Science

Brain inflammation may be the reason behind muscle fatigue after infection and injury

Infectious or chronic diseases such as long COVID, Alzheimer’s disease and traumatic brain injury can cause inflammation in the brain, or neuroinflammation, that weakens muscles. While scientists are aware of this link between inflammation and muscle weakness, the molecules and processes involved have been unclear.

In our research, our team of neuroscientists and biologists uncovered the hidden conversation between the brain and muscles that triggers muscle fatigue, and potential ways to treat it.

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What is a dark comet? A quick guide to the ‘new’ kids in the Solar System

In 2017, NASA discovered and later confirmed the first interstellar object to enter our Solar System.

It wasn’t aliens. But artist impressions of the object (called ‘Oumuamua, the Hawaiian word for “scout”) do resemble an alien spaceship out of a sci-fi novel. This strange depiction is because astronomers don’t quite know how to classify the interstellar visitor.

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Five years on from the pandemic, long COVID keeps lives on hold

Three years ago, Andrea Vanek was studying to be an arts and crafts teacher when spells of dizziness and heart palpitations suddenly started to make it impossible for her to even take short walks.

After seeing a succession of doctors she was diagnosed with long COVID and even now spends most of her days in the small living room of her third-floor Vienna apartment, sitting on the windowsill to observe the world outside.

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'I'm at a loss for words': Doctor baffled by bizarre RFK Jr. vetting questionnaire

An MSNBC panel was left confused and uncomfortably laughing Friday afternoon during a discussion over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s curious questionnaire he's using to vet candidates to work under him at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Last week, Puck News reported on Kennedy's “Make America Healthy Again” website, where people who want to work for him can respond to questions with odd pre-written responses.

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MAGA fans think Biden is going to start another pandemic to sabotage Trump's admin: report

To hear Donald Trump tell it, his first administration was on a roll and doing well until the 2020 pandemic hit the country and shut down the global economy. Now conspiracy theorists think that President Joe Biden will try to sabotage a new incoming administration by starting another plague or even a civil war.

Mother Jones reported Friday that the right fears the spread of avian flu will take hold in the U.S. and that Trump will be forced to put aside his agenda to deal with it. In addition to avian flu, "last week, a mysterious flu-like outbreak was identified after killing dozens of people in Congo, where it is circulating alongside a new strain of pox that is also spreading elsewhere in eastern and southern Africa," the report said.

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Dogs may be taught to communicate by pressing buttons: study

A new study suggests dogs can learn to express themselves by pressing buttons to create two or more word combinations.

Researchers have been following several thousand dogs since 2022 whose button presses are logged through an app designed by Fluent Pet, which makes soundboards, and they then selected 152 dogs who were pressing two or more buttons in a sequence and found they frequently selected their own name, followed by "want" and then topics like "food" or "outside," reported the Washington Post.

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Single heat wave wiped out millions of Alaska's dominant seabird

by Issam AHMED

The common murre, a large black-and-white seabird native to northern waters, has become far less common in Alaska over the past decade due to the impacts of climate change.

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The secret to living to 110? Bad record-keeping, researcher says

Most of what we know about humans living to very old age is based on faulty data, including the science behind the "blue zones" famous for having a high proportion of people over 100, according to one researcher.

The desire to live as long as possible has driven a booming lifestyle industry selling supplements, books, tech and tips to those wanting to learn the secrets of the world's oldest people.

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Japanese researchers test pioneering drug to regrow teeth

by Tomohiro OSAKI

People with missing teeth may be able to grow new ones, say Japanese dentists testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants.

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The climate cost of Trump’s tariffs

Shortly after he was elected, Donald Trump announced an economic gambit that was aggressive even by his standards. He vowed that, on the first day of his second term, he would slap 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, and boost those already placed on Chinese products by another 10 percent.

The move set off a frenzy of pushback. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau even flew to the president-elect’s Florida resort to make his case. Economists say the potential levies threaten to upend global trade — including on green technologies, many of which are manufactured in China. The moves would cause price spikes for everything from electric vehicles and heat pumps to solar panels.

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Fishing gear threatens Hawaii's already endangered false killer whales

A concerningly high number of endangered false killer whales are being injured when they get hooked by fishing gear in waters off the main Hawaiian islands, according to a new research paper released Thursday.

Published in the scientific journal Endangered Species Research, the research concludes there should be closer monitoring of that unique but dwindling local population and how the creatures — actually dolphins, not whales, and not killers — interact with the small-scale commercial and recreational boats that fish in those waters.

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Why winter makes you more vulnerable to colds – a nurse explains the science

By Libby Richards/Professor of Nursing, Purdue University

You’ve probably heard “Don’t go outside in the winter with your hair wet or without a coat; you’ll catch a cold.”

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S. Africa’s new research guidelines not a green light for heritable human genome editing

The recently updated South African Ethics in Health Research Guidelines have been a recent cause of concern, with some researchers and bioethicists interpreting them as allowing what’s known as heritable human genome editing.

Heritable human genome editing involves editing the DNA of sex cells (eggs, sperm) or early embryos in a manner that may be inherited by offspring. Because the impacts on future offspring and society are unknown, there is vigorous and active ongoing debate on the ethics of such interventions.

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