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Category Archives: Science
Infographics: “Inside Race for A Covid-19 Vaccine”
WASHINGTON POST (AUG 16, 2020): Researchers in the United States set an audacious goal in January to develop a coronavirus vaccine within 12 to 18 months. This would be a world record. The mumps vaccine is considered to be the fastest to move, in four years, from scientific concept to approval in 1967. The quest for an HIV vaccine continues, 36 years and counting.
Top New Books On Aging: “Exercised” By Daniel E. Lieberman – “Extending Longevity” (Harvard)
HARVARD MAGAZINE (SEPT – OCT 2020): From the book EXERCISED: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding by Daniel E. Lieberman, to be published on September 8, 2020 by Pantheon Books:
‘….many of the mechanisms that slow aging and extend life are turned on by physical activity, especially as we get older. Human health and longevity are thus extended both by and for physical activity.’
The graph breaks total energy expenditure (TEE) into two parts: active energy expenditure, and resting metabolism. Resting metabolism remains elevated for hours even after exercise ceases, burning additional calories in a phase known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC).
Exercise is like scrubbing the kitchen floor so well after a spill that the whole floor ends up being cleaner. The modest stresses caused by exercise trigger a reparative response yielding a general benefit.
In order to elucidate the links between exercise and aging, I propose a corollary to the Grandmother Hypothesis, which I call the Active Grandparent Hypothesis. According to this idea, human longevity was not only selected for but was also made possible by having to work hard during old age to help as many children, grandchildren, and other younger relatives as possible survive and thrive. That is, while there may have been selection for genes (as yet unidentified) that help humans live past the age of 50, there was also selection for genes that repair and maintain our bodies when we are physically active.
Daniel E. Lieberman is a paleoanthropologist at Harvard University, where he is the Edwin M Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences, and Professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. He is best known for his research on the evolution of the human head and the evolution of the human body.
TOP JOURNALS: RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS FROM SCIENCE MAGAZINE (AUGUST 13, 2020)
TOP NEW SCIENCE PODCASTS: NEW COVID-19 TESTING, HOW SPORTS BUILDS BONDS
Staff Writer Robert Service talks with host Sarah Crespi about a different approach to COVID-19 testing that might be useful in response to the high numbers of cases in the United States. To break chains of transmission and community spread, the new strategy would replace highly accurate but slow polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests with cheaper, faster tests that are less accurate but can be administered frequently.
Such tests cost between $1 and $3 compared with more than $100 for diagnostic PCR tests and give results in less than 30 minutes instead of days. Read all of our coronavirus coverage here. Also this week, Salma Mousa, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, joins Sarah to talk about an experiment that added Muslim players to teams in a Christian soccer league in northern Iraq. The goal of the study was to see whether this type of social contact would change how the Christians—a threatened minority in the region—behaved toward Muslims, on and off the field.
FOOD & AGRICULTURE: “The Robot Producing Crops Of The Future” (WSJ Video)
Arizona has what researchers call “the climate of tomorrow, today.” Scientists are using a 30-ton robotic field scanner in the state to study plant genetics and hopefully develop stress-resilient crops.
Photo: Jesse Rieser for The Wall Street Journal
More from the Wall Street Journal: Visit WSJ.com: http://www.wsj.com
Top New Science Podcasts: Locust Swarm Triggers & Covid-19 Antibodies
This week’s Nature Podcast looks at: Triggering swarming behaviour in locusts, antibody therapies as a bridge to Covid-19 vaccine, and new insights into how humans synchronize.
In this episode:
01:56 Understanding swarming behaviour
Swarms of migratory locusts regularly devastate crops across the world, but why these swarms form has been a mystery. Now, a team of researchers have identified a compound that causes solitary locusts to come together in their billions – a finding that could have practical applications for preventing this behaviour. Research article: Guo et al.; News & Views: Catching plague locusts with their own scent
08:48 Coronapod
We discuss the role that monoclonal antibodies may have as therapeutics to treat COVID-19. Although promising, there are numerous hurdles to overcome before these drugs can be used. News: Antibody therapies could be a bridge to a coronavirus vaccine — but will the world benefit?
15:30 Research Highlights
A satellite’s fecal find reveals that Antarctica’s emperor penguin population is much larger than previously thought, and changing how genes are named to avoid Excel’s autocorrect. Research Highlight: Satellites find penguins by following the poo; Research article: Bruford et al.
17:49 An out-of-sync arts project
A collaborative art-science project featuring a network of connected violinists has given new insights into how humans synchronize. Research article: Shahal et al.
23:51 Briefing Chat
We take a look at some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time we find out about the odd immune system of the anglerfish, and the beetle that can pass through a frog’s digestive system without coming to harm. Wired: The Anglerfish Deleted Its Immune System to Fuse With Its Mate; Research paper: Sugiura
Infographic: Prolonged Covid-19 Symptoms – “A Multi-System Disease” (BMJ)
Top New Science Podcasts: Pluto’s Dark Side Yields Dwarf Planet’s Secrets
In 2015, after a nine-and-a-half-year journey, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft raced past Pluto, beaming images of the dwarf planet back to Earth.
Five years after the mission, researchers are poring over images of Pluto’s far-side, which was shrouded in shadow during New Horizon’s flypast. They hope that these images will help give a better understanding of how Pluto was born and even whether a hidden ocean resides beneath the world’s icy crust.
This is an audio version of our feature: Pluto’s dark side spills its secrets — including hints of a hidden ocean
Video Interviews: “The Biological Universe” Author Wallace Arthur
Are we alone in the Universe, or are there other life-forms ‘out there’? Recent discoveries of planets beyond the solar system (more than 4000 of them) suggest that the question is not ‘whether?’ but ‘where?’. This book enables general readers to understand current endeavours to answer this question and the related one of ‘what kind?’
Wallace Arthur is an evolutionary biologist and science writer. He is Emeritus Professor of Zoology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. His most recent book is The Biological Universe: Life in the Milky Way and Beyond, published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.
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