PHILADELPHIA – Sour taste does not have the nearly universal appeal that sweet taste does. Slightly sour foods or drinks such as yogurt and lemon juice are yummy to many, but such highly sour foods as spoiled milk are yucky, even dangerous. Like humans, many other animals, including insects, prefer slightly acidic over very acidic…
IMAGE: Controlling of brain state transitions using a molecule responsive to light. view more Credit: IBEC/IDIBAPS The brain presents different states depending on the communication between billions of neurons, and this network is the basis of all our perceptions, memories, and behaviours. It is often considered a “black box”, with difficult access for clinicians and researchers,…
Columbia, SC — Christina Andrews, associate professor of health services policy and management at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health and an expert on addiction treatment will lead a study funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to examine the effectiveness of Medicaid-covered alcohol use disorder treatment. Andrews…
MADISON – In early January 2021, travelers returning to Tokyo, Japan, from Amazonas, Brazil, were screened for COVID-19 at the airport. A few days later, the National Institute of Infectious Disease of Japan announced that the travelers had returned with a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. That variant, known as gamma, or P.1, led…
IMAGE: How much do traditional practices contribute to the protection of local biodiversity? Why and how are sacred groves locally valued and protected, and how can this be promoted and harnessed… view more Credit: Zahed Shakeri How much do traditional practices contribute to the protection of local biodiversity? Why and how are sacred groves locally valued…
Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch have observed that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can infect the testes of infected hamsters. The findings, published in the journal Microorganisms, could help explain symptoms some men with COVID-19 have reported and have important implications for men’s health. As the pandemic goes on, clinicians continue…
The Victoria’s Secret Angels, those avatars of Barbie bodies and playboy reverie, are gone. Their wings, fluttery confections of rhinestones and feathers that could weigh almost 30 pounds, are gathering dust in storage. The “Fantasy Bra,” dangling real diamonds and other gems, is no more. In their place are seven women famous for their achievements…
MacCannell says he did everything he could think of to get a handle on the crisis: He and his team devised protocols to help public-health labs start new sequencing programs; developed plans for partnering with commercial labs, which have much greater capacity overall; and set up a consortium of scientists across the country to collaborate…
The German company CureVac delivered disappointing preliminary results on Wednesday from a clinical trial of its Covid-19 vaccine, dimming hopes that it could help fill the world’s great need. The trial, which included 40,000 volunteers in Latin America and Europe, estimated that CureVac’s mRNA vaccine had an efficacy of just 47 percent, among the lowest…
Richard R. Ernst, a Swiss chemist who won the Nobel Prize in 1991 for his work refining nuclear magnetic resonance, or N.M.R., spectroscopy, the powerful method of chemical analysis behind M.R.I. technology, died on June 4 in Winterthur, in northern Switzerland. He was 87. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), where Dr.…