A big question remains over how the more contagious delta variant will affect children. As the delta variant of the coronavirus sends case counts surging, millions of U.S. children are heading back to school in person, many for the first time in more than a year. It’s a confluence ofContinue Reading
A widespread return to COVID-19 restrictions could be on the horizon The coronavirus’s delta variant is different from earlier strains of the virus in worrying ways, health officials are discovering. And those differences may mean a return to some of the restrictions that vaccinated people thought were in the past.Continue Reading
A surprising cellular defensive strategy could inspire new antibiotics. When faced with bacterial invaders, some human cells dispense a surprising substance: soap. These cells, which aren’t part of the immune system, unleash a detergent-like protein that dissolves chunks of the inner membranes of bacteria, killing the infiltrators, researchers report inContinue Reading
Science journalist Sarah Everts’ new book revels in the science and history of sweat. The telltale darkened patches under our arms before a presentation. The cold slide of a clammy handshake. Sweat reveals what we often want to hide: our nervousness, fears and exertions, all with the slight odor ofContinue Reading
Around 100 cases of Guillain-Barré have been reported in people who received the J&J vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to announce a new warning for Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, following preliminary reports of a rare nerve condition that developed in a very small fraction ofContinue Reading
About two-thirds of pet cats and more than 40% of pet dogs in the study caught COVID-19 after their owners had the disease. Pet cats and dogs often catch COVID-19 from their owners, a new study suggests. The study researchers found that, among the pets of people who had recoveredContinue Reading
The vaccine generates neutralizing antibodies against the delta variant. The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective against the highly transmissible delta variant, the company announced on Thursday (July 1). Though the analysis was conducted on only a small number of participants and hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed, it suggestsContinue Reading
Mice carry a teeming community of bacteria in their guts, and these gut bugs influence how the rodents’ brains work, according to a new study. Specifically, researchers wanted to find out how gut bacteria influence the activity of brain networks involved in mouse social behavior. Normally, when a mouse encountersContinue Reading
More than 31,000 cases of mucormycosis have been reported as of June 11 As India reels from a devastating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new horror is plaguing people there. Some COVID-19 patients “go home only to come back to the hospital with a damaged nose, swollen cheeksContinue Reading
A method called optogenetics offers insights into memory, perception and addiction. Some big scientific discoveries aren’t actually discovered. They are borrowed. That’s what happened when scientists enlisted proteins from an unlikely lender: green algae. Cells of the algal species Chlamydomonas reinhardtii are decorated with proteins that can sense light. ThatContinue Reading
