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Radio wavelength emissions from these small, so-called “counter-arms” have been observed before, but with the help of SOFIA – along with observations by ALMA and archival data from a number of other observatories – their presence has now been confirmed by X-ray, ionized carbon, and carbon monoxide emissions as well. SOFIA’s new observations of the counter-arms can help reveal their origin. “The really important thing in this galaxy are the two little counter-arms that go in the opposite direction of the optical arms that are seen in radio, but nobody had seen them in the X-ray,” said Dario Fadda, lead author on a recent paper describing the analysis....

Researchers analyzing recent BBC and Netflix nature documentaries found that although they increasingly mention threats to nature, visual depictions of these threats remain scarce, potentially misleading audiences on the state of the natural world. The findings are discussed in a Perspective published in the British Ecological Society journal People and Nature. Researchers from Bangor University, the University of Kent, Newcastle University, and the University of Oxford coded the scripts from the four most recent David Attenborough narrated series....

In an effort to find new treatments for people suffering from neuropathic pain, Yale University neurologists have managed to repair neurons associated with traumatic nerve injury pain in rats. Neuropathic pain associated with diabetes, shingles, and traumatic injury affects up to 18 percent of the population and can be difficult or impossible to effectively treat. Using gene therapy, Yale neurologists have managed to repair neurons associated with traumatic nerve injury pain in rats....

The study of matter can seem a bit like opening a stack of Russian matryoshka dolls, each level down revealing another familiar, yet different, arrangement of components smaller and harder to explore than the one before. At our everyday scale, we have objects we can see and touch. Whether water in a glass or the glass itself, these are mostly arrangements of molecules too small to see. The tools of physics, microscopes, particle accelerators, and so forth, let us peer deeper to reveal molecules are made from atoms....

Findings may lead to ‘plant probiotic’ and new antibiotics. Scientists from Rutgers University and around the world have discovered an antibiotic produced by a soil bacterium from a Mexican tropical forest that may help lead to a “plant probiotic,” more robust plants and other antibiotics. Probiotics, which provide friendlier bacteria and health benefits for humans, can also be beneficial to plants, keeping them healthy and more robust. The new antibiotic, known as phazolicin, prevents harmful bacteria from getting into the root systems of bean plants, according to a Rutgers co-authored study published today (October 8, 2019) in the journal Nature Communications....

Similar to how famed physiologist Ivan Pavlov conditioned dogs to associate a bell with food, researchers at Northwestern University and the University of Hong Kong successfully conditioned their circuit to associate light with pressure. The research will be published today (April 30, 2021) in the journal Nature Communications. The device’s secret lies within its novel organic, electrochemical “synaptic transistors,” which simultaneously process and store information just like the human brain....

However, owing to the process’s high temperature and pressure requirements, large fossil fuel energy inputs are required. The hydrogen utilized in this method is derived from natural gas (mainly methane). This hydrogen-production process consumes a lot of energy and emits a lot of CO2. To address these issues, several catalysts have been created to allow the reaction to take place at gentler circumstances utilizing hydrogen produced by water electrolysis using renewable energy....

For astronomers interested in how planets formed from dust disks around stars of all types, these smaller systems have the potential to constrain the bigger picture of planet formation and evolution, especially if they signal some dramatic event or important evolutionary phase like the Late Heavy Bombardment phase of our solar system. Some changes in exoplanetary disks have already been spotted. Comets, for example, are known to be present in a handful of systems through variations in the stars’ optical and ultraviolet spectra and via irregular stellar dimming....

Dr. Patrice de Caritat, Principal Research Scientist at Geoscience Australia, Australia’s public sector geoscience organization, said: “We’ve done the first trials to see if geochemical analysis could narrow down a search area. We took a 260 km2 area of North Canberra and divided it into cells (squares) of 1 km x 1 km, and sampled the soil in each cell. We were then given 3 samples from within the survey area, and asked to identify which grid cells they came from....

A genome-interpretation company is now offering a hardware solution. Their meter-tall, 275-kilogram black box carries enough storage and processing power to analyze one genome every day, picking out mutations with potential links to diseases, and would be fast enough to inform clinicians for treatment. Some of the most important features of the $125,000-dollar unit is that it is a self-contained object. No patient data is transferred via networks to other places....

Each week the piano-sized New Horizons spacecraft transmits data stored on its digital recorders from its flight through the Pluto system on July 14. These latest pictures are part of a sequence taken near New Horizons’ closest approach to Pluto, with resolutions of about 250-280 feet (77-85 meters) per pixel – revealing features less than half the size of a city block on Pluto’s diverse surface. In these new images, New Horizons captured a wide variety of cratered, mountainous and glacial terrains....

The routine calibration frame of the “Wishing Well” galactic open star cluster, made by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on December 5, was taken when New Horizons was 3.79 billion miles (6.12 billion kilometers, or 40.9 astronomical units) from Earth – making it, for a time, the farthest image ever made from Earth. New Horizons was even farther from home than NASA’s Voyager 1 when it captured the famous “Pale Blue Dot” image of Earth....

More than two decades after scientists discovered a new type of copper-based high-temperature superconductor — energy-efficient material that can carry electricity without waste — Harvard physicists say they have unlocked the chemical secret that controls its “fool’s gold” phase, which mimics, but doesn’t have all the advantageous properties of, superconductivity. In an effort to better understand the phase, called the “pseudogap,” Associate Professor of Physics Jenny Hoffman and Ilija Zeljkovic, a graduate student working in Hoffman’s lab, began studying where oxygen atoms — a critical element added (“doped”) to a copper-based ceramic to create the superconducting material —are located in the material’s crystal structure....

On August 30, 2019, amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov, from MARGO Observatory, Crimea, discovered an object with a comet-like appearance. The object has a condensed coma, and more recently a short tail has been observed. Mr. Borisov made this discovery with a 0.65-meter (2-foot) telescope he built himself. After a week of observations by amateur and professional astronomers all over the world, the IAU Minor Planet Center was able to compute a preliminary orbit, which suggested this object was interstellar — only the second such object known to have passed through the Solar System....

You may think you know NASA: astronauts, launches, Mars rovers, and so on. This new podcast brings listeners a side of NASA they may have never heard of before — technologies crucial to spaceflight, yet often overlooked. You may think you know NASA: astronauts, launches, Mars rovers, and so on. This new podcast brings you a side of NASA you may have never seen or heard of before — technologies crucial to spaceflight, yet often overlooked....

In a study published in Nature Physics on January 27, 2020, researchers at the University of British Columbia have demonstrated an entirely new way to precisely control such electrical currents by leveraging the interaction between an electron’s spin (which is the quantum magnetic field it inherently carries) and its orbital rotation around the nucleus. “We have found a new way to switch the electrical conduction in materials from on to off,” said lead author Berend Zwartsenberg, a Ph....

Carl Lipo, anthropology professor and director of the Environmental Studies Program at Binghamton University, and a team of researchers studied the monumental statues (moai) on Rapa Nui, and the previously unacknowledged giant stone hats (pukao) that were placed atop them. Pukao are large, cylindrical stones made from a volcanic rock known as ‘red scoria.’ Weighing multiple tons, they were placed on the heads of the moai during prehistoric times, consistent with the Polynesian traditions of honoring their ancestors....

New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has revealed that training one arm can improve strength and decrease muscle loss in the other arm — without even moving it. The findings could help to address the muscle wastage and loss of strength often experienced in an immobilized arm, such as after injury, by using eccentric exercise on the opposing arm. In eccentric exercises, the contracting muscle is lengthening, such as when lowering a dumbbell in bicep curls, sitting on a chair slowly or walking downstairs....

Most planetary nebulae have a circular shape, but some have an hourglass or wing-like appearance, such as the well-known “Butterfly Nebula.” These shapes are believed to result from the gravitational pull of a second star orbiting the parent star of the nebula, causing the material to expand into two lobes or “wings.” Like an expanding balloon, the wings grow over time without changing their original shape. Yet new research shows that something is amiss in the Butterfly Nebula....

Frostbite causes fluids in the skin and underlying tissues to freeze and crystallize, resulting in inflammation, decreased blood flow, and cell death. Extremities are the most affected areas because they are farther away from the body’s core and already have reduced blood flow. If frostbite is not treated soon after the injury, it could lead to gangrene and amputation of the affected parts. Conventional treatments include immersing the body part in warm water, applying topical antibiotic creams or administering vasodilators and anti-inflammatory drugs, but many of these are unavailable in isolated snowy areas, like mountaintops....