#Science

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We Just Got More Evidence That Long COVID Is a Brain Injury

The exact nature of long COVID is still coming to light, but we just got some of the best evidence yet that this debilitating condition stems from a brain injury.

Using high-resolution scanners, researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford have shown microscopic, structural abnormalities in the brainstems of those recovering from COVID-19.

Signs of brain inflammation were present up to 18 months after first contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

"We show that the brainstem is a site of vulnerability to long-term effects of COVID-19, with persistent changes evident in the months after hospitalization," the authors of the study conclude.

https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae215

 @science@lemmy.world @science@beehaw.org @news@lemmy.world @health@lemmy.world @usnews@beehaw.org

(Boosts welcome)
Hey, speakers, any variety -- from or or or or or or or the or any other place where you might live --

I'm still looking for participants for an experiment language processing. About 20-25 minutes, with a variety of tasks to measure memory, sound detection, comprehension and prediction.

Please help the advance of ! And and .

https://research.sc/participant/login/dynamic/4EDD3B94-4B14-4114-B5E7-F2EEAAC8148C

Astronomers have long thought that the upper clouds of Jupiter, which create the planet’s iconic pale brown belts, are made of frozen ammonia.

But the joint efforts between an amateur astronomer with his backyard telescope 🔭 and professional scientists with ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), have now shown that they're actually made of something completely different 😲

Most likely, they are made of ammonium hydrosulphide mixed with smog, although vertical convection can sometimes bring ammonia ice clouds to the top.

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/potw2502a/?lang

So Thankyou to everyone who sent sympathy for my stolen bike, I have received a note from the Police essentially saying there's nothing to be done. But I did manage a visit to Wonderful of modern art, whose beautiful "The sea" () exhibition is the perfect blend of + .
The video installation in particular was both harrowing and gorgeous - a perfect sublime moment

Recommended if you're anywhere near Copenhagen before end February

Three screens in a row showing high definition video of icebergs on either side and a polar bear in the centre. People's heads are visible at the bittom

The skies of Chile’s Atacama Desert, renowned as the darkest and clearest of the world, are now at risk from an industrial megaproject.

Electricity company AES Andes proposed to locate a large-scale industrial complex just a few kilometres away from our Paranal Observatory. If constructed, the resulting dust emissions, increased atmospheric turbulence, and especially light , would irreparably impact the capabilities for astronomical observation.

We urge the involved parties, specifically AES Andes, to work with the Government of to relocate this megaproject to a zone compatible with industrial development without jeopardising the skies of Paranal.

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2501/?lang

📷 ESO/P. Horálek

A view of the Milky Way arching across the night sky above the Atacama Desert in Chile. The foreground features the buildings of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), with a person standing on a raised platform. A sign saying "skies at risk" is overlaid on the image.

American botanist, bryologist, and educator Elizabeth Gertrude Britton was born in 1858.

She was a co-founder of the precursor body to the American Bryological and Lichenological Society. She was an activist for the protection of wildflowers, inspiring local chapter activities and the passage of legislation. Elizabeth Britton made major contributions to the literature of mosses, publishing 170 papers in that field.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Gertrude_Britton

Elizabeth Gertrude Knight (Later Britton) (1858-1934) using a microscope, 1886. Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton is depicted at work, focused on using a microscope. Her posture suggests careful observation, emphasizing her commitment to precision and her scientific expertise. She is dressed in typical 19th-century clothing, likely a high-collared, long-sleeved dress or blouse with practical yet elegant details. She is seated or leaning slightly toward the microscope, actively engaged in examining specimens. Her hands rest on the table or adjust the microscope, indicating a moment of scientific inquiry.

English astronomer Frank Watson Dyson was born in 1868.

Dyson was noted for his study of solar eclipses and was an authority on the spectrum of the corona and on the chromosphere. Dyson presented his observations of the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 which confirmed Albert Einstein's theory of the effect of gravity on light which until that time had been received with some scepticism by the scientific community.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Watson_Dyson

Eclipse photograph from 1919 expedition. Frank Watson Dyson / Arthur Eddington / Charles Rundle Davidson - F. W. Dyson, A. S. Eddington, and C. Davidson (1920). "A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun's Gravitational Field, from Observations Made at the Total Eclipse of May 29, 1919". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: 332. ISSN 1364-503X. From the report of Sir Arthur Eddington on the expedition to verify Albert Einstein's prediction of the bending of light around the sun. In Plate 1 is given a half-tone reproduction of one of the negatives taken with the 4-inch lens at Sobral. This shows the position of the stars, and, as far as possible in a reproduction of this kind, the character of the images, as there has been no retouching. A number of photographic prints have been made and applications for these from astronomers, who wish to assure themselves of the quality of the photographs, will be considered as as far as possible acceded to.