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Apr 10, 2020

BepiColombo Slingshots Past Earth

Posted by in categories: astronomy, science, space, space travel
Mercury has only been visited by two spacecraft so far… Credit NASA

The ESA probe BepiColombo flew past Earth on the way to Mercury. The probe launched in 2018 and made the last visit of our home before continuing onward to the final destination. The spacecraft needs to shed velocity to arrive at Mercury in 2025 at a velocity to enter orbit. The spacecraft will make multiple additional planetary flybys of Venus and Mercury to slow down to enter orbit.

In space travel, mission planners need to balance mission resources. The amount of fuel required to either speed up or slow down a spacecraft greatly impacts the cost of the mission. Using a longer flight path can reduce the propellent requirements for a mission but the mission will take longer. Gravity assists can, therefore, allow a spacecraft to be launched on a cheaper, less powerful rocket.

Gravity assist flyby?

A Gravity assist flyby has other names including a gravitational slingshot, gravity assist maneuver, or swing-by. Gravity assistance maneuvers increase or decrease its speed or redirect the orbital path. The spacecraft slingshots around another object with a gravitational field and transfers some of the energy during that slingshot. In the case of BepiColombo, the spacecraft needs to slow down to be captured by Mercury…

Apr 10, 2020

Test for antibodies against novel coronavirus developed at Stanford Medicine

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, health

Working around the clock for two weeks, a large team of Stanford Medicine scientists has developed a test to detect antibodies against the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, in blood samples.

In contrast to current diagnostic tests for COVID-19, which detect genetic material from the virus in respiratory secretions, this test looks for antibodies to the virus in plasma, the liquid in blood, to provide information about a person’s immune response to an infection.

The test was launched April 6 at Stanford Health Care. It differs from an externally developed test that Stanford researchers used for a prevalence study during recent community screening events.

Apr 10, 2020

First sighting of mysterious Majorana fermion on a common metal

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics, quantum physics

Error free qubits o.,o.


Physicists at MIT and elsewhere have observed evidence of Majorana fermions—particles that are theorized to also be their own antiparticle—on the surface of a common metal: gold. This is the first sighting of Majorana fermions on a platform that can potentially be scaled up. The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are a major step toward isolating the particles as stable, error-proof qubits for quantum computing.

In particle physics, fermions are a class of elementary particles that includes electrons, protons, neutrons, and quarks, all of which make up the building blocks of matter. For the most part, these particles are considered Dirac fermions, after the English physicist Paul Dirac, who first predicted that all fermionic fundamental particles should have a counterpart, somewhere in the universe, in the form of an antiparticle—essentially, an identical twin of opposite charge.

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Apr 10, 2020

Scientists restore mobility and touch in stroke-afflicted rats

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

New hope for stroke patients as scientists find way to restore mobility and touch using human stem cells to recreate nerve connections in damaged rat brain…


Scientists have found a way to restore mobility and touch in rats after a stroke using human stem cells to recreate nerve connections in damaged brains — offering patients a new hope.

Continue reading “Scientists restore mobility and touch in stroke-afflicted rats” »

Apr 10, 2020

Susceptibility of ferrets, cats, dogs, and other domesticated animals to SARS–coronavirus 2

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, health

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes the infectious disease COVID-19, which was first reported in Wuhan, China in December, 2019. Despite the tremendous efforts to control the disease, COVID-19 has now spread to over 100 countries and caused a global pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 is thought to have originated in bats; however, the intermediate animal sources of the virus are completely unknown. Here, we investigated the susceptibility of ferrets and animals in close contact with humans to SARS-CoV-2. We found that SARS-CoV-2 replicates poorly in dogs, pigs, chickens, and ducks, but ferrets and cats are permissive to infection. We found experimentally that cats are susceptible to airborne infection. Our study provides important insights into the animal models for SARS-CoV-2 and animal management for COVID-19 control.

In late December 2019, an unusual pneumonia emerged in humans in Wuhan, China, and rapidly spread internationally, raising global public health concerns. The causative pathogen was identified as a novel coronavirus (116) that was named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on the basis of a phylogenetic analysis of related coronaviruses by the Coronavirus Study Group of the International Committee on Virus Taxonomy (17); the disease it causes was subsequently designated COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite tremendous efforts to control the COVID-19 outbreak, the disease is still spreading. As of March 11, 2020, SARS-CoV-2 infections have been reported in more than 100 countries, and 118,326 human cases have been confirmed, with 4,292 fatalities (18). COVID-19 has now been announced as a pandemic by WHO.

Although SARS-CoV-96.2% identity at the nucleotide level with the coronavirus RaTG13, which was detected in horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus spp) in Yunnan province in 2013 (3), it has not previously been detected in humans or other animals. The emerging situation raises many urgent questions. Could the widely disseminated viruses transmit to other animal species, which then become reservoirs of infection? The SARS-CoV-2 infection has a wide clinical spectrum in humans, from mild infection to death, but how does the virus behave in other animals? As efforts are made for vaccine and antiviral drug development, which animal(s) can be used most precisely to model the efficacy of such control measures in humans? To address these questions, we evaluated the susceptibility of different model laboratory animals, as well as companion and domestic animals to SARS-CoV-2.

Apr 10, 2020

50 years after Apollo 13, we can now see the moon as the astronauts did

Posted by in category: space

With data from NASA’s LRO mission, researchers have recreated what the Apollo 13 astronauts saw on their trip around the moon.

Apr 10, 2020

Astronomers Just Released an Unprecedented Image of a Jet Shooting From a Black Hole

Posted by in category: cosmology

Last year, a global collaboration of scientists made history by unveiling the very first direct image of a black hole. Now, we have a magnificent follow-up — the closest-ever look at a violent jet spewed forth by a supermassive black hole.

Apr 10, 2020

Los superhéroes son reales…

Posted by in category: biological

Perhaps one day we will transcend our biological limitations and be more like mutants or aliens?


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Apr 10, 2020

Gilead’s experimental drug remdesivir shows ‘hopeful’ signs in small group of coronavirus patients

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business

The group of patients received the anti-viral drug remdesivir as part of a compassionate use’’ trial, not a double-blind placebo-controlled trial which would offer more definitive evidence.


Two ampuls of remdesivir are pictured during a news conference at the University Hospital Eppendorf (UKE) in Hamburg, April 8, 2020, as the spread of coronavirus disease (covid-19) continues. Ulrich Perrey/Pool via REUTERS (Pool/Reuters)By Christopher Rowland Christopher RowlandBusiness reporter foc…

Apr 10, 2020

Coronavirus and the Sun: a Lesson from the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

Fresh air, sunlight and improvised face masks seemed to work a century ago; and they might help us now.

By Richard Hobday

When new, virulent diseases emerge, such SARS and Covid-19, the race begins to find new vaccines and treatments for those affected. As the current crisis unfolds, governments are enforcing quarantine and isolation, and public gatherings are being discouraged. Health officials took the same approach 100 years ago, when influenza was spreading around the world. The results were mixed. But records from the 1918 pandemic suggest one technique for dealing with influenza — little-known today — was effective. Some hard-won experience from the greatest pandemic in recorded history could help us in the weeks and months ahead.