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Infection with Vaccinia virus (above) was used to test the effect of deleting MER41 ERVs on the cell’s immune response (Photo Credit:Content Providers(s): CDC/Cynthia Goldsmith [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons) Scientists have estimated that…

The Zika virus has lately been a global focus due to its connection to deformities in newborns. A recent report by the CDC has bolstered the suspicion that Zika is sexually transmittable from men to women, which was previously only supported by a handful…

The concept of nuclear fusion merged with a photograph of the nuclear fusion energy display at Weiss Energy Hall, Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston, TX on the right (Credits: Katherine Fellows, via Flikr) In November 2015, Germany switched on…

Scientists recently estimated the volume and ages of groundwater using a combination of chemical measurements and mathematical models. The authors of the study compiled measurements of levels of tritium, the radioactive form of the element hydrogen, to…

by Nathan Schauer figures by Daniel Utter Zika virus (ZIKV) has recently transformed from a relatively unknown tropical disease to a worldwide public health emergency. This crisis is due to emerging evidence that ZIKV causes microcephaly and…

  Ticks are small, but potentially dangerous arachnids that can spread Lyme disease to humans [Image: ‘Tick’ from John Tann under a CC BY 2.0 license]The already thorny process of diagnosing Lyme disease may have just gotten even hazier.…

by Emily Kuehn figures by Kaitlyn Choi When you think about your five senses what is the one you most fear to lose? Informal polling of my friends and family shows that most people don’t want to lose their vision. To be fair, we rely heavily on our…

LIGO has discovered ripples in spacetime, generated by the inspiral and merger of two massive black holes – Credit Caltech The Twitter rumors are true! In what some scientists are calling the discovery of the century, LIGO (Laser Interferometer…

by Tauana Junqueira Cunha If we could travel back in time 540 million years, what would the first animals look like? This is one of the longstanding questions scientists aim to answer in the study of how animals evolved and became distinct from their…

Colonies of Burkholderia pseudomallei on Ashdown agar after 96 hours incubation at 37ºC [By Gak (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons]Melioidosis is so unknown and underfunded that to call it a “neglected tropical disease” would be an…