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Ranking technologies for managing indoor pathogen transmission

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JRC foresight expert exercise: what are the most promising current and emerging technologies for being up to the task when the next airborne disease like COVID-19 hits? In a JRC-HERA study published today, well-established filtration and ventilation topped the list of the highest-impact current technologies for capturing and cleansing germs that spread through the air indoors. UV radiation and nucleic acid amplification came next in the impact ranking. The foresight study also pinpointed other promising technologies, which require more development or are expected to appear in the future. From these, the impact of plasma-based inactivation, aerosol samplers, biosensors, and direct identification through physico-chemical properties came out on top. Which technology should we prioritise? A balancing act The study is the result of a foresight process designed and managed by the JRC and implemented by the JRC and HERA. The more than 50 experts involved in the process emphasised that, despit
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How Canadian researchers reconstituted an extinct poxvirus for $100,000 using mail-order DNA

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Eradicating smallpox, one of the deadliest diseases in history, took humanity decades and cost billions of dollars. Bringing the scourge back would probably take a small scientific team with little specialized knowledge half a year and cost about $100,000. That's one conclusion from an unusual and as-yet unpublished experiment performed last year by Canadian researchers. A group led by virologist David Evans of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, says it has synthesized the horsepox virus, a relative of smallpox, from genetic pieces ordered in the mail. Horsepox is not known to harm humans—and like smallpox, researchers believe it no longer exists in nature; nor is it seen as a major agricultural threat. But the technique Evans used could be used to recreate smallpox, a horrific disease that was declared eradicated in 1980. "No question. If it's possible with horsepox, it's possible with smallpox," says virologist Gerd Sutter of Ludwig Maximilians Univ
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14 recent scientific breakthroughs

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1. Cell therapy for melanoma The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first cellular therapy for aggressive forms of melanoma. The treatment, called Amtagvi, is "designed to fight off advanced forms of melanoma by extracting and replicating T cells derived from a patient's tumor," said NPR. These cells are also called tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL). T cells are integral in the immune system but can become "dysfunctional inside tumors." "The approval of Amtagvi represents the culmination of scientific and clinical research efforts leading to a novel T cell immunotherapy for patients with limited treatment options," Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. The treatment won't work for everyone, but research by the National Institutes of Health showed a "56% response rate among patients with melanoma, and 24% of patients had a complete disappearance of
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18th Edition Mathematicians stunned to find a pattern in ‘random’ prime numbers

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Two academics from Stanford University in California have shocked the world of mathematics by discovering a pattern in prime numbers, redefining the belief that prime numbers could be treated as if they occur randomly. Prime numbers are numbers that are divisible only by themselves and 1, and are the building blocks from which the rest of the number line is constructed. This is because all other numbers are created by multiplying primes together. As a result, deciphering the mysteries of prime numbers is crucial to understanding the fundamentals of arithmetic. Making the discovery Apart from 2 and 5, all prime numbers have to end in 1, 3, 7 or 9 so that they can’t be divided by 2 or 5. So if the numbers occurred randomly, as has been the long-held belief, then it wouldn’t matter what the last digit of the previous prime number was. Each of the four possibilities (1, 3, 7 or 9) should have an equal 25 % chance of appearing at the end of the next prime number. Stanford mathematicians Ka
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Scientists Confirm the Incredible Existence of ‘Second Sound’

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Usually, when something gets warmed up, heat tends to spread outward before eventually dissipating. But things are a little different in the world of superfluid quantum gas. For the first time, MIT scientists have successfully imaged how heat actually travels in a wave, known as a “second sound,” through this exotic fluid. Understanding this dynamic could help answer questions about high-temperature superconductors and neutron stars. In the world of average, everyday materials, heat tends to spread out from a localized source. Drop a burning coal into a pot of water, and that liquid will slowly rise in temperature before its heat eventually dissipates. But the world is full of rare, exotic materials that don’t exactly play by these thermal rules. Instead of spreading out as one would expect, these superfluid quantum gasses “slosh” heat side to side—it essentially propagates as a wave . Scientists call this behavior a material’s “second sound” (the first being ordinary sound via a dens
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17th Edition Melting polar ice is slowing the Earth's rotation, with possible consequences for timekeeping

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Global warming has slightly slowed the Earth’s rotation — and it could affect how we measure time. A study published Wednesday found that the melting of polar ice — an accelerating trend driven primarily by human-caused climate change — has caused the Earth to spin less quickly than it would otherwise. The author of the study, Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, said that as ice at the poles melts, it changes where the Earth’s mass is concentrated. The change, in turn, affects the planet’s angular velocity. Agnew compared the dynamic to a figure skater twirling on ice: “If you have a skater who starts spinning, if she lowers her arms or stretches out her legs, she will slow down,” he said. But if a skater’s arms are drawn inward, the skater will twirl faster. Less solid ice at the poles, then, means more mass around the equator — Earth’s waist. “What you’re doing with the ice melt is you’re taking water tha
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12th Edition of International Young Scientist Awards

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12th Edition of International Young Scientist Awards Mitigations refer to strategies, actions, or measures taken to reduce or alleviate the impact or risk of a particular problem, threat, or adverse situation. Mitigations can be applied to various contexts, including cybersecurity, environmental management, disaster preparedness, and more. #Mitigation #Cybersecurity #DisasterMitigation #ClimateMitigation #EnvironmentalMitigation #RiskManagement #EmergencyPreparedness Young Scientist awards is the Researchers and Research organizations around the world in the motive of Encouraging and Honoring them for their Significant contributions & Achievements for the Advancement in their field of expertise. Researchers and scholars of all nationalities are eligible to receive Young Scientist Awards . Nominees are judged on past accomplishments, research excellence, and outstanding academic achievements. International Young Scientist Awards website link: https://youngscientistawards.com/
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