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Antibodies capable of neutralizing multiple SARS-CoV-2 strains can inform strategies for broadly protective COVID-19 booster vaccines. As the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 continues to evolve, immunologists and infectious diseases experts are eager to know whether new variants are resistant to the human antibodies that recognized initial versions of the virus. Vaccines against COVID-19, which were developed based on the chemistry and genetic code of this initial virus, may confer less protection if the antibodies they help people produce do not fend off new viral strains....

Boston University professor Mark Grinstaff, and his team of researchers, are working to find eco-friendly alternatives to plastics. After two years of experimentation, Grinstaff’s team unveiled an alternative biodegradable adhesive that is made entirely of naturally derived chemical components. Published in Nature Communications, the team says the adhesive’s formula easily adapts to suit a wide range of industrial and medical applications that benefit from sticky materials. “We are replacing current materials that are not degradable with something better for the environment while still maintaining the properties we expect from a performance standpoint,” says Grinstaff, a BU College of Engineering Distinguished Professor of Translational Research, a College of Arts & Sciences professor of chemistry, and director of the Grinstaff Group....

Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer and is the leading cause of death from skin disease. Rates are steadily increasing, and although risk increases with age, melanoma is now frequently seen in young people. But what if we could pinpoint when seemingly innocuous skin pigment cells mutate into melanoma? Researchers at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have achieved this. Teams led by Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor of Medicine Yujiang Geno Shi, from BWH’s Department of Medicine, and George F....

It’s difficult to imagine how a degree or two of warming will affect a location. Will it rain less? What will happen to the area’s vegetation? New Berkeley Lab research offers a way to envision a warmer future. It maps how Earth’s myriad climates—and the ecosystems that depend on them—will move from one area to another as global temperatures rise. The approach foresees big changes for one of the planet’s great carbon sponges....

Vaccines created by UVA Health’s Steven L. Zeichner, MD, PhD, and Virginia Tech’s Xiang-Jin Meng, MD, PhD, prevented pigs from being becoming ill with a pig model coronavirus, porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV). The vaccine was developed using an innovative approach that Zeichner says might one day open the door to a universal vaccine for coronaviruses, including coronaviruses that previously threatened pandemics or perhaps even coronaviruses that cause some cases of the common cold....

With large swaths of oceans, rivers that snake for hundreds of miles, and behemoth glaciers near the north and south poles, Earth doesn’t seem to have a water shortage. And yet, less than one percent of our planet’s mass is locked up in water, and even that may have been delivered by comets and asteroids after Earth’s initial formation. Astronomers have been puzzled by Earth’s water deficiency. The standard model explaining how the solar system formed from a protoplanetary disk, a swirling disk of gas and dust surrounding our Sun, billions of years ago suggests that our planet should be a water world....

A new discovery led by Princeton University could upend our understanding of how electrons behave under extreme conditions in quantum materials. The finding provides experimental evidence that this familiar building block of matter behaves as if it is made of two particles: one particle that gives the electron its negative charge and another that supplies its magnet-like property, known as spin. “We think this is the first hard evidence of spin-charge separation,” said Nai Phuan Ong, Princeton’s Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics and senior author on the paper published this week in the journal Nature Physics....

The research describes an ancient and extremely well-preserved pterosaur specimen originally discovered in a private limestone quarry in Lebanon more than 15 years ago. “The diversity of these ancient animals was much greater than we could ever have guessed at, and is likely orders of magnitude more diverse than we will ever be able to discover from the fossil record,” said Michael Caldwell, co-author, and professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences....

This new image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has astronomers guessing. The image provides a closer look at a circular feature that might be an impact structure on the South Polar layered deposits. Normally scientists can measure the frequency and sizes of impact craters to estimate the age of the landscape. However, craters in icy terrain such as this are modified by processes that flatten and change them in such a manner that it is hard to say for sure if it had an impact origin....

Sensor is poised to improve landmine detection and non-destructive testing. Detecting landmines can be a challenging and slow process. Detecting them from a moving vehicle would make the process more speedy, but at the expense of accuracy. At The Optical Society’s (OSA) Laser Congress, held 29 September – 3 October 2019 in Vienna, Austria, researchers from the University of Mississippi, U.S.A., will report a new laser-based sensor that effectively detects buried objects even while the detector is in motion....

Study is first to report comparison between an oral SERD and a standard aromatase inhibitor. Findings Early results from a UCLA-led clinical trial found treating women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2)-negative early breast cancers with a novel type of anti-hormonal therapy, called an oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD), led to clinically meaningful reductions in tumor activity prior to surgery. The activity was assessed by measuring the levels of Ki67, which is a protein that is expressed when the cancer cell is dividing....

In hopes of coming up with an alternative to those injections, MIT engineers, working with scientists from Novo Nordisk, have designed a new drug capsule that can carry insulin or other protein drugs and protect them from the harsh environment of the gastrointestinal tract. When the capsule reaches the small intestine, it breaks down to reveal dissolvable microneedles that attach to the intestinal wall and release drug for uptake into the bloodstream....

According to the model, Mars and Venus arose from protoplanets (and they, in turn, from gas and dust clouds). Planet “embryos” collide, thus forming protoplanets. They get heated, and magma oceans are formed. During their solidification volatiles of the mantles form a thick and hot atmosphere that predominantly consists of water and carbon dioxide. However, due to the low gravity of Mars-sized planets and the high stellar EUV luminosity of young stars, their atmospheres tend to escape....

Exoplanet hunters watch stars for a few telltale signs that there might be planets in orbit, like changes in the color and brightness of the starlight. For young stars, which are often surrounded by disks of dust and gas, scientists look for patterns in the debris — such as rings, arcs, and spirals — that might be caused by an orbiting world. “We’re exploring what we think is the leading alternative contender to the planet hypothesis, which is that the dust and gas in the disk form the patterns when they get hit by ultraviolet light,” said Marc Kuchner, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland....

University of Central Florida researchers are building on their technology that could pave the way for hypersonic flight, such as travel from New York to Los Angeles in under 30 minutes. In their latest research published recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers discovered a way to stabilize the detonation needed for hypersonic propulsion by creating a special hypersonic reaction chamber for jet engines....

The Mediterranean diet includes a high intake of vegetables, legumes, fruits, fish, and healthy fats such as olive oil, and a low intake of dairy products, meats, and saturated fatty acids. The American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association recommend the Mediterranean diet as a healthy dietary pattern that may reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes, respectively. “Previous studies on the effects of diet on dementia risk have had mixed results,” said study author Isabelle Glans, MD, of Lund University in Sweden....

Cat Fight or Feline the Love? Co-dependent and clingy or casual and aloof – a new study has examined the behavior of pet cats to understand what it means about their relationship with their owner, and the research suggests it’s a two-way street! The research “My Cat and Me – a Study of Cat Owner Perceptions of Their Bond and Relationship” by academics at the University of Lincoln, UK, involved nearly 4000 owners responding to a series of statements about their own behavior and that of their pet....

Molecular biologists Mihkel Örd and Ilona Faustova from the University of Tartu together with Professor Mart Loog compared the cell entry mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 causing the current corona pandemic with those of other coronaviruses (SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV causing the Middle East respiratory syndrome, with outbreaks in 2003 and 2012, respectively). The study focused on the spike protein that forms the spikes we know well from the images of the virus....

New research shows that COVID-19 exposure risk from contaminated candy could be successfully mitigated both by washing hands and washing candy using a simple at-home method. A team of researchers published this work on October 29, 2020, in mSystems, an open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. The researchers enrolled 10 recently diagnosed asymptomatic or mildly/moderately symptomatic COVID-19 patients to handle typical Halloween candy (pieces individually wrapped) under three conditions: normal handling with unwashed hands, deliberate coughing and extensive touching, and normal handling following handwashing....

Herd immunity to COVID-19 could be achieved with fewer people being infected than previously estimated according to new research. Mathematicians from the University of Nottingham and University of Stockholm devised a simple model categorizing people into groups reflecting age and social activity level. When differences in age and social activity are incorporated in the model, the herd immunity level reduces from 60% to 43%. The figure of 43% should be interpreted as an illustration rather than an exact value or even a best estimate....