My Hobby and Interest - Research

 MaineBiz Jackson Lab acquires New York Stem Cell Foundation to leverage biomedical data By Laurie Schreiber Jackson Laboratory, a genetics and genomic medicine organization headquartered in Bar Harbor, completed its acquisition of the New York Stem Cell Foundation, a nonprofit that developed an AI platform that supports large amounts of data related to stem cell research.  Lon Cardon, the lab’s president and CEO, said the deal “marks a turning point for biomedical research” that combines the lab’s expertise in genetics and mouse models with the foundation’s stem cell and automation technologies.  Together, he said, the capabilities will create a platform that accelerates early-stage biomedical research that could uncover disease mechanisms earlier and advance progress toward therapies for diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes, Parkinson’s and rare diseases. The deal unites the lab’s strengths in mouse genetics and disease research with the foundation’s stem cell...

 Nature News How to spot fake scientists and stop them from publishing papers Journals are considering doing identity checks to expose fake authors — but there are downsides. by Miryam Naddaf Beatriz Ychussie’s career in mathematics seemed to be going really well. She worked at Roskilde University in Denmark where, in 2015 and 2016 alone, she published four papers on mathematical formulae for quantum particles, heat flow and geometry, and reviewed multiple manuscripts for reputable journals. But a few years later, her run of promising studies dried up. An investigation by the publisher of three of those papers found not only that the work was flawed, but that Ychussie didn’t even exist. Her name is one of a network of 26 fictitious authors and reviewers that had infiltrated four mathematics journals belonging to the London-based publisher Springer Nature. These sham scholars were created by a  paper mill , a company that manipulates peer reviews and sells fake research papers ...

 Nature News This ‘minor’ bird flu strain has potential to spark human pandemic Experiments suggests H9N2 has adapted to human cells but cases of person-to-person transmission haven’t been reported yet. by Rachel Fieldhouse A bird flu virus that has often been ignored because it mostly causes minor disease in birds has the potential to cause a human pandemic, says a team that has tracked how the H9N2 virus has become better adapted to infect people. The researchers say more surveillance of the virus is needed. In the past few years, surveillance has been focused on the  avian influenza virus H5N1 , which has spread across most continents and can cause severe disease and death in people. Since 2020, H5N1 has killed about 21 people. In  North America , the virus is also spreading among dairy cows. Less attention is being paid to H9N2, says Kelvin To, a clinical microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong, despite the virus being the second most common strain of bird flu t...

 ScienceNews These simple knife tricks stop onion tears instantly Sharper knives in slower hands may prevent crying when cutting onions by Carly Kay It’s your kitchen. You can cry if you want to. But with sharper knives, you might not need to.  Cutting onions slowly with sharper knives  slashes the number of tear-inducing droplets  the vegetables eject into the air, researchers report in the Oct. 21  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . This technique could not only improve an everyday cook’s culinary experience but also inform how pathogens spread.  The culprit of kitchen crying  is a chemical compound called propanethial  S- oxide . When a knife pierces an onion, the cells rupture and trigger a chemical reaction that forms the compound. Propanethial  S -oxide rockets into the air in a shower of tiny droplets, which bind to sensory nerves in the eyes and produce a tear-jerking stinging sensation.  “This is something everybo...

 ScienceNews Polar bears provide millions of kilograms of food for other Arctic species A new study shows how much food polar bears leave behind — and how their decline threatens scavengers across the Arctic.  By  Gennaro Tomma In a single year, one polar bear can leave roughly 300 kilograms of prey for other animals to dine on. Altogether, the carnivores provide  7.6 million kilograms of carrion for scavengers throughout the Arctic , researchers estimate. The findings, reported October 28 in  Oikos , highlight the crucial role these apex predators play in feeding a vast array of species and hints at the way that food web might be shaken as climate change warms the Arctic, endangering polar bear populations. Scientists have long known that polar bears typically eat the bladder of their prey — usually seals — then leave the rest. However, the biomass of those leftovers and their importance has been long overlooked, says Nicholas Pilfold, a scientist at the San Di...