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    Can you spread Covid-19 if you get the Vaccine?

    January 14, 2021, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    We know that the vaccines now available across the world will protect their recipients from getting sick with Covid-19. But while each vaccine authorized for public use can prevent well over 50% of cases (in Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna‘s case, more than 90%), what we don’t know is whether they’ll also curb transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

    That question is answerable, though—and understanding vaccines’ effect on transmission will help determine when things can go back to whatever our new normal looks like.

    The reason we don’t know if the vaccine can prevent transmission is twofold. One reason is practical...

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    Pivotal discovery in Quantum and Classical Information processing

    January 14, 2021, Categories  Physics

    Tuned photon-magnon interactions. The team’s device is in the center. Arrow indicates direction of spin excitation for magnons. The purplish shroud represents reflectance measurements. The separated darker lines on each side that intersect at the top indicate tunable strong photon-magnon coupling. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.)
    Tuned photon-magnon interactions. The team’s device is in the center. Arrow indicates direction of spin excitation for magnons. The purplish shroud represents reflectance measurements. The separated darker lines on each side that intersect at the top indicate tunable strong photon-magnon coupling. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.)

    Researchers have achieved, for the first time, electronically adjustable interactions between microwaves and a phenomenon in certain magnetic materials called spin waves. This could have application in quantum and classical information processing.

    Working with theorists in the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, researchers in the U.S...

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    An ‘Old Faithful’ Active Galaxy: Black Hole Rips Away at Star

    January 13, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This image of active galaxy ESO 253-3 was captured by the European Space Observatory’s Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer as part of the All-weather MUse Supernova Integral-field of Nearby Galaxies (AMUSING) survey. ESO 253-3 displays the most predictable and frequent flares scientists have yet identified in an active galaxy.
    Credits: Michael Tucker (University of Hawai’i) and the AMUSING survey

    During a typical year, over a million people visit Yellowstone National Park, where the Old Faithful geyser regularly blasts a jet of boiling water high in the air. Now, an international team of astronomers has discovered a cosmic equivalent, a distant galaxy that erupts roughly every 114 days.

    Using data from facilities including NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and Transiting Exopla...

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    Scientists identify ‘Immune Cop’ that detects SARS-CoV-2

    January 13, 2021, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    The virus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19
    The virus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

    Antiviral protein MDA-5 senses viral replication and governs immune response to SARS-CoV-2. Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have identified the sensor in human lungs that detects SARS-CoV-2 and signals that it’s time to mount an antiviral response. The study, published today in Cell Reports, provides insights into the molecular basis of severe disease and may enable new strategies for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19.

    “Our research has shown that MDA-5 is the immune cop that’s tasked to keep an eye out for SARS-CoV-2 and call for back-up,” says Sumit Chanda, Ph.D., director of the Immunity and Pathogenesis Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys and senior author of the study...

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