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NASA’s Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE, has helped astronomers get closer to an answer. In a new study that was published on November 23 in the journal Nature, authored by a large international collaboration, astronomers find that the best explanation for the particle acceleration is a shock wave within the jet. “This is a 40-year-old mystery that we’ve solved,” said Yannis Liodakis, lead author of the study and astronomer at FINCA, the Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO....

Solar Cycle 25 is underway, and that means more frequent opportunities to see auroras—more commonly known as the northern lights and southern lights. One of the best opportunities in recent years occurred on October 11-12, 2021. In the early morning hours of October 12, 2021, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite acquired images of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, around the Northern Hemisphere....

As the world’s energy demands increase, so does our consumption of fossil fuels. The result is a massive rise in greenhouse gases emissions with severely adverse environmental effects. To address this, scientists have been searching for alternative, renewable sources of energy. A main candidate is hydrogen produced from organic waste, or “biomass,” of plants and animals. Biomass also absorbs, removes, and stores CO2 from the atmosphere, while biomass decomposition can also bring us ways to negative emissions or greenhouse gases removal....

The researchers wrote that this finding, demonstrated with yeast proteins, could eventually be used to help address human diseases associated with an imbalanced regulation of mitochondria size — for example, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s diseases. In addition, since having mitochondria that are too small or too large can potentially lead to incurable diseases, it is conceivable that the proteins responsible for this process could be potential targets for future therapies. The study was published in ACS Central Science and was led by UCLA bioengineering professor Gerard Wong....

If there’s one fact that most people retain from elementary biology, it’s that mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell. As such, they break down molecules and manufacture new ones to generate the fuel necessary for life. But mitochondria rely on a stream of proteins to sustain this energy production. Nearly all their proteins are manufactured in the surrounding gel-like cytoplasm, and must be imported into the mitochondria to keep the powerhouse running....

ASD is a developmental disorder that begins in early childhood and affects learning, communication, and social behavior. The severity of symptoms falls on a broad spectrum, which researchers believe is related to genetic and environmental factors that interact during brain development. Because young children with ASD are at particular risk for being overweight, the RIKEN CBS group hypothesized a link between ASD and fat-cell metabolism. Fat cells make hundreds of important biomolecules called adipokines, some of which regulate brain activity....

During the study, researchers based at the University of Padova in Italy cultivated rat neurons in their laboratory, whilst partners from the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich created artificial neurons on Silicon microchips. The virtual laboratory was brought together via an elaborate setup controlling nanoelectronic synapses developed at the University of Southampton. These synaptic devices are known as memristors. The Southampton based researchers captured spiking events being sent over the internet from the biological neurons in Italy and then distributed them to the memristive synapses....

In addition to smoothing out wrinkles, researchers have found that the drug Botox can reveal the inner workings of the brain. A new study used it to show that feedback from individual nerve cells controls the release of dopamine, a chemical messenger involved in motivation, memory, and movement. Such “self-regulation,” the researchers say, stands in contrast to the widely held view that the release of dopamine — known as the “feel good” hormone — by any cell relied on messages from nearby cells to recognize that it is releasing too much of the hormone....

Patients hospitalized for COVID-19 had higher levels over the short term of blood proteins known to rise with neurological damage than non-COVID-19 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, a new study finds. Importantly, the current report, published online today (January 13, 2022) in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, was conducted over two months early in the pandemic (March-May 2020). Any determination of whether patients with COVID-19 are at increased risk for future Alzheimer’s disease, or instead recover over time, must await the outcomes of long-term studies....

A recent study shows evidence that breastfeeding mothers do not transfer COVID through milk. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) — in collaboration with several other universities — indicates that breastfeeding women with COVID-19 do not transmit the SARS-CoV-2 virus through their milk, but do confer milk-borne antibodies that are able to neutralize the virus. The study, “Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 RNA, antibodies, and neutralizing capacity in milk produced by women with COVID-19,” published recently in the journal mBio — analyzed 37 milk samples submitted by 18 women diagnosed with COVID-19....

For example, astronomers have been trying to explain why some recently discovered distant, but young, galaxies contain massive amounts of dust. These observations indicate that type II supernovae — explosions of stars more than ten times as massive as the Sun — produce copious amounts of dust, but how and when they do so is not well understood. New work from a team of Carnegie cosmochemists published by Science Advances reports analyses of carbon-rich dust grains extracted from meteorites that show that these grains formed in the outflows from one or more type II supernovae more than two years after the progenitor stars exploded....

It’s been nearly two years since NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has had views like these of Saturn’s glorious rings. These views are possible again because Cassini has changed the angle at which it orbits Saturn and regularly passes above and below Saturn’s equatorial plane. Steeply inclined orbits around the Saturn system also allow scientists to get better views of the poles and atmosphere of Saturn and its moons. Cassini’s recent return of ring images has started to pay off....

The research team analyzed hundreds of images of background light taken by the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on NASA’s New Horizons mission to calculate the cosmic optical background (COB)—the sum of light emitted by stars beyond the Milky Way over the history of the universe. If the COB brightness doesn’t equal the light from galaxies we know about, it suggests there might be missing sources of optical light in the universe....

Seeds that would otherwise lie dormant will spring to life with the aid of a new chemical discovered by a UC Riverside-led team. Plants have the ability to perceive drought. When they do, they emit a hormone that helps them hold on to water. This same hormone, ABA, sends a message to seeds that it isn’t a good time to germinate, leading to lower crop yields and less food in places where it’s hot — an increasingly long list as a result of climate change....

Fabricating precise biomolecular structures at extremely small scales is critical to the progress of nanotechnology and related fields. Traditionally, one of the ways this has been accomplished has been through the use of rubber stamps with tiny features — similar to those used by children in play, but detailed at the microscopic scale — which are covered with molecular “inks” and then stamped onto substrate surfaces, creating a molecular patterns....

New findings published in PLOS Biology use “big data” approach. Results from a new Cleveland Clinic-led study suggest that melatonin, a hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and is commonly used as an over-the-counter sleep aid, may be a viable treatment option for COVID-19. As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the world, particularly with cases rising during what some have termed the “fall surge,” repurposing drugs already approved by the U....

Officially named ALH-77005, the Martian meteorite was found in the Allan Hills in Antarctica during the mission of the Japanese National Institute of Polar Research between 1977 and 1978. The new study “Mineralized biosignatures in ALH-77005 Shergottite – Clues to Martian Life?” was published in De Gruyter’s journal Open Astronomy, by authors Ildiko Gyollai, Márta Polgári, and Szaniszló Bérczi proposes the presence of active bacteria on Mars. Their research also suggests that there may have been life on other planets....

The coronavirus’ structure is an all-too-familiar image, with its densely packed surface receptors resembling a thorny crown. These spike-like proteins latch onto healthy cells and trigger the invasion of viral RNA. While the virus’ geometry and infection strategy is generally understood, little is known about its physical integrity. A new study by researchers in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering suggests that coronaviruses may be vulnerable to ultrasound vibrations, within the frequencies used in medical diagnostic imaging....

This image of the Pinwheel Galaxy, or M101, combines data in the infrared, visible, ultraviolet, and X-rays from four of NASA’s space telescopes. The view shows that both young and old stars are evenly distributed along M101’s tightly wound spiral arms. Such composite images allow astronomers to see how features in one part of the light spectrum match up with those seen in other parts. It’s like seeing with a regular camera, an ultraviolet camera, night-vision goggles, and X-ray vision, all at once!...

Scientists find evidence that carnosic acid can block SARS-CoV-2 infection and reduce inflammation. A team co-led by scientists at Scripps Research has found evidence that a compound contained in the medicinal and culinary herb rosemary could be a two-pronged weapon against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The scientists, in experiments described in a paper published on January 6, 2022 in the journal Antioxidants, found that the compound, carnosic acid, can block the interaction between the SARS-CoV-2 outer “spike” protein and the receptor protein, ACE2, which the virus uses to gain entry to cells....