Examining how almonds can affect appetite, researchers found that a snack of 30-50 grams (1.0-1.8 ounces) of almonds could help people cut back on the number of calories they consume each day. The study found that people who consumed almonds – as opposed to an energy-equivalent carbohydrate snack – lowered their energy intake by 300 kilojoules (72 calories) – most of which came from junk food – at the subsequent meal....
Detection and analysis of airborne coronavirus droplets using a bioengineered membrane is the focus of exploratory research at the University of Maine and University of Massachusetts Amherst, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Their inspiration comes from nature — the pitcher plant, with its liquid membrane that traps insects. The project, led by UMaine biomedical engineer Caitlin Howell and UMass Amherst chemical engineer Jessica Schiffman, received a more than $225,000 NSF EAGER award — early-concept grants for exploratory research....
Using SOFIA and another observatory – the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile – Peter Barnes, a research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and his team examined the magnetic fields within this cloud amid ongoing star formation. Studying the orientation of magnetic fields can shed light on their role in massive-star formation, a long-standing question. Massive stars form through a different process from their more average counterparts, relying on an ongoing exchange of material with their environment, rather than accreting mass from a surrounding disk of matter....
The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, found that two-thirds of emissions from fertilizers take place after they are spread on fields, with one-third of emissions coming from production processes. Although nitrogen-based fertilizers are already known to be a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, this is the first time that their overall contribution, from production to deployment, has been fully quantified. Their analysis found that manure and synthetic fertilizers emit the equivalent of 2....
When the sun set on Saturn’s rings in August 2009, scientists on NASA’s Cassini mission were watching closely. It was the equinox — one of two times in the Saturnian year when the sun illuminates the planet’s enormous ring system edge-on. The event provided an extraordinary opportunity for the orbiting Cassini spacecraft to observe short-lived changes in the rings that reveal details about their nature. Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis....
Coenzyme Q is a crucial antioxidant for our bodies. A lack of Coenzyme Q can result in severe illnesses like Leigh syndrome, a hereditary condition that affects specific areas of the brain and can cause muscle weakness, among other symptoms. Additionally, a shortfall of Coenzyme Q is one of the earliest indications of aging and can occur as early as the early twenties. So, why can’t we simply consume this substance through our diet?...
Astronomers have found evidence for a faded electron cloud “coming back to life,” much like the mythical phoenix, after two galaxy clusters collided. This “radio phoenix,” so-called because the high-energy electrons radiate primarily at radio frequencies, is found in Abell 1033. By combining data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope in the Netherlands, NSF’s Karl Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), astronomers were able to recreate the scientific narrative behind this intriguing cosmic story of the radio phoenix....
A new study by Simon Fraser University (SFU) researchers has found clear evidence that wearing a mask can have a significant impact on the spread of COVID-19. The researchers, from SFU’s Department of Economics, have determined that mask mandates are associated with a 25 percent or larger weekly reduction in COVID-19 cases. The finding of their study, still in preprint and not yet peer-reviewed, conclude that mandating indoor masks nationwide in early July could have reduced the weekly number of new cases in Canada by 25 to 40 percent in mid-August, which translates into 700 to 1,100 fewer cases per week....
East Antarctica’s Denman Glacier has retreated 5 kilometers, nearly 3 miles, in the past 22 years, and researchers at the University of California, Irvine, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are concerned that the shape of the ground surface beneath the ice sheet could make it even more susceptible to climate-driven collapse. If fully thawed, the ice in Denman would cause sea levels worldwide to rise about 1.5 meters, almost 5 feet....
The study was designed to follow dosing and treatment procedures used for hospitalized COVID-19 patients being administered remdesivir in a large, multi-center, clinical trial led by NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The scientists posted the work on the preprint server bioRxiv. The findings are not yet peer-reviewed and should not be considered clinical advice, but are being shared to assist the public health response to COVID-19....
Looking at 30 campuses across the nation with the highest amount of reported cases, experts saw that over half of the institutions had spikes — at their peak — which were well above 1,000 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people per week within the first two weeks of class. In some colleges, one in five students had been infected with the virus by the end of the fall term. Four institutions had over 5,000 cases....
The first color image taken from orbit showing NASA’s rover Curiosity on Mars includes details of the layered bedrock on the floor of Gale Crater that the rover is beginning to investigate. Operators of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter added the color view to earlier observations of Curiosity descending on its parachute, and one day after landing. “The rover appears as double bright spot plus shadows from this perspective, looking at its shadowed side, set in the middle of the blast pattern from the descent stage,” said HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen, of the University of Arizona, Tucson....
Did an extraterrestrial impact trigger the extinction of ice-age animals? University of South Carolina archaeologist finds evidence in South Carolina to support controversial theory. A controversial theory that suggests an extraterrestrial body crashing to Earth almost 13,000 years ago caused the extinction of many large animals and a probable population decline in early humans is gaining traction from research sites around the world. The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis, controversial from the time it was presented in 2007, proposes that an asteroid or comet hit the Earth about 12,800 years ago causing a period of extreme cooling that contributed to the extinction of more than 35 species of megafauna including giant sloths, saber-tooth cats, mastodons and mammoths....
The most energetic wind from a quasar has been revealed by a team of astronomers using observations from the international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab. This powerful outflow is moving into its host galaxy at almost 13% of the speed of light, and stems from a quasar known as SDSS J135246.37+423923.5 which lies roughly 60 billion light-years from Earth. “While high-velocity winds have previously been observed in quasars, these have been thin and wispy, carrying only a relatively small amount of mass,” explains Sarah Gallagher, an astronomer at Western University (Canada) who led the Gemini observations....
If you’ve had COVID-19, it may still be messing with your brain. According to new research, those who have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus are at increased risk of developing a range of neurological conditions in the first year after the infection. A comprehensive analysis of federal health data reveals that such complications include strokes, cognitive and memory problems, anxiety, depression, and migraine headaches. In addition, the post-COVID brain is associated with movement disorders, from tremors and involuntary muscle contractions to epileptic seizures, balance and coordination difficulties, and hearing and vision abnormalities as well as other symptoms similar to what is experienced with Parkinson’s disease....
However, those vaccinations alone are of no help against the widely circulating omicron variant, shows a new study by researchers at Yale and the Dominican Republic. The results are published in the journal Nature Medicine. An analysis of blood serum from 101 individuals from the Dominican Republic showed that omicron infection produced no neutralizing antibodies among those who received the standard two-shot regimen of the Sinovac vaccine. Antibody levels against omicron rose among those who had also received a booster shot of the mRNA vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech....
The Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) analytical instrument inside the rover received the sample powder. This sample comes from a rock target called “Telegraph Peak,” the third target drilled during about six months of investigating the “Pahrump Hills” outcrop on Mount Sharp. With this delivery completed, the rover team plans to drive Curiosity away from Pahrump Hills in coming days. “That precious Telegraph Peak sample had been sitting in the arm, so tantalizingly close, for two weeks....
Researchers at Harvard University have developed a soft, walking robot for DARPA, which has the uncanny ability to camouflage itself within its environment. This system consists of a microfluid that’s networked throughout the robot’s chassis that is then used to camouflage or display various colors in different levels within its silicone sheets. The soft robot uses a variety of heated and cooled dyes, which are chemiluminescent and fluorescent for optimal effect....
Interactions with binary companions shape the stellar winds blowing from elderly stars, generating the dazzling array of complex shapes found in the planetary nebulae they produce, a new study finds. While massive stars explode in brilliant supernovae when they die, those with low and intermediate masses — less than eight times the mass of the Sun — swell and evolve into a type of cool, highly luminous red giant, also known as an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star....
Here, NASA and its partners are blending ocean and space exploration, with a project called SUBSEA, short for Systematic Underwater Biogeochemical Science and Exploration Analog. Lessons learned in both fields will be mutually beneficial and could help design future science-focused missions across the solar system. Saturn’s moon Enceladus and Jupiter’s moon Europa are thought to have liquid oceans and hydrothermal activity under icy crusts. Locations on Earth with key similarities to future deep-space destinations are called analog environments....
