Tag Archives: science

UPI reports: COVID-19 causes loss of sense of smell in some of those infected by not only damaging the tissue in the nasal cavity, but also the area of the brain responsible for controlling the senses, a study published Monday by JAMA Neurology found. The white matter region of the brain plays a key role in communication between cells in …

Courthouse News Service reports: Brain injuries that result from Covid-19 infections, such as small bleeds and intense inflammation, are present in primates who have been infected, even when the infections were mild, according to a new study published Friday. This new finding from researchers at Tulane University was published in an article in the science journal, Nature Communications. It is …

The Washington Post reports: The coldest location on the planet has experienced an episode of warm weather this week unlike any ever observed, with temperatures over the eastern Antarctic ice sheet soaring 50 to 90 degrees above normal. The warmth has smashed records and shocked scientists. “This event is completely unprecedented and upended our expectations about the Antarctic climate system,” …

Mediaite reports: Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested he may retire soon in a recent interview with ABC News. Fauci joined Brad Mielke on the podcast Start Here on Friday, during which he addressed an impending increase in Covid-19 cases from the BA.2 variant. “I have said that I would stay in what I’m doing until we get out of the pandemic …

CNBC reports: Pfizer plans to submit data to the Food and Drug Administration for a fourth Covid shot soon, and it’s working on a vaccine that protects against all coronavirus variants, CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC. “I think we’re going to submit to FDA a significant progress of data about the need for a fourth dose, and they need to …

Nature Magazine reports: The number of people who have died because of the COVID-19 pandemic could be roughly three times higher than official figures suggest, according to a new analysis. The analysis, published on 10 March in The Lancet, says that the true number of lives lost to the pandemic by 31 December 2021 was close to 18 million. That …

USA Today reports: The study, published Monday in Nature, used before-and-after brain images of 785 British people, ages 51 to 81, to look for any changes. About half the participants contracted COVID-19 between the scans – mostly when the alpha variant was circulating – which left many people at least temporarily without a sense of smell. Analysis of the “before” …

Salon reports: A new study conducted by Tulane National Primate Research Center has collected data pointing towards evidence that the coronavirus has a negative impact on four different areas of the male genital tract. The 500-acre primate center where the study was conducted is located in Covington, Louisiana and houses upwards of 4,800 primates. Results concluded that three male rhesus …

The New York Times reports: Scientists released a pair of extensive studies on Saturday that point to a market in Wuhan, China, as the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. Analyzing data from a variety of sources, they concluded that the coronavirus was very likely present in live mammals sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in late 2019 and suggested …

Salon reports: Approximately 500,000 Americans are now diagnosed with Lyme disease, the most common tick-borne disease, annually — double the number of cases reported in the 1990s. A group of researchers at Yale University is trying to revive a Lyme vaccine. By using messenger RNA — the same technology that Pfizer and Moderna used in their COVID-19 vaccines — the researchers were …

The Associated Press reports: Get ready to learn more Greek letters. Scientists warn that omicron’s whirlwind advance practically ensures it won’t be the last version of the coronavirus to worry the world. Every infection provides a chance for the virus to mutate, and omicron has an edge over its predecessors: It spreads way faster despite emerging on a planet with …

City News Service reports: A UCLA-led team of researchers believe they may have found a way to kill HIV-infected cells inside infected individuals, opening a “new paradigm for a possible HIV cure in the future,” the study’s lead author said Monday. The breakthrough could potentially reduce, if not eliminate, the virus from the currently 38-million people around the world who …

The Washington Post reports: The coronavirus spreads rapidly to multiple organs and can remain in the body for as long as 230 days after infection, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the University of Maryland. Upon infection, the coronavirus “disseminates across the human body and brain early in infection at high levels,” researchers …

Space.com reports: Three days after launch, the pallet holding Webb’s huge sunshield — a five-layer structure designed to keep the infrared telescope and its instruments cool — will be lowered. Each of the shield’s five sheets is about the size of a tennis court when fully extended, far too wide to fit inside the payload fairing of any currently operational …

National Geographic reports: After more than a quarter-century of planning, designing, building, waiting—and of obsessively testing the most complex space observatory ever assembled—the mammoth James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to launch at 7:20 a.m. eastern time on December 25. For JWST’s mission to succeed, the telescope must execute an intricate series of carefully choreographed maneuvers during its first month …

NBC News reports: “Everyone has stopped talking about getting rid of Covid,” Dr. Elizabeth Halloran, an epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said of her fellow researchers. “It’s not going away, and that means it’s going to be endemic.” Most scientists now expect the virus to circulate indefinitely with lower and more predictable case numbers — …

The Verge reports: Astronomers just discovered a treasure trove of “rogue planets” — free-floating planets that don’t orbit a star but exist all by their lonesome in the depths of space. With masses comparable to that of Jupiter, the 70 or more rogue planets spotted throughout the Milky Way galaxy are the largest such group of cosmic nomads ever found. …

New Scientist reports: A region of the Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars, one of the biggest in the solar system, appears to contain large amounts of water locked just beneath the surface, making it potentially useful for future astronauts. This is far from the first time researchers have seen water on Mars, but previous discoveries have been concentrated at …

The New York Times reports: From the start of the pandemic, the coronavirus seemed to target people carrying extra pounds. Patients who were overweight or obese were more likely to develop severe Covid-19 and more likely to die. Though these patients often have health conditions like diabetes that compound their risk, scientists have become increasingly convinced that their vulnerability has …

Axios reports: SpaceX is set to launch a NASA spacecraft on a mission to learn how to change the course of an asteroid in deep space. The mission — called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) — will test the technology needed to redirect a dangerous asteroid if one is ever found on course with Earth. Once in space, DART …