A new study points to a particular antibody “signature” to predict the likelihood of lingering COVID-19 symptoms. A significant proportion of people who contract COVID-19 — around one-third, according to most estimates — will go on to experience symptoms that can linger for months. Little is known about this post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS), more commonly […]
Inside Science
Your Brain Pays Attention to Unfamiliar Voices, Even While You Sleep
The findings could suggest it’s possible to learn simple information while snoozing. Even when sleeping deeply you are more aware of what is going on around you than you might realize. New research suggests that the human brain is constantly monitoring its surroundings, including processing sounds, to decide if you need to wake up — […]
Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Were in Hedgehogs a Century Before We Used Antibiotics
Study suggests the dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria known as MRSA first evolved naturally. As soon as humans started using antibiotics to fight bacterial infections, the bacteria started evolving ways to fight back. But new research shows that one so-called “superbug” resistant to important front-line antibiotics has been lurking in hedgehogs for more than 200 years, long […]
Poorer People Get Little Benefit from Digital Activity Trackers
Devices that nudge the rich and middle class to exercise don’t offer same boost to those with lower incomes. Technologies like smartwatches, mobile apps and websites have been touted as an accessible and effective way for people to monitor and increase their physical activity and improve their health. But a new analysis has found that […]
There’s So Much More To Explain About How Bodies Sense Pain
The medicine Nobel Prize recognized researchers studying how our bodies sense temperature and touch. Pain is much more complicated. This year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine went to two scientists who discovered how our sense of temperature and touch works. David Julius identified the heat-sensing ion channel TRPV1, while Ardem Patapoutian found the touch-sensitive […]
Oil Spills’ Overlooked Victims: Water Insects
New research shows how oil spills and their cleanup harm water striders, raising questions about the broader ecological impacts of even small spills. The dangers of freshwater oil spills to fish and birds are well known, but what about the other creatures, like insects, that live in or on rivers and lakes? Tyler Black, a […]
How the Coronavirus Attacks the Lungs — and How We May Be Able to Stop the Damage
New research zooms in on the outer surface of the coronavirus to reveal more about how COVID-19 scars the lungs. One of the hallmarks of severe infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is the damage it can do to the lungs, which can leave them scarred in a way that may cause long-term […]
What’s the Best Wood for Cricket or Baseball Bats?
It may be time for at least one of the sports to leave trees behind and move to a material that’s technically a grass. The crack of a bat as it strikes a ball is the sound of summer in both the United States and the United Kingdom, albeit from a different sport in each […]
How Your Brain Tracks Moving Sounds
Researchers identify two neural circuits used to track the location and motion of a sound. When an object moves across your field of view, your eyes and brain are able to smoothly track its motion. But what about moving sounds? Until now, we didn’t really know how, or even if, the brain and ears worked […]
Why Don’t We Have a Hepatitis C Vaccine Yet?
The research that won this year’s Nobel Prize in medicine has saved millions of lives, but it has not yet led to a vaccine. This year, the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine went to three scientists for their discovery of the hepatitis C virus, a significant global health problem that causes cirrhosis and liver […]