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Influenza A is one of two influenza viruses that fuel costly annual flu seasons and is a near constant threat to humans and many other animals. It's also responsible for occasional pandemics that, like the one in 1918, leave millions dead and wreak havoc on health systems and wider society.
A team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have taken a major step toward understanding how influenza A's PA-X protein works, with a new finding that runs counter to previous conventional wisdom: They’ve found that viruses like influenza A take over host cells in a way that more closely resembles a tactical strike than brute force.
Photograph by Bostonian13/Wikipedia. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) cleared up its remaining routine tasks during this most non-routine of years at its last regular meeting of the academic year on Tuesday afternoon. Many of the prior meetings had been largely given over to hearing reports, but significant academic action was taken in the April session, when the new doctoral program in quantum science and engineering was approved. Today, at the request of the faculty’s docket committee, President Lawrence S. Bacow, Provost Alan Garber, and FAS dean Claudine Gay spelled out the s...
" " Learning how materials react when compressed in "geometric frustration" is behind the science of crumple theory, which aids in the design of all kinds of everyday products and materials. Paul Taylor/Getty Images What do a sheet of paper being crushed into a ball and tossed into a wastebasket, the front end of a car deforming in a crash, and the Earth's crust gradually forming mountains over millions of years all have in common? They're all undergoing a physical process called crumpling, which occurs when a relatively thin sheet of material — one with a thickness that's much less t...