Indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic coincide with a heavy mental health burden

The COVID-19 pandemic is taking a heavy mental health toll even on people who are not directly impacted by the disease, shows a new study in Frontiers in Psychiatry.

Development of haptic touch sensor that works by static electricity

Super-micro, low-power sensors and devices that can send and receive signals and information anytime, anywhere will become an integral part of people's lives in a hyper-connected world driven by the Internet of Things (IoT). An important issue is continually supplying electricity to the countless electronic devices connected to the system. This is because it is difficult to reduce the size and weight of the battery using the conventional way of charging and changing it.

Future climate changes in nature reserves

The Earth's nature reserves are the basis for the preservation of global biodiversity. They are set to be affected by future climate change in very different ways. Detailed local knowledge of climate change impacts can therefore make a significant contribution to the management of protected areas and the preservation of their ecological function. A biogeographic study by the University of Bayreuth in the journal Diversity and Distributions draws attention to this fact. It is based on climate forecasts for more than 130,000 nature reserves worldwide.

Paris shuts bars to brake COVID-19 spread

Bars and cafes in Paris, placed on maximum coronavirus alert Monday, will be shuttered for two weeks under new measures to fight the rapid spread of the epidemic, but restaurants will remain open, officials said.

Indian capital launches campaign to curb toxic air pollution

Authorities in New Delhi launched an anti-pollution campaign on Monday in an attempt to curb air pollution levels ahead of winter, when the capital is regularly covered in toxic haze, and warned that filthy air could make the coronavirus pandemic more dangerous.

3 win Nobel medicine award for Hepatitis C virus discovery

Americans Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice, and British scientist Michael Houghton were awarded the Nobel Price for Medicine or Physiology on Monday for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.

Russia virus cases approach May high in 'serious' upturn

Russia on Monday recorded a rise in coronavirus cases close to the maximum level in May but it has stopped short of reimposing strict lockdown measures.

Microsoft plans $1 billion data center venture in Greece

Microsoft has announced plans to build three data centers in greater Athens, providing a badly needed investment of up to $1 billion to the Greek economy which has been hammered by the pandemic.

Spouses of ICU patients may be at increased risk for cardiac events or hospitalization

Having a spouse in a hospital's intensive care unit (ICU) may make a person more likely to have a heart attack or cardiac-related hospitalization themselves within a few weeks of the ICU admission, according to new research published today in the American Heart Association's flagship journal Circulation.

Dozens of mammals could be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2

Numerous animals may be vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a large study modelling how the virus might infect different animals' cells, led by UCL researchers.

Britain passes 500,000 coronavirus cases

The United Kingdom passed 500,000 confirmed coronavirus infections on Sunday, official figures showed, in the latest grim milestone for the European country worst-hit by the pandemic.

New Zealand PM says 'we beat the virus again'

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared on Monday New Zealand "beat the virus again" and announced restrictions in the country's largest city would be eased, after a second COVID-19 wave was contained.

In an era of team science, are Nobels out of step?

With the 2020 Nobel prizes this week comes a recurrent question: has the world's most prestigious awards for physics, chemistry and medicine—first conferred in 1901—lost touch with the way modern science is conducted?

'Like wolves to Yellowstone': Tasmanian devils released on Australian mainland

Tasmanian devils have been released into the wild on Australia's mainland 3,000 years after the feisty marsupials went extinct there, in what conservationists described Monday as a "historic" step.

Wildfires raze dozens of homes in New Zealand

Wildfires have destroyed up to 50 homes in New Zealand, authorities announced Monday, saying it was a miracle no one was hurt as "a wall of orange" razed most of a remote South Island village.

Conservation success or pests? Seals spark passionate debate

Nick Muto has fished up and down the New England coast and there is nothing that gets his blood boiling more than the sight of a seal.

NYC seeks to reinstate virus restrictions in some spots

New York City's mayor said Sunday that he has asked the state for permission to close schools and reinstate restrictions on nonessential businesses in several neighborhoods because of a resurgence of the coronavirus.

2020 Nobel season opens with medicine prize

Breakthroughs in the field of health will be honoured Monday when the 2020 Nobel season kicks off with the medicine prize, as the world battles the worst pandemic in a century.

Anglo-Saxon warlord found by detectorists could redraw map of post-Roman Britain

Archaeologists have uncovered a warrior burial in Berkshire that could change historians' understanding of southern Britain in the early Anglo-Saxon era.

Some planets may be better for life than Earth

Earth is not necessarily the best planet in the universe. Researchers have identified two dozen planets outside our solar system that may have conditions more suitable for life than our own. Some of these orbit stars that may be better than even our sun.

How the brain helps us navigate social differences

Our brain responds differently if we talk to a person of a different socioeconomic background from our own compared to when we speak to someone whose background is similar, according to a new imaging study by UCL and Yale researchers.

Parents less aware when their kids vape than when they smoke

Most parents know or suspect when their child smokes, but they are much more likely to be in the dark if the child vapes or uses other tobacco products, according to a large national study by researchers at UC San Francisco.

Method used to track Ebola's trajectory being applied to COVID-19

What exactly happened in Asia that caused SARS-CoV-2 to rapidly spread across the region and then essentially came to a halt there? That's what researchers from the University of South Florida are trying to determine in a new study funded by an NSF Rapid Response grant.

A tale of two cesspits: DNA reveals intestinal health in Medieval Europe and Middle East

A new study published this week in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B demonstrates a first attempt at using the methods of ancient bacterial detection, pioneered in studies of past epidemics, to characterize the microbial diversity of ancient gut contents from two medieval latrines. The findings provide insights into the microbiomes of pre-industrial agricultural populations, which may provide much-needed context for interpreting the health of modern microbiomes.