A new virus-like entity has just been discovered – ‘obelisks’ explained

"The new preprint describes “viroid-like colonists of human microbiomes”. If “viroid-like” sounds non-committal, that is entirely deliberate. The newly discovered biological entity falls somewhere between viruses and viroids.

In fact, the name obelisks was proposed not only because of their shape, but also to provide wiggle room in case they turn out to be more like RNA plasmids (a different type of genetic element that resides inside bacteria) than either viruses or viroids."

For more details:

A new virus-like entity has just been discovered – ‘obelisks’ explained 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did dust from the Chicxulub asteroid impact kill the dinosaurs?

Image
"Dust might have been responsible for the deadly dinosaur-killing global winter that came after an asteroid slammed into Earth 66 million years ago, finds a study published on 30 October in  Nature Geoscience 1 . A team of geoscientists led by Cem Berk Senel at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels reinvestigated the aftermath of the impact that formed Mexico’s Chicxulub crater — a collision that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs and much of life on Earth." For more details: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03406-7
Read more

Sexing the Canvas: Art and Gender MOOC

Image
  What do paintings tell us about sex? How is art gendered? In this course we will study some of the world’s most beloved pictures guided by expert curators and art historians who step outside of the square, bringing a gendered reading to the masterpieces contained in the magnificent collections that we have been lucky enough to bring to the Coursera platform. In this course you will learn how: * Gender and sexuality is an integral part of the production and reception of works of art * To increase your understanding of paintings through theories of gender and sexuality * To understand key terms from gender-related theories of art history and museology * To recognise the operation of what is termed ‘the gaze’ and how it works in relation to paintings * Ideas about gender and sexuality can productively be employed in theorising art curatorial practices * To take the initiative in relating theoretical ideas about gender and sexuality to the reading and display of art and visual cultu...
Read more

Grape consumption found to benefit eye health in human study of older adults

Image
  "Our study is the first to show that grape consumption beneficially impacts eye health in humans which is very exciting, especially with a growing  aging population ," said Dr. Jung Eun Kim. "Grapes are an easy, accessible fruit that studies have shown can have a beneficial impact in normal amounts of just 1.5 cups per day." "Oxidative stress is a key risk factor for visual impairment and consuming dietary antioxidant-rich foods may help in managing visual impairments. However, a limited number of studies have investigated the effect of dietary antioxidant-rich food including grapes on eye health in older adults." "This was a 16 week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Thirty-four Singapore older adults were randomized into regularly consuming either 46 g day −1  of freeze-dried table grape powder (the intervention group) or the same amount of placebo powder (the control group)." https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-10-grape-con...
Read more