New research sheds light on how the “hell planet” got so devilishly hot and how other worlds might become too toasty for life. That rocky world, 55 Cnc e (nicknamed “Janssen”), orbits its star so closely that a year lasts just 18 hours, its surface is a giant lava ocean, and its interior may be chock-full of diamond. A new tool called EXPRES provided these fresh insights on this exoplanet....
“With this technology that we developed in collaboration with Protochips, scientists could analyze host-pathogen interactions, see a virus being introduced into a cell and watch molecular mechanisms take place in real-time,” says Deb Kelly, professor of biomedical engineering. “The work represents the world’s first nanoscale CAT scan in a liquid environment.” In a cover article appearing in Nano Letters, Kelly and colleagues report new insights into bacteriophage and host bacterium interactions that could in the future lead to methods to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria....
New study models future SARS-CoV-2 mutations and forecasts their ability to evade immune defenses developed by vaccines and antibody-based treatments.Since the study was completed, several of the predicted mutations appeared in omicron, the most recently identified SARS-CoV-2 variant, offering insight into how omicron might be able to escape immune defense generated by mRNA vaccines and monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19.The researchers modeled their predictions of future mutations using a combination of variables, including rare mutations documented in immunocompromised patients, existing SARS-CoV-2 genotypes, and the virus’s current molecular structure and behavior....
Mechanical engineers at the University of Virginia School of Engineering, leading a collaboration with biologists from Harvard University, have created the first robotic fish proven to mimic the speed and movements of live yellowfin tuna. Their peer-reviewed paper, “Tuna robotics: a high-frequency experimental platform exploring the performance space of swimming fishes,” was published on September 18, 2019, in Science Robotics, an offshoot of Science magazine devoted to technological advancements in robotic science and engineering....
Australian and Chilean researchers solve a 100-year-old mystery and call for education and research to save millions of teeth worldwide. One in five children have chalky tooth enamel – visible as discolored enamel spots – which often causes severe toothache and decay, and sometimes leads to abscesses, extractions, and orthodontic problems. Now, researchers from The D3 Group (based at The University of Melbourne, Australia) and the University of Talca in Chile, have discovered the mechanism causing molar hypomineralisation, the commonest type of chalky teeth....
Gut health is an essential aspect of overall wellness. The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is home to trillions of microbes that play a major role in our overall health. These microbes are known as gut microbiota or “gut flora,” and they help digest food, synthesize vitamins and even regulate metabolism and immunity. But what does good gut health look like? And how can you improve your gut health? There are several ways to improve your gut health:...
A space weather storm from the sun engulfed our planet on January 21, 2005. The event got its start on January 20, when a cloud of solar material, a coronal mass ejection or CME, burst off the sun and headed toward Earth. When it arrived at our planet, the ring current and radiation belts surrounding Earth swelled with extra particles, while the aurora persisted for six hours. Both of these are usually signs of a very large storm – indeed, this was one of the largest outpouring of solar protons ever monitored from the sun....
The study comes on the heels of a hot debate over just how fast the universe is ballooning; measurements thus far are in disagreement. The team’s new measurement of the Hubble Constant, or the expansion rate of the universe, involved a different method. They used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in combination with W. M. Keck Observatory’s Adaptive Optics (AO) system to observe three gravitationally-lensed systems. This is the first time ground-based AO technology has been used to obtain the Hubble Constant....
The image includes many natural and artificial lights that an astronaut may see during an orbit at night. On the ground, stationary features like cities appear as pale yellow-white dotted streaks; with each dot marking another frame captured. Many of the thinner dotted lines with darker orange hues are fires burning across Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Looking northward, thunderstorms cover much of central Africa. Bright white lightning flashes are captured in many of the compiled frames....
Disorders from the autism spectrum (ASD, autism spectrum disorders) are not only manifested by impairments in social interaction, communication, interest formation, and by stereotypical behavior patterns. This is often accompanied by other abnormalities such as epilepsy or hyperactivity. Scientists are intensively searching for the molecular abnormalities that contribute to this complex developmental disorder. A multitude of genetic factors that influence the molecular programs of the nerve cells have already been linked to the development of autism....
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of the growing danger posed by invasive fungal infections and stressed the need for further research. Until recently, little was understood about the mechanisms behind Aspergillus infections and how to effectively eliminate them. However, a collaboration between researchers at the University of Calgary and McGill University has shed new light on why the immune system fails to fend off the fungus. “We discovered that influenza and COVID-19 destroy a previously unknown natural immunity that we need to resist invasive fungal infections,” says Nicole Sarden, a Ph....
Astronomers think that the luminous nuclei of Seyferts are powered by accretion of material onto supermassive black holes via a circumnuclear disk, with a dusty torus around them farther away. Different orientations of the disk and obscuring torus to our line of sight are thought to account for the apparent differences seen in Seyfert types, but the morphology and composition of torii are still uncertain and could also play significant roles....
Magnesium has increasing uses in sustainability, such as carbon capture, low-carbon cement, and potential next-generation batteries. These uses are reviving interest in domestic magnesium production. Currently, salt lake brines, some of which are threatened by droughts, are used in an energy-intensive process in the United States to produce magnesium. The Department of Energy included magnesium on its recently released list of critical materials for domestic production. Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the University of Washington (UW) have discovered a simple method to separate a pure magnesium salt, a feedstock for magnesium metal, from seawater....
Astronomers using the SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, have uncovered the first example of a phenomenally rare type of binary star system, one that has all the right conditions to eventually trigger a kilonova — the ultra-powerful, gold-producing explosion created by colliding neutron stars. Such an arrangement is so vanishingly rare that only about 10 such systems are thought to exist in the entire Milky Way Galaxy....
Researchers at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology examined the Plethodontidae, a dominant family of salamanders that are all lungless as adults, and discovered that they do develop lungs as embryos, providing insight into the evolution of lung loss over millions of years. Their findings were recently published in the journal Science Advances. Plethodontidae is the most species-rich salamander family, accounting for more than two-thirds of all current salamander diversity....
The problem started back on February 22, 2022, when contact with the spacecraft was lost. After re-establishing contact, its main Inertial Measurement Unit, IMU-1, a system critical for navigation, was not working and the team had to switch the spacecraft over to its backup, IMU-2. Yet that unit was also nearing the end of its lifespan. The spacecraft was put into safe mode, while engineers raced to complete an all-stellar mode whereby the spacecraft could navigate using stars instead of the IMUs....
For the study, published today (January 21, 2020) in the European Geosciences Union (EGU) journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, researchers in the lab of Drew Gentner, associate professor of chemical & environmental engineering, monitored the air quality at the Yale Coastal Field Station in Guilford, CT and four other sites in the New York metropolitan area. In August of 2018, they observed two spikes in the presence of air pollutants – both coinciding with New York-area air quality advisories for ozone....
Nearly 1 in 5 antibiotics prescribed to Medicaid patients without infection diagnosis. A new Northwestern Medicine study has found alarmingly high rates of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for patients on Medicaid, the public health insurance program for those with lower incomes. Using Medicaid insurance claims between 2004 and 2013, the study evaluated 298 million antibiotic prescriptions filled by 53 million patients on Medicaid, the largest source of health care coverage in the U....
Detrimental impacts on climate, land use, freshwater resources, and biodiversity would result from increasing agriculture and fisheries production to meet consumer demand. In their article, the authors argue for shifting the focus of marine aquaculture down the food chain to algae. This could potentially supply the growing demand for nutritious food in addition to reducing the current food system’s ecological footprint. Microalgae could provide high amounts of nutritional protein and essential amino acids, in addition to other micronutrients, such as vitamins and antioxidants....
Itokawa would normally be a fairly average near-Earth asteroid — a rocky mass measuring only a few hundred meters in diameter, which orbits the sun amid countless other celestial bodies and repeatedly crosses the orbit of the Earth. But there is one fact that sets Itokawa apart: in 2005 it became a visit from Earth. The Japanese space agency JAXA sent the Hayabusa probe to Itokawa, which collected soil samples and brought them safely back to Earth — for the first time in the history of space travel....
