Science

Science

[:es]Should pets be tested for coronavirus?[:]

Last Thursday, the first cat tested positive for the new coronavirus. The feline had diarrhea, vomiting, and difficulty breathing, and it had come down with COVID-19 about 1 week after its owner did, Belgian health officials announced.
Science

[:es]How sick will the coronavirus make you? The answer may be in your genes[:]

COVID-19, caused by the new pandemic coronavirus, is strangely—and tragically—selective. Only some infected people get sick, and although most of the critically ill are elderly or have complicating problems such as heart disease, some killed by the disease are previously healthy and even relatively young. Researchers are now gearing up to scour the patients’ genomes…
Science

[:es]Mysterious chemical found in dead cat’s brain reopens debate over mercury poisoning disaster[:]

The city of Minamata, Japan, is dotted with monuments commemorating victims of an industrial mass poisoning decades ago. High in the hills, a small stone memorial honors other deaths—of cats sacrificed in secret to science. Now, after restudying the remains of one of those cats, a team of scientists is arguing, controversially, that the long-standing…
Science

[:es]Cellphone tracking could help stem the spread of coronavirus. Is privacy the price?[:]

“IT IS POSSIBLE TO STOP THE EPIDEMIC.” That’s the message splashed atop a website built by a University of Oxford team this week to share new research on the spread of the novel coronavirus. Below that hopeful statement comes a big caveat: To stop the virus’ spread, health officials need to find and isolate the…
Science

[:es]Why did nearly a million king penguins vanish without a trace?[:]

Where on Earth, wondered Henri Weimerskirch, were all the penguins? It was early 2017. Colleagues had sent the seabird ecologist aerial photos of Île aux Cochons, a barren volcanic island halfway between Madagascar and Antarctica that humans rarely visit. The images revealed vast areas of bare rock that, just a few decades before, had been…
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[:es]Newly discovered ‘magic methyl’ reaction could turbocharge the potency of some drugs[:]

For years, drug discovery chemists have struggled to streamline a process that can boost a drug’s potency up to 2000-fold: “magic methylation.” The reaction sweeps out single hydrogen atoms and replaces them with methyl groups—reshaping the drug molecule to more easily interact with its biological targets. But carrying out this sleight of hand is so…
Science

[:es]3400-year-old ballgame court unearthed in mountains of Mexico[:]

In 2015, archaeologists Jeffrey Blomster and Víctor Salazar Chávez began excavating the Mexican site of Etlatongo, a 3400-year-old village in the mountains of Oaxaca. They chose a spot in the center of the site, one that appeared to be an important public space. But instead of finding anything resembling a palace or a temple, the…
Science

[:es]Ancient amber contains a cockroach—and a surprise[:]

Look closely at this piece of fossilized amber and you’ll spot something unusual: a cockroach trapped with its own feces (arrow).
Science

[:es]New drugs aim to disarm the immune system’s ‘atomic bomb’ cells[:]

Seeking a new treatment for people who have dangerous blockages in their coronary arteries, doctors in London are trying to disarm the body’s own defenders. The 90 patients in the study receive the usual treatments for heart disease, such as small tubes called stents to prop open their narrowed arteries. But half of the patients…