Author: Lori Jia

Hundreds of Scientists Scramble to Find a Coronavirus Treatment

Posted on by Lori Jia

The New York Times, March 17, 2020

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Working at a breakneck pace, a team of hundreds of scientists has identified 50 drugs that may be effective treatments for people infected with the coronavirus.

Many scientists are seeking drugs that attack the virus itself. But the Quantitative Biosciences Institute Coronavirus Research Group, based at the University of California, San Francisco, is testing an unusual new approach.

The researchers are looking for drugs that shield proteins in our own cells that the coronavirus depends on to thrive and reproduce.

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Nuclear Tests Marked Life on Earth With a Radioactive Spike

Posted on by Lori Jia

The Atlantic, March 2, 2020

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On the morning of March 1, 1954, a hydrogen bomb went off in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. John Clark was only 20 miles away when he issued the order, huddled with his crew inside a windowless concrete blockhouse on Bikini Atoll. But seconds went by, and all was silent. He wondered if the bomb had failed. Eventually, he radioed a Navy ship monitoring the test explosion.

“It’s a good one,” they told him.

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Ancient DNA from West Africa Adds to Picture of Humans’ Rise

Posted on by Lori Jia

The New York Times, January 22, 2020

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In October 2015, scientists reconstructed the genome of a 4,500-year-old man who lived in Ethiopia. It was the first time that anyone had created a complete genetic snapshot of an African from an ancient skeleton.

Since then, other researchers have recovered DNA from skeletons unearthed in other regions of the continent. Now researchers have found the first genetic material from West Africa. On Wednesday a team reported that they had recovered DNA from four individuals in Cameroon, dating back as far as 8,000 years.

These ancient genomes contain vital clues to the history of the continent that have largely disappeared in the past few thousand years. Taken together, they are giving scientists a new vision of our species since it arose in Africa.

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This Strange Microbe May Mark One of Life’s Great Leaps

Posted on by Lori Jia

The New York Times, January 15, 2020

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A bizarre tentacled microbe discovered on the floor of the Pacific Ocean may help explain the origins of complex life on this planet and solve one of the deepest mysteries in biology, scientists reported on Wednesday.

Two billion years ago, simple cells gave rise to far more complex cells. Biologists have struggled for decades to learn how it happened.

Scientists have long known that there must have been predecessors along the evolutionary road. But to judge from the fossil record, complex cells simply appeared out of nowhere.

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