New research explains how the nervous system in the gut, known as the enteric nervous system (ENS) causes propulsion along the gut, highlighting how similar it behaves to other neural networks in the brain and spinal cord. The study, led by Professor Nick Spencer at Flinders University, maintains that the ENS in the gut is […]

Beige is considered a calming paint color, and scientists have new evidence that beige fat has a similar impact on the brain, bringing down the inflammation associated with the more common white fat and providing protection from dementia. They have found that beige fat cells, which are typically intermingled with white fat cells in the […]

Steve may be able to saw wood, make tools, explore caves or dig for precious stones, but the Minecraft avatar cannot understand that each of these steps build to the ultimate goal of obtaining diamonds. Alan Wagner, assistant professor of aerospace engineering at Penn State, and Sarah Rajtmajer, assistant professor of information sciences and technology, […]

Asthmatics who have their illness well under control have less severe COVID-19 outcomes than those with uncontrolled asthma, according to a large study conducted by USC and Kaiser Permanente Southern California. The findings, published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, suggest that asthma patients — especially those who require clinical care — […]

In terms of the books rediscovered from antiquity during the Renaissance one of those that had the biggest impact was Ptolemaeus’ Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis, which became known in Latin as either the Geographia or Cosmographia. Claudius Ptolemaeus or (Klaúdios Ptolemaîos in Greek) is a scholar, who had a major impart on the development of the mathematical sciences in the second […]

Large biomolecule drugs’ great promise is held back because it’s hard to get them into cells – but now US researchers have used machine learning to tackle this problem. They developed Peptimizer, a machine learning model that designs cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) that improve oligonucleotide drug delivery into cells 50-fold. The teams of Rafael Gómez-Bombarelli and […]

The Covax initiative is falling well short of its objective to deliver 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to lower-income countries by the end of 2021. Wealthy countries, while pledging funds to Covax, have sequestered almost all scheduled vaccine production for the year. Covax is coordinated by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; the Coalition for Epidemic […]

The ability to keep food, medicines, vaccines and our buildings cool underpins much of our modern way of life, but it is also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. If the world is to meet its development goals and climate change targets over the coming decades, we need to rethink how we keep things […]

On Aug. 5, the White House announced that it seeks to ensure that 50 percent of all new passenger vehicles sold in the United States by 2030 are powered by electricity. The purpose of this target is to enable the U.S to remain competitive with China in the growing electric vehicle (EV) market and meet its […]

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a rare genetic disease usually diagnosed in young boys, gradually weakens muscles across the body until the heart or lungs fail. Symptoms often show up by age 5; as the disease progresses, patients lose the ability to walk around age 12. Today, the average life expectancy for DMD patients hovers around […]