For centuries, colonial powers have used starvation as a tool to control Indigenous populations and take over their land and wealth. A look back at two historic examples on two different continents.
An attendant feeds chickens at a poultry farm.
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People should minimise contact with birds in areas affected by bird flu viruses, including farms and settings where live animals may be sold or slaughtered.
We tend to just think of viruses in terms of their damaging impacts on human health and lives. But viruses can also be used to benefit human health, agriculture and the environment.
Two hurdles mRNA drugs face are a short half-life and impurities that trigger immune responses.
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The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the promise of using mRNA as medicine. But before mRNA drugs can go beyond vaccines, researchers need to identify the right diseases to treat.
From COVID-19 vaccines to cancer treatments and beyond, the flexibility of mRNA-based therapies gives them the potential to prevent and treat many types of diseases.
RNA is more than just a transitional state between DNA and protein.
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The human body has been making antivirals for eons, long before scientists did. A protein in your cells called viperin produces molecules that work similarly to the COVID-19 antiviral remdesivir.
The same amino acid can be encoded by anywhere from one to six different strings of letters in the genetic code.
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Many of the amino acids that make up proteins are encoded by genetic material in more than one way. An information theorist explains how principles of nature may account for this variance.
Phosphorus is the most elusive element crucial for life as we know it – and we now have the first evidence there’s some available in the oceans of Enceladus.
New gene therapies are helping to treat certain forms of inherited blindness.
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Making sure RNA molecules are in the right place at the right time in a cell is critical to development and normal function. Researchers are figuring out exactly how they get to where they need to go.
Maybe the first life on Earth was part of an ‘RNA world.’
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Fossil evidence of how the earliest life on Earth came to be is hard to come by. But scientists have come up with a few theories based on the microbes, viruses and prions existing today.
Pox virus illustration.
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Robert Langer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Moderna co-founder Robert Langer developed the process that made COVID-19 vaccines possible. He spoke about his journey helping develop the science for various lifesaving treatments.
All COVID-19 tests start with a sample, but the scientific process goes very differently after that.
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The two types of COVID-19 tests – antigen and PCR – work in very different ways, which is why one is fast but less accurate and the other is slow and precise.
UV light at most wavelengths can kill COVID–19.
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UV lights come in a variety of different wavelengths, but not all are equally effective at disinfection. Researchers tested a number of commercially available lights to find the best.