science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Τρίτη 3 Σεπτεμβρίου 2013

Science News SciGuru.com

Two New Versions of the Flu Vaccine Arriving Soon
Fire salamanders under threat from deadly skin-eating fungus
A new approach to the unification of general theory of relativity and quantum theory
New method for turning genes on and off

Two New Versions of the Flu Vaccine Arriving Soon

Posted: 03 Sep 2013 07:23 AM PDT

For the first time, there will be a vaccine which protects against four strains of the flu virus. Until now, flu vaccines have only protected against three forms of the virus.

Each year, scientists choose what they believe will be the three most common forms of the flu to spread during the winter months, and they incorporate them into the annual vaccine. This year’s new vaccine containing four varieties has those three flu forms and an additional version of the virus.

Fire salamanders under threat from deadly skin-eating fungus

Posted: 03 Sep 2013 07:02 AM PDT

Fire salamanders, recognisable by their distinctive yellow and black skin patterns, have been found dead in the country’s forests since 2010. The population has fallen to around 10 individuals, less than four per cent of its original level, but what has been killing them has been a mystery until now.

A new approach to the unification of general theory of relativity and quantum theory

Posted: 03 Sep 2013 06:52 AM PDT

Present-day physics cannot describe what happened in the Big Bang. Quantum theory and the theory of relativity fail in this almost infinitely dense and hot primal state of the universe. Only an all-encompassing theory of quantum gravity which unifies these two fundamental pillars of physics could provide an insight into how the universe began. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Golm/Potsdam and the Perimeter Institute in Canada have made an important discovery along this route.

New method for turning genes on and off

Posted: 03 Sep 2013 06:45 AM PDT

MIT researchers have shown that they can turn genes on or off inside yeast and human cells by controlling when DNA is copied into messenger RNA — an advance that could allow scientists to better understand the function of those genes.