Can probiotics and prebiotics restore your gut after antibiotics?

Antibiotics treat infections caused by bacteria. But they can also destroy the good bacteria in your gut. For some people, this results in an upset stomach and diarrhea.

Why the outdoors should be an integral part of every early learning and child-care program

Bilateral negotiations are underway to move the historic federal commitment to a Canada-wide early learning and child-care system from vision to reality. Expanding access for all young children in Canada will require creating and licensing more physical spaces where children learn and are cared for. But what kinds of spaces will these be?

Will mask wearing continue after COVID?

Mask mandates are in place in Victoria and New South Wales as these states continue to see COVID cases in the community. And public health experts have argued face masks will continue to be an important measure in our fight against the virus for some time to come.

Hubble reveals a 'rediscovered' star cluster

This image shows the globular cluster NGC 6380, which lies around 35,000 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Scorpio (the Scorpion). Globular clusters are spherical groups of stars held together by gravity; they often contain some of the oldest stars in their galaxies. The very bright star at the top of the image is HD 159073, which is only around 4,000 light-years from Earth, making it a much nearer neighbor than NGC 6380. This image was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, which, as its name suggests, has a wide field of view, meaning that it can image relatively large areas of the sky in enormous detail.

Bonding's next top model: Projecting bond properties with machine learning

Designing materials that have the necessary properties to fulfill specific functions is a challenge faced by researchers working in areas from catalysis to solar cells. To speed up development processes, modeling approaches can be used to predict information to guide refinements. Researchers from The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science have developed a machine learning model to determine characteristics of bonded and adsorbed materials based on parameters of the individual components. Their findings are published in Applied Physics Express.

The benefits of staggered school start (and finish) times

New South Wales recently announced it would trial different start and finish times for various year levels in primary schools.

New method found for moving tiny artificial swimmers

Princeton researchers have debuted a novel way of generating and potentially controlling locomotion in tiny objects called artificial swimmers. These swimmers have sparked considerable interest for their potential applications in medicine, industry and other sectors.

COVID-19 antibodies persist at least nine months after infection

Testing of an entire Italian town shows antibody levels remain high nine months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, whether symptomatic or asymptomatic.

Melbourne extends lockdown as Australia fails to stop outbreak

Australia's two largest cities are set to stay under tight COVID-19 restrictions as Melbourne on Monday extended a five-day snap lockdown designed to curb a virulent outbreak.

French firm makes first sale of artificial heart

French prosthetics maker Carmat said Monday it had sold one of its artificial hearts for the first time since its 2008 founding, for implantation into an Italian patient awaiting a transplant.

Barrier Reef outlook poor despite coral 'recovery': scientists

The Great Barrier Reef's outlook remains "very poor" despite coral recovery over the past year, Australian government scientists said Monday, just days before a UNESCO ruling on the site's world heritage status.

England lifts Covid curbs as scientists warn of surge in cases

The British government on Monday lifted pandemic restrictions on daily life in England, scrapping all social distancing rules in a step slammed by scientists and opposition parties as a dangerous leap into the unknown.

Cyprus showcases ancient undersea harbor to draw tourists

It's said that Demetrius the Besieger, a mighty warrior king and one of Alexander the Great's successors, built this harbor on Cyprus' southern coast 2,400 years ago to thwart a potential naval invasion from the ruler of Egypt, Ptolemy I, another of Alexander's heirs.

Huge Oregon blaze grows as wildfires burn across western US

The largest wildfire in the U.S. torched more dry forest landscape in Oregon on Sunday, one of dozens of major blazes burning across the West as critically dangerous fire weather loomed in the coming days.

A bug's life: Millimeter-tall mountains on neutron stars

New models of neutron stars show that their tallest mountains may be only fractions of millimeters high, due to the huge gravity on the ultra-dense objects. The research is presented today at the National Astronomy Meeting 2021.

More bullying of LGBTQ+ students in politically conservative districts

Students who identify as LGBTQ+ in Washington state school districts with conservative voting records reported experiencing more bullying than their peers in more politically liberal areas, according to a new study.

Three key habitat-building corals face worrying future due to climate crisis

The climate crisis will lead to changes in distribution and habitat loss of stony corals in the tropical Atlantic, shows a new study published by the open access publisher Frontiers. The loss of such coral species could have devastating consequences for the marine ecosystems they inhabit. The results of the study highlight an urgent need for coral reef management in the Atlantic.

Discrimination and safety concerns barriers to accessing healthy food for food-insecure young adults

University of Minnesota School of Public Health researchers recently completed a study to determine how food-insecure young (emerging) adults (18-29 years of age) adapted their eating and child feeding behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers also sought to identify barriers to food access and opportunities to improve local access to resources for emerging adults. Their study results are published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Using technology to help informal caregivers manage medication for patients with dementia

Most of the six million people in the U.S. who live with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias rely on informal caregivers, usually family or friends, to help manage their medications. Researchers from Regenstrief Institute, Indiana University and University of Wisconsin have received a grant to create an application to support those caregivers.

Mathematical models and computer simulations are the new frontiers in COVID-19 drug trials

Researchers are using computer models to simulate COVID-19 infections on a cellular level—the basic structural level of the human body.

Words matter: Language can reduce mental health and addiction stigma, NIH leaders say

In a perspective published in Neuropsychopharmacology, leaders from the National Institutes of Health address how using appropriate language to describe mental illness and addiction can help to reduce stigma and improve how people with these conditions are treated in health care settings and throughout society. The authors define stigma as negative attitudes toward people that are based on certain distinguishing characteristics. More than a decade of research has shown that stigma contributes significantly to negative health outcomes and can pose a barrier to seeking treatment for mental illness or substance use disorders.

Preparing for the next pandemic: Harmonize vaccinations in Canada

To prepare for the next pandemic and provide a coordinated approach to vaccination across the country, Canada should create Canadian Immunization Services based on the Canadian Blood Services model, authors propose in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

New alpine moth solves a 180-year-old mystery

Butterflies and moths (order Lepidoptera) are one of the most diverse animal groups. To date, scientists have found as many as 5,000 species from the Alps alone. Having been a place of intensive research interest for 250 years, it is considered quite a sensation if a previously unknown species is discovered from the mountain range these days. This was the case when a Swiss-Austrian team of researchers described a new species of alpine moth in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal Alpine Entomology, solving a 180-year-old mystery.