EverythingScience

An experimental and controversial stem cell transplant, which aims to treat traumatic spinal cord injury, has shown promising new results in a phase I clinical trial.

Not only was the single-dose spinal injection safe and well-tolerated by all 10 patients with paralysis, it also resulted in some improved movement and sensation for 7 volunteers.

While that's seriously hopeful, the type and degree of injury seems to matter. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in the US admit that in all likelihood, only about five percent of patients with a complete injury to their thoracic spine would regain any feeling or movement with this therapy, based on their results.

Nevertheless, neurosurgeon Mohamad Bydon says: "In spinal cord injury, even a mild improvement can make a significant difference in that patient's quality of life."

When humans get involved in places they weren’t invited, things start to
change. The Moon is no different.

A team of researchers at the University of Kansas believes that human involvement—including the more than 100 spacecraft interactions we have had with our natural satellite over the past 64 years—makes us one of the most dominant forces shaping the Moon.

That’s enough, they believe, to declare a new epoch on the Moon—the “Lunar Anthropocene.”

At the Centre for Chronobiology of the University of Basel, [Dr Christine] investigates the effects of light on humans and is the first author of a study investigating the effects of different light colors on the internal clock and sleep. The team of researchers from the University of Basel and the TUM has now published its findings in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Night mode on screens—useful or not?
We often hear that the short-wavelength component of light from smartphone and tablet screens affects biological rhythms and sleep. The recommendation is therefore to put your mobile phone away early in the evening or at least use the night shift mode, which reduces the short-wavelength light proportions and looks slightly yellowish. Dr. Blume confirms this. However, the yellowish color adjustment is a by-product that could be avoided.

"Technologically, it is possible to reduce the short-wavelength proportions even without color adjustment of the display; however, this has not yet been implemented in commercial mobile phone displays," says the sleep researcher.

Recently, NASA's Curiosity rover achieved a momentous accomplishment by marking 4,000 Martian days since its touchdown on the Red Planet in 2012.

In the last two decades, NASA has sent five robotic vehicles – rovers to Mars, according to the space agency.

Sojourner was the initial rover to explore the celestial planet, succeeded by Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance.

When streams of ultra-fast protons collide, a Higgs boson might pop into existence for the briefest instant before decaying into lighter particles.

In that moment, physicists can work backwards to estimate the mass of what could be the most important and yet most elusive particle in the Standard Model.

Having crunched the numbers on a mind-boggling number of proton collisions using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), physicists now have the most precise figure yet for this all-important property.

"The bright, steady gamma-ray glow of the Milky Way is punctuated by intense, days-long flares of near-light-speed jets powered by supermassive black holes in the cores of distant galaxies," said Seth Digel, a senior staff scientist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, who created the images. "These dramatic eruptions, which can appear anywhere in the sky, occurred millions to billions of years ago, and their light is just reaching Fermi as we watch."

Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of light. The movie shows the intensity of gamma rays with energies above 200 million electron volts detected by Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT) between August 2008 and August 2022. For comparison, visible light has energies between 2 and 3 electron volts. Brighter colors mark the locations of more intense gamma-ray sources.

Pre-clinical studies have found YCT-529 is "99 percent effective and 100 percent reversible, with no side effects."

Representing a significant advancement in the field of contraception, the United Kingdom has initiated trials for a hormone-free contraceptive pill designed for men. This groundbreaking trial positions the study group in the country as the global pioneer in testing this innovative form of medication.

"These results indicate the potential for an easy and novel method for early detection of autism and development coordination disorder," said senior author Lisa Aziz-Zadeh, a professor at the USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. "This is especially important as motor signatures appear early in autism—usually before social symptoms. And this methodology does not involve potential biasing by the assessor."

"Early identification allows for tailored therapeutic approaches, which result in better long-term developmental outcomes," said first author Christiana Dodd Butera, a postdoctoral fellow at USC Chan. "Having the appropriate therapy for the appropriate child at the most impactful time in development would be the long-term goal of this detection work."

A UNIGE team shows that the human brain is capable of identifying the vocalizations of certain primate species, if they are close to us and if the frequencies used are also close to our own.

Are we able to differentiate between the vocal emissions of certain primates? A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) asked volunteers to categorize the vocalizations of three species of great apes (Hominidae) and humans. During each exposure to these "onomatopoeia," brain activity was measured...

The case suggests that vocal cord paralysis might be a rare complication of COVID infection, caused by the virus' effect on the nervous system.

"Given how common this virus is among children, this newly recognized potential complication should be considered in any child presenting with a breathing, talking or swallowing complaint after a recent COVID-19 diagnosis," lead researcher Dr. Danielle Larrow, a resident at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, said in a news release.

"This is especially important as such complaints could be easily attributed to more common diagnoses such as asthma," she said.
While there have been several reports of vocal cord paralysis in adults, this is the first report of the complication in a teenager, researchers said.

A new survey using satellite imagery and ground penetrating radar has revealed signs of volcanic activity that's far more recent than anyone ever expected.

The study, conducted over a plain known as the Elysium Planitia, reveals volcanic activity that has taken place within the last 120 million years. In fact, some of the identified volcanic activity has been dated to just 1 million years ago.

That's very recent, geologically speaking; and, although we have yet to observe any volcanic activity actually taking place, it suggests that, somewhere on Mars, it might be.

For the first time, scientists have sequenced the genome of a mysterious species of giant bacterium that can be seen without a microscope.

The discoveries about their reproductive strategies, survival mechanisms, and distinct metabolic mechanisms – similar to mitochondria – may one day be useful in developing sustainable energy technologies and increasing efficiency in agriculture.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have become a rapidly growing threat to public health.

Without new antibiotics, even common injuries and infections harbor the potential to become lethal.
Scientists are now one step closer to eliminating that threat, thanks to a Texas A&M University-led collaboration that has developed a new family of polymers capable of killing bacteria without inducing antibiotic resistance by disrupting the membrane of these microorganisms.

"The new polymers we synthesized could help fight antibiotic resistance in the future by providing antibacterial molecules that operate through a mechanism against which bacteria do not seem to develop resistance," said Dr. Quentin Michaudel, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and lead investigator in the research, published Dec. 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A spin-off from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) called EtaVolt has developed a nifty device that can rejuvenate and extend the life of old (and new) photovoltaic (PV) panels. The technology has been extensively field-tested and can be used on around 90% of all existing PV panels available worldwide. The technology has been successfully commercialized and is ready to scale up for widespread market exposure.

A game-changer for solar
EtaVolt’s technology is a game-changer in the solar industry, especially in tropical regions like Singapore, where panels degrade quickly due to harsh environmental conditions.

Due to harsh environmental conditions, solar panels lose their efficiency soon after installation, especially during the first year. This drop in performance can be up to 10% or more over the panels' lifespan. This, EtaVolt explains, translates to an estimated energy loss of US$2 billion globally, based on the global 1-terawatt solar power capacity.

China has unveiled plans for the "world's first" nuclear-powered container ship, signaling a significant leap in maritime technology.

The key feature of this monumental vessel lies in its propulsion system – a cutting-edge fourth-generation molten salt reactor utilizing thorium, a radioactive metal abundant and cost-effective in China. This marks a departure from traditional uranium reactors, offering enhanced safety and efficiency. Unlike uranium reactors that require copious amounts of water for cooling, the thorium-based reactor operates at elevated temperatures and low pressure, reducing the risk of meltdowns.

As more solar panels go out of service, there is a need for businesses to recycle them and put components into a circular economy.

The world is currently focused on phasing away fossil fuels and ushering in a carbon-less way of generating energy. Much of this plan rests on solar panels, which can trap sun rays and convert them into electricity. The technology has been improving over the years but also presents a problem now that the first wave of solar installations has come to the end of its life cycle.

Arizona-based We Recycle Solar aims to offer customers a better option than to dump the panels. It has partnered with various solar panel manufacturers, contractors, and utility companies to source older solar panels...

The researchers use chlorine and UV light to create a chain reaction that breaks down methane just like nature does but way faster.

A new approach called Methane Eradication Photochemical System (MEPS) developed by researchers at the University of Copenhagen can break down methane roughly 100 million times faster than nature. The team has now spun out a company that aims to make this technology available to society.

The past year has given many of us reason to pause. We are losing in a race to prevent planetary tipping points — the climate is changing faster than expected, and humanity has already breached six of the nine sustainable planetary boundaries (for biodiversity loss; climate, freshwater and land-system change; biogeochemical flows; and novel entities). Summer Antarctic sea ice shrank to its lowest recorded extent in 2023, a year that is on track to be the warmest on record.

But, looking to 2024, [we're] hopeful that the world can turn in a better direction...

Astrobotic, a leading space robotics company, declared that its Peregrine lunar lander has accomplished all integration milestones and has been successfully mated with United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket payload adapter.

The announcement revealed that after a meticulous three-week campaign for fueling and final checkouts, the Peregrine spacecraft is prepared for a groundbreaking mission to the Moon set for launch on January 8, 2024.

In a study appearing in Nature, the researchers showed that these compounds could kill methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) grown in a lab dish and in two mouse models of MRSA infection. The compounds also show very low toxicity against human cells, making them particularly good drug candidates.

A key innovation of the new study is that the researchers were also able to figure out what kinds of information the deep-learning model was using to make its antibiotic potency predictions. This knowledge could help researchers to design additional drugs that might work even better than the ones identified by the model.