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A group of the world's leading experts in the transmission of airborne pathogens is calling for a tightened regulatory system to control air quality in buildings - as a way of reducing the spread of covid-19 and other illnesses.

Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience have discovered a new brain circuit underlying curiosity and novelty seeking behavior. Using several innovative techniques, a whole path of multiple brain regions was uncovered that converts curiosity into action in mice. The results were published in Science.

A plant cell wall's unique ability to expand without weakening or breaking is due to the movement of its cellulose skeleton, according to new research that models the cell wall. The new study, by Penn State researchers, presents a new concept of the plant cell wall, gives insights into plant cell growth, and could provide inspiration for the design of polymeric materials.

Humans in the 21st century spend most of their time indoors, but the air we breathe inside buildings is not regulated to the same degree as the food we eat and the water we drink. A group of 39 researchers from 14 countries, including two from the University of Colorado Boulder, say that needs to change to reduce disease transmission and prevent the next pandemic.

More investigation is needed to determine the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, say Jesse Bloom, Alina Chan, Ralph Baric, David Relman and colleagues in this Letter.

Challenging the assumption that watershed streamflow always recovers from drought, a new study done seven years after the "Millennium Drought," the worst drought ever recorded in southeastern Australia, reports that more than a third of the region's affected watersheds had not yet recovered.

A subpopulation of neurons in the brain's zona incerta, or "zone of uncertainty," drives investigatory and novelty-seeking behavior in mice, according to a new study.

For decades, governments worldwide have invested great deals of legislation and resources in food safety, sanitation and drinking water quality for public health purposes.

QUT air-quality expert Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska is leading an international call for a "paradigm shift" in combating airborne pathogens such as COVID-19, demanding universal recognition that infections can be prevented by improving indoor ventilation systems.

An AI neural network built to predict protein and RNA sequence interactions cannot explain what patterns it sees. CSHL Assistant Professor Peter Koo found a way to "quiz" the network with a carefully designed set of synthetic RNA sequences to find out what it learned. The answer was a little surprising.

A new whole genome sequence for the Yap hadal snailfish provides insights into how the unusual fish survives in some of the deepest parts of the ocean. Xinhua Chen of the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University and Qiong Shi of the BGI Academy of Marine Sciences published their analysis of the new genome May 13th in the journal PLOS Genetics.

Mutations in two genetic regions in dogs explain over one third of the risk of developing an aggressive form of hematological cancer, according to a study led by Jacquelyn Evans and Elaine Ostrander at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Maryland, USA and colleagues. The study, which combined multiple sequencing techniques to investigate histiocytic sarcoma in retriever dogs, publishes May 13 in the open-access journal PLOS Genetics.

A new strategy for capturing the 3D shape of the human face draws on data from sibling pairs and leads to identification of novel links between facial shape traits and specific locations within the human genome. Hanne Hoskens of the Department of Human Genetics at Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Genetics.

A Z-RNA nanoswitch, less than 5 nanometer in length, flips from the right-handed A-RNA helix (?on") to the left-handed Z-RNA helix (?off") to selectively turn "off" immune responses against self RNAs, while allowing those against viruses to continue. Surprisingly, the Z-RNA nanoswitch sequence is encoded by "junk DNA". The Z-RNA nanoswitch is used by some cancers to silence anti-tumor immune responses. In other cases, a malfunction of the Z-RNA nanoswitch causes inflammatory disease.

A study from the University of Maryland shows higher app adoption among hotel chains could be linked to lower spending among lower-level loyalty customers, who are more likely to use apps to get the best deals.

In the largest study of the associations between smoking and cardiovascular disease on cognitive function, researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, found both impair the ability to learn and memorize; and that the effects of smoking are more pronounced among females, while males are more impaired by cardiovascular disease. The results appear today in the journal Scientific Reports.

Pregnant Aussie mums are being denied access to medications which treat severe nausea and vomiting by pharmacists and medical practitioners because of misleading labels and a lack of awareness about clinical guidelines.A new study surveyed 249 Australian women who suffered from severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy (NVP) or hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) and examined their experiences in accessing medications during pregnancy.

A study co-authored by MIT economist Alp Simsek shows that increases in stock market wealth do translate into more consumer spending and employment in areas where portfolios have increased.

A small drug molecule that appears to protect normal tissue from the damaging effects of radiation, may simultaneously be able to boost the cancer-killing effect of radiation therapy, according to a new study led by scientists at University of Iowa, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and Galera Therapeutics, Inc.

The demonstration that a tiny cloud of atoms can be turned from a heat engine into a cooler by cranking up the interactions between the particles provides both deep fundamental insight and a possible template for more efficient thermoelectric devices.