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Researchers Veronica Nieves, Josh Willis and Bill Patzert of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California, found a specific layer of the Indian and Pacific oceans between 300 and 1,000 feet (100 and 300 meters) below the surface has been accumulating more heat than previously recognized. They also found the movement of warm water has affected surface temperatures. The result was published in the journal Science. During the 20th century, as greenhouse gas concentrations increased and trapped more heat energy on Earth, global surface temperatures also increased....

The event highlighted a plan to reduce aviation carbon emissions through production of more than three billion gallons of sustainable fuel by 2030. Officials from the Departments of Transportation, Energy, and Agriculture announced a Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge (SAFGC) to meet this goal, in partnership with industry and other federal agencies. SAFGC aims to reduce costs, enhance the sustainability of aviation, as well as expand the production and use of sustainable aviation fuel to meet 100% of U....

Researchers from the Universities of Tübingen and Zaragoza have discovered a previously unknown species of otter from 11.4-million-year-old strata at the Hammerschmiede fossil site. The excavation site in the Allgäu region of Germany became world-renowned in 2019 for discoveries of the bipedal ape Danuvius guggenmosi. The new species, published today in the Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology, was named Vishnuonyx neptuni, meaning Neptune’s Vishnu otter. The Vishnu otter genus was previously known only from Asia and Africa....

Scientists at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, now have the capability to systematically investigate the molecular evolution of cosmic carbon. For the first time, these scientists are able to automatically interpret previously unknown infrared emissions from space that come from surprisingly complex organic molecules, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are abundant and important across the universe. Between 2003 and 2005, thanks to its unprecedented sensitivity, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, managed and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, created maps of the tell-tale PAH signature across large regions of space, from hot regions of harsh ultraviolet (UV) radiation close to stars, to cold, dark clouds where stars and planets form....

In an effort to learn more about the fascinating natural history of PNG, paleontologists from Flinders University and archaeologists and geoscientists from Australian National University (ANU) have reexamined megafauna bones from the rich Nombe Rock Shelter fossil site in Chimbu Province. New dating methods from the research reveal that when humans first arrived in the PNG Highlands, roughly 60,000 years ago, numerous giant mammal species, including the extinct thylacine and a marsupial that resembled a panda (named Hulitherium tomasettii), were still present....

Astronomers have found a clever new way to slice and dice the flickering light from a distant star in a way that reveals the strength of gravity at its surface. That is important because a star’s surface gravity is one of the key properties that astronomers use to calculate a star’s physical properties and assess its evolutionary state. The new technique can also be used to significantly improve estimates of the sizes of the hundreds of exoplanets that have been discovered in the last 20 years....

A team of experts in mechanics, materials science, and tissue engineering at Harvard has created an extremely stretchy and tough gel that may suggest a new method for replacing damaged cartilage in human joints. The new material, a hydrogel, is a strong hybrid of two weak gels. Not only can it stretch to 21 times its original length, but it is also tough, self-healing, and biocompatible — attributes that open up new opportunities in medicine and tissue engineering....

Graphene is composed of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern. It is stronger than steel, thinner than a human hair, and more conductive than copper, making an ideal building block for the next generation of compact, smart electronics. Several years ago, James M. Tour and colleagues heated the surface of an inexpensive plastic with a laser in the air to create something called laser-induced graphene (LIG)....

A new type of battery developed by researchers at MIT could be made partly from carbon dioxide captured from power plants. Rather than attempting to convert carbon dioxide to specialized chemicals using metal catalysts, which is currently highly challenging, this battery could continuously convert carbon dioxide into a solid mineral carbonate as it discharges. While still based on early-stage research and far from commercial deployment, the new battery formulation could open up new avenues for tailoring electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion reactions, which may ultimately help reduce the emission of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere....

By 2050, sea level along contiguous U.S. coastlines could rise as much as 12 inches (30 centimeters) above today’s waterline, according to researchers who analyzed nearly three decades of satellite observations. The results from the NASA Sea Level Change Team could help refine near-term projections for coastal communities that are bracing for increases in both catastrophic and nuisance flooding in coming years. Global sea level has been rising for decades in response to a warming climate, and multiple lines of evidence indicate the rise is accelerating....

Using a new planet-hunting technique that identifies unusual patterns in the flow of gas within a protoplanetary disk, two teams of astronomers have confirmed the distinct, telltale hallmarks of newly formed planets orbiting an infant star in our galaxy. These results are presented in a pair of papers appearing in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. “We looked at the localized, small-scale motion of gas in a star’s protoplanetary disk. This entirely new approach could uncover some of the youngest planets in our galaxy, all thanks to the high-resolution images coming from ALMA,” said Richard Teague, an astronomer at the University of Michigan and principal author on one of the papers....

Among adults who vary in their knowledge of number words, the ability to reason about numbers is bound by the highest number they can count to. Among many of the Tsimane’ people, who live in a remote region of the Bolivian rainforest, numbers do not play an important role in their lives, and people living in this society vary widely in how high they can count. A new study from MIT and the University of California at Berkeley has found a relationship between the counting ability of Tsimane’ individuals and their success at matching tasks that involve numbers up to about 25....

After testing several different mask styles and 41 types of fabrics, they found that a mask consisting of two layers of low-thread-count quilting cotton plus a three-ply dried baby wipe filter was as effective as a commercial non-surgical mask at stopping particles–and almost as breathable. The cloth masks filtered out up to 80 percent of 3-micron particles, and more than 90 percent of 10-micron particles. “We focused on particles larger than one micron because these are likely most important to COVID-19 transmission,” explains researcher Dr....

A team of investigators from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai has published research in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research that confirms a connection between Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) and both COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccination. The study suggests that a small proportion of individuals who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 may develop POTS, which is a debilitating heart condition characterized by an abnormal increase in heart rate upon standing....

The structure of the lungs exposes them to viruses and bacteria from both the air and the blood. Macrophages are immune cells that, among other things, protect the lungs from such attacks. But under certain conditions, lung macrophages can also contribute to severe lung diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and COVID-19. To date, research on the development of human lung macrophages has been limited. Macrophages can have different origins and develop, among other things, from white blood cells, monocytes, which are divided into different genetically determined main types....

In an effort to decrease opioid-related illness and death, Canada and the United States have established guidelines to limit opioid prescriptions for chronic pain. However, the impact of discontinuing opioid treatments on overdose risk remains largely unstudied. To investigate the relationship between discontinuing prescribed opioid therapy for pain and overdose risk, a team of researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study of individuals receiving long-term opioid therapy for pain in British Columbia between October 2014 and June 2018....

The NASA and European Space Agency Cassini mission has revealed hundreds of lakes and seas spread across the north polar region of Saturn’s moon Titan. These lakes are filled not with water but with hydrocarbons, a form of organic compound that is also found naturally on Earth and includes methane. The vast majority of liquid in Titan’s lakes is thought to be replenished by rainfall from clouds in the moon’s atmosphere....

Studies consistently show that people born weighing 6 pounds or less face an increased risk for type 2 diabetes as adults. A new study not only confirms that risk in a sample of more than 3,000 women but also shows the relative predictive value of different biomarkers, giving doctors potential new tools for understanding individual risk among low birthweight women. The findings also could help guide researchers trying to tease out which physiological processes might be sent awry by low-birth weight, ultimately leading to type 2 diabetes....

A type of lung disease, pulmonary fibrosis causes scarring of the lungs, which impairs breathing. One form of this lethal illness, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), is steadily increasing in the United States and leads to death within three to five years of diagnosis in half of the patients. Using profiles of all the genes expressed in the lungs, the Yale-led team of investigators identified a gene that was increased in the lungs of people with IPF; this gene also activates the thyroid hormone....

The study reviewed all empirical research that could be identified on direct and indirect public health effects associated with experiencing multiple disasters and included 150 articles published globally. Published recently in the Lancet Public Health, Dr. Claire Leppold and fellow University of Melbourne co-authors Professor Lisa Gibbs, Dr. Karen Block, Dr. Lennart Reifels, and Ms. Phoebe Quinn detail the ways multiple disaster exposures can impact physical health, mental health, wellbeing, and resilience....