune Globulin Subcutaneous [Human]-hipp, 16.5% solution) infusions at higher infusion parameters, potentially offering greater dosing flexibility for patients. Subcutaneous immunoglobulin (SCIG) has been an accepted mode of infusion for over 30 years and, with its increased utilization, improvements in methodology now drive replacement therapy in patients with primary immune deficiency. To further explore dosing flexibility with potential reductions ...

Research Highlights: A new study found that the link between excess weight and higher blood pressure in adolescents was stronger among those who also had irregular sleep patterns. Irregular sleep patterns contributed to elevated blood pressure in teens who had more visceral fat (excess weight in the belly/abdominal area). The researchers suggest that school schedules and extracurricular responsibilities often clash with teens’ natural tendency to go to bed later and sleep later, which may lead to irregular timing of sleep and a cascade of consequences for heart health later in life. Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT/5 a.m. ET Monday, March 6, 2023 DALLAS, March ...

WHAT:  A clinical trial testing a freeze-dried, temperature-stable experimental tuberculosis (TB) vaccine in healthy adults found that it was safe and stimulated both antibodies and responses from the cellular arm of the immune system. The Phase 1 trial was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. A non-temperature stable form of the candidate previously had been tested in several clinical trials. However, this was the first clinical trial of any subunit TB vaccine candidate in a temperature-stable (thermostable) form. Results are published in Nature Communications. The ...

The Access to Advanced Health Institute (AAHI) published results of a Phase 1 clinical trial demonstrating the safety and immune responses in a new vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), the world’s second deadliest infectious disease (NCT03722472). AAHI’s TB vaccine combines several proteins from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the bacterium that causes TB, into a fusion protein (“ID93”) with a proprietary immune-stimulating adjuvant (“GLA-SE”) in a freeze-dried formulation that can be stored at elevated temperatures ...