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Could it be a fluke? Probably not, according to a group of researchers from the University of Ottawa who have taken a close look at this captivating blue creature. They are in fact the first to study its ecology. “The results of our study suggest that the Polyommatus icarus (P. icarus) could become widespread in the future since it prefers urban areas,” said uOttawa PhD student Stephanie Rivest, who is the first author of the article “Anthropogenic disturbance promotes the abundance of a newly introduced butterfly, the European common blue (Polyommatus icarus; Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae), in Canada” published in the Canadian Journal of Zoology....

This randomized clinical trial evaluated the safety and efficacy of two chloroquine diphosphate dosages in patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Key Points Question How safe and effective are 2 different regimens of chloroquine diphosphate in the treatment of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)? Findings In this phase IIb randomized clinical trial of 81 patients with COVID-19, an unplanned interim analysis recommended by an independent data safety and monitoring board found that a higher dosage of chloroquine diphosphate for 10 days was associated with more toxic effects and lethality, particularly affecting QTc interval prolongation....

Seeing light emerge from a nanoscale experiment didn’t come as a big surprise to Rice University physicists. But it got their attention when that light was 10,000 times brighter than they expected. Condensed matter physicist Doug Natelson and his colleagues at Rice and the University of Colorado Boulder discovered this massive emission from a nanoscale gap between two electrodes made of plasmonic materials, particularly gold. The lab had found a few years ago that excited electrons leaping the gap, a phenomenon known as tunneling, created a larger voltage than if there were no gap in the metallic platforms....

The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship is poised to complete a 43-day stay attached to the station when it undocks from the Harmony module’s space-facing port at 5:05 p.m. EDT today. NASA astronauts Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, and Frank Rubio along with Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are finalizing the loading of about 4,400 pounds supplies and science experiments inside the Dragon. NASA TV’s live coverage of Dragon’s undocking and departure begins at 4:45 p....

Calculating the collective behavior of a molecule’s electrons is necessary to predict a material’s properties. Such predictions could one day help scientists create novel drugs or create materials with desirable qualities like superconductivity. The issue is that electrons may become ‘quantum mechanically’ entangled with one another, which means they can no longer be treated individually. For any system with more than a few particles, the entangled network of connections becomes outrageously difficult for even the most powerful computers to unravel directly....

A team of scientists at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has found evidence of past water movement throughout a Martian meteorite, reviving debate in the scientific community over life on Mars. In 1996, a group of scientists at Johnson led by David McKay, Everett Gibson and Kathie Thomas-Keprta published an article in Science announcing the discovery of biogenic evidence in the Allan Hills 84001(ALH84001) meteorite....

Recently, we have witnessed the first promising examples of biological age reversal by experimental interventions. Indeed, many biological clock types properly predict more years of life for those who choose healthy lifestyles or quit unhealthy ones, such as smoking. What has been still unknown is how quickly biological age is changing over time for the same individual. And especially, how one would distinguish between the transient fluctuations and the genuine bioage change trend....

The origins of introns, segments of non-coding DNA that must be removed from genetic code before protein synthesis, are one of the most enduring mysteries in biology. Introns are a universal feature of eukaryotic genomes, found in all animals, plants, fungi, and protists, but not in prokaryotic genomes, such as those of bacteria. Despite their ubiquity, there is significant variation in the number of introns found in different species’ genomes, even among closely related species....

New Johns Hopkins University simulations offer an intriguing look into Saturn’s interior, suggesting that a thick layer of helium rain influences the planet’s magnetic field. The models, published recently in AGU Advances, also indicate that Saturn’s interior may feature higher temperatures at the equatorial region, with lower temperatures at the high latitudes at the top of the helium rain layer. It is notoriously difficult to study the interior structures of large gaseous planets, and the findings advance the effort to map Saturn’s hidden regions....

But the Earth is an incredibly messy system, with many complicated, interacting parts that can affect this process. Scientists have thus found it difficult to explain why this relationship between surface temperature and outgoing heat is so simple and linear. Finding an explanation could help climate scientists model the effects of climate change. Now scientists from MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) have found the answer, along with a prediction for when this linear relationship will break down....

A paper published in Geophysical Research Letters describes how Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) measurements of the sparse layer of molecules temporarily stuck to the surface helped characterize lunar hydration changes over the course of a day. Up until the last decade or so, scientists thought the Moon was arid, with any water existing mainly as pockets of ice in permanently shaded craters near the poles. More recently, scientists have identified surface water in sparse populations of molecules bound to the lunar soil, or regolith....

Led by Udo Schwarz, professor and chair of mechanical engineering & materials science, the research team demonstrated the ability to reliably and repeatedly replicate the terraced surface structure of strontium titanate (SrTiO3) single crystals, which serve as a mold, by embossing it into a metallic glass. In doing so, they were able to recreate all the details of the mold’s surface, right down to minute atomic-scale features, such as surface steps, kinks, and depressions featuring dimensions of only one unit cell of the original SrTiO3 crystal....

The University of Leipzig, Monash University in Australia, the Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering (IOM), and the University of Göttingen collaborated to study the association between oxidized cell membranes and peptide aggregation. The results of their research have been published in the journal Chemical Science. The researchers wanted to better understand how cell membranes in the body influence the structure of peptides – these are molecules made up of amino acids – and their aggregation....

Physically speaking, are the respiratory droplets produced by talking and breathing the same as those that come from a cough or a sneeze? The droplets released during sneezing and coughing are larger than those released while speaking and breathing, and any of these droplets may carry many virus particles. The larger droplets tend to fall nearby due to gravity, but the smaller ones can go far, with the majority of them remaining within six feet of the infected individual....

“In terms of the difficulty of quantum algorithms that have been run, we’re toward the top of that list,” says Kevin Landsman, a graduate student at JQI and the lead author of the new paper. “This is a very complicated experiment to run, and it takes a very high level of control.” The research team, which includes JQI Fellow and UMD Distinguished University Professor Christopher Monroe and JQI Fellow Norbert Linke, performed their scrambling tests by carefully manipulating the quantum behavior of seven charged atomic ions using well-timed sequences of laser pulses....

For a long time scientists believed that an animal’s venom was consistent over time: once a venomous creature, always a venomous creature. However, through a close study of sea anemones, Dr. Yehu Moran of Hebrew University’s Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Science, found that animals change their venom several times over the course of a lifetime, adapting the potency and recipe of their venom to suit changing predators and aquatic environments....

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a vaccine that targets the SARS-CoV-2 virus, can be given in one dose via the nose and is effective in preventing infection in mice susceptible to the novel coronavirus. The investigators next plan to test the vaccine in nonhuman primates and humans to see if it is safe and effective in preventing COVID-19 infection. The study is available online in the journal Cell....

An unoccupied Soyuz MS-23 crew ship from Roscosmos is orbiting Earth today following its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:24 p.m. EST on Thursday. It will approach the space station and automatically dock to the Poisk module at 8:01 p.m. on Saturday, Station Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin, both cosmonauts from Roscosmos, will be on-duty during the crew’s sleep shift monitoring the Soyuz MS-23’s arrival....

Over the years, Spitzer, which makes observations in the infrared spectrum, has made a plethora of discoveries, including this detection of the faint afterglow of the explosive merger of two neutron stars in the galaxy NGC 4993 on September 29, 2017. The event, labeled GW170817, was initially detected nearly simultaneously in gravitational waves and gamma rays, but subsequent observations by many dozens of telescopes have monitored its afterglow across the entire spectrum of light....

The mental health of people in countries that tried to control virus transmission was more impacted by COVID-19 than that of people in countries that tried to suppress transmission.Physical distancing restrictions were more closely linked to mental health than were closures of schools, workplaces, public transport, cancellations of public events, and restrictions on domestic travel.Larger effects of stringency on reduced deaths than those observed on adverse mental health avoid a trade-off between psychological distress and saving livesWomen in general and women living in households with children saw a higher decline in mental health during lockdowns compared to men of all ages....