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SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, likely does not directly infect the brain but can still inflict significant neurological damage, according to a new study from neuropathologists, neurologists, and neuroradiologists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. “There’s been considerable debate about whether this virus infects the brain, but we were unable to find any signs of virus inside brain cells of more than 40 COVID-19 patients,” says James E....

10-mile-per-hour sensitivity Though the ICON spacecraft zooms around Earth at upwards of 14,000 miles (22,500 kilometers) per hour, its wind-measuring instrument MIGHTI can detect changes in wind speed smaller than 10 miles per hour. MIGHTI makes use of the Doppler effect — the same phenomenon that makes an ambulance siren change pitch as it passes you — and measures the tiny shifts in color caused by the motion of glowing gases in the upper atmosphere, which reveals their speed and direction....

Blood pressure control worsened in both men and women with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States in 2020.Women and older adults had the highest blood pressure measures during the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is associated with higher blood pressure levels among middle-aged adults across the U.S., according to new research published on December 6, 2021, in the American Heart Association’s flagship journal Circulation. According to the American Heart Association, nearly half of American adults have high blood pressure, a leading cause of heart disease, and nearly 75% of all cases remain above the recommended blood pressure levels....

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, bringing everyday life to a screeching halt, researchers at MIT and its affiliates ramped down much of their lab work and stopped teaching classes in person, but refused to come to a standstill. Instead, they changed tacks and took action investigating the many unknowns of COVID-19 and the virus that causes it (SARS-CoV-2), organizing pandemic responses, and communicating with the public and each other about what they knew....

A high-resolution crystal structure of an enzyme essential to the survival of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 has been produced by a team of Mount Sinai researchers. The discovery could help in the development of urgently needed new antivirals to combat current and future coronaviruses. The enzyme, known as nsp14, contains a critically important region known as the RNA methyltransferase domain. This region has eluded previous attempts by the scientific community to characterize its three-dimensional crystal structure....

“Our findings from this rock shelter show that overly simplified models for the origins of our species are no longer acceptable. Evidence suggests many regions across the African continent were involved, the Kalahari being just one,” Dr. Wilkins said. “Archaeological evidence for early Homo sapiens has been largely discovered at coastal sites in South Africa, supporting the idea that our origins were linked to coastal environments. There have been very few well-preserved, datable archaeological sites in the interior of southern Africa that can tell us about Homo sapiens’ origins away from the coast....

At its current location for inspecting an active sand dune, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is adding some sample-processing moves not previously used on Mars. Sand from the second and third samples the rover is scooping from “Namib Dune” will be sorted by grain size with two sieves. The coarser sieve is making its debut, and using it also changes the way the treated sample is dropped into an inlet port for laboratory analysis inside the rover....

Combustion engines can develop high-frequency oscillations, leading to structural damage to the engines and unsafe operating conditions. A detailed understanding of the physical mechanism that causes these oscillations is required but has been lacking until now. In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, research from the Tokyo University of Science and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency clarifies the feedback processes that give rise to these oscillations in rocket engines. The investigators studied simulated combustion events in a computational model of a rocket combustor....

A new article in Science magazine gives an overview of almost three decades of research into colloidal quantum dots, assesses the technological progress for these nanometer-sized specs of semiconductor matter, and weighs the remaining challenges on the path to widespread commercialization for this promising technology with applications in everything from TVs to highly efficient sunlight collectors. “Thirty years ago, these structures were just a subject of scientific curiosity studied by a small group of enthusiasts....

The Delta variant is more contagious than original SARS-CoV-2 and better able to escape prior immunity, according to modeling studies of coronavirus variants. Findings from three studies of SARS-CoV-2 variants are published on the medRxiv pre-print server ahead of publication in a peer-reviewed journal. “New variants of SARS-CoV-2 have become widespread, but currently vaccines are still highly effective in preventing severe disease from these infections, so please get vaccinated if you have not done so,” says Wan Yang, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology and lead author of the studies....

This result means two things. First, there were more orangutans on Borneo than previously estimated. Second, they are disappearing even faster than researchers had envisaged. The most dramatic rates of decline in orangutan populations were found in deforested areas and in areas converted into agricultural land. Surprisingly, however, the absolute number of orangutans that were lost was greatest in selectively logged and primary forests, where most orangutans occur. In these forest areas human pressures, such as conflict killing, poaching, and the collection of baby orangutans for the pet trade have probably been the major drivers of decline....

A National Health Service (NHS) Genomic Medicine Service, which allows patients with rare diseases to have their entire genetic code read in the hope of providing a much-needed diagnosis, was announced by the UK’s department of health in 2018. However, the interpretation of this data can be exceptionally challenging. In fact, many people with complex, rare genetic diseases still do not receive a molecular answer to the cause of their problems....

Diseased trees in forests may be a significant source of methane that causes climate change, according to a study by researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) published in Geophysical Research Letters. Sixty trees sampled at Yale Myers Forest in northeastern Connecticut contained concentrations of methane that were as high as 80,000 times ambient levels. Normal air concentrations are less than 2 parts per million, but the Yale researchers found average levels of 15,000 parts per million inside trees....

Women who are pregnant or taking estrogen with birth control or hormone replacement therapy could face high risk. COVID-19 may increase the risk of blot clots in women who are pregnant or taking estrogen with birth control or hormone replacement therapy, according to a new manuscript published in the Endocrine Society’s journal, Endocrinology. One of the many complications of COVID-19 is the formation of blood clots in previously healthy people. Estrogen increases the chance of blood clots during pregnancy and in women taking birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy....

Wednesday afternoon, July 13, 2022, will be the next full moon, appearing opposite the Sun in Earth-based longitude at 2:38 p.m. EDT (11:38 a.m. PDT). From the India Standard Time Zone eastward to the International Date Line, this will be on Thursday morning. The Moon will appear full for about three days, from early Tuesday morning through early Friday morning. What’s in a Name The Maine Farmer’s Almanac began publishing Native American names for full moons in the 1930s....

In dryland farming, crops are rotated every two years, leaving half of the fields fallow at any given time. This yields less bushels per acre, but the no-tillage methods preserve moisture and soil. Many states are seeing aquifer depletion, and farmers will have to switch to dryland agriculture in order to survive. Cotton farmers in Texas are already switching to dryland cropping, which would cut their yields in half, from 600 pounds to 300 pounds per acre....

A team of Princeton researchers reported today in the journal Cell that they have found a compound, SCH-79797, that can simultaneously puncture bacterial walls and destroy folate within their cells — while being immune to antibiotic resistance. Bacterial infections come in two flavors — Gram-positive and Gram-negative — named for the scientist who discovered how to distinguish them. The key difference is that Gram-negative bacteria are armored with an outer layer that shrugs off most antibiotics....

A Dutch company, uniQure, states that it will start selling the first human gene therapy to be approved in the West by mid-2013. They expect an explosion of similar therapies to be available soon. Glybera was approved by the European Commission on October 25. This drug treats the extremely rare disorder lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD) and it’s the first to be approved for sale in Europe or North America. Gene therapy modifies a patient’s DNA to combat specific diseases, and has been used experimentally to treat blindness, depression, and brain wasting diseases....

Large galaxies like the one we live in, the Milky Way, are believed to grow through repeated merging with smaller, dwarf galaxies. Gas and dwarf galaxies in the vast cosmic web follow the gravitational paths laid out by dark matter — traversing filaments, they migrate slowly toward collections of dark matter and assemble into large galaxies. As dwarf galaxies are pulled in by gravity, they are also pulled apart, leaving behind long trailing streams of stars and compact star clusters....

The Martian surface is uniformly basaltic, a consequence of billions of years of volcanism and flowing lava on the surface that eventually cooled. Scientists had thought Mars’ crustal history was a relatively simple tale because Mars did not undergo full-scale surface remodeling like the shifting of continents on Earth. But in a new study, scientists discovered locations in the Red Planet’s southern hemisphere with greater concentrations of the chemical element silicon than what would be expected in a purely basaltic setting....