The type of pill that was approved is the progestin-only "mini pill" which has a much safer clinical profile than the more common-in-the-US combination pill that has both progestin and estrogen. This type of pill is already available OTC in over 100 other countries. The US is just really behind the curve on just about anything to do with reproductive rights and care.
The price of the pill, which has not been announced, will determine how affordable it will be when it becomes available in early 2024.
cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/1133527
> Paywall-free link: http://archive.today/oPjro
Non-invasive imaging approach could lead to innovations in embryo screening.
Breakthrough here is the ability to image embryos comprised of living cells as opposed to post-mortem embryos.
original doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2023.06.003
This piece resonated with me as I also did not really envision myself working in industry when I started grad school; figuring that I would just stay in academia in one form or another. However, when I started to look outside academia (after seeing lab mates stuck in endless post-doc loops), I was surprised at the breadth of opportunities that were available.
Even though my degree was in physics, I was doing stuff relevant to several different industries. I interviewed for roles in data science, materials science, petrochemicals, food science, and pharma. Ultimately, I ended up in pharma and the very first program I worked on was an immunotherapy to target the type of cancer that caused the death of my grandfather. It wasn't some grand design on my part, just a coincidence that echoes some of what this author experienced.
Babe the goat is trendier than she looks.
U.S. travelers and healthcare providers looking for another—and potentially safer—dengue vaccine will have to keep waiting. | U.S. travelers and healthcare providers looking for another—and potentially safer—dengue vaccine will have to keep waiting. After a protracted review, Takeda has decide...
The issue seems to be how the data was collected in the Phase 3 trial:
> Clinical trials of most drugs and vaccines supporting FDA approval are mainly conducted in the U.S. and Europe, where clinical trial protocols are well recognized. The phase 3 TIDES trial used for Qdenga’s application was run in several less well-off, dengue-endemic regions in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
However, it should be noted that Takeda's drug, Qdenga, is already approved by the EMA in the EU and a couple other agencies. It is just the FDA that is holding things up in the US.
Yeah, even comments here haven't seemed to read the article. As somebody that used to install BOINC on all my machines back in the day, the reason I stopped is that many of the projects I ran (SETI being one) aren't active any longer. Also, like the article mentioned, I just don't have a desktop anymore and I am not about to run something like this on a laptop that doesn't have things like user-serviceable or replaceable parts.
I think that @saccharomyces@mander.xyz provided a great response for the specific case of flow in a pipe.
I just want to add that if you look beyond the restrictions of flow in a pipe, there are many other types of behavior that non-Newtonian fluids exhibit. We measure this in the lab on instruments called rheometers. Basically, we put some liquid in the instrument and then deform it and measure the resistance to that deformation. One of the most common ways to apply that deformation is to do so back and forth in an oscillating manner. Depending on the frequency at which you apply this strain, the solid/liquid-like behavior can change. If you have some background in physics or want to get a decent understanding, I found this paper that, on skimming it, seems to be pretty consistent with the way I was taught this stuff in grad school.
One graph I want to point out is Figure 13 which shows what would be a "typical" viscoelastic polymer solution. An easy way to understand this graph is that as we go from left to right, we are applying strain back and forth quicker and quicker, essentially shaking it faster. When the G' value is higher than the G" value, then the material is behaving more like a solid and conversely, when G" > G', then it is behaving more like a liquid. You can see that the material goes through different phases of behavior as the strain frequency changes. Just for you I went and dug up an old graph from my thesis to show a real-life example of this happening too.
My favorite demonstration of this is to put Oobleck (or something similar) onto a speaker and then change the frequency and see what happens.
ULA's Vulcan rocket is likely at least a year away from becoming operational.
Continued fallout from the explosion of the Centaur upper stage on ULA's test stand as Vulcan's launch continues to slip.
> In a statement, ULA described the work needed on the Centaur V upper stage as “minor reinforcement at the top of the forward dome,” or the uppermost section of the liquid hydrogen tank. The changes will add strength to the tank, which contains super-flammable fuel chilled to minus 423° Fahrenheit (minus 253° Celsius).
The pressure is on as the DOD is eagerly waiting for Vulcan.
> The US Space Force is eager for the Vulcan rocket to enter service. The Pentagon selected ULA and SpaceX in 2020 to launch around 40 of the military’s most critical surveillance, communications, and navigation satellites from 2022 through 2028. ULA won the rights to launch about 60 percent of the missions, primarily using the new Vulcan rocket, with SpaceX taking the remaining 40 percent with its Falcon rocket family.
The maiden flight of Spain's Miura 1 rocket, twice suspended in recent weeks, has now been delayed until September over fears its launch could start a wildfire, its developer said Tuesday.
> "The postponement is motivated by obligatory compliance with the prevention of forest fires... as well as the high temperatures" in southern Spain "to ensure the safety of the area where the launch is carried out".
First time I have seen this cited as a reason for a launch delay.
Dutch and American researchers have used computer simulations to develop a protein that works like an anti-freeze agent. Researchers could use this protein to freeze and defrost biological material such as immune cells, sperm and perhaps even donor organs in the future, without causing any damage to...
I haven't editorialized the title, but I don't like it since the desired protein structure was thought up by the grad student and the "digitally designed" piece just seems to be some MD modelling to confirm the desired outcome before synthesis.
That being said, I thought this was interesting since freeze/thaw (F/T) stress is ubiquitous in the life sciences and something that is especially important to the emerging field of cell therapy. Typically, excipients like sucrose, trehalose, or glycerol are used to preserve biological molecules during F/T, but they are not protective in every case. Developing alternative means to protect during F/T gives people like me that develop therapeutic formulations more options to turn to in the case of difficult molecules.
doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2220380120
With their unique appearance, texture, and mouthfeel, fondants have intrigued bakers and physicists for years. They present an appetizing enigma in the world of confectionery, an intriguing combination of sugar, water, and heat that, when manipulated correctly, yields a delectably creamy product.
This is about a recent study looking at the rheology of fondant. Essentially, fondant is created from a supersaturated solution of sucrose that is agitated (kneaded). This causes the fondant to experience a sequence of events:
- First, the agitation induces crystal nucleation and growth. In the early stages of crystal formation, the surrounding solution is depleted of sucrose, reducing the bulk viscosity.
- However, as the crystals grow in size, they are large enough to push against one another in hard sphere-like interactions. This causes a sharp increase in viscosity at this critical crystal size.
- As agitation continues, sucrose crystals fracture and the system reaches an equilibrium crystal size distribution, causing the viscosity to decrease from its peak. This is the final state of a smooth, pliable fondant.
There is a doi provided by the article, but as of my posting this, the doi hasn't been activated yet.
Not sure if TIL-type posts are allowed here, but thought that the story of the history of this event is interesting in a "history of science" type of way. If you want a narrative style of telling, you can check out this Smithsonian piece.
Story time! I watched Jurassic Park again recently and there is a bit in the movie where there is a discussion about competing theories for how the dinosaurs met their end. I didn't realize that back in the early 90's the impact theory was just one of a competing number of theories, so I did some reading.
Turns out that while doing readings to explore for gas/oil in the Caribbean, the Mexican state oil company, Pemex, had found evidence for the Chicxulub crater way back in the 1940's, but dismissed it as volcanic activity and moved on since volcanic regions are not great for oil extraction.
Fast forward to the late 70's and geophysicists are making additional measurements for Pemex and correctly ID the ring structure of these readings as a likely impact crater. The company is not really interested but consent to allow them to present their findings.
The cruel irony is that the conference at which the findings were presented occurred the same week that there was a special, separate conference with impact crater experts to discuss the impact theory of the end of the dinosaurs. So, there were no experts in attendance to learn about Chicxulub crater's existence from the Pemex scientists or recognize it's importance.
It took another 9 years, 1990, before the two worlds connected and further action was taken to ID Chicxulub as the impact crater that corresponded to the exact time period scientists were looking for.
Then, finally, it was 2010 before scientific consensus was (generally) reached that Chicxulub is the impact that ended the dinosaurs.
Wild bison that once numbered in the tens of millions in North America before being hunted almost to extinction are once again thriving in a pocket of western Canada.
cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/720520
> This summarizes a report from Parks Canada about the reintroduction of bison to the Banff National Park. > > > A Parks Canada report published this week concluded that the reintroduction was a success, and it suggested that due to their robust growth rate, this bison subpopulation—one of only five that occupy a mere 0.5 percent of their original range in North America—may no longer be considered endangered within a decade. > > Original report: https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/ab/banff/info/gestion-management/bison/rapport-mai-reintroduction-may-report
Wild bison that once numbered in the tens of millions in North America before being hunted almost to extinction are once again thriving in a pocket of western Canada.
This summarizes a report from Parks Canada about the reintroduction of bison to the Banff National Park.
> A Parks Canada report published this week concluded that the reintroduction was a success, and it suggested that due to their robust growth rate, this bison subpopulation—one of only five that occupy a mere 0.5 percent of their original range in North America—may no longer be considered endangered within a decade.
Original report: https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/ab/banff/info/gestion-management/bison/rapport-mai-reintroduction-may-report
Plenty of news stories have focused on the danger posed by Kessler syndrome. In this condition, space is made inaccessible by a cloud of debris surrounding our planet that would destroy any further attempts to get into orbit. Therefore, plenty of companies have sprung up that problem to take care of...
This mission, ELSA-M, is a follow-up on the proof of concept ELSA-D mission that was launched in 2021 and successfully rendezvoused with a client's satellite.
A challenge to this company going forward I see is that their interceptor requires a proprietary plate of their design to already have been affixed to the target satellite. I just don't see how this gets wide adoption enough to help meet their lofty preventing Kessler syndrome rhetoric.
This paper details a new hydrogel patch coated in microneedles used to delivery medication to tissues. The design of the patch was inspired by the Blue-ringed octopus and the method by which it administers toxins.
Unrelated to this paper (which is really cool) I feel like scientific figures have really fallen prey to a trend to cram too much information into each figure, making them impossible to comprehend. This paper as an example features two figures that go all the way from A through L. If you have to use almost half the alphabet to label your figures, maybe something can go to supplemental information.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adh2213
Evidence is mounting that astronauts are more susceptible to infections while in space. For example, astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) commonly suffer from skin rashes, as well as respiratory and non-respiratory diseases. Astronauts are also known to shed more live virus part...
Exposure to microgravity causes changes to the human immune system:
> "Here we show that the expression of many genes related to immune functions rapidly decreases when astronauts reach space, while the opposite happens when they return to Earth after six months aboard the ISS," said Dr. Odette Laneuville, an associate professor at the Department of Biology of the University of Ottawa, leading author of a new study in Frontiers in Immunology.
doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1171103
Butterflies are being hit hardest by urban growth. Shrinking habitats and food availability are causing their populations to decline. The same applies to many wild bees that fly early in spring.
This is a meta-analysis showing that certain species are more impacted by urbanization than others. In particular, butterflies are susceptible and beekeeping could be exacerbating the issue by displacing native pollinators.
Research Paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.14277
Using data from the Spitzer space observatory, Dr. Susana Iglesias-Groth, a researcher from The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has found evidence for the existence of the amino acid tryptophan in the interstellar material in a nearby star-forming region. The research is published in Mon...
This article summarizes findings showing that the Spitzer telescope has observed the spectral signature of tryptophan in an extrasolar system.
This isn't the first instance of amino acids found extra-terrestrially (previously found on asteroids), but is the first found outside our solar system. Tryptophan has a very strong and very clear spectral signature (it is ubiquitously used in life sciences for example).
doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad1535
In order to investigate the activity of neuronal structures as well as the interaction of nerve cells, minimally invasive technologies providing images from delicate deep-brain tissues are required. A new hair-thin endo-microscope, developed by an international team with the participation of Leibniz...
This summarizes a paper in which researchers created a microscope probe using a single, 110 µm diameter optical fiber. An interesting technique from this that I had not seen before, was that the end of the optical fiber is angled and coated with aluminum to create a mirror looking perpendicular to the length of the fiber. This enables researchers to image living cells less intrusively.
doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36889-z
NASA officials overestimated their ability to contain alien microbes after the first moon landing, a new analysis suggests.
I have linked a non-paywall version, but if you can, I suggest checking out the Times version of the story as it goes into much more detail and has lots of great pictures.
Essentially, NASA knew that if there were microbes brought back from the Apollo missions that they had no effective way to contain them. However, to assuage the public, they maintained that their quarantine procedures were effective. This is essentially quarantine theater to aid public perception of the Apollo program.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1086/724888
Learn the secrets and science behind the best browned butter chocolate chip cookies in this classic recipe from The Food Lab.
This is an article that I have come back to reference many times through my baking life. In it, the author explores many different variations on the classic chocolate chip cookie recipe and documents the effects that the changes produce on the finished product. Not only are the results documented, but he also explains the science of why that change produces the effect. For example, when discussing how much butter to include: > When flour is mixed with water (such as the water found in eggs), it develops gluten, a tough, stretchy network of interconnected proteins that set up as they bake. Gluten can't form in fat, thus butter will inhibit its overall formation, leading to more tender results. The higher the proportion of butter to other ingredients, the more tender your cookie will be (and consequently, the more it will spread as it bakes).
As an aside, I cannot recommend The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt enough. It is a phenomenal resource that explains the why behind so many recipes and cooking techniques. Unfortunately, baking is not one of the chapters in the book (so no cookie recipes in it), but it is written in a similar fashion to this article.