PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Which sleep stage is most important for learning: REM or non-REM? Does sleep improve learning by enhancing skills while people snooze, or by cementing those skills in the brain so that they’re less likely to forget them? Do these processes occur every time someone sleeps, or only after they have…
Boston, Mass. – In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the disease was characterized by many as a flu-like respiratory infection mainly affecting the lungs. Now, physicians recognize that the coronavirus can impact organs throughout the body. In a collaboration among physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Columbia University Irving Medical…
A replicating RNA vaccine, formulated with a lipid-based nanoparticle emulsion that goes by the acronym LION, produces antibodies against the COVID-19 coronavirus in mice and primates with a single immunization. These antibodies potently neutralize the virus. The effects occurred within two weeks after administration through injection into a muscle. The level of antibodies generated was…
As demand for coronavirus testing surges around the nation, laboratories that process samples are again experiencing backlogs that have left anxious patients and their doctors waiting days — sometimes a week or more — for results. At the city and state levels, testing delays could mask persistent rises in case numbers and could cloud ways to combat the…
ADEJE, Spain — Music blared from a beachfront cafe along the normally bustling southwestern coast of Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands. But several tables sat empty, a month after a Covid-19 lockdown had ended, and the doors to many resorts remained shut. Though tourism is returning to southern Europe — stretching from Portugal…
Here’s what you need to know: ImageMembers of the Wisconsin National Guard organizing tests for the coronavirus in Milwaukee on Friday.Credit…Joshua Lott for The New York Times The White House pushes to eliminate billions from a relief proposal drafted by Senate Republicans. The Trump administration has balked at providing billions of dollars to fund coronavirus…
This spring, as countries around the world told people to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus, doctors in neonatal intensive care units were noticing something strange: Premature births were falling, in some cases drastically. It started with doctors in Ireland and Denmark. Each team, unaware of the other’s work, crunched the numbers…
Dating is a complicated and often clumsy dance even in the best of times. Add in mask-wearing directives, social distancing and fear of a highly contagious virus for which there is no cure, and you get… well, an awful lot of people going out and doing some version of it anyway. A survey conducted by…
In the heated debate over reopening schools, one burning question has been whether and how efficiently children can spread the virus to others. A large new study from South Korea offers an answer: Children younger than 10 transmit to others much less often than adults do, but the risk is not zero. And those between…
At this point in the summer — and the pandemic — the desire to escape to a place far away might be overwhelming. Even with so many borders closed, podcasts can transport you elsewhere, making them a good alternative to real, out-of-the-house travel. Here’s a collection of immersive audio experiences that are almost as immersive…