Backlogged cases push California COVID-19 deaths past 50,000

Los Angeles County on Wednesday reported another 806 deaths from coronavirus during the winter surge, pushing California's toll above 50,000, or about one-tenth of the U.S. total from the pandemic.

Large real world study confirms Pfizer COVID vaccine 94% effective

The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine has proven 94 percent effective in a study involving 1.2 million people in Israel, the first peer-reviewed real world research confirming the power of mass immunization campaigns to bring the pandemic to a close.

How would COVID-19 vaccine makers adapt to variants?

How would COVID-19 vaccine makers adapt to variants?

Mexico starts administering Russian Sputnik V vaccine

Mexican authorities administered their first shots of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine Wednesday to residents of the capital, with people lining up at a vaccination station on the city's south side, eager to get any protection they could.

Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine works well in big 'real world' test

A real-world test of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in more than half a million people confirms that it's very effective at preventing serious illness or death, even after one dose.

FDA says single-dose shot from J&J prevents severe COVID

Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine offers strong protection against severe COVID-19, according to an analysis released Wednesday by U.S. regulators that sets the stage for a final decision on a new and easier-to-use shot to help tame the pandemic.

Never too late: Pandemic propels older shoppers online

In November, Paula Mont did something new: The 86-year-old, who hasn't left her New Jersey senior living community in nearly a year, went shopping—online.

Australia passes law to make Google, Facebook pay for news

Australia's law forcing Google and Facebook to pay for news is ready to take effect, though the laws' architect said it will take time for the digital giants to strike media deals.

Facebook says it will pay $1B over 3 years to news industry

Facebook, following in Google's footsteps, says it plans to invest $1 billion to "support the news industry" over the next three years.

Ad campaign launches to build public trust in COVID-19 shots

A public service ad campaign unveiled Thursday aims to convince Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19, telling them "It's Up to You."

Study finds human-caused North Atlantic right whale deaths are being undercounted

A study co-authored by scientists at the New England Aquarium has found that known deaths of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales represent a fraction of the true death toll. This comes as the death of a calf and recent sightings of entangled right whales off the southeastern United States raise alarm.

New shape-changing 4D materials hold promise for morphodynamic tissue engineering

New hydrogel-based materials that can change shape in response to psychological stimuli, such as water, could be the next generation of materials used to bioengineer tissues and organs, according to a team of researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago.

A 4.4 million-year-old skeleton could reveal how early humans began to walk upright

Evolutionary expert Charles Darwin and others recognized a close evolutionary relationship between humans, chimps and gorillas based on their shared anatomies, raising some big questions: how are humans related to other primates, and exactly how did early humans move around? Research by a Texas A&M University professor may provide some answers.

A new microchip could help scientists uncover secrets of heart regeneration in baby mice

Baby mice might be small, but they're tough, too. For their first seven days of life, they have the special ability to regenerate damaged heart tissue. Humans, on the other hand, aren't so lucky: any heart injuries we suffer could lead to permanent damage. But what if we could learn to repair our hearts, just like baby mice?

Scientists achieve breakthrough in culturing corals and sea anemones cells

Researchers have perfected the recipe for keeping sea anemone and coral cells alive in a petri dish for up to 12 days. The new study, led by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, has important applications to study everything from evolutionary biology to human health.

On the line: Watching nanoparticles get in shape

Liquid structures—liquid droplets that maintain a specific shape—are useful for a variety of applications, from food processing to cosmetics, medicine, and even petroleum extraction, but researchers have yet to tap into these exciting new materials' full potential because not much is known about how they form.

New discoveries on the containment of COVID-19 finds travel bans are of limited value

Travel bans have been key to efforts by many countries to control the spread of COVID-19. But new research aimed at providing a decision support system to Italian policy makers, recently published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, suggests that reducing individual activity (i.e., social distancing, closure of non-essential business, etc.) is far superior in controlling the dissemination of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

CAR T-cell therapy generates lasting remissions in patients with multiple myeloma

In a major advance in the treatment of multiple myeloma, a CAR T-cell therapy has generated deep, sustained remissions in patients who had relapsed from several previous therapies, an international clinical trial has found.

A-maze-ing pheasants have two ways of navigating

Pheasants fall into two groups in terms of how they find their way around—and the different types prefer slightly different habitats, new research shows.

Nanobodies could help CRISPR turn genes on and off

The genetic tool CRISPR has been likened to molecular scissors for its ability to snip out and replace genetic code within DNA. But CRISPR has a capability that could make it useful beyond genetic repairs. "CRISPR can precisely locate specific genes," says Lacramioara Bintu, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford. "What we did was attach CRISPR to nanobodies to help it perform specific actions when it reached the right spot on DNA."

Study shows opioid use among US patients with knee osteoarthritis costs 14 billion dollars in societal costs

Although guidelines do not recommend use of opioids to manage pain for individuals with knee osteoarthritis, a recent study published early online in Arthritis Care & Research, an official journal of the American College of Rheumatology and the Association of Rheumatology Professionals, estimates that 858,000 Americans use opioids such as tramadol and oxycodone for their knee pain, equating to $14 billion in lifetime opioid-related societal costs, or nearly $0.5 billion annually.