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“The OSIRIS-REx mission has been demonstrating the very essence of exploration by persevering through unexpected challenges,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science. “That spirit has led them to the cusp of the prize we all are waiting for – securing a sample of an asteroid to bring home to Earth, and I’m very excited to follow them through the home stretch.” From discovering Bennu’s surprisingly rugged and active surface, to entering the closest-ever orbit around a planetary body, OSIRIS-REx has overcome several challenges since arriving at the asteroid in December 2018....

Both the 8″ line used to fill and drain liquid hydrogen from the core stage and the 4″ bleed line used to redirect some of the propellant during tanking operations were removed and replaced this week. Coming up next, technicians will reconnect the umbilical plates and perform inspections over the weekend. After that, they’ll begin preparing for a tanking demonstration as soon as Saturday, September 17. This demonstration will allow engineers to verify the new seals under cryogenic, or supercold, conditions that are expected on launch day, before proceeding to the next launch attempt....

The new study comes from the labs of Maiken Nedergaard, co-director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine at the University of Rochester and the University of Copenhagen and Kjeld Møllgård, M.D., a professor of neuroanatomy at the University of Copenhagen. Nedergaard and her colleagues have transformed our understanding of the fundamental mechanics of the human brain and made significant findings to the field of neuroscience, including detailing the many critical functions of previously overlooked cells in the brain called glia and the brain’s unique process of waste removal, which the lab named the glymphatic system....

A University of Iowa neuroscience research team has identified a fundamental biochemical mechanism underlying memory storage and has linked this mechanism to cognitive deficits in mouse models of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias. While working to understand how memories are formed and stored in the brain, the team identified a novel protein folding mechanism in the endoplasmic reticulum that is essential for long term memory storage. They further demonstrated that this mechanism is impaired in a tau-based mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease and that restoring this protein folding mechanism reverses memory impairment in this mouse model for the study of dementia....

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has begun transmitting its latest images of Saturn’s icy, geologically active moon Enceladus, acquired during the dramatic October 28 flyby in which the probe passed about 30 miles (49 kilometers) above the moon’s south polar region. The spacecraft will continue transmitting its data from the encounter for the next several days. “Cassini’s stunning images are providing us a quick look at Enceladus from this ultra-close flyby, but some of the most exciting science is yet to come,” said Linda Spilker, the mission’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California....

Published today in the Open-Access, Open-Data journal GigaScience is the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database (NCCID), a centralized database containing chest X-rays, Computed Tomography (CT) and MRI scans from patients across the UK. Utilizing the unique position as the world’s single largest integrated healthcare system, the benefits of collecting chest imaging data this large are extensive and already being used by doctors and the research community. The database is already supporting the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered image processing software and diagnostic products and models being used to predict COVID-19 mortality in the UK....

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and collaborators developed the sensor, which integrates specially designed DNA fragments and nanopore sensing, to target and detect infectious viruses in minutes without the need to pre-treat samples. They demonstrated the sensor’s power with two key viruses that cause infections worldwide: the human adenovirus and the virus that causes COVID-19. Yi Lu, a professor emeritus of chemistry, and Benito Marinas, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, co-led the work with University of Illinois Chicago professor Lijun Rong; professor Omar Azzaroni, of the National University of La Plata in Argentina; and María Eugenia Toimil-Molares, of the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Germany....

Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have fabricated a novel glass and synthetic diamond foundation that can be used to create minuscule micro- and nanostructures. This new substrate is low-cost and leaves minimal waste, the researchers say, in a study published in Diamond and Related Materials. “We’ve spent the last couple of decades throwing away plastics,” said Stoffel Janssens, the first author of the study, and a member of OIST’s Mathematics, Mechanics, and Materials Unit....

Scientists with NASA’s New Horizons mission have assembled this highest-resolution color view of one of two potential cryovolcanoes spotted on the surface of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015. This feature, known as Wright Mons, was informally named by the New Horizons team in honor of the Wright brothers. At about 90 miles (150 kilometers) across and 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) high, this feature is enormous. If it is in fact a volcano, as suspected, it would be the largest such feature discovered in the outer solar system....

The team’s design principles and experimental findings demonstrate that it is possible to model and construct metamaterial devices that can precisely manipulate optical fields with high spatial resolution in three dimensions. Though the team chose a helical pattern — a spiral helix — for their optical element to focus light, their approach could be used to design optical elements that control and focus light in other patterns. Devices with this level of precision control over light could be used not only to miniaturize today’s optical elements, such as lenses or retroreflectors, but also to realize new varieties....

Wetting is an everyday phenomenon that represents how well liquid spreads on a surface. When water comes into contact with an extremely water-repellent, or ‘superhydrophobic’ surface, droplets bead up and roll off easily. Aalto University researchers have developed a measurement technique called Scanning Droplet Adhesion Microscopy (SDAM) to understand and characterize the wetting properties of superhydrophobic materials. “Our novel microscope will promote the understanding of how wetting emerges from surface microstructures....

Why are the lightweight silk threads of web spiders tougher than most other materials? Scientists from the Universities of Würzburg and Mainz teamed up to find answers to this question. They were able to show that the natural amino acid methionine provides plasticity to a protein domain, which is a constitutive part of spider silk. This plasticity increases the strength of bonding between the individual domains substantially. The scientists have published their findings in the current issue of Nature Communications....

Boston – In recent years investigators have discovered that breast tumors are influenced by more than just the cancer cells within them. A variety of noncancerous cells, which in many cases constitute the majority of the tumor mass, form what is known as the “tumor microenvironment.” This sea of noncancerous cells and the products they deposit appear to play key roles in tumor pathogenesis. Among the key accomplices in the tumor microenvironment are mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), a group of adult progenitor cells that have been shown to help breast cancers maneuver and spread to other parts of the body....

Men with symptomatic COVID-19, who were found to have low testosterone following admittance to the hospital, were more likely to become severely ill and die from the disease, new research has shown. The study, carried out in Milan during the first wave of coronavirus in 2020, found that the lower the levels of testosterone, the higher the likelihood that male patients would need intensive care, be intubated on a ventilator, and remain in hospital over a longer period....

Sweeteners could cause gut bacteria to invade the intestine. New research has discovered that common artificial sweeteners can cause previously healthy gut bacteria to become diseased and invade the gut wall, potentially leading to serious health issues. The study, published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, is the first to show the pathogenic effects of some of the most widely used artificial sweeteners — saccharin, sucralose, and aspartame — on two types of gut bacteria, E....

Following on from a new species of ankylosaur, new species of therapod, and two new species of spinosaur dinosaurs, Brighstoneus simmondsi is the latest in a host of new dinosaur species described by Museum scientists in recent weeks. The new dinosaur is an iguanodontian, a group that also includes the iconic Iguanodon and Mantellisaurus. Until now, iguanodontian material found from the Wealden Group (representing part of the Early Cretaceous period) on the Isle of Wight has usually been referred to as one of these two dinosaurs – with more gracile fossil bones assigned to Mantellisaurus and the larger and more robust material assigned to Iguanodon....

Imagine a planet like Jupiter zipping around its host star every day and a half, super-heated to temperatures hotter than most stars and sporting a giant, glowing gas tail like a comet. That is what an international research team led by astronomers at Ohio State and Vanderbilt universities think they have found orbiting a massive star they have labeled KELT-9, located 650 light years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus....

Unfortunately, obesity rates in adults and children continue to rise. From 1975 to 2016, the worldwide prevalence of overweight or obese children and adolescents aged 5–19 years grew more than fourfold, from 4% to 18%. Obesity is generally thought to be caused by eating too much and moving too little, however recent studies suggest other factors may be in play. A Clemson University research team is making strides in understanding the link between certain enzymes naturally generated in the body and their role in managing obesity and controlling liver diseases....

The glass structure of a material is often believed to mimic its corresponding liquid. Polyamorphism between ices has been used as a guide to elucidate the properties of liquid water. But how many forms of amorphous ices are there? Do we understand how metastable high-pressure crystalline ice evolves towards the thermally stable low-density form? An international research team led by Chuanlong Lin and Wenge Yang from HPSTAR and John S....

If you’ve ever been bored in a meeting and tried playing with a metal paperclip to pass the time, you may have noticed something surprising. Although the paperclip starts flexible and returns to its original shape several times, after enough cycles it may suddenly snap. This is an example of “fatigue,” in which cracks and defects build up as an object is subjected to cyclic loading and unloading of stress....