News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Among all the different types of cancer treatment, photodynamic therapy – where light is used to destroy malignant cells – might have one of the strangest side effects: Patients are often better able to see in the dark. Last year, researchers finally figured out why this happens: Rhodopsin, a light-sensitive protein in the retinas in our eyes, interacts with … Read more
Thomas Edison was famously opposed to sleeping. In an 1889 interview published in Scientific American, the ever energetic inventor of the lightbulb claimed he never slept more than four hours a night. Sleep was, he thought, a waste of time. Yet Edison may have relied on slumber to spur his creativity. The inventor is said … Read more
When “Star Trek” captain William Shatner – James T. Kirk to we Trekkies – flew to space in October, the family of one of his co-stars played close attention. Shatner’s Oct. 13 flight on Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft inspired worldwide tributes and discussion about “Star Trek,” a series that embedded diversity into its framework … Read more
Strange so-called fractional electrons are crucial to many chemical reactions, but traditional methods cannot model them – a problem that DeepMind has used machine learning to fix Physics 9 December 2021 By Leah Crane An artistic representation of molecules interacting DeepMind Machine-learning tools have taken us closer to understanding electrons and how they behave in … Read more
The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful space observatory ever built, is finally set for launch in late December after decades of waiting. An engineering marvel, it will help answer fundamental questions about the Universe, peering back in time 13 billion years. Here are five things to know. 1. Giant gold mirror The telescope’s … Read more
The fast-spreading Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant is highly likely to compromise some of the protection from vaccines, suggest the first laboratory studies of Omicron’s ability to evade immunity. But the preliminary results—released overnight by teams in South Africa, Germany, and Sweden, as well as the Pfizer-BioNtech collaboration—hint that protection conferred by existing COVID-19 vaccines won’t be … Read more
Michael Strahan can’t wait to go back to space. The former NFL football player and “Good Morning America” co-anchor launched into space on Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard rocket Saturday morning (Dec. 11) and apparently enjoyed every second, judging from the smile on his face after landing. “I want to go back,” Strahan told Blue … Read more
A study of 300,000 people shows that HRT for menopause symptoms doesn’t increase the risk of early death, helping to overturn outdated fears about its safety Health 10 December 2021 By Alice Klein A woman applying a hormone replacement therapy patch Phanie/Alamy A large UK study has provided reassurance that taking hormone replacement therapy to … Read more
The beautiful birth of a star has produced an exquisitely ethereal structure in interstellar space. It’s called the Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula, located about 520 light-years away, and in a new image from the NSF NOIRLab’s International Gemini Observatory in Chile, it appears in the sky like a pale gossamer butterfly wing. At its core, … Read more
Climbing concentrations of carbon dioxide make it likely that humans will have to move some gases from the atmosphere into the oceans to prevent crippling effects of climate change, the National Academies said in a major report released yesterday. It came after months of deliberation among top U.S. scientists who concluded that global efforts to … Read more