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Almost all planes arriving at three UK airports during a period of Covid restrictions had the SARS CoV-2 virus in their wastewater, according to newly published research. The virus was also found in wastewater at arrival terminals. Bangor University scientists, who pioneered the use of wastewater testing to track SARS-CoV2 in the UK, wanted to find out whether wastewater testing could be used as a way of monitoring the general health of passengers on flights coming into the country in future....

Are viruses dead or alive? Well… both. Viruses can only reproduce inside living cells and exploit the cellular machinery of their host to their benefit. However, before entering a host cell, viruses are just nanometer-sized particles, very similar to artificial nanoparticles used in medical applications for diagnosis and therapy. Scientists from Stockholm University and Karolinska Institutet have found that viruses and nanoparticles share another important property; they both become covered by a layer of proteins when they encounter the biological fluids of their host before they find their target cell....

Dr. Solomon Assefa will present details at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) this week. Silicon nanophotonics takes advantage of the pulses of light for moving large volumes of data at high speeds between computer chips in servers, large datacenters and supercomputers, alleviating the limitations of the congested data traffic. The breakthrough came after more than a decade of research at IBM and allows IBM to move the silicon nanophotonics technology into the real-world manufacturing environment, where it will have an impact....

Leveraging the same curiosity as Majorana, researchers from Dartmouth’s Viola Research Group are predicting that split photons may also exist. “This is a major paradigm change of how we understand light in a way that was not believed to be possible,” says Lorenza Viola, the James Frank Family Professor of Physics. “Not only did we find a new physical entity, but it was one that nobody believed could exist.” The theoretical discovery of the split photon – known as a “Majorana boson” – advances the fundamental understanding of light and how it behaves....

More and more evidence is coming out that people with COVID-19 are suffering from cognitive effects, such as brain fog and fatigue. And researchers are discovering why. The SARS-CoV-2 virus, like many viruses before it, is bad news for the brain. In a study published on December 16, 2020, in Nature Neuroscience, researchers found that the spike protein, often depicted as the red arms of the virus, can cross the blood-brain barrier in mice....

So in 2011 – in his late 60s, after 30 years of operating his own consulting firm around Green Bay, Wisconsin – he enrolled in some courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It wasn’t long before he went around Sterling Hall asking about joining a research team. Jay Gallagher, now the W. W. Morgan & Rupple Bascom Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at Wisconsin, offered Lawrence the chance to study one of two galaxy systems....

The simple act of picking up a pencil requires the coordination of dozens of muscles: The eyes and head must turn toward the object as the hand reaches forward and the fingers grasp it. To make this job more manageable, the brain’s motor cortex has implemented a system of shortcuts. Instead of controlling each muscle independently, the cortex is believed to activate muscles in groups, known as “muscle synergies.” These synergies can be combined in different ways to achieve a wide range of movements....

These microbial predators are divided into two groups, one of which has been referred to as “nibblerids” due to their use of tooth-like structures to bite off pieces of their prey. The other group, known as “nebulids,” consume their prey whole. Both groups form a distinct ancient branch called “Provora,” according to a recent study published in the journal Nature. Microbial lions Like lions, cheetahs, and more familiar predators, these microbes are numerically rare but important to the ecosystem, says senior author Dr....

The conventional method to accurately estimate the sky direction of gravitational waves is tedious—taking a few hours to days—while a faster online version needs only seconds. There is an emerging capacity from the LIGO-Virgo collaboration to detect gravitational waves from electromagnetic-bright binary coalescences, tens of seconds before their final merger, and provide alerts across the world. The goal is to coordinate prompt follow-up observations with other telescopes around the globe to capture potential electromagnetic flashes within minutes from the mergers of two neutron stars, or a neutron star with a black hole—this was not possible before....

The team conducted an analysis, published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, on the possibility of seeding the oceans with iron-rich engineered fertilizer particles near ocean plankton, crucial microscopic plants in the ocean ecosystem, to boost the growth and carbon dioxide uptake of phytoplankton. “The idea is to augment existing processes,” said Hochella, a Laboratory fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “Humans have fertilized the land to grow crops for centuries....

“For people with drug-resistant epilepsy, or those who have been unable to find an effective treatment to reduce seizures, it’s encouraging to see that there are lifestyle changes that can be combined with standard drug therapy to reduce the number of seizures,” said study author Manjari Tripathi, MD, DM, of All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. “Our study found that this combination may reduce the chance of seizures by more than half....

“This interlayer makes the battery cell significantly more stable, and therefore able to withstand much higher current density. What is also important is that it is very easy to apply the soft mass onto the lithium metal anode in the battery – like spreading butter on a sandwich,” says researcher Shizhao Xiong at the Department of Physics at Chalmers. Alongside Chalmers Professor Aleksandar Matic and Professor Song’s research group in Xi’an, Shizhao Xiong has been working for a long time on crafting a suitable interlayer to stabilize the interface for solid state battery....

Following the largest mass extinction of all time, the end-Permian mass extinction, ecosystems rebuilt from scratch during Triassic times, from 252-201 million years ago paving the way for new species, and many new kinds of plants and animals emerged. In a new study published in Nature Communications and led by Dr. Suresh Singh of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences, fresh evidence has emerged of the complexity of the post-extinction recovery....

International study including 27 countries shows people prioritize loved ones over everything else. Across the globe, caring for loved ones is what matters most. But, for decades this has not been the focus of many social psychology studies. An international team of researchers led by evolutionary and social psychologists from Arizona State University surveyed over 7,000 people from 27 different countries about what motivates them, and the findings go against 40 years of research....

Striking new observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope capture, for the first time, the remains of a recent supernova brimming with freshly formed dust. If enough of this dust makes the perilous transition into interstellar space, it could explain how many galaxies acquired their dusty, dusky appearance. Galaxies can be remarkably dusty places [1] and supernovae are thought to be a primary source of that dust, especially in the early Universe....

How inequality is expressed matters for policy views. Americans may respect and admire how individual billionaires – think Oprah Winfrey or Bill Gates – made their billions, even as they rage against the “top 1%” as a group, new research finds. In eight related studies, people tended to have fewer problems with hearing about the extreme wealth of a particular wealthy person, even as they thought it was unfair that billionaires in general controlled so much riches....

A new gallery of images combining X-ray data from Chandra with those from other telescopes is being released.The objects range from a supernova remnant within the Milky Way to a galaxy cluster millions of light years away.The layers of data are colored in each image to enhance various features.This is a demonstration of how new telescopes like JWST and IXPE will work with other observatories to explore the Universe. The recent launches of the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) and the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) by NASA and its international partners are excellent reminders that the universe emits light or energy in many different forms....

When used correctly, both alcohol-based hand disinfectants recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) are effective against the novel coronavirus Sars-Cov-2, as confirmed by an international research team headed by Professor Stephanie Pfänder from the Department of Molecular and Medical Virology at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB). The journal Emerging Infectious Diseases published the relevant article in its online edition on April 13, 2020. 30 seconds for disinfection The researchers exposed Sars-Cov-2 viruses for 30 seconds to the WHO-recommended disinfectant formulations....

Researchers analyzing blood samples from blood donors across Kenya estimate that by June 2020, when many COVID-19 deaths were expected in the country but hadn’t occurred at such scale, 4.3% of Kenyans had antibodies to the virus. This suggests SARS-CoV-2 exposure has been more extensive than indicated by case-based surveillance in Kenya, the authors say. Their results will help guide the pandemic response in a region where economic effects of lockdown — including for the way it disrupts routine medical care to women and children — have proven particularly debilitating....

The first app of its kind allows users to interact with biodiversity research through augmented reality. An ant the size of a lion isn’t as far-fetched as you would think. From as small as a sesame seed to the size of a big cat, ants come in all sizes — in augmented reality, at least. Augmented reality provides an interactive experience of the ‘real world’ with the help of computer-generated images viewed through a screen....