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Researchers from TU Graz and Complexity Science Hub (CSH) Vienna have developed a detailed epidemiological model for the spread of the coronavirus in nursing homes. This enables optimal prevention strategies to be identified, as practical experience in Caritas nursing homes has shown. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, residents of nursing homes have been particularly at risk. The spatial proximity to each other favors local transmission chains, and old age combined with pre-existing conditions can lead to severe courses of disease and an increased mortality rate....

A new variant named omicron (B.1.1.529) was reported by researchers in South Africa on November 24, 2021, and designated a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization two days later. Omicron is very unusual in that it is by far the most heavily mutated variant yet of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The omicron variant has 50 mutations overall, with 32 mutations on the spike protein alone. The spike protein – which forms protruding knobs on the outside of the SARS-CoV-2 virus – helps the virus adhere to cells so that it can gain entry....

In the Netherlands, whole genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks on 16 mink farms has revealed virus transmission between human to mink, as well as from mink to human. The virus was initially introduced from humans, the study’s authors say, and it has since evolved. “More research in minks and other mustelid species is important to understand if these species are at risk of becoming a reservoir of SARS-CoV-2,” they write....

Flight engineers Frank Rubio of NASA and Dmitri Petelin of Roscosmos removed the rack and replaced it with a new high-percentage oxygen bottle. The Combustion Integration Rack is used to perform combustion investigations in microgravity, and results could improve understanding of early fire growth behavior and help determine the best fire suppression techniques, improving crew safety in future space facilities. Rubio also participated in the Food Physiology experiment. A variety of samples are collected and then placed in cold stowage to document the effect of dietary improvements on human physiology and the ability of those improvements to enhance adaptation to spaceflight....

The Cygnus spacecraft successfully departed the International Space Station more than three months after arriving at the space station to deliver about 8,000 pounds of scientific investigations and supplies to the orbiting laboratory. After departure, the Kentucky Re-Entry Probe Experiment (KREPE) stowed inside Cygnus will take measurements to demonstrate a thermal protection system for spacecraft and their contents during re-entry in Earth’s atmosphere, which can be difficult to replicate in ground simulations....

A filament of dark matter, which works like the Universe’s backbone, and dictates where galaxies can form, was observed for the first time by astronomers using a technique that could help astrophysicists understand the structure of the Universe. Jörg Dietrich, a cosmologist at the University Observatory Munich in Germany and his team, published their findings in the journal Nature. The researchers directly detected a slim bridge of dark matter joining two clusters of galaxies....

Cardiff University scientists have revealed the true extent of the internal ‘plumbing system’ that drives volcanic activity around the world. An examination of pockets of magma contained within crystals has revealed that the large chambers of molten rock which feed volcanoes can extend to over 16 km beneath the Earth’s surface. The new study, published today in Nature, has challenged our understanding of the structure of ocean volcanoes, with previous estimates suggesting that magma chambers were located up to 6 km below the surface....

A team of researchers has submitted the system to the Cough Sound Track of the Diagnosing COVID-19 using Acoustics (DiCOVA) Challenge. The COVID-19 crisis has tested healthcare systems throughout the world. Access to vaccines against COVID-19 has rendered the situation more stable by the day. However, we must and will have to continue mass population screening to detect positive cases and thus break possible virus transmission chains. Hence, we must investigate new techniques to reduce the time and cost of diagnostic tests to carry them out on a large scale in an accessible, efficient, and economical manner....

The Stowers Institute for Medical Research, in collaboration with the National Institute for Biological Sciences in Beijing, China, has discovered a selfish gene family that has survived for over 100 million years—ten times longer than any other meiotic driver ever identified—calling into question established beliefs about how natural selection and evolution deal with these threatening sequences. “The thinking has always been that because these genes are so nasty, they won’t stick around in populations for very long,” said Associate Investigator Sarah Zanders, Ph....

Experiments on cell motility are commonly done by looking at the motion of a cell on a glass slide under a microscope. In those conditions, cells are observed to “crawl” on the surface. Crawling is well-understood: cells attach themselves to the surface and use these anchor points to push themselves forward (like crawling on the ground). However, crawling is very inefficient in vivo, where cells move through complex 3D environments....

Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 observed the nebulae in 2019 and early 2020 using its full, panchromatic capabilities, and the astronomers involved in the project have been using emission line images from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared light to learn more about their properties. The studies were first-of-their-kind panchromatic imaging surveys designed to understand the formation process and test models of binary-star-driven planetary nebula shaping. “We’re dissecting them,” said Joel Kastner, a professor in RIT’s Chester F....

The next full Moon will be early on Friday morning, November 19, 2021, appearing opposite the Sun (in Earth-based longitude) at 3:58 a.m. EST. While this will be on Friday for much of the Earth, it will be Thursday night from Alaska’s time zone westward to the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean. The Moon will appear full for about three days around this time, from Wednesday night through Saturday morning....

Researchers Use Data from the H1N1 Pandemic to Model Pathway to Achieve Faster Vaccination to Alter COVID-19 Trajectory Although waiting times in walk-up clinics are shorter, people preferred the convenience of drive-through clinics.People believe drive-through clinics are safer, more convenient and less contagious.You can vaccinate a large number of people without a lot of waiting and confusion using a drive-through clinic. Policymakers at all levels of government are racing to vaccinate hundreds of millions of people to save lives and blunt the deadly COVID-19 pandemic....

Since the discovery of a rich assemblage of human fossils as well as stone tools and other archeological evidence in the rift valley of East Africa, a region often referred to as the cradle of humanity, scientists have attempted to piece together the complex puzzle that is the history of our human origins, including the environmental context of that history. The study, based on lake sediment cores, is the first to provide a continuous environmental context for the diverse archeological evidence recovered from nearby localities in the rift valley basins of southern Kenya....

Durham, North Carolina – Shortly after birth, human brains expand rapidly with the experience of an entirely new world. During this period, neurons in the newborn brain compete with one another to form lasting connections, called synapses. A new study by Duke researchers provides a close-up of synapse refinement and identifies a protein that is crucial in this process. Disruptions in the protein, called hevin, have previously been linked to autism, depression and suicide, but the molecule’s role in the developing brain was mostly unknown until now....

Phocine distemper virus (PDV), a pathogen responsible for killing thousands of European harbor seals in the North Atlantic in 2002, was identified in northern sea otters in Alaska in 2004, raising questions about when and how the virus reached them. The 15-year study, published November 7, 2019, in the journal Scientific Reports, highlights how the radical reshaping of historic sea ice may have opened pathways for contact between Arctic and sub-Arctic seals that were previously impossible....

The energy system in Europe is undergoing a significant transition towards renewables and decarbonization. However, the contribution of citizen-led efforts, such as energy cooperatives, in this sphere is largely unknown. Valeria Schwanitz and colleagues quantified the contributions of citizen-led energy initiatives towards the transition to low-carbon energy in 30 European countries between 2000 and 2021.They assessed the numbers of initiatives, people involved, specific energy projects, and renewable energy facilities installed, and the total funds invested....

Testing wastewater — a robust source of COVID-19 as those infected shed the virus in their stool — could be used for more responsive tracking and supplementing information public health officials rely on when evaluating efforts to contain the virus, such as enhanced public health measures and even vaccines when they become available. The test works by identifying and measuring genetic material in the form of RNA from SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19....

According to a study recently published in eLife, cells with a functioning molecular clock are more capable of adapting to fluctuations in glucose supply and recover quicker from prolonged starvation. The finding sheds light on why disruptions to the body’s circadian rhythms, such as night shift work and jet lag, can raise the likelihood of developing metabolic diseases, such as diabetes. Circadian clocks are closely linked to metabolism: on the one hand, the clock rhythmically modulates many metabolic pathways, and on the other, nutrients and metabolic cues influence the clock’s function....

In 29 new scientific papers, the Dark Energy Survey (DES) examines the largest-ever maps of galaxy distribution and shapes, extending more than 7 billion light-years across the Universe. The extraordinarily precise analysis, which includes data from the survey’s first three years, contributes to the most powerful test of the current best model of the Universe, the standard cosmological model. However, hints remain from earlier DES data and other experiments that matter in the Universe today is a few percent less clumpy than predicted....