Everyone who’s watched a police procedural knows that crime scene investigators can link the tiniest bits of organic evidence to a perpetrator though their DNA. A new technique could take DNA’s crime-fighting potential a quantum leap forward: by leveraging it to create a 3D model of the suspect’s face, researchers report in the journal Advanced Science.Their computational tool, called Difface, looks for genetic differences between single letters of the genetic alphabet, known as single nuc ...read more
New research on the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak puts another nail in the lab leak theory’s coffin. That theory claims the virus was either created in or studied at a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and then it either escaped accidentally or was released intentionally.The new study shows that the virus’s path across China to Wuhan resembles that of the earlier SARS epidemic that started in 2002, in terms of time, distance, and route, they report in the journal Cell. Demonstrating its origins ...read more
Controlling your emotions could also relieve your pain. An experiment where chronic pain patients learned to turn down negative emotions through a combination of sessions with an online therapist with homework showed significant success easing physical suffering, according to an article in the journal JAMA Network Open. "Beyond its sensory experience, chronic pain is an intrinsically emotional experience associated with heightened negative emotions, including anger, worry, and low mood, alongsid ...read more
It might not sound glamorous, but cow manure could soon be the unlikely hero of sustainable manufacturing. Scientists have discovered a way to transform cow dung into cellulose, one of the world’s most widely used materials. “Our initial question was whether it could be possible to extract the tiny fragments of cellulose present in cow manure, which is left over from the plants the animals have eaten, and fashion it into manufacturing-grade cellulose material,” said Mohan Edirisinghe, sen ...read more
Any chemical that’s called a flavonoid has to taste good. That’s what you’d think, anyway. But some flavonoids are actually famous for their bitter taste, and can cause astringency — the dry, sometimes numbing sensation that’s created in the mouth when we consume certain foods and beverages. But flavonoids aren’t all bad. They’re anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-carcinogenic. And a new study shows that that’s not the extent of their health benefits, either. Appearing in ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine