#yeah science

[curlyburp]

SO THEY MADE WOOLY MICE AND I LOVE THEM

Hoping to revive mammoths, scientists create 'woolly mice'

Hoping to bring the giant, ancient animal back from extinction, scientists have created a far smaller woolly creature. Woolly mice have some

[wilwheaton]

Scientists at UC Riverside have demonstrated a new, RNA-based vaccine strategy that is effective against any strain of a virus and can be used safely even by babies or the immunocompromised.  Their flu vaccine will also likely be delivered in the form of a spray, as many people have an aversion to needles. “Respiratory infections move through the nose, so a spray might be an easier delivery system,” Hai said. Additionally, the researchers say there is little chance of a virus mutating to avoid this vaccination strategy. “Viruses may mutate in regions not targeted by traditional vaccines. However, we are targeting their whole genome with thousands of small RNAs. They cannot escape this,” Hai said. Ultimately, the researchers believe they can ‘cut and paste’ this strategy to make a one-and-done vaccine for any number of viruses. “There are several well-known human pathogens; dengue, SARS, COVID. They all have similar viral functions,” Ding said. “This should be applicable to these viruses in an easy transfer of knowledge.”

Vaccine breakthrough means no more chasing strains

This is HUGE. This will fundamentally change how we get inoculated.

[yours-trudy]

It's almost like... magic.

[krakencran]

“What is wrong with you? Why are you blue?”

This person is dead. The blue implies that they’re diseased. If these results were correct, they’d have two times the disease. I killed this person by accidentally cross contaminating the chemicals and overall just sucking at science classes 💀

[pikapeppa]

New beetle genus named after One Piece's Monkey D. Luffy, encompassing two new species

A research team from the Natural History Museum of Denmark has published a compelling new study in insect taxonomy in the open-access journa

EVERYONE STOP THIS IS MY FAVOURITE THING I'VE READ ALL WEEK

[internetgreatesthits]

[whyisablog]

HELL YEAH YOU FUNKY LITTLE ASTRONAUTS

[sigmund-lol]

Gyorsul az evolúció

A massive study of ancient DNA from nearly 16,000 people across more than 10,000 years in West Eurasia reveals that directional selection has driven the spread or decline of hundreds of gene variants since the end of the Ice Age and that selection has actually accelerated since people transitioned from hunting and gathering to farming.

More than 60 percent of the individual DNA variants that were flagged as being strongly selected for — most of them single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs — have documented links with present-day human traits, such as:

Light skin tone

Red hair

Risk of celiac disease and Crohn’s disease

Immunity to HIV infection and resistance to leprosy

Lower chance of male-pattern baldness

Lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis and alcoholism

Having the B version of the proteins on red blood cells that confer A, B, and O blood types and influence resistance to infection with bacteria and viruses

In some cases, groups of SNPs were under selection together to influence polygenic traits. Some changes raised the frequency of beneficial traits, including some that are interpreted today as:

“Health span” traits such as faster walking pace

Measures of behavioral and social status or cognitive functions, such as scores on intelligence tests, household income, and years of schooling

Other changes reduced the frequency of harmful traits, such as those that are interpreted today as:

Reduced risk of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia

Lower body fat percentage, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index

Less susceptibility to tobacco smoking

Still other SNPs, such as some that today are associated with susceptibility to tuberculosis and multiple sclerosis, at first rose and then fell in frequency over the millennia, indicating shifts in environmental pressures and the traits that prove beneficial, the team found.

Some of the links seem logical, others counterintuitive, like the major genetic risk factor for gluten intolerance spiking after people began farming wheat.