The Ad5-nCoV vaccine, developed in China, is 57.5% effective against symptomatic COVID-19 infection and 91.7% effective against severe COVID-19 beginning 28 days post-vaccination, according to a phase 3 randomized control trial analysis.No vaccine-related serious adverse events were reported, and most adverse events, including injection-site pain, headache, drowsiness, and generalized muscle aches, were mild to moderate.Research is ongoing to determine the vaccine’s long-term safety and effectiveness as well as its effectiveness against delta, omicron and other variants of concern....

Small increases in the amount of time that a child sleeps can improve behavior by a significant amount, while decreases will most likely make them act out. The scientists published their findings in the journal Pediatrics. This new study is the first controlled investigation of the effect of sleep extension and reduction on the behavior of healthy children at school. The researchers studied 34 children, aged 7 to 11, and split them into two groups, extending the sleep of one group and diminishing it in the other group by the same amount....

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are getting smarter with the help of an international team of researchers. They developed a way for multiple UAVs to fall into formation while still automatically controlling their own flight needs, just like the drones used by the villain portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal in the 2019 Spiderman movie. They published their results in the IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica, a joint publication of IEEE and the Chinese Association of Automation....

Three NASA astronauts, Mark Vande Hei, Thomas Marshburn, and Kayla Barron, along with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer spent Monday unpacking research samples stowed in science freezers aboard the U.S. Cygnus space freighter. The quartet then loaded the frozen samples into research racks throughout the space station. Some of the new science samples delivered on Monday include skin cells and cancer cells being studied in the microgravity environment to improve human health on Earth and in space....

These new images of the planetary nebula Abell 30, which is located 5,500 light-years away from Earth, show one of the clearest views ever obtained of a special phase of evolution for these objects. A new study of A30 was published The Astrophysical Journal. The images are composites containing X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory in purple and Hubble Space Telescope’s data showing optical emission from oxygen ions in orange....

It’s a bouncing baby . . . star! Combined observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the newly completed Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile have revealed the throes of stellar birth as never before in the well-studied object known as HH 46/47. Herbig-Haro (HH) objects form when jets shot out by newborn stars collide with surrounding material, producing small, bright, nebulous regions. To our eyes, the dynamics within many HH objects are obscured by enveloping gas and dust....

The discovery of the star, known as S5-HVS1, was made by Carnegie Mellon University Assistant Professor of Physics Sergey Koposov as part of the Southern Stellar Stream Spectroscopic Survey (S5). Located in the constellation of Grus – the Crane – S5-HVS1 was found to be moving ten times faster than most stars in the Milky Way. “The velocity of the discovered star is so high that it will inevitably leave the galaxy and never return,” said Douglas Boubert from the University of Oxford, a co-author on the study....

Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have figured out how stem cells found in a part of the brain responsible for learning, memory and mood regulation decide to remain dormant or create new brain cells. Apparently, the stem cells “listen in” on the chemical communication among nearby neurons to get an idea about what is stressing the system and when they need to act. The researchers say understanding this process of chemical signaling may shed light on how the brain reacts to its environment and how current antidepressants work, because in animals these drugs have been shown to increase the number of brain cells....

In warm coastal waters around the world, swimmers can often spot large groups of jellyfish pulsing rhythmically on the seafloor. Unless properly prepared with protective clothing, it is best to steer clear of areas that Cassiopea, or upside-down jellyfish inhabit: getting too close can lead to irritating stings, even without direct contact. Now, researchers have taken a close look at the cause of the “stinging water” encountered near these placid-looking creatures: a toxin-filled mucus the jellyfish release into the water....

By studying how efficiently plants use water, researchers from Swinburne and the University of California have determined how well forests are acclimating to rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The researchers conclude that some drier conifer forests are acclimating two to three times faster to rising carbon dioxide than wetter, conifer forests, meaning they are more efficient in their water use. The results of this research have been published in the journal Nature Communications....

A preliminary study shows that a drug, which helps immune cells self-clean, may improve vaccine protection in older adults. A drug that boosts the removal of cellular debris in immune cells may increase the protective effects of vaccines in older adults, a study published today (December 15, 2020) in eLife shows. The results may lead to new approaches to protect older individuals from viruses such as the one causing the current COVID-19 pandemic and influenza....

The scientists published their findings in the journal Nature. However, other paleontologists flatly reject the hypothesis made by Gregory Retallack, a geologist from the University of Oregon, in Eugene. His paper marks a dramatic reinterpretation of the fossils and suggests that life on land began 65 million years earlier than researchers had estimated. The exact nature of the fossils from the Ediacaran period, 635 to 542 million years ago, has been controversial among paleontologists....

Trees do not grow in the deep sea, nevertheless, sunken pieces of wood can develop into oases for deep-sea life – at least temporarily until the wood is fully degraded. A team of Max Planck researchers from Germany now showed how sunken wood can develop into attractive habitats for a variety of microorganisms and invertebrates. By using underwater robot technology, they confirmed their hypothesis that animals from hot and cold seeps would be attracted to the wood due to the activity of bacteria, which produce hydrogen sulfide during wood degradation....

The gene, called RRS1 (Robust Root System 1), encodes an R2R3-type MYB family transcription factor that activates the expression of another gene (OsIAA3) that inhibits root growth. Knocking out RRS1 in plants led to longer root length, longer lateral root length, and larger lateral root density. Also, a natural variant of RRS1 that changes the activity of the RSS1 protein had a similarly beneficial effect on roots. The findings indicate that blocking the normal expression of RSS1 may enhance drought resistance in crops by promoting water absorption....

“We looked for these signals in 700 short GRBs detected with NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory,” explained Cecilia Chirenti, a researcher at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who presented the findings at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle. “We found these gamma-ray patterns in two bursts observed by Compton in the early 1990s....

The white-lipped peccary, a species related to pigs, is now no longer found in the area at all. The survey was published in the journal PLoS One. It was led by a team of ecologists based in Brazil and the UK, and their focus was the populations of 18 mammal species in 196 forest fragments, within an area of 250,000 square kilometers. The population density, before the arrival of European colonists, was estimated and used as a comparison....

The workhorse orbiter now plays a key role in NASA’s Journey to Mars planning. Images from the orbiter, revealing details as small as a desk, aid the analysis of potential landing sites for the 2016 InSight lander and Mars 2020 rover. Data from the orbiter will also be used as part of NASA’s newly announced process to examine and select candidate sites where humans will first explore the Martian surface in the 2030s....

At present, the water-splitting process is only efficient to a limited degree, and there are not enough powerful, durable, and cost-effective catalysts for it. “Currently, the most active electrocatalysts are based on the rare and expensive precious metals iridium, ruthenium, and platinum,” lists Kristina Tschulik. “As researchers, our job is therefore to develop new, highly active electrocatalysts that are free of precious metals.” Her research group studies catalysts in the form of base metal oxide nanoparticles that are a million times smaller than a human hair....

Situated in the South China Sea, the large island of Hainan is China’s southernmost province, spanning approximately 339,000 hectares (1,300 square miles). This photograph, taken by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station (ISS), focuses on the landscape around Gangmen Harbor and captures many typical characteristics of Hainan: forested mountain terrain juxtaposed with dense populations. Cleared lands show up with bright orange and red soils that owe their color to the oxidation of iron-rich sediments....

Dr. David Smerdon, from UQ’s School of Economics, conducted a study of nearly 3 million chess moves made by over 8,000 players in 18 countries, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed that wearing a mask significantly lowered the average quality of players’ decisions. “The decrease in performance was due to the annoyance caused by the masks rather than a physiological mechanism, but people adapted to the distraction over time,” Dr....