A process that injects carbon dioxide deep below ground, then circulates it to extract heat and geothermal energy, has proven viable in a feasibility study by University of Alberta researchers, reports Tech Xplore. The research moves the technology a step closer to pilot testing and to becoming part of a low-carbon economy, said Alireza Rangriz Shokri, a research associate in the U of A Faculty of Engineering who conducted the study. "This is a step...
Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have published a detailed map of where human antibodies bind to SARS-CoV-2, a map that was generated by a global collaboration comparing nearly all leading clinical candidates. The new research, published in Science, will help guide the development of more effective COVID-19 antibody therapies and help scientists develop effective vaccines to address emerging viral variants. The findings propel COVID-19 research in three key ways:
Hundreds of antibodies contributed by...
As more young women with breast cancer opt to have mastectomies, many experience a persistent decline in their sexual and psychosocial well being following the procedure, as detailed in new research by Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center. The findings, reported in JAMA Surgery, highlight the importance of doctors and patients discussing the potential long-term physical and emotional consequences of the procedure, researchers say. In a multicenter prospective cohort of young women diagnosed with breast cancer, moderate to large...
With every new variant of SARS-CoV-2 that emerges, a worrisome question arises: could the virus eventually arrive at a set of mutations that would enable it to fully evade our immune response? A new study, published in Nature, suggests that it will be hard for the virus to get there. Studying dozens of naturally occurring and laboratory-selected mutations, including those found in Delta and other concerning variants, researchers found that a future SARS-CoV-2 variant will need to pack about...
The night sky is going to get much busier thanks to thousands of new internet satellites set to launch over the next few years – and researchers say it's going to affect Canada more than most regions, reports Phys.org. Researchers from the University of Toronto, the University of Regina, and the University of British Columbia found that most light pollution is expected to happen near 50 degrees latitude north and south due to the orbits of...
According to a review article published today in the journal iScience, when it comes to getting healthy and reducing mortality risk, increasing physical activity and improving fitness appear to be superior to weight loss. The authors say that employing a weight-neutral approach to the treatment of obesity-related health conditions also reduces the health risks associated with yo-yo dieting, reports Medical Xpress. "We would like people to know that fat can be fit, and that fit...
The immune system is vitally important for resolving COVID-19 when individuals are infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Moreover, the vaccines that are being administered to millions of people across the globe are designed to "pre-warn and arm" the immune system so that if infected with SARS-CoV-2, individuals are significantly less likely to develop severe disease or die. Here, two crucial arms of the immune system, namely B cells and T cells, play a central...
By studying the topography and mineral composition of a portion of the Arabia Terra region in northern Mars, scientists recently found evidence of thousands of massive volcanic eruptions, or "super eruptions". Spewing water vapour, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide into the air, these explosions tore through the Martian surface over a 500-million-year period about 4 billion years ago, Phys.org reports. Scientists reported this estimate in a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "Each one...
Transgender people have an elevated risk for chronic conditions versus their cisgender counterparts, according to a report published in the September issue of Health Affairs. Landon Hughes, from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues compared the rates of selected chronic conditions for transgender people enrolled in private insurance using claims from 2001 to 2019 and a matched cisgender cohort. The researchers found that disparities were documented between transgender and cisgender people across most conditions, with an elevated risk...
Researchers have shown that the reduced stem cell function upon aging is due to changes in their epigenome, reports Medical Xpress. They were able to reverse these changes in isolated stem cells by adding acetate. This fountain of youth for the epigenome could become important for the treatment of diseases such as osteoporosis. Aging researchers have been looking at epigenetics as a cause of aging processes for some time. Epigenetics looks at changes in genetic information and...
