Isolated at home? Then train like an astronaut.
That’s the inspirational advice from a public engagement specialist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Astronaut wannabe Rachel Zimmerman-Brachman said Friday that isolation is a lot like astronaut training. So she came up with this positive message and launched it via Facebook on Thursday:
If it wins FDA approval next year, the two-part sensor could help spot new infections weeks before symptoms begin to show.
Why are pandemics so hard to stop? Often it’s because the disease moves faster than people can be tested for it. The Defense Department is helping to fund a new study to determine whether an under-the-skin biosensor can help trackers keep up — by detecting flu-like infections even before their symptoms begin to show. Its maker, Profusa, says the sensor is on track to try for FDA approval by early next year.
The sensor has two parts. One is a 3mm string of hydrogel, a material whose network of polymer chains is used in some contact lenses and other implants. Inserted under the skin with a syringe, the string includes a specially engineered molecule that sends a fluorescent signal outside of the body when the body begins to fight an infection. The other part is an electronic component attached to the skin. It sends light through the skin, detects the fluorescent signal and generates another signal that the wearer can send to a doctor, website, etc. It’s like a blood lab on the skin that can pick up the body’s response to illness before the presence of other symptoms, like coughing.
The scientists running Seattle-based Oceans Initiative more typically apply their marine mammal expertise to research on endangered orcas or conservation of white-sided dolphins in Washington’s Puget Sound.
But the upside-down world of the new coronavirus and the closure of their nearly 6-year-old daughter’s school inspired them this week to launch what they’ve dubbed their Virtual Marine Biology Camp.
“We thought maybe it would be fun for a group of us to be able to hang out online and talk about whales and dolphins and other marine life,” said Erin Ashe, executive director and scientist with the nonprofit institute.
Restrictions are being eased across China as the number of new infections recorded drops sharply.
A study published in Aging and Disease shows the effectiveness of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy against a deadly immune reaction caused by COVID-19.
While scientists all over the world are working on a vaccine that would be effective against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of researchers from China and other countries has been exploring a therapeutic approach. Capitalizing on previous research, this group has conducted a successful trial of MSC therapy, resulting in the recovery of all seven patients [1]. These important results inspire hope, considering that a vaccine may still be more than a year away.
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The successor agency to Russia’s KGB has been hacked again—and the exposed tools represent a threat to us all.
The decision by the L.A. County public health system not to test patients with coronavirus symptoms could make it difficult to know how many people are infected.
“The Justice Department has quietly asked Congress for the ability to ask chief judges to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergencies — part of a push for new powers that comes as the coronavirus spreads through the United States.”
One of the requests to Congress would allow the department to petition a judge to indefinitely detain someone during an emergency.
A team of DESY scientists has built a miniature double particle accelerator that can recycle some of the laser energy fed into the system to boost the energy of the accelerated electrons a second time. The device uses narrowband terahertz radiation which lies between infrared and radio frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum, and a single accelerating tube is just 1.5 centimetres long and 0.79 millimetres in diameter. Dongfang Zhang and his colleagues from the Center for Free-Electron laser Science (CFEL) at DESY present their experimental accelerator in the journal Physical Review X.
The miniature size of the device is possible due to the short wavelength of terahertz radiation. “Terahertz-based accelerators have emerged as promising candidates for next-generation compact electron sources,” explains Franz Kärtner, Lead Scientist at DESY and head of the CFEL group that built the device. Scientists have successfully experimented with terahertz accelerators before, which could enable applications where large particle accelerators are just not feasible or necessary. “However, the technique is still in an early stage, and the performance of experimental terahertz accelerators has been limited by the relatively short section of interaction between the terahertz pulse and the electrons,” says Kärtner.
For the new device, the team used a longer pulse comprising many cycles of terahertz waves. This multicycle pulse significantly extends the interaction section with the particles. “We feed the multicycle terahertz pulse into a waveguide that is lined with a dielectric material”, says Zhang. Within the waveguide, the pulse’s speed is reduced. A bunch of electrons is shot into the central part of the waveguide just in time to travel along with the pulse. “This scheme increases the interaction region between the terahertz pulse and the electron bunch to the centimetre range—compared to a few millimetres in earlier experiments,” reports Zhang.
A sailor aboard a U.S. Navy ship has returned “presumptive positive” test results for coronavirus, in what is the first instance of a coronavirus case for a sailor aboard one of the service’s ships.
