insidescience--2020-08-11--Researchers Study Violinists To Learn How Humans Act in Synchrony

Researchers Study Violinists To Learn How Humans Act in Synchrony The violin players ' abilities could shed light on everything from epidemics to the spread of fake news .
( Inside Science ) -- Violinists were able to play together and stay in sync even when scientists played tricks on them during experiments .
The musicians ' capabilities may shed light on how people synchronize other kinds of behavior as well , a new study finds .
The capacity for groups to act in sync is seen among everything from subatomic particles to planets , from cells to crowds .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ synchronize is essential `` for understanding decision-making in groups , which is a wide subject related to economics , politics , human sciences and more , '' wrote study senior author Moti Fridman , a physicist at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan , Israel , in an email .
Previously , he investigated the synchronization of lasers and that of singing wineglasses .
Other researchers have explored the ways people synchronize , including in situations such as pedestrians on bridges and brokers in stock markets .
However , this prior work mostly focused @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to everybody else , as opposed to more complex networks where each person might have connections to a varying number of others .
It also had limited control over many aspects of these networks , such as whether there were delays in messages sent between people .
In the new study , Fridman and his colleagues analyzed how well professional violinists could synchronize .
They asked musicians to repeat the same musical phrase , without being able to see or listen to each other apart from what they heard over noise-canceling headphones .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ delay in what the violinists could hear from other players , and they repeated the experiments using different combinations of violinists and with varying delays .
The scientists found the violinists could quicken or slow their tempo by a factor of three to synchronize with others .
They also discovered that individual players could ignore `` frustrating signals '' -- for example , if another violinist was playing at a different tempo compared with the rest of the group -- to achieve synchrony .
`` The ability of humans to ignore frustrated signals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beyond what was predicted by network models until now , '' Fridman wrote in an email .
We are familiar with how people can ignore distractions -- for instance , the ability to listen to one companion amid other conversations during a cocktail party -- `` but until now , all models for human synchronization did not consider this ability , '' he wrote .
Applied mathematician Steven Strogatz at Cornell University , who did not take part in this research , noted he and his colleagues previously tried similar experiments with crickets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ challenging to experiment with -- one year , a virus killed them all off .
`` The great thing is that they 've done the analogous experiment with people , '' Strogatz said .
`` This is a stimulating initial foray into finding the rules that underlie synchronization in complex human networks . ''
Experimental research into how synchronization works has lagged behind theoretical work `` for decades , and so the theoretical work may be going in completely the wrong direction , '' Strogatz said .
`` We 're finally getting some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way science is supposed to work . ''
This work can be beneficial to understanding how and when a group of people in a social network that is exposed to false information can jump to wrong conclusions , according to Fridman .
`` This can prevent what is known as 'fake news ' to spread without control , '' he wrote .
In addition , such research may help lead to ways to better understand epidemics and prevent them from spreading , according to Fridman .
Strogatz noted that delayed interactions within complex @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this study , are also problems with the COVID-19 pandemic -- for instance , the delays seen between when someone is infected and when they show symptoms , or between when someone gets tested and when they get results .
`` Our results are also related to any network where each node in the network has decision-making ability , such as autonomous cars , or introducing AI into our highly connected world , '' Fridman wrote .
`` Our model can predict with high accuracy the dynamic of such systems , beyond what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would now `` like to extend our experiment over the Internet to try to measure the dynamic of hundreds and thousands of violinists , '' Fridman wrote .
The researchers detailed their findings online Aug. 11 in the journal Nature Communications .

The violin players' abilities could shed light on everything from epidemics to the spread of fake news.
Charles Q. Choi, Contributor
(Inside Science) -- Violinists were able to play together and stay in sync even when scientists played tricks on them during experiments. The musicians' capabilities may shed light on how people synchronize other kinds of behavior as well, a new study finds.
The capacity for groups to act in sync is seen among everything from subatomic particles to planets, from cells to crowds. Understanding the ways in which people can synchronize is essential "for understanding decision-making in groups, which is a wide subject related to economics, politics, human sciences and more," wrote study senior author Moti Fridman, a physicist at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, in an email. Previously, he investigated the synchronization of lasers and that of singing wineglasses.
Other researchers have explored the ways people synchronize, including in situations such as pedestrians on bridges and brokers in stock markets. However, this prior work mostly focused on simple networks where everyone was connected to everybody else, as opposed to more complex networks where each person might have connections to a varying number of others. It also had limited control over many aspects of these networks, such as whether there were delays in messages sent between people.
In the new study, Fridman and his colleagues analyzed how well professional violinists could synchronize. They asked musicians to repeat the same musical phrase, without being able to see or listen to each other apart from what they heard over noise-canceling headphones. The researchers could adjust the amount of delay in what the violinists could hear from other players, and they repeated the experiments using different combinations of violinists and with varying delays.
The scientists found the violinists could quicken or slow their tempo by a factor of three to synchronize with others. They also discovered that individual players could ignore "frustrating signals" -- for example, if another violinist was playing at a different tempo compared with the rest of the group -- to achieve synchrony.
"The ability of humans to ignore frustrated signals changes completely the dynamics of human networks beyond what was predicted by network models until now," Fridman wrote in an email. We are familiar with how people can ignore distractions -- for instance, the ability to listen to one companion amid other conversations during a cocktail party -- "but until now, all models for human synchronization did not consider this ability," he wrote.
Applied mathematician Steven Strogatz at Cornell University, who did not take part in this research, noted he and his colleagues previously tried similar experiments with crickets in soundproof boxes, but they proved challenging to experiment with -- one year, a virus killed them all off. "The great thing is that they've done the analogous experiment with people," Strogatz said. "This is a stimulating initial foray into finding the rules that underlie synchronization in complex human networks."
Experimental research into how synchronization works has lagged behind theoretical work "for decades, and so the theoretical work may be going in completely the wrong direction," Strogatz said. "We're finally getting some feedback from experiment to theory, the way science is supposed to work."
This work can be beneficial to understanding how and when a group of people in a social network that is exposed to false information can jump to wrong conclusions, according to Fridman. "This can prevent what is known as 'fake news' to spread without control," he wrote.
In addition, such research may help lead to ways to better understand epidemics and prevent them from spreading, according to Fridman. Strogatz noted that delayed interactions within complex networks, such as those examined in this study, are also problems with the COVID-19 pandemic -- for instance, the delays seen between when someone is infected and when they show symptoms, or between when someone gets tested and when they get results.
"Our results are also related to any network where each node in the network has decision-making ability, such as autonomous cars, or introducing AI into our highly connected world," Fridman wrote. "Our model can predict with high accuracy the dynamic of such systems, beyond what was possible before."
The scientists would now "like to extend our experiment over the Internet to try to measure the dynamic of hundreds and thousands of violinists," Fridman wrote.
The researchers detailed their findings online Aug. 11 in the journal Nature Communications.


insidescience--2020-07-31--Scientists Have Been Wrong About How Human Sperm Move for Over 300 Years

Scientists Have Been Wrong About How Human Sperm Move for Over 300 Years Traditional microscopes make it look like sperm tails undulate symmetrically -- but that 's an optical illusion .
( Inside Science ) -- When Antonie van Leeuwenhoek , the `` father of microbiology , '' peered through a microscope at a human sperm in the 1670s , it seemed clear what was going on .
The cell 's movement was powered by the symmetrical thrashing of its long tail , with waves undulating equally down both sides .
In the ensuing centuries , countless scientists and microscope @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But their eyes were lying .
Using advanced microscopy techniques and mathematical analysis , researchers have for the first time described how human sperm move in 3D .
`` When we saw the asymmetry , it shocked us .
We did n't believe it at first , '' said Hermes Gadelha , a mathematician at Bristol University in the U.K. , who conducted the research with colleagues at the National Autonomous University of Mexico .
The findings were published today in the journal Science Advances .
Researchers have long known that sperm spin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fluid in front of them .
This spinning is visible in the 2D view one gets looking down at a microscope slide , since the sperm 's flattened head appears to blink with each rotation , said Gadelha .
But the 2D view also creates an optical illusion of symmetrical tail movement .
In fact , said Gadelha , if you could attach a tiny camera to the head of a sperm and point it down toward the tail , you would see that from the sperm 's point of view , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But because the sperm also spins around , the tail ends up beating in a circle around the direction of travel , averaging out the lopsided strokes to propel the sperm forward .
After making their discoveries , the researchers searched the published literature for clues , and learned that the internal structure of a sperm cell is also highly asymmetrical .
Many of the components that power and control movement are unevenly distributed -- so much so that it 's hard to imagine how they could produce symmetrical waves .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one had suggested that a sperm 's movements might be as lopsided as its innards .
`` Then we feel , like , this warm feeling inside : 'Yes , finally , this makes sense , ' '' said Gadelha .
`` The sperm is as asymmetric as it should be , because of its asymmetric heart . ''

Traditional microscopes make it look like sperm tails undulate symmetrically -- but that's an optical illusion.
Nala Rogers, Staff Writer
(Inside Science) -- When Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, the "father of microbiology," peered through a microscope at a human sperm in the 1670s, it seemed clear what was going on. The cell's movement was powered by the symmetrical thrashing of its long tail, with waves undulating equally down both sides. In the ensuing centuries, countless scientists and microscope hobbyists have seen the same thing.
But their eyes were lying.
Using advanced microscopy techniques and mathematical analysis, researchers have for the first time described how human sperm move in 3D.
"When we saw the asymmetry, it shocked us. We didn't believe it at first," said Hermes Gadelha, a mathematician at Bristol University in the U.K., who conducted the research with colleagues at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The findings were published today in the journal Science Advances.
Credit: polymaths-lab.com
Researchers have long known that sperm spin as they swim, essentially drilling into the fluid in front of them. This spinning is visible in the 2D view one gets looking down at a microscope slide, since the sperm's flattened head appears to blink with each rotation, said Gadelha. But the 2D view also creates an optical illusion of symmetrical tail movement.
In fact, said Gadelha, if you could attach a tiny camera to the head of a sperm and point it down toward the tail, you would see that from the sperm's point of view, the tail only beats on one side. But because the sperm also spins around, the tail ends up beating in a circle around the direction of travel, averaging out the lopsided strokes to propel the sperm forward.
After making their discoveries, the researchers searched the published literature for clues, and learned that the internal structure of a sperm cell is also highly asymmetrical. Many of the components that power and control movement are unevenly distributed -- so much so that it's hard to imagine how they could produce symmetrical waves. But until now, said Gadelha, no one had suggested that a sperm's movements might be as lopsided as its innards.
"Then we feel, like, this warm feeling inside: 'Yes, finally, this makes sense,'" said Gadelha. "The sperm is as asymmetric as it should be, because of its asymmetric heart."


insidescience--2020-07-30--Noise Exposure May Cause Even More Hearing Loss Than Doctors Thought

Noise Exposure May Cause Even More Hearing Loss Than Doctors Thought Study attributes age-related hearing loss to hair cells -- the same sense organs that are damaged by loud noises .
( Inside Science ) -- Researchers have long debated why so many people lose their hearing as they age .
Some have argued that the problem lies mainly with the stria vascularis , a sort of battery in the inner ear that powers the transformation of sound energy into nerve impulses .
But a new study places the blame largely with hair cells -- the same sensory organs that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ details of the inner ear are impossible to examine while people are alive .
To really see what ’ s going on , researchers must take thin slices from cadavers and examine them with microscopes .
When researchers did this in the past , they found that older people often had damage in a structure called the stria vascularis , or stria for short .
The stria acts like a battery , maintaining a high concentration of positively charged ions in the fluid that bathes the sensory tips of hair cells .
When @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the movement opens channels , allowing positive ions to flow into the hair cells and produce an electrical current .
In this way , the stria allows sound to be transformed into electrical signals the brain can decode .
In past studies , researchers didn ’ t notice much damage to the hair cells themselves .
But according to Charles Liberman , an auditory neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard Medical School , that ’ s because they weren ’ t looking hard enough .
In each region past @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they could see any surviving hair cells , rather than determining what fraction had been destroyed .
It is possible to count how many are destroyed , because hair cells are arranged in a regular pattern like a checkerboard , said Liberman .
`` If you looked at a checkerboard and you shot a bullet through some of the squares , you could look at that whole checkerboard and you could see how many were blown out , '' he said .
`` Everybody previously just sort of looked and said , 'Yeah @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ' '' In the new study , Liberman and his colleagues examined the inner ears of 120 cadavers -- far more than any prior study .
In 77 cases , they also had access to hearing tests conducted within a few years prior to the person 's death .
The subjects ranged in age from birth to 104 , although the vast majority were over 50 when they died .
Liberman 's team observed extensive damage to both the hair cells and the stria .
However , damage to the stria bore no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sensitivity .
In contrast , missing hair cells were associated with significantly worse hearing , especially when people were missing a type of hair cell responsible for amplifying sound .
By the time the average person in the study turned 60 , they had already lost half of these sound-amplifying hair cells .
Hair cell loss was also generally worse in people who were exposed to loud noises in the military or in their jobs .
Hair cells in different parts of the cochlea detect and amplify different frequencies of sound , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the frequencies for which they were missing the most hair cells .
This was easy to see in graphs known as audiograms that display the results of people 's hearing tests .
`` The hair cell loss is mirroring the shape of the audiogram , '' said Peizhe Wu , an auditory neuroscientist who worked with Liberman on the study , which appeared last week in the Journal of Neuroscience .
The findings suggest that hair cells are far more important in age-related hearing loss than previously appreciated , said Dwayne Simmons , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Waco , Texas , who was not involved in the research .
Simmons found it especially compelling that when the researchers reanalyzed specimens from previous studies using their new methods , they found hair cell loss that the earlier research had missed .
`` To me , that 's extremely powerful , '' said Simmons .
`` Those previous studies may have missed some really , really interesting data . ''
What it means for your ears If damaged hair cells are the main culprit in age-related hearing loss , then much of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be avoided by wearing ear protection .
Indeed , past research has shown that in traditional societies in Sudan and Easter Island , where there is very little noise pollution , elderly people have better hearing than one would expect for people of the same age in industrialized societies .
The new study also raises hopes for treatments currently in development to regrow hair cells , said Liberman .
Such treatments have been shown to work in lab animals , and the new findings suggest they could potentially benefit a large swathe of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ auditory neuroscientist at the University of South Florida in Tampa who was not involved in the research , agreed that the study makes a compelling case for the importance of hair cell loss .
But he said that does n't mean the stria is n't important too .
The researchers analyzed the stria by measuring its cross-sectional area -- a relatively crude metric , said Frisina .
Strial tissue may start to break down and stop working before cell death causes visible changes in size .
Moreover , cadaver tissues will shrink and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on slides , which could throw off size-based measurements .
That could be why the researchers did n't find a correlation between strial damage and hearing loss , said Frisina .
But Liberman does n't think their measurement techniques were a big factor .
He suspects that by the time the stria is bad enough to impact hearing , most people in our society have already lost so many hair cells that it no longer matters .
Hair cell loss seems to be a less important part of the aging process in other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ led researchers to underestimate the importance of hair cell loss in humans , said Liberman .
Scientists often get clues about human biology by studying other animals , and there is extensive research showing that old gerbils lose their hearing because of damage to the stria .
Richard Schmiedt , one of the scientists who conducted the gerbil research , noted that his team protected their gerbils from noise exposure in order to isolate the effects of aging .
In the absence of noise damage , humans might follow the same pattern as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first thing to go .
`` [ The new study ] demonstrates that many humans in our western civilization are noise exposed over their entire lifetimes , and that pure aging effects may be masked by this noise exposure , '' wrote Schmiedt in an email .
If that 's true , then protecting or regrowing hair cells will only help up to a point .
Even people with intact hair cells may eventually lose their hearing as their stria degrades .
Nevertheless , the new study suggests there 's a lot you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ -- a message Wu and Liberman have taken to heart .
`` I never used to wear ear plugs when I mowed the grass , '' said Liberman .
`` Now I do . ''

Study attributes age-related hearing loss to hair cells -- the same sense organs that are damaged by loud noises.
Nala Rogers, Staff Writer
(Inside Science) -- Researchers have long debated why so many people lose their hearing as they age. Some have argued that the problem lies mainly with the stria vascularis, a sort of battery in the inner ear that powers the transformation of sound energy into nerve impulses. But a new study places the blame largely with hair cells -- the same sensory organs that are damaged by loud noises.
Most details of the inner ear are impossible to examine while people are alive. To really see what’s going on, researchers must take thin slices from cadavers and examine them with microscopes.
When researchers did this in the past, they found that older people often had damage in a structure called the stria vascularis, or stria for short. The stria acts like a battery, maintaining a high concentration of positively charged ions in the fluid that bathes the sensory tips of hair cells. When sound waves reach those sensory tips, the movement opens channels, allowing positive ions to flow into the hair cells and produce an electrical current. In this way, the stria allows sound to be transformed into electrical signals the brain can decode.
In past studies, researchers didn’t notice much damage to the hair cells themselves. But according to Charles Liberman, an auditory neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard Medical School, that’s because they weren’t looking hard enough. In each region past researchers examined, they simply noted whether they could see any surviving hair cells, rather than determining what fraction had been destroyed.
It is possible to count how many are destroyed, because hair cells are arranged in a regular pattern like a checkerboard, said Liberman.
"If you looked at a checkerboard and you shot a bullet through some of the squares, you could look at that whole checkerboard and you could see how many were blown out," he said. "Everybody previously just sort of looked and said, 'Yeah, there's a checkerboard there.'"
Counting the checkerboard
In the new study, Liberman and his colleagues examined the inner ears of 120 cadavers -- far more than any prior study. In 77 cases, they also had access to hearing tests conducted within a few years prior to the person's death. The subjects ranged in age from birth to 104, although the vast majority were over 50 when they died.
Image A section of the inner ear of a 25-year-old woman. The row of structures at the top are inner hair cells, which transform sound waves into nerve impulses. The array at the bottom is made up of outer hair cells, which are responsible for amplifying sound. Several of the outer hair cells are missing. Media credits Courtesy of Charles Liberman Media rights This image may only be reproduced with this Inside Science article.
Liberman's team observed extensive damage to both the hair cells and the stria. However, damage to the stria bore no detectable relationship to people's actual hearing sensitivity. In contrast, missing hair cells were associated with significantly worse hearing, especially when people were missing a type of hair cell responsible for amplifying sound. By the time the average person in the study turned 60, they had already lost half of these sound-amplifying hair cells. Hair cell loss was also generally worse in people who were exposed to loud noises in the military or in their jobs.
Hair cells in different parts of the cochlea detect and amplify different frequencies of sound, and people tended to hear less clearly in the frequencies for which they were missing the most hair cells. This was easy to see in graphs known as audiograms that display the results of people's hearing tests.
"The hair cell loss is mirroring the shape of the audiogram," said Peizhe Wu, an auditory neuroscientist who worked with Liberman on the study, which appeared last week in the Journal of Neuroscience.
The findings suggest that hair cells are far more important in age-related hearing loss than previously appreciated, said Dwayne Simmons, an auditory neuroscientist at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, who was not involved in the research. Simmons found it especially compelling that when the researchers reanalyzed specimens from previous studies using their new methods, they found hair cell loss that the earlier research had missed.
"To me, that's extremely powerful," said Simmons. "Those previous studies may have missed some really, really interesting data."
What it means for your ears
If damaged hair cells are the main culprit in age-related hearing loss, then much of the hearing loss people experience could potentially be avoided by wearing ear protection. Indeed, past research has shown that in traditional societies in Sudan and Easter Island, where there is very little noise pollution, elderly people have better hearing than one would expect for people of the same age in industrialized societies.
The new study also raises hopes for treatments currently in development to regrow hair cells, said Liberman. Such treatments have been shown to work in lab animals, and the new findings suggest they could potentially benefit a large swathe of the population.
Robert Frisina, an auditory neuroscientist at the University of South Florida in Tampa who was not involved in the research, agreed that the study makes a compelling case for the importance of hair cell loss. But he said that doesn't mean the stria isn't important too.
The researchers analyzed the stria by measuring its cross-sectional area -- a relatively crude metric, said Frisina. Strial tissue may start to break down and stop working before cell death causes visible changes in size. Moreover, cadaver tissues will shrink and degrade to varying degrees before being fixed on slides, which could throw off size-based measurements. That could be why the researchers didn't find a correlation between strial damage and hearing loss, said Frisina.
But Liberman doesn't think their measurement techniques were a big factor. He suspects that by the time the stria is bad enough to impact hearing, most people in our society have already lost so many hair cells that it no longer matters.
Hair cell loss seems to be a less important part of the aging process in other species, a fact that may have led researchers to underestimate the importance of hair cell loss in humans, said Liberman. Scientists often get clues about human biology by studying other animals, and there is extensive research showing that old gerbils lose their hearing because of damage to the stria.
Richard Schmiedt, one of the scientists who conducted the gerbil research, noted that his team protected their gerbils from noise exposure in order to isolate the effects of aging. In the absence of noise damage, humans might follow the same pattern as gerbils, with the stria being the first thing to go.
"[The new study] demonstrates that many humans in our western civilization are noise exposed over their entire lifetimes, and that pure aging effects may be masked by this noise exposure," wrote Schmiedt in an email.
If that's true, then protecting or regrowing hair cells will only help up to a point. Even people with intact hair cells may eventually lose their hearing as their stria degrades. Nevertheless, the new study suggests there's a lot you can do to keep your hearing sharp -- a message Wu and Liberman have taken to heart.
"I never used to wear ear plugs when I mowed the grass," said Liberman. "Now I do."


insidescience--2020-07-21--How Can Countries Curb A Second Wave of COVID-19 Infections?

How Can Countries Curb A Second Wave of COVID-19 Infections ?
A new study shows how self-imposed COVID prevention measures like hand-washing and mask-wearing work to prevent a large outbreak -- if they happen fast .
( Inside Science ) -- Even before the first COVID-19 cases hit Europe , an international team of researchers anticipated that public health policymakers in different countries would be seeking recommendations on how to delay or flatten the peak of an epidemic .
After the first epidemic wave in Europe was curbed by national lockdowns , the question remained : How could countries avoid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
A new study gives clues about the impact of different policies used to control outbreaks .
The team hypothesized that in many Western countries , an outbreak could flare up again when government-imposed interventions lifted , so individual behavior would be key to changing the course of the pandemic .
The study , published today in PLOS Medicine , confirms how important individual actions are .
Models showed that if a population quickly becomes aware of the coronavirus and how to reduce transmission , self-imposed prevention measures like hand-washing , social distancing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ peak number of cases .
The prevention measures worked best when implemented promptly and when used in combination .
Under those circumstances , the models showed they would reduce transmission of the virus by more than 50 % , potentially staving off a second wave altogether , said Ganna Rozhnova , an infectious disease modeler at Utrecht University in the Netherlands .
“ If sufficiently many people will adopt and maintain these , then the lockdowns could be avoided in the future as well as less people will contract the disease , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ limitations to their model .
For example , the analysis did n't account for individual differences between people based on factors like age and genetics , and it did n't include the possibility that people could be infected more than once .
The study assumes that awareness of COVID-19 grows when people learn about the number of new COVID-19 cases .
This type of public awareness could potentially be generated through the media or through notifications from governments or public health institutions , said Rozhnova .
She added that it 's also important @ @ @ @ @ @ @ distancing and mask-wearing measures can be .

A new study shows how self-imposed COVID prevention measures like hand-washing and mask-wearing work to prevent a large outbreak -- if they happen fast.
Katharine Gammon, Contributor
(Inside Science) -- Even before the first COVID-19 cases hit Europe, an international team of researchers anticipated that public health policymakers in different countries would be seeking recommendations on how to delay or flatten the peak of an epidemic. After the first epidemic wave in Europe was curbed by national lockdowns, the question remained: How could countries avoid or diminish a second wave of infections?
A new study gives clues about the impact of different policies used to control outbreaks. The team hypothesized that in many Western countries, an outbreak could flare up again when government-imposed interventions lifted, so individual behavior would be key to changing the course of the pandemic.
The study, published today in PLOS Medicine, confirms how important individual actions are. Models showed that if a population quickly becomes aware of the coronavirus and how to reduce transmission, self-imposed prevention measures like hand-washing, social distancing and mask-wearing can diminish and postpone the peak number of cases.
The prevention measures worked best when implemented promptly and when used in combination. Under those circumstances, the models showed they would reduce transmission of the virus by more than 50%, potentially staving off a second wave altogether, said Ganna Rozhnova, an infectious disease modeler at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. “If sufficiently many people will adopt and maintain these, then the lockdowns could be avoided in the future as well as less people will contract the disease,” said Rozhnova.
The study authors noted limitations to their model. For example, the analysis didn't account for individual differences between people based on factors like age and genetics, and it didn't include the possibility that people could be infected more than once.
The study assumes that awareness of COVID-19 grows when people learn about the number of new COVID-19 cases. This type of public awareness could potentially be generated through the media or through notifications from governments or public health institutions, said Rozhnova. She added that it's also important to keep stressing how critical hand-washing, distancing and mask-wearing measures can be.


insidescience--2020-06-30--Protests, A Retracted Paper, and a Super-Earth Planet

( Inside Science ) -- This has been a month of protest , and academia is no exception .
Scientists of color have been sharing their experiences of working in an academic environment that can hold them back -- often in unintended ways .
A paper published at the beginning of this month found that Black scientists , matched to white scientists in gender , career stage , degree type , institute prestige and area of expertise , were 25 % less likely to receive funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health .
This month has been a wake-up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be free of systemic racism .
It is not .
COVID-19 continues to spread .
Last month we reported on a number of studies testing potential treatments for COVID-19 .
But since then , one of those studies has come under intense scrutiny .
A paper purported to include data from over 96,000 COVID-19 patients and it helped convince the World Health Organization to stop chloroquine trials .
But if you look at the methods , you can see the data was not collected by the researchers .
Rather , it came from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Companies collaborating with researchers is nothing new , but an investigation by the Guardian newspaper revealed that Surgisphere was not all it seemed .
Maybe life would be simpler with a move to a quieter neighborhood out in space .
How about the habitable zone of GJ887 , a red dwarf star a mere 11 light-years away , with two recently revealed super-Earth-sized planets ?
Now , unfortunately , these planets orbit quite close to their star , making their surface too hot for liquid water -- not ideal for habitation .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .

A month’s worth of cool science stories, summed up.
Alistair Jennings, Contributor
(Inside Science) -- This has been a month of protest, and academia is no exception. Scientists of color have been sharing their experiences of working in an academic environment that can hold them back -- often in unintended ways. A paper published at the beginning of this month found that Black scientists, matched to white scientists in gender, career stage, degree type, institute prestige and area of expertise, were 25% less likely to receive funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. This month has been a wake-up call for anyone who imagined science to be free of systemic racism. It is not.
COVID-19 continues to spread. Last month we reported on a number of studies testing potential treatments for COVID-19. But since then, one of those studies has come under intense scrutiny. A paper purported to include data from over 96,000 COVID-19 patients and it helped convince the World Health Organization to stop chloroquine trials. But if you look at the methods, you can see the data was not collected by the researchers. Rather, it came from the database of a company called Surgisphere. Companies collaborating with researchers is nothing new, but an investigation by the Guardian newspaper revealed that Surgisphere was not all it seemed.
Maybe life would be simpler with a move to a quieter neighborhood out in space. How about the habitable zone of GJ887, a red dwarf star a mere 11 light-years away, with two recently revealed super-Earth-sized planets? Now, unfortunately, these planets orbit quite close to their star, making their surface too hot for liquid water -- not ideal for habitation. But there may be a third planet.


insidescience--2020-05-20--Smart Speakers Could Detect Cardiac Arrest

A new skill for a smart speaker -- Google Home or Amazon ’ s Alexa may listen for signs of @ @ @ @ @ Science ) -- A cardiac arrest can happen suddenly , and patients can become unresponsive @ @ @ @ @ gasp for air , making a sound known as agonal breathing .
Researchers at the @ @ @ @ @ a way for a smart speaker , like the Google Home or Amazon ’ s @ @ @ @ @ smartphone , to detect the gasping sound of agonal breathing and call for help .

A new skill for a smart speaker -- Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa may listen for signs of cardiac arrest.
Emilie Lorditch, Contributor
(Inside Science) -- A cardiac arrest can happen suddenly, and patients can become unresponsive and either stop breathing or gasp for air, making a sound known as agonal breathing. Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a way for a smart speaker, like the Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa, or even your smartphone, to detect the gasping sound of agonal breathing and call for help.


insidescience--2020-05-11--Humans and Neanderthals May Have Shared Jewelry Designs

Humans and Neanderthals May Have Shared Jewelry Designs Pendants made from cave bear teeth are among the items found with the earliest modern human fossils in a cave in Bulgaria .
( Inside Science ) -- The earliest modern human fossils and artifacts ever unearthed from Europe reveal ancient humans may have inspired or taught Neanderthals to make jewelry , a new study finds .
Much remains unknown about when modern humans entered Europe .
Previous research suggested the earliest modern human artifacts on the continent , which included bone flutes and ivory figurines , belonged to the so-called Aurignacian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we had of the Aurignacian in western Europe went back to about 42,000 to 43,000 years ago , '' said Jean-Jacques Hublin , a paleoanthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig , Germany .
That ’ s close to the time Neanderthals , one of the closest extinct relatives of modern humans , disappeared .
Neanderthals reached Europe at least 400,000 years ago and vanished about 40,000 years ago , so pinpointing when modern humans arrived in Europe can shed light on our interactions with Neanderthals and what role @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their extinction .
To aid in this task , scientists investigated Bacho Kiro Cave on the northern slope of the Balkan Mountains in Bulgaria .
Archaeologists unearthed ancient human remains there in the 1970s , but the remains were subsequently lost .
Renewed excavations starting in 2015 focused on pinning down the age and identity of the cave ’ s denizens .
From a rich , dark layer of earth near the base of the deposits in the cave , the researchers uncovered five modern human fossils , some 2,000 stone and bone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bones from hunted animals , often bison and red deer .
Except for one molar , the fossils were too fragmented to be recognized by their appearance , so the scientists identified them by analyzing their proteins and DNA .
Radiocarbon dating suggests the fossils ranged from 43,940 to 46,940 years old , and artifacts at the site date back 47,000 years .
`` Modern humans arrived in Europe much earlier than we thought they did , '' Hublin said .
He and his colleagues detailed their findings online on May 11 in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nature Ecology & Evolution .
Blades and other tools in Bacho Kiro `` are quite different from Aurignacian ones , '' Hublin said .
Instead , they resemble artifacts found across Eurasia , from central Europe to Mongolia , assigned to the so-called Initial Upper Paleolithic .
These findings suggest modern humans migrated to Europe in at least two waves .
The Initial Upper Paleolithic group arrived first `` but for some reason did not expand everywhere -- maybe they did not have that many people , or maybe climatic conditions deteriorated after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` Then the wave of the Aurignacians made it to the U.K. , Spain , everywhere in Europe .
The first wave seems genetically unrelated to present-day Europeans , whereas the second wave still has descendants today in Europe , making up 25 % of European DNA . ''
Among the artifacts the researchers excavated from Bacho Kiro were pendants made from cave bear teeth .
These strikingly resemble ornaments found in French and Spanish sites linked with Neanderthals dating to between 40,000 to 44,000 years old , raising the possibility that modern @ @ @ @ @ @ @ similar pendants .
`` I think the reason we saw all these changes in Neanderthals was interactions between them and modern humans , '' Hublin said .
Previous research found modern humans and Neanderthals interacted enough to interbreed , he noted -- about 1.5 % to 2.1 % of the DNA of anyone outside Africa is Neanderthal in origin .
`` The design , use and sharing of jewelry is an expression of membership to a social entity , ethnic group , family or gender , '' said Marco Peresani , a paleoanthopologist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , who did not take part in this research .
Studying this ancient jewelry `` can unveil unknown behaviors between Neanderthals and modern humans . ''
All in all , these findings suggest modern humans and Neanderthals coexisted in Europe for roughly 8,000 years , Hublin said .
`` If there was a superiority of modern humans over Neanderthals , it was not an overwhelming superiority , if it took 8,000 years for modern humans to replace Neanderthals , '' he said .
Future research will analyze genetic data from Bacho Kiro , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lot more coming from this site , '' he said .

Pendants made from cave bear teeth are among the items found with the earliest modern human fossils in a cave in Bulgaria.
Charles Q. Choi, Contributor
(Inside Science) -- The earliest modern human fossils and artifacts ever unearthed from Europe reveal ancient humans may have inspired or taught Neanderthals to make jewelry, a new study finds.
Much remains unknown about when modern humans entered Europe. Previous research suggested the earliest modern human artifacts on the continent, which included bone flutes and ivory figurines, belonged to the so-called Aurignacian tradition, and "the oldest dates we had of the Aurignacian in western Europe went back to about 42,000 to 43,000 years ago," said Jean-Jacques Hublin, a paleoanthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
That’s close to the time Neanderthals, one of the closest extinct relatives of modern humans, disappeared. Neanderthals reached Europe at least 400,000 years ago and vanished about 40,000 years ago, so pinpointing when modern humans arrived in Europe can shed light on our interactions with Neanderthals and what role, if any, we played in their extinction.
To aid in this task, scientists investigated Bacho Kiro Cave on the northern slope of the Balkan Mountains in Bulgaria. Archaeologists unearthed ancient human remains there in the 1970s, but the remains were subsequently lost. Renewed excavations starting in 2015 focused on pinning down the age and identity of the cave’s denizens.
From a rich, dark layer of earth near the base of the deposits in the cave, the researchers uncovered five modern human fossils, some 2,000 stone and bone tools and ornaments, and roughly 14,000 bones from hunted animals, often bison and red deer. Except for one molar, the fossils were too fragmented to be recognized by their appearance, so the scientists identified them by analyzing their proteins and DNA.
Radiocarbon dating suggests the fossils ranged from 43,940 to 46,940 years old, and artifacts at the site date back 47,000 years. "Modern humans arrived in Europe much earlier than we thought they did," Hublin said. He and his colleagues detailed their findings online on May 11 in two studies in the journals Nature and Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Blades and other tools in Bacho Kiro "are quite different from Aurignacian ones," Hublin said. Instead, they resemble artifacts found across Eurasia, from central Europe to Mongolia, assigned to the so-called Initial Upper Paleolithic.
These findings suggest modern humans migrated to Europe in at least two waves. The Initial Upper Paleolithic group arrived first "but for some reason did not expand everywhere -- maybe they did not have that many people, or maybe climatic conditions deteriorated after they moved," Hublin said. "Then the wave of the Aurignacians made it to the U.K., Spain, everywhere in Europe. The first wave seems genetically unrelated to present-day Europeans, whereas the second wave still has descendants today in Europe, making up 25% of European DNA."
Image The artifacts on the left are jewelry and bone tools from Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria, created by Homo sapiens (modern humans) about 45,000 years ago. The artifacts on the right are slightly more recent jewelry and bone tools created by Neanderthals and found in Grotte du Renne in France. Media credits Credits: Rosen Spasov and Geoff Smith, MPI-EVA Leipzig Media rights Rights: CC-BY-SA 2.0
Among the artifacts the researchers excavated from Bacho Kiro were pendants made from cave bear teeth. These strikingly resemble ornaments found in French and Spanish sites linked with Neanderthals dating to between 40,000 to 44,000 years old, raising the possibility that modern humans taught or inspired Neanderthals to make similar pendants.
"I think the reason we saw all these changes in Neanderthals was interactions between them and modern humans," Hublin said. Previous research found modern humans and Neanderthals interacted enough to interbreed, he noted -- about 1.5% to 2.1% of the DNA of anyone outside Africa is Neanderthal in origin.
"The design, use and sharing of jewelry is an expression of membership to a social entity, ethnic group, family or gender," said Marco Peresani, a paleoanthopologist at the University of Ferrara in Italy, who did not take part in this research. Studying this ancient jewelry "can unveil unknown behaviors between Neanderthals and modern humans."
All in all, these findings suggest modern humans and Neanderthals coexisted in Europe for roughly 8,000 years, Hublin said. "If there was a superiority of modern humans over Neanderthals, it was not an overwhelming superiority, if it took 8,000 years for modern humans to replace Neanderthals," he said.
Future research will analyze genetic data from Bacho Kiro, Hublin added. "There's a lot more coming from this site," he said.


insidescience--2020-05-05--How a Strategy Based on Testing Helped Eradicate the Smallpox Virus

How a Strategy Based on Testing Helped Eradicate the Smallpox Virus The ghost of an ancient disease could inform the fight against COVID-19 .
Image from a 1975 training exercise in Bangladesh that was part of the effort to eradicate smallpox .
( Inside Science ) -- `` Testing , testing , testing '' has become the mantra of the fight against the coronavirus .
Scientific experts all seem to agree the virus can not be controlled without adequate testing .
If you want to know why , think of Ali Maow Maalin .
Maalin , a young cook in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Somalia , was the last person to catch naturally transmitted smallpox .
He volunteered to drive an infected family to a hospital in October 1977 , and the next week came down with the disease .
He was discovered because the World Health Organization set up a surveillance system that reported his illness , and vaccinators swarmed Merca blocking transmission .
He survived and did not pass the disease on to anyone else .
( Maalin died of malaria in 2013 . )
They knew exactly where the virus was in real time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that found Maalin even in a remote village in sub-Saharan Africa .
I had a glimpse of this process reporting for the Philadelphia Inquirer and researching the book that eventually became `` The Invisible Fire , '' published in 1979 .
It was an adventure .
The Somali Democratic Republic barred Western reporters , so I had to sneak in under false pretenses , as a WHO researcher .
A real WHO researcher took me to meet Maalin .
Are there lessons to be learned from what happened a half century ago ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the smallpox virus , that they lack in battling the coronavirus .
For one , variola is a very large virus , so big it can be seen with a normal microscope .
Unlike many viruses , it had no animal reservoir .
It survived by transmission between humans only , so it had no place to hide .
Most of that is not true of the new coronavirus , but there are crucial lessons connecting the two .
Testing that confirms the presence of a virus will tell you where a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about it .
And testing can give information as it moves .
Experts agree the reported numbers of people who have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 , the type of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 , represent a substantial undercount .
One controversial study at Stanford suggested confirmed cases are a small fraction of the true number .
Without more testing we don ’ t know what percentage of cases have been detected so far .
Another difference between COVID-19 now and smallpox in the 1970s is the availability of an almost perfect smallpox vaccine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ English physician Edward Jenner .
Jenner realized that farm workers who contracted a similar disease , cowpox , never seemed to catch smallpox .
To test it , Jenner inoculated an 8-year-old boy , James Phipps , with scabs from the cowpox lesions of dairy maid Sarah Nelms .
A few weeks later he tried to give Phipps a mild case of smallpox and found the boy protected ; Jenner had discovered a safe vaccine and invented immunology in the process .
The vaccine was almost 100 % effective with few side effects @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eradicated in 1977 .
Two other factors helped : The vaccine could be freeze-dried so it was stable and transportable , and scientists at the drug company Wyeth developed the perfect delivery system , a bifurcated needle that administered an exact amount of vaccine into the dermis , the layer of skin below the epidermis , when the needle was jabbed twice -- essentially painless , no injections needed .
Some people with COVID-19 can walk around without exhibiting symptoms .
No one is sure when in the course of infection the tests @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Tina Tan , professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University and an infectious disease expert .
“ If someone has been significantly exposed to COVID-19 , regardless of the test results , that person pretty much has the infection , ” Tan said .
In contrast , smallpox victims were often hard to miss and there were no asymptomatic cases , said Gigi Gronvail , senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security .
They looked ghastly , with sores , sometimes bleeding , all over much of their bodies .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ days and people were infectious only when they had symptoms .
Tests , vaccines , and consistent visible symptoms were the weapons medicine needed for the eradication of smallpox .
Next came the strategy .
In 1958 , to the surprise of the world , the Soviet Union urged the WHO to eradicate smallpox and offered funding to develop a plan .
The U.S. , the WHO ’ s major funder , agreed .
No one knows why Russians made the humane offer , but it became perhaps the single best cooperative arrangement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Cold War .
Russian and American scientists , along with epidemiologists from around the world , toiled side by side , chased variola all over the developing world , and won .
For most of the world , it was possible to stop transmission by simply vaccinating everyone in sight .
An elaborate intelligence network was set up to find where the virus was : Rewards were offered to people who reported a case , and teams of investigators and vaccinators would swarm into the area showing pictures of smallpox victims and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that .
But when epidemiologists thought they had variola cornered someplace in a developing nation , it would pop up someplace else .
Then in 1966 , a medical missionary in Nigeria , Edward Foege , and colleagues at the agency now known as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , found the winning strategy .
Foege and his team discovered that if you can spot outbreaks of smallpox quickly , ideally when only one person in an area is sick , all you need to do is vaccinate people in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ transmission .
Mass vaccinations were unnecessary .
That ’ s what they did in Merca , and except for two laboratory accidents in England that killed three people , Maow was the last human to catch smallpox .
Ever .
COVID-19 is very different from smallpox .
It seems to be more infectious and harder to track .
But one thing remains true of both diseases : You have to know where the cases are before you can contain the spread and that requires testing .
“ We don ’ t know how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around the world are infected , ” said Tan .
“ It is really a key piece of data that we need to know.
” Without a vaccine or reliable visible signs like the smallpox pustules , it probably wo n't be possible to completely eradicate COVID-19 anytime soon .
But with more widespread testing , we may have a chance of keeping it under control .
With the testing , epidemiologists would use the same type of contact tracing the smallpox field workers did .
This would tell researchers who needs to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ techniques work and which do not , said Gronvall .
It would be impossible to test all 330 million Americans , noted Tan .
But the numbers from a good testing program could determine where resources should go as the virus spreads , and they could help officials decide how and when to ease social distancing restrictions .
“ There has to be widespread available and accessible testing , including in many areas of the country where there is health disparity , including rural areas and areas with lower socioeconomic conditions , ” @ @ @

The ghost of an ancient disease could inform the fight against COVID-19.
Image from a 1975 training exercise in Bangladesh that was part of the effort to eradicate smallpox.
Joel Shurkin, Contributor
(Inside Science) -- "Testing, testing, testing" has become the mantra of the fight against the coronavirus. Scientific experts all seem to agree the virus cannot be controlled without adequate testing.
If you want to know why, think of Ali Maow Maalin.
Maalin, a young cook in the small coastal village of Merca, Somalia, was the last person to catch naturally transmitted smallpox. He volunteered to drive an infected family to a hospital in October 1977, and the next week came down with the disease. He was discovered because the World Health Organization set up a surveillance system that reported his illness, and vaccinators swarmed Merca blocking transmission. He survived and did not pass the disease on to anyone else. (Maalin died of malaria in 2013.)
They knew exactly where the virus was in real time, thanks to a worldwide surveillance system that found Maalin even in a remote village in sub-Saharan Africa. I had a glimpse of this process reporting for the Philadelphia Inquirer and researching the book that eventually became "The Invisible Fire," published in 1979.
It was an adventure. The Somali Democratic Republic barred Western reporters, so I had to sneak in under false pretenses, as a WHO researcher. A real WHO researcher took me to meet Maalin.
Are there lessons to be learned from what happened a half century ago?
A vulnerable virus
Epidemiologists had several advantages in fighting variola, the smallpox virus, that they lack in battling the coronavirus. For one, variola is a very large virus, so big it can be seen with a normal microscope. Unlike many viruses, it had no animal reservoir. It survived by transmission between humans only, so it had no place to hide.
Most of that is not true of the new coronavirus, but there are crucial lessons connecting the two. Testing that confirms the presence of a virus will tell you where a disease is so you can do something about it. And testing can give information as it moves.
Experts agree the reported numbers of people who have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the type of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, represent a substantial undercount. One controversial study at Stanford suggested confirmed cases are a small fraction of the true number. Without more testing we don’t know what percentage of cases have been detected so far.
Another difference between COVID-19 now and smallpox in the 1970s is the availability of an almost perfect smallpox vaccine, developed in 1796, by the English physician Edward Jenner.
Jenner realized that farm workers who contracted a similar disease, cowpox, never seemed to catch smallpox. To test it, Jenner inoculated an 8-year-old boy, James Phipps, with scabs from the cowpox lesions of dairy maid Sarah Nelms. A few weeks later he tried to give Phipps a mild case of smallpox and found the boy protected; Jenner had discovered a safe vaccine and invented immunology in the process.
The vaccine was almost 100% effective with few side effects. It was used until smallpox was eradicated in 1977.
Two other factors helped: The vaccine could be freeze-dried so it was stable and transportable, and scientists at the drug company Wyeth developed the perfect delivery system, a bifurcated needle that administered an exact amount of vaccine into the dermis, the layer of skin below the epidermis, when the needle was jabbed twice -- essentially painless, no injections needed.
Some people with COVID-19 can walk around without exhibiting symptoms. No one is sure when in the course of infection the tests can pick up the signs, according to Tina Tan, professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University and an infectious disease expert. “If someone has been significantly exposed to COVID-19, regardless of the test results, that person pretty much has the infection,” Tan said.
In contrast, smallpox victims were often hard to miss and there were no asymptomatic cases, said Gigi Gronvail, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. They looked ghastly, with sores, sometimes bleeding, all over much of their bodies. The incubation period for smallpox was 7-17 days and people were infectious only when they had symptoms.
Tests, vaccines, and consistent visible symptoms were the weapons medicine needed for the eradication of smallpox. Next came the strategy.
Winning the smallpox war
In 1958, to the surprise of the world, the Soviet Union urged the WHO to eradicate smallpox and offered funding to develop a plan. The U.S., the WHO’s major funder, agreed. No one knows why Russians made the humane offer, but it became perhaps the single best cooperative arrangement between the Soviets and the U.S. during the Cold War. Russian and American scientists, along with epidemiologists from around the world, toiled side by side, chased variola all over the developing world, and won.
For most of the world, it was possible to stop transmission by simply vaccinating everyone in sight. An elaborate intelligence network was set up to find where the virus was: Rewards were offered to people who reported a case, and teams of investigators and vaccinators would swarm into the area showing pictures of smallpox victims and asking if people had seen someone like that.
But when epidemiologists thought they had variola cornered someplace in a developing nation, it would pop up someplace else. Then in 1966, a medical missionary in Nigeria, Edward Foege, and colleagues at the agency now known as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found the winning strategy.
Foege and his team discovered that if you can spot outbreaks of smallpox quickly, ideally when only one person in an area is sick, all you need to do is vaccinate people in the immediate area and track contacts to interrupt transmission. Mass vaccinations were unnecessary.
That’s what they did in Merca, and except for two laboratory accidents in England that killed three people, Maow was the last human to catch smallpox. Ever.
Lessons for coronavirus
COVID-19 is very different from smallpox. It seems to be more infectious and harder to track. But one thing remains true of both diseases: You have to know where the cases are before you can contain the spread and that requires testing.
“We don’t know how many people in the United States or around the world are infected,” said Tan. “It is really a key piece of data that we need to know.”
Without a vaccine or reliable visible signs like the smallpox pustules, it probably won't be possible to completely eradicate COVID-19 anytime soon. But with more widespread testing, we may have a chance of keeping it under control.
With the testing, epidemiologists would use the same type of contact tracing the smallpox field workers did. This would tell researchers who needs to be quarantined, as well as which techniques work and which do not, said Gronvall.
It would be impossible to test all 330 million Americans, noted Tan. But the numbers from a good testing program could determine where resources should go as the virus spreads, and they could help officials decide how and when to ease social distancing restrictions.
“There has to be widespread available and accessible testing, including in many areas of the country where there is health disparity, including rural areas and areas with lower socioeconomic conditions,” she said.


insidescience--2020-04-19--People May Be Constantly Sniffing Their Hands Without Knowing It

People May Be Constantly Sniffing Their Hands Without Knowing It Humans ' compulsion to touch their faces may be part of a subconscious instinct to smell themselves .
( Inside Science ) -- People touch their faces constantly .
They do it without thinking , even now during the coronavirus pandemic , when health officials say not to .
By some estimates , nearly a quarter of respiratory illnesses could be prevented by hand-washing , implying that people often contract such illnesses by touching their faces .
So why do we do it ?
One major reason may be to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hypothesis proposed today in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B .
It 's well known that other mammals use smell to learn about themselves and their surroundings .
But for decades , scientists have largely dismissed the importance of smell for humans , according to the authors .
Nevertheless , some studies suggest smell may be important for human social interaction .
Using their noses , people may subconsciously decode messages about one another 's health , moods and genetics .
In previous work , the researchers found that people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when they brought their hands to their faces .
Touching was concentrated around and just below the nose .
`` Or in other words , people are sniffing their own hands , '' wrote the authors .
`` Somehow , we are all looking at this behaviour , but mostly not seeing it . ''
In the same prior study , the researchers found that people waiting alone in a room spent 22 % of the time with a hand near their nose .
Other studies have reported that that medical students touch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and even doctors in a clinical setting touch their eyes , nose or mouth about 10 times an hour .
At this point , scientists can only speculate about why people might smell their hands so often .
It may be a way of getting information about things one has touched , or checking to see whether one 's own odors are offensive .
On a subconscious level , write the authors , it may help people establish a sense of their own identities .
Whatever its function , the behavior is hard @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it , the authors write .
So next time you find yourself in a large audience ( hopefully after the coronavirus crisis is under control ) , maybe take a look around and notice how many people are having a surreptitious sniff .

Humans' compulsion to touch their faces may be part of a subconscious instinct to smell themselves.
Nala Rogers, Staff Writer
(Inside Science) -- People touch their faces constantly. They do it without thinking, even now during the coronavirus pandemic, when health officials say not to. By some estimates, nearly a quarter of respiratory illnesses could be prevented by hand-washing, implying that people often contract such illnesses by touching their faces.
So why do we do it? One major reason may be to smell our hands, according to a hypothesis proposed today in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.
It's well known that other mammals use smell to learn about themselves and their surroundings. But for decades, scientists have largely dismissed the importance of smell for humans, according to the authors.
Nevertheless, some studies suggest smell may be important for human social interaction. Using their noses, people may subconsciously decode messages about one another's health, moods and genetics.
In previous work, the researchers found that people more than doubled their rate of inhalation when they brought their hands to their faces. Touching was concentrated around and just below the nose.
"Or in other words, people are sniffing their own hands," wrote the authors. "Somehow, we are all looking at this behaviour, but mostly not seeing it."
In the same prior study, the researchers found that people waiting alone in a room spent 22% of the time with a hand near their nose. Other studies have reported that that medical students touch their faces 23 times per hour, and even doctors in a clinical setting touch their eyes, nose or mouth about 10 times an hour.
At this point, scientists can only speculate about why people might smell their hands so often. It may be a way of getting information about things one has touched, or checking to see whether one's own odors are offensive. On a subconscious level, write the authors, it may help people establish a sense of their own identities.
Whatever its function, the behavior is hard to miss once you are watching for it, the authors write. So next time you find yourself in a large audience (hopefully after the coronavirus crisis is under control), maybe take a look around and notice how many people are having a surreptitious sniff.


insidescience--2020-04-16--Powerful Brain Imaging Tool

Powerful Brain Imaging Tool

Doctors get a better look at brain tumors .
( Inside Science ) -- An important step in planning tumor @ @ @ @ @ stiffness .
Most brain tumors can not be examined noninvasively , so researchers are using @ @ @ @ @ stiffness of tumor tissue inside the brain .
In studies , the MRE imaging technique @ @ @ @ @ soft enough for removal with a minimally invasive suction technique , versus harder or stiffer @ @ @ @ @ .

Doctors get a better look at brain tumors.
Inside Science Television
(Inside Science) -- An important step in planning tumor surgery includes assessing the tumor stiffness. Most brain tumors cannot be examined noninvasively, so researchers are using magnetic resonance elastography to measure stiffness of tumor tissue inside the brain. In studies, the MRE imaging technique reliably identified tumors that were soft enough for removal with a minimally invasive suction technique, versus harder or stiffer tumors requiring more invasive surgery.


insidescience--2020-04-09--Genetics, Brain Connections and Autism

Genetics, Brain Connections and Autism

Researchers are working to get a better understanding of autism to help find better treatments for patients and families .
@ @ @ @ @ Researchers used mice that had genetic changes like the ones found in autism patients and @ @ @ @ @ the neurons in their brains .
Certain types of cells are in charge of sending @ @ @ @ @ the brain to another .
But scientists say the communication cells in autistic mouse brains @ @ @ @ @ working properly .
They want to find out why .

Researchers are working to get a better understanding of autism to help find better treatments for patients and families.
Inside Science Television
(Inside Science) -- Researchers used mice that had genetic changes like the ones found in autism patients and studied the electrical activity of the neurons in their brains. Certain types of cells are in charge of sending messages from one region of the brain to another. But scientists say the communication cells in autistic mouse brains are not sending signals or working properly. They want to find out why.


What Is Autism?

A child neurologist talks about the challenges of autism .
( Inside Science ) -- Audrey Brumback is a physician @ @ @ @ @ the care of people with neurodevelopmental challenges such as autism .
She leads a team @ @ @ @ @ to understand how changes in the brain ’ s electrical activity cause the symptoms that @ @ @ @ @ experience .
She is dedicated to finding new therapies to treat disorders and to helping @ @ @ @ @ about why their child might have autism .

A child neurologist talks about the challenges of autism.
Inside Science Television
(Inside Science) -- Audrey Brumback is a physician and scientist who specializes in the care of people with neurodevelopmental challenges such as autism. She leads a team of researchers in their quest to understand how changes in the brain’s electrical activity cause the symptoms that many people with these disorders experience. She is dedicated to finding new therapies to treat disorders and to helping parents find answers to questions about why their child might have autism.


insidescience--2020-03-31--Around a World That Is Practicing Social Distancing

In Finnish Lakeland , a man takes a moment of respite in a gazebo .
Images like these , of @ @ @ @ @ to be becoming more commonplace .
As people stay home more than usual , it @ @ @ @ @ to step outside once in a while -- just make sure to stay 6 feet @ @ @ @ @ Finland Lakeland

In Finnish Lakeland, a man takes a moment of respite in a gazebo. Images like these, of nearly deserted areas, seem to be becoming more commonplace. As people stay home more than usual, it’s important to remember to step outside once in a while -- just make sure to stay 6 feet away from others. (Finland Lakeland)


insidescience--2020-03-31--COVID-19, Facebook Predicts Hospital Visits, and Quantum Science

( Inside Science ) -- In this monthly science recap , Alistair Jennings from Inside Science sums up some of the most interesting monthly science topics .
This month we learned a lot about COVID-19 .
For a start , the new coronavirus can survive up to three days on plastic and stainless steel surfaces and at least three hours in microscopic droplets in the air , although during that time , the amount of viable virus decreases rapidly .
New work from Johns Hopkins University suggests that anyone unlucky enough to be infected will begin to see symptoms after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days .
The researchers also predict that around 1 in 100 people could go over two weeks before showing symptoms .
That ’ s a problem -- because people can still be infectious during that time , even though they don ’ t feel sick , and this can lead to undocumented spread of the disease .
In China , before the travel lockdown , undocumented spread like this could have been responsible for up to 86 % of new infections , according to another new study .
Calculating just how dangerous COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the University of Hong Kong modeled what the real case numbers could be , based on how many travelers from Wuhan airport tested positive , as well as the initial growth rate of the epidemic .
From this they estimate that , as of the end of February , the chance of dying after contracting SARS-CoV-2 was 1.4 % .
But within that , there is a marked age difference : On average , people aged 60 and older are around five times more at risk than those between 30 and 59 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ out which of your friends might have been infected -- a good place to look might be Facebook .
That 's because people change the style of their Facebook language in the days leading up to a hospital emergency department visit .
An algorithm trained to analyze people ’ s Facebook vocabulary found less swearing , less informal language like “ lol ” and “ ur , ” and more words associated with family like “ baby ” and “ ma , ” as well as more anxious language .
Knowing these trends @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when Facebook users would go to the hospital .
The researchers who ran the study hope that this kind of data mining of social media could help health care workers predict potentially at-risk patients , before they even choose to come in .
And lastly -- let ’ s step back from pandemics and predictions and take a trip into the quantum realm .
The subatomic particles that live down here have a property called spin .
We can use this spin to our advantage , to tell us about the environment that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , like with MRIs , or to store information , as in quantum computing .
Up until now , to manipulate spin , we ’ ve had to use powerful magnetic fields -- that is until a team of physicists trying to do this mistakenly blew up their own magnet and transformed this area of quantum science .
They mistakenly created a powerful electric field , which could change a particle ’ s spin itself .
This kind of electric control of spin had been suggested before , back in the 1960s , @ @ @ @

A month worth of cool science stories, summed up.
Alistair Jennings, Contributor
(Inside Science) -- In this monthly science recap, Alistair Jennings from Inside Science sums up some of the most interesting monthly science topics. This month we learned a lot about COVID-19. For a start, the new coronavirus can survive up to three days on plastic and stainless steel surfaces and at least three hours in microscopic droplets in the air, although during that time, the amount of viable virus decreases rapidly. New work from Johns Hopkins University suggests that anyone unlucky enough to be infected will begin to see symptoms after, on average, just over five days. The researchers also predict that around 1 in 100 people could go over two weeks before showing symptoms. That’s a problem -- because people can still be infectious during that time, even though they don’t feel sick, and this can lead to undocumented spread of the disease. In China, before the travel lockdown, undocumented spread like this could have been responsible for up to 86% of new infections, according to another new study. Calculating just how dangerous COVID-19 is is quite difficult. Researchers from the University of Hong Kong modeled what the real case numbers could be, based on how many travelers from Wuhan airport tested positive, as well as the initial growth rate of the epidemic. From this they estimate that, as of the end of February, the chance of dying after contracting SARS-CoV-2 was 1.4%. But within that, there is a marked age difference: On average, people aged 60 and older are around five times more at risk than those between 30 and 59.
Also, if you want to find out which of your friends might have been infected -- a good place to look might be Facebook. That's because people change the style of their Facebook language in the days leading up to a hospital emergency department visit. An algorithm trained to analyze people’s Facebook vocabulary found less swearing, less informal language like “lol” and “ur,” and more words associated with family like “baby” and “ma,” as well as more anxious language. Knowing these trends, the algorithm could predict the times when Facebook users would go to the hospital. The researchers who ran the study hope that this kind of data mining of social media could help health care workers predict potentially at-risk patients, before they even choose to come in.
And lastly -- let’s step back from pandemics and predictions and take a trip into the quantum realm. The subatomic particles that live down here have a property called spin. We can use this spin to our advantage, to tell us about the environment that a particle is in, for example, like with MRIs, or to store information, as in quantum computing. Up until now, to manipulate spin, we’ve had to use powerful magnetic fields -- that is until a team of physicists trying to do this mistakenly blew up their own magnet and transformed this area of quantum science. They mistakenly created a powerful electric field, which could change a particle’s spin itself. This kind of electric control of spin had been suggested before, back in the 1960s, but never shown.
References:
1 - https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2004973
2 - https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/2762808/incubation-period-coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-from-publicly-reported
3 - https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/03/24/science.abb3221
4 - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0822-7
5 - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-60750-8
6 - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2057-7