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By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The measles vaccine could provide benefits beyond merely protecting against that highly contagious viral respiratory disease that remains a leading childhood killer in parts of the world, scientists say. By blocking the measles infection, the vaccine prevents measles-induced immune system damage that makes children much more vulnerable to numerous other infectious diseases for two to three years, a study published on Thursday found. The research focused on a phenomenon called “immune amnesia” in which the measles infection destroys cells in the immune system that “remember” how to fend off previously encountered pathogens....

The human brain possesses an incredible capacity to adapt to new conditions. This plasticity enables us not only to constantly learn but also to overcome brain injury and loss of function. Take away one capability, and little by little we often compensate for these deficits. Our brain may be especially well suited to overcome limitations in the case of psychiatric or neurological conditions that originate early in life, what clinicians call neurodevelopmental disorders....

In Lidia Morawska’s home city of Brisbane on Australia’s east coast, roadside signs broadcast a simple message: ‘Wash hands, save lives.’ She has no problem with that: “Hand washing is always a good measure,” says the aerosol scientist, who works at the Queensland University of Technology. But the sign might be outdated. Converging lines of evidence indicate that SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, can pass from person to person in tiny droplets called aerosols that waft through the air and accumulate over time....

Here’s yet another reminder that alien worlds are far stranger and more diverse than our own solar system might suggest. Astronomers just found a giant exoplanet three times more massive than Jupiter that loops around its host star on a highly elliptical path. If this alien planet, known as HR 5183 b, were magically dropped into our solar system, its orbit would reach inside that of Jupiter but extend way out beyond the path of Neptune, discovery team members said....

For 17 years, Chalfonte LeNee Queen suffered periodic episodes of violent retching and abdominal pain that would knock her off her feet for days, sometimes leaving her writhing on the floor in pain. “I’ve screamed out for death,” said Queen, 48, who lives in San Diego. “I’ve cried out for my mom who’s been dead for 20 years, mentally not realizing she can’t come to me.” Queen lost a modeling job after being mistaken for an alcoholic....

When you spot a celebrity on a magazine cover, your brain recognizes the image in an instant–an effect that seems to occur because of a single neuron. A recent study indicates that our brains employ far fewer cells to interpret a given image than previously believed, and the findings could help neuroscientists determine how memories are formed and stored. Exactly how the human brain works to record and remember an image is the subject of much debate and speculation....

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft will not make a dedicated flyby to search for the lost comet lander Philae any time soon, according to a post on the agency’s Rosetta blog. It has been almost three months since European Space Agency (ESA) scientists heard the last peep from Philae, which went silent when its batteries ran out just days after its bumpy November 12 landing on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Amateur and professional planetary scientists have scoured pictures of 67P looking for signs of the lost lander, but its exact location remains a mystery....

A leading psychiatry group has told its members they should not feel bound by a longstanding rule against commenting publicly on the mental state of public figures—even the president. The statement, an email this month from the executive committee of the American Psychoanalytic Association to its 3,500 members, represents the first significant crack in the profession’s decades-old united front aimed at preventing experts from discussing the psychiatric aspects of politicians’ behavior....

As it turns out, transporting a space shuttle through city streets is a “Big Endeavour.” Space shuttle Endeavour, the youngest of NASA’s retired orbiters, will depart later this week on a road trip from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to its new exhibition at the California Science Center (CSC). The two-day, 12-mile (19 kilometer) journey follows Endeavour’s delivery to L.A.atop a jumbo jet last month. The move, which will begin hours before dawn on Friday morning (Oct....

As a baby grows inside the womb, its brain does not simply expand like a dehydrated sponge dropped in water. Early brain development is an elaborate procession. Every minute some 250,000 neurons bloom, squirming past one another like so many schoolchildren rushing to their seats at the sound of the bell. Each neuron grows a long root at one end and a crown of branches at the other, linking itself to fellow cells near and far....

The winter solstice is behind us, and the holiday season is upon us. Before we sign off for 2013, here’s TheGreenGrok’s take on the top 10 green stories of the year. 10. Meet the Elf: A Transportation Revolution Pedal power meets solar power in this sleek, covered tricycle TheGreenGrok had the opportunity to learn about and take for a spin.Read post | Watch video 9. Colorado’s Strange Weather in Three Parts...

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. The sprawling U.S. health care industry has trouble managing patient information: Every doctor, medical office, hospital, pharmacy, therapist and insurance company needs different pieces of data to properly care for patients. These records are scattered all over on each business’s computers—and some no doubt in filing cabinets too. They’re not all kept up to date with current information, as a person’s prescriptions change or new X-rays are taken, and they’re not easily shared from one provider to another....

There’s nothing worse, when you’re trying to stay awake at work during the postlunch lull, than looking over and seeing a colleague yawn. To most of us, yawning seems all too contagious, but a new study in the journal Child Development suggests that the ability to “catch” a yawn actually requires some sophisticated social skills. Psychologists at the University of Connecticut studied more than 120 children, who ranged in age from one to six....

The week I started graduate school, the first science projects were announced for the new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in Chile. This groundbreaking facility uses dozens of radio antennas working in concert to create images as detailed as those made by a single telescope 16 kilometers wide. With this extreme resolution, ALMA can see deeper and farther in millimeter- and submillimeter-wavelength light than any previous telescope. I leaped at the opportunity to join one of its first projects—a study of a disk of dust and rubble around a nearby star called AU Mic....

Arrowheads and other Stone Age tools may not look like much to the untrained eye, but try making them yourself and you’ll find out just how difficult it can be. After struggling for years to replicate stone blades excavated in the southern tip of Africa, modern toolmaker Kyle Brown—like early humans before him—stumbled upon the missing ingredient: fire. Most archaeologists have thought that humans developed pyrotechnology—the controlled use of fire—in Europe about 25,000 years ago....

Key concepts Physics Engineering Weight Stiffness Center of mass Introduction You’ve probably seen plenty of smartphone holders or stands. You might use one to prop up a tablet to watch a movie, and maybe your parents have mounted one on the dashboard of their car to hold a phone being used for GPS navigation. But why buy one if you could build it yourself? In this project you’ll use the engineering design process to design, test and build your own smartphone stand....

As cannabis wafts back into mainstream America on growing winds of legal change, a west coast company says it has reached a technological milestone that is quickly becoming crucial to the justice system: a device police can use to detect recent marijuana use—and the amount consumed—in the air a driver exhales. But don’t hold your breath. Although many researchers and companies dream of fielding a roadside test for driving under the influence of cannabis, such a product may still remain years away from practical service use....

After more than two decades of research, the world finally has an approved Ebola vaccine. The European Commission granted marketing authorization to Merck’s vaccine, known as Ervebo, on Monday, less than a month after the European Medicines Agency recommended it be licensed. It is currently being used in the Democratic Republic of the Congo under a “compassionate use” or research protocol similar to a clinical trial. “The European Commission’s marketing authorization of Ervebo is the result of an unprecedented collaboration for which the entire world should be proud,” Ken Frazier, Merck’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement....

A year ago an Italian court sentenced six scientists and an ex-government official to six years in prison for manslaughter. More specifically, the judge found them guilty for failing to give adequate advance warning to the population of L’Aquila, a city in the Abruzzo region of Italy, about the risk of the April 2009 earthquake that caused 309 deaths. As they await word of their appeal, the scientists maintain that the true culprit in that disaster was the government’s inability to communicate nuanced scientific information to L’Aquila’s citizens....

Venus is—without a doubt—Earth’s toxic sibling. Although both worlds are similar in size and density, our planetary neighbor has temperatures so high they can melt lead, winds that whip around it some 60 times faster than the planet itself rotates and an atmosphere that slams down with more than 90 times the pressure found on Earth’s atmosphere. But there have been a few tantalizing hints that billions of years ago Venus might have been more akin to Earth’s twin....