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Once this is achieved, it will establish the first links of the quantum Internet, which harnesses the powers of subatomic physics in order to create a super-secure global communication network. In 2016, China plans on launching a satellite dedicated to quantum science experiments, ahead of the ESA and NASA. When the satellite is launched, Pan and Anton Zeilinger, a physicist at the University of Vienna, plan on creating the first intercontinental quantum-secured network, connecting Asia to Europe by satellite....

Self-reported suicide attempts rising in black teens as other groups decline with troubling trends seen among black high school students in particular. Adding to what is known about the growing crisis of suicide among American teens, a team led by researchers at the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at New York University have uncovered several troubling trends during the period of 1991-2017, among Black high school students in particular....

Although the two species look strikingly similar, the black acara is tropical, a native of equatorial South America, while the subtropical chanchita isn’t typically found north of Southern Brazil. Because the chanchita is more cold-tolerant, researchers say it could have a more widespread impact in Florida than the black acara and could threaten native species in North Central Florida ecosystems. “Even the professionals get it wrong,” said Robert Robins, Florida Museum of Natural History ichthyology collection manager....

Given the choice of three different “spin” orientations, certain particles emerging from collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), an atom smasher at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, appear to have a preference. As described in a paper just published in Nature by RHIC’s STAR collaboration, the results reveal a preference in global spin alignment of particles called phi mesons. Conventional mechanisms—such as the magnetic field strength or the swirliness of the matter generated in the particle collisions—cannot explain the data....

Despite the success of the COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, vaccine confidence has declined significantly since the start of the pandemic. This is according to a new study published in Vaccine. Two anonymous surveys in the winters of 2019 and 2022 were carried out to investigate people’s attitudes towards vaccinations and the factors that might underpin hesitancy and refusal by researchers from the University of Portsmouth in England. By comparing the responses of more than 1,000 adults overall, they discovered that the post-pandemic group was considerably less confident in vaccines than the pre-pandemic group....

Many biologists like me believe there is, at least for one specific type of virus – namely, bacteriophages, or viruses that infect bacteria. When the DNA of these viruses is captured by a cell, it may contain instructions that enable that cell to perform new tricks. The mighty power of bacterial viruses Bacteriophages, or phages for short, keep bacterial populations in check, both on land and at sea. They kill up to 40% of the oceans’ bacteria every day, helping control bacterial blooms and redistribution of organic matter....

Data from NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft indicate that the venerable deep-space explorer has encountered a region in space where the intensity of charged particles from beyond our solar system has markedly increased. Voyager scientists looking at this rapid rise draw closer to an inevitable but historic conclusion – that humanity’s first emissary to interstellar space is on the edge of our solar system. “The laws of physics say that someday Voyager will become the first human-made object to enter interstellar space, but we still do not know exactly when that someday will be,” said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena....

Doctors often recommend Omega-3s to help patients lower their cholesterol and improve heart health. Those Omega-3s can come from fatty fish like salmon and mackerel, or supplements that often contain a combination of the acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Now, new research from the Intermountain Healthcare Heart Institute in Salt Lake City finds that higher EPA blood levels alone lowered the risk of major cardiac events and death in patients, while DHA blunted the cardiovascular benefits of EPA....

The scientists published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Emerald cockroach wasps (Ampulex compressa) begin their life on an American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) which the mother wasp stings. Once it’s been dragged back to a burrow, she sticks one of her eggs into it. When it hatches, the wasp larva burrows through the immobilized roach and feasts on its innards, eventually killing it. Gurdrun Herzner, from the University of Regensburg in Germany, watched the larvae by installing transparent panels into the sides of parasitized roaches, providing a direct view of what was going on in its innards....

NASA’s powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft atop launched the agency’s Artemis I flight test from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Moon rocket and spacecraft lifted off at 1:47 a.m. EST on Wednesday, November 16. NASA’s Artemis I mission is the first integrated test of the agency’s deep space exploration systems: the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, and supporting ground systems....

My colleagues and I now believe we have observed this process, providing some of the best indications yet of exactly what happens when a black hole forms. Our results are published in two papers in Nature and the Astrophysical Journal. According to both observable and theoretical evidence, the majority of black holes are thought to originate when the core of a large star collapses near the conclusion of its life....

Blue whales are the giants of the sea. With up to 30 meters (100 feet) long and weighing up to 175 tons, they are the largest animals that ever evolved on earth; larger even than dinosaurs. Short of becoming extinct due to whaling by the end of the 80s, currently the populations of the gentle giants are slowly recovering. Now new research highlights that the evolution of these extraordinary animals and other rorquals was also anything but ordinary....

When it comes to entertainment, people enjoy seeing bad guys get their punishment more than seeing them be forgiven, a new study reveals. But even though they don’t enjoy the forgiveness stories as much, people do find these narratives more meaningful and thought-provoking than ones in which the bad guys receive their just deserts. “We like stories in which the wrongdoers are punished and when they get more punishment than they deserve, we find it fun,” said Matthew Grizzard, lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at The Ohio State University....

University of Chicago Assoc. Prof. Emily Landon answers common questions about additional vaccine doses. Increasingly, research shows many people who have weakened immune systems haven’t been able to receive full protection from their COVID-19 vaccines. Unlike healthy people who’ve been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, immunocompromised people’s bodies may not produce enough protective antibodies after two doses of the COVID-19 vaccines. This could leave them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, especially as more contagious variants circulate in a community....

Artificial Sweeteners Change How the Body Reacts to Other Foods In much the same way that people develop a tolerance for spicy food over time, sweeteners can do the same. The more you consume, the more your body gets used to the sweet taste, leaving other foods tasting bland and unappetizing. The result is a knock-on effect, where you consume more sweetened and sugary foods and less healthy foods such as whole-grains, fruit, and vegetables....

Wind energy is increasingly seen as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, as it contributes to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. It is estimated that by 2050, wind turbines will contribute more than 20% of the global electricity supply. However, the rapid expansion of wind farms has raised concerns about the impact of wind turbines on wildlife. Research in that area has been limited and has yielded conflicting results....

However, that is precisely what researchers from the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases at Monash University in collaboration with the TU Graz (Austria) have developed: the world’s first metal-organic framework (MOFs) antibody-drug delivery system that has the potential to fast-track potent new therapies for cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases. The in vitro study showed that when MOF antibody crystals bind to their target cancer cells and if exposed to the low pH in the cells, they break down, delivering the drugs directly and solely to the desired area....

Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge along with 20 other hospitals from across the world and healthcare technology leader, NVIDIA, have used artificial intelligence (AI) to predict COVID patients’ oxygen needs on a global scale. The research was sparked by the pandemic and set out to build an AI tool to predict how much extra oxygen a COVID-19 patient may need in the first days of hospital care, using data from across four continents....

New research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates that three new, fast-spreading variants of the virus that cause COVID-19 can evade antibodies that work against the original form of the virus that sparked the pandemic. With few exceptions, whether such antibodies were produced in response to vaccination or natural infection, or were purified antibodies intended for use as drugs, the researchers found more antibody is needed to neutralize the new variants....

New research from Yale University shows that many health institutions do well on mortality and readmission and that performance on one does not dictate performance on the other. Hospital performance on two Medicare quality measures are not strongly related, and are likely to reflect very different aspects of their clinical care, according to results published by Yale School of Medicine researchers in the February 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)....