The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the first at-home collection kits for novel coronavirus testing this week. The kits, made by the Burlington, N. C.–based company LabCorp, allow patients to swab their own nasal passages and mail the samples back to one of the company’s laboratories for analysis—without setting foot in a hospital or […]
Even as the devastating effects of the coronavirus epidemic on human health, economic well-being and social institutions become known in countries like ours (England and the United States), there is an even greater tragedy in the making: the unimaginable suffering in developing countries for older people. Developing countries will be the hardest hit by coronavirus […]
Does a widespread medical emergency justify speedier, and sometimes less rigorous, ways to test treatments and evaluate results? Doctors and patients urgently need to get their hands on drugs for the COVID-19 pandemic. But bioethicists Jonathan Kimmelman of McGill University and Alex John London of Carnegie Mellon University argue in an April 23 Science article […]
Even with the United States now leading the world in the number of coronavirus cases, there is still so much regarding the disease we do not know. The virus continues to spread despite lockdown measures with now more than 550,000 confirmed cases in the U.S. Given the lack of widespread testing, however, the number is […]
Racial data on COVID-19 shows a devastating pattern: The disease is ravaging Black communities. In New York City, Black and Latino residents are dying at twice the rate of white people. In Louisiana, 56 percent of the people who have died from the disease are Black, even though whites comprise 63 percent of the state’s […]
Centimeter-scale foldable buildings blocks may lead to industrial applications — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com Source link
I have seen 160,000 sunrises and sunsets, more than anyone could hope for. Circling hundreds of miles above the surface of our big blue marble for 30 years, I’ve had a remarkable view of the universe. I haven’t always been comfortable up here, but thanks to many of you I have outgrown a host of […]
Pathologists are starting to get a closer look at the damage that COVID-19 does to the body by carefully examining the internal organs of people who have died from the novel coronavirus. Transcript to come shortly. Rights & Permissions ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S) W. Wayt Gibbs W. Wayt Gibbs is a contributing editor for Scientific American […]
Black rhinos have terrible eyesight. Even so, these giant African herbivores easily fend off hungry lions and hyenas. “Their basic body plan has proved to be good enough to survive on a savanna full of large predators, being very large, thick-skinned—big, rapierlike horns.” Victoria University of Melbourne behavioral ecologist Roan Plotz. But those protective traits […]
Testing is one of the most daunting obstacles to overcome before thousands can again pack beaches and baseball stadiums. The much-lauded gene-editing technology CRISPR is now making a bid to help fill in holes in testing regimens. Last week researchers published a study in Nature Biotechnology describing a new assay for the novel coronavirus that causes […]