Gene-based blood test for melanoma spread evaluates treatment progress

A test that monitors blood levels of DNA fragments released by dying tumor cells may serve as an accurate early indicator of treatment success in people in late stages of one of the most aggressive forms of skin cancer, a new study finds.

Lemurs show there's no single formula for lasting love

Humans aren't the only mammals that form long-term bonds with a single, special mate—some bats, wolves, beavers, foxes and other animals do, too. But new research suggests the brain circuitry that makes love last in some species may not be the same in others.

Why the world is watching Australia's new big-tech rules

Australia on Friday moved a step closer to introducing pioneering legislation that would force tech giants to pay for sharing news content, a move that could change how people worldwide experience the internet.

US acquires 200 mn new doses as vaccine drive begins in pharmacies

US President Joe Biden announced plans to vaccinate most Americans by the end of July with the help of 200 million newly acquired doses, as the country's inoculation campaign kicked off a new phase in drugstores and supermarket pharmacies, some of which will offer shots as of Friday.

Pandemic showcases Belgium as Europe's Vaccine Valley

A small country with an outsize reputation in research and pharmaceuticals, Belgium has emerged with a strategic role in the world's battle against the coronavirus.

Australian city Melbourne begins 3rd lockdown due to cluster

Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city, will begin its third lockdown on Friday due to a rapidly spreading COVID-19 cluster centered on hotel quarantine.

Biden says US is securing 600 million vaccine doses by July

President Joe Biden said Thursday that the U.S. will have enough supply of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the summer to inoculate 300 million Americans.

'All we have left': dating apps on frontline of loneliness pandemic

Dating apps are booming in lockdown—no longer just a way of hooking up but also of simple interaction at a time when the coronavirus inflicts loneliness on millions.

Stonehenge likely made with stones from older monument: study

Remains of an ancient monument in west Wales indicate stones that stood at the site may have been dismantled and used to build the Neolithic standing circle Stonehenge, a new study suggested Friday.

Amazon faces biggest union push in its history

The second Jennifer Bates walks away from her post at the Amazon warehouse where she works, the clock starts ticking.

India's top court takes up social media content

India's top court on Friday sought the government and Twitter's response to a petition seeking a mechanism to check fake news, hate messages and what officials consider seditious and incendiary content on social media platforms.

Australia report says make Google and Facebook pay for news

Australia's Parliament will debate making Google and Facebook pay for news after a Senate committee on Friday recommended no changes to drafts of the world's first such laws.

New research tackles a central challenge of powerful quantum computing

To build a universal quantum computer from fragile quantum components, effective implementation of quantum error correction (QEC) is an essential requirement and a central challenge. QEC is used in quantum computing, which has the potential to solve scientific problems beyond the scope of supercomputers, to protect quantum information from errors due to various noise.

Tuning the circadian clock, boosting rhythms may be key to future treatments and medicines

Subconsciously, our bodies keep time for us through an ancient means—the circadian clock. A new University of California, Irvine-led article reviews how the clock controls various aspects of homeostasis, and how organs coordinate their function over the course of a day.

STING activation reduces graft-versus-host disease in a mouse model

MUSC Hollings Cancer Center researcher Yongxia Wu, Ph.D., identified a new target molecule in the fight against graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Bone marrow transplant, a treatment for certain blood cancers, is accompanied by potentially life-threatening GVHD in nearly 50% of patients. A January 2021 paper published in Cellular and Molecular Immunology revealed that activating a molecule called STING may be a new approach to reduce GVHD.

Women better at reading minds than men, new study finds

Psychologists at the University of Bath, Cardiff, and London have developed the first ever 'mind-reading questionnaire' to assess how well people understand what others are really thinking.

Prediabetes may be linked to worse brain health

For the study, published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, researchers analysed data from the UK Biobank of 500,000 people aged 58 years on average, and found that people with higher than normal blood sugar levels were 42% more likely to experience cognitive decline over an average of four years, and were 54% more likely to develop vascular dementia over an average of eight years (although absolute rates of both cognitive decline and dementia were low).

Drone-based photogrammetry: A reliable and low-cost method for estimating plant biomass

Remote sensing technology has become a vital tool for scientists over the past several decades for monitoring changes in land use, ice cover, and vegetation across the globe. Satellite imagery, however, is typically available at only coarse resolutions, allowing only for the analysis of broad trends over large areas. Remote-controlled drones are an increasingly affordable alternative for researchers working at finer scales in ecology and agriculture, but the laser-based technology used to estimate plant productivity and biomass, such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR), remain prohibitively expensive.

Finding the best targets to improve crop yield by following CO2 journey inside the leaf

A team of scientists have measured the relative importance of the different obstacles that carbon dioxide (CO2) encounters in its voyage from the atmosphere to the interior of plant cells, where it is converted into sugars. This research leading method provides much needed information that will help to increase the yield of important food crops such as cowpea, soybean and cassava.

Study predicts UK COVID-19 vaccination program will very quickly reduce deaths but more slowly bring down ICU admissions

A new modelling study published in Anaesthesia (a journal of the Association of Anaesthetists) shows that the UK's coronavirus vaccination program is already reducing daily deaths. However, reductions of hospital and intensive care (ICU) admissions will likely take several weeks longer, with large reductions seen by the end of March and continuing into April.

Research highlights ways to protect astronaut cardiovascular health from space radiation

Space: the final frontier. What's stopping us from exploring it? Well, lots of things, but one of the major issues is space radiation, and the effects it can have on astronaut health during long voyages. A new review in the open-access journal Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine explores what we know about the ways that space radiation can negatively affect cardiovascular health, and discusses methods to protect astronauts. These include radioprotective drugs, and antioxidant treatments, some of which are more common than you might think.