Community: Science

When entomologist Jonathan Finch turns his dust-caked car off the highway and onto the old wartime airstrip at Manbulloo, he knows what awaits him at the other end: 65,000 blooming mango trees, an indescribably horrible smell, and the unmistakable buzz of excited blowflies.

New Zealand and US-based space startup Rocket Lab lost a pair of satellites as the second stage of one of its Electron rockets failed to make it to orbit Saturday.

After a successful liftoff from the company's New Zealand launch facility, something went wrong after the first stage booster separated from the smaller second stage carrying two satellites for Earth imaging company BlackSky. ... A live feed from the second stage showed that after it separated, it appeared to go into an uncontrolled tumble.
Read moreLess

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of a fan of dust and gas illuminated by a star that forms a structure called an emission nebula. This nebula, known as NGC 2313 or LDN 1653, is located around 3,750 light-years away in the constellation of Monoceros. Hubble captured the image using its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) instrument, which looks in both the visible light and near-infrared wavelengths.

New study suggests anal ventilation might one day help treat respiratory failure

By conferring systemic protection and durable benefits, cancer immunotherapies are emerging as long-term solutions for cancer treatment. One such approach that is currently undergoing clinical testing is a therapeutic anti-cancer vaccine that uses two different viruses expressing the same tumor antigen to prime and boost anti-tumor immunity. ... By providing the additional advantage of directly killing cancer cells, oncolytic viruses (OVs) constitute ideal platforms for such treatment strategy. However, given that the targeted tumor antigen is encoded into the viral genomes, its production requires robust infection and therefore, the vaccination efficiency partially depends on the unpredictable and highly variable intrinsic sensitivity of each tumor to OV infection. In this study, we demonstrate that anti-cancer vaccination using OVs (Adenovirus (Ad), Maraba virus (MRB), Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and Vaccinia virus (VV)) co-administered with antigenic peptides is as efficient as antigen-engineered OVs and does not depend on viral replication. Our strategy is particularly attractive for personalized anti-cancer vaccines targeting patient-specific mutations. We suggest that the use of OVs as adjuvant platforms for therapeutic anti-cancer vaccination warrants testing for cancer treatment. Viruses expressing tumour antigens can prime and boost anti-tumour immunity but the efficiency of this approach depends on the capacity of the virus to infect the host. Here, the authors show that vaccination with oncolytic viruses co-administered with tumour antigenic peptides is as efficient as antigen-engineered oncolytic viruses.
Read moreLess

A new study on political polarization led by a Brown University team showed how an aversion to uncertainty is often associated with black-and-white political views.

A new study published in the journal Med suggests that rodents and pigs possess the ability to use their intestines for respiration.

Mice, rats and pigs all share a secret superpower: They can all use their intestines to breathe, and scientists discovered this by pumping oxygen up the animals' butts.

UNIVERSE SIZE COMPARISON

Affectionate touch is crucial for well-being. However, attachment avoidance is associated with negative attitudes toward touch. We tested two preregistered hypo...

New Yorker Staff Writer: How The Pentagon WOKE UP To UFO Phenomenon

New research published in Political Psychology provides the first evidence that culture can shape the endorsement of conspiracy theories. The researchers ...

New study bolsters the case for vaccinating pregnant women

Low Earth orbit is reaching capacity as tech companies such as SpaceX, OneWeb and Amazon race to industrialize space with satellites, and in response, physicists are attempting to lay out safe and affordable options for expanding the market into medium Earth orbit, a much riskier arena.

First DNA from paleofeces show people 1000 years ago in U.S., Mexico had much more diverse gut microbes

aeon.co/essays/do-cyborg-cockroa...

www.npr.org/sections/health-shot...



or the first time, scientists have created embryos that are a mix of human and monkey cells.
...
The embryos, described Thursday in the journal Cell, were created in part to try to find new ways to produce organs for people who need transplants, said the international team of scientists who collaborated in the work. But the research raises a variety of concerns.

"My first question is: Why?" said Kirstin Matthews, a fellow for science and technology at Rice University's Baker Institute. "I think the public is going to be concerned, and I am as well, that we're just kind of pushing forward with science without having a proper conversation about what we should or should not do."
Read moreLess

Have you ever wondered how adults could believe the nonsense of "climate change is fake", "vaccines are dangerous" or even "earth is flat?
This ARTE docu is the best by far ever made to the topic.
Here on anysubject -especially during election campaign- we heard hair-raising nonsense every day.
... This docu approaches the phenomenon in a scientific way of a new science:
A G N O T O L O G Y
Agnotology (formerly agnatology) is the study of culturally induced ignorance or doubt, particularly the publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnotology
Read moreLess

CRISPR gene-editing technology is advancing quickly. What can it do now—and in the future?

The revolutionary gene-editing tool known as CRISPR can alter, add, and remove genes from the human genome. The implications are immense: It could help eliminate illnesses like sickle cell disease and muscular dystrophy, and could even allow us to alter the genes of future generations of humans, leading to so-called designer babies. But will this ever really happen?
...
Medical journalist and pediatrician Alok Patel investigates the current state of CRISPR—starting with a bull calf named Cosmo. Patel discovers how scientists edited Cosmo’s genome so he would produce more male offspring, and what that means for humans. In conversation with scientists, artists, and ethicists, Patel explores what kind of gene editing is actually possible right now—and what we should be thinking about when we consider manipulating human traits and, ultimately, the human experience.

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Hosted by Dr. Alok Patel
Read moreLess

This Bill Gates Funded Battery Is about To Change The World