Posts

In the swirling canopy of Jupiter’s atmosphere, cloudless patches are so exceptional that the big ones get the special name “hot spots.” Exactly how these clearings form and why they’re only found near the planet’s equator have long been mysteries. Now, using images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, scientists have found new evidence that hot spots in Jupiter’s atmosphere are created by a Rossby wave, a pattern also seen in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans....

This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on November 6, 2011, at a distance of approximately 90,000 miles (145,000 kilometers) from Enceladus. The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on September 15, 2017. The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency), and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington....

The spinning vortex of Saturn’s north polar storm resembles a deep red rose of giant proportions surrounded by green foliage in this false-color image from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Measurements have sized the eye at a staggering 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) across with cloud speeds as fast as 330 miles per hour (150 meters per second). This image is among the first sunlit views of Saturn’s north pole captured by Cassini’s imaging cameras....

Most big galaxies fit into one of two camps: pinwheel-shaped spiral galaxies and blobby elliptical galaxies. Spirals like the Milky Way are hip and happening places, with plenty of gas and dust to birth new stars. Ellipticals are like cosmic retirement villages, full of aging residents in the form of red giant stars. Now, astronomers have discovered that one well-known elliptical has a split personality. Centaurus A is hiding a gassy spiral in its center....

The ubiquitous clouds of gas and dust found between stars provide the natal material for new stars and planets. These clouds are also dynamic factories that produce many complex molecules thanks to their rich environment of stellar radiation, dense gas, and dust grains. The grains (most of which are silicates, analogous to sand) act as miniature chemical laboratories. Atoms and molecules from the gas condense onto their surfaces and then interact with one another to form even more complex species....

In biology, “symbiosis” refers to two organisms that live close to and interact with one another. Astronomers have long studied a class of stars — called symbiotic stars — that co-exist in a similar way. Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, astronomers are gaining a better understanding of how volatile this close stellar relationship can be. R Aquarii (R Aqr, for short) is one of the best known of the symbiotic stars....

An international team, led by Hope Ishii, a researcher at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UH Manoa), studied the particles’ chemical composition using infrared light at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS). Scientists also explored their nanoscale chemical makeup using electron microscopes at the Lab’s Molecular Foundry, which specializes in nanoscale research, and at the University of Hawaii’s Advanced Electron Microscopy Center. The study was published online June 11 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences....

The study, called the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial 3 (ACTT-3), took place from August 5, 2020 to December 21, 2020. It was sponsored and funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. Interferon beta-1a has the same amino acid sequence as a naturally occurring protein called interferon beta, which is in a class of proteins called type 1 interferons. Infected cells normally produce type 1 interferons to help the immune system fight pathogens, especially viruses....

Corporal punishment involves intentionally causing physical pain for the purposes of punishment, correction, discipline, instruction, or any other reason. This type of violence, particularly when inflicted by a parent, can elicit a complex emotional response. Researchers at Florida State University, led by Kreshnik Burani and Greg Hajcak, sought to understand the neural processes underlying this emotional experience and its resulting consequences. The study was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging....

In addition to being uncomfortable, the current gold standard for COVID-19 testing requires RT-PCR, a time-consuming laboratory procedure. Because of backlogs, obtaining a result can take several days. To reduce transmission and mortality rates, healthcare systems need quick, inexpensive and easy-to-use tests. Hossam Haick, Hu Liu, Yueyin Pan and colleagues wanted to develop a nanomaterial-based sensor that could detect COVID-19 in exhaled breath, similar to a breathalyzer test for alcohol intoxication....

Traditionally thought to be spread mainly through large respiratory droplets produced by the coughs and sneezes of sick individuals, a growing body of evidence indicates that many respiratory pathogens – including SARS-CoV-2– spread through virus-laden microscopic respiratory aerosols. In this Review, Chia Wang and colleagues discuss the recent research regarding airborne transmission of respiratory viruses and how an improved understanding of aerosol transmission will allow for better-informed controls to reduce and mitigate airborne transmission....

In May 2021, the Centers for Disease Control officially recognized that SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—is airborne, meaning it is highly transmissible through the air. Now University of California San Diego Professor and Endowed Chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry Rommie Amaro, along with partners across the U.S. and around the world, has modeled the delta virus inside an aerosol for the first time. This work was a finalist for the Gordon Bell Prize, given by the Association for Computing Machinery each year to recognize outstanding achievement in high-performance computing....

University of Connecticut Assistant Professor of Physics Daniel Anglés-Alcázar, lead author on a paper published recently in The Astrophysical Journal, addresses some of the questions surrounding these massive and enigmatic features of the universe by using new, high-powered simulations. “Supermassive black holes play a key role in galaxy evolution and we are trying to understand how they grow at the centers of galaxies,” says Anglés-Alcázar. “This is very important not just because black holes are very interesting objects on their own, as sources of gravitational waves and all sorts of interesting stuff, but also because we need to understand what the central black holes are doing if we want to understand how galaxies evolve....

The tracks were discovered by Ray Stanford — a local dinosaur track expert whose wife, Sheila, works at Goddard. After dropping off Sheila at work one day in 2012, Stanford spotted an intriguing rock outcropping behind Shelia’s building on a hillside. Stanford parked his car, investigated, and found a 12-inch-wide (30-centimeter-wide) dinosaur track on the exposed rock. Excavation revealed that the slab was the size of a dining room table and examination in the ensuing years found that it was covered in preserved tracks....

There may be a layer of surprisingly fluid rock ringing the Earth, at the very bottom of the upper mantle, according to a new study from a University of Chicago scientist. The finding was made by measuring the lingering movement registered by GPS sensors on islands in the wake of a deep earthquake in the Pacific Ocean near Fiji. Published on February 22 in Nature, the study demonstrates a new method to measure the fluidity of the Earth’s mantle....

“OPC has an approximate incidence of 115,000 cases per year worldwide and is one of the fastest-rising cancers in Western countries due to increasing HPV-related incidence, especially in younger patients. It is paramount that surveillance methods are developed to improve early detection and outcomes,” explained co-lead investigator Tony Jun Huang, Ph.D., Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. “Considering these factors, the successful detection of HPV from salivary exosomes isolated by our acoustofluidic platform offers distinct advantages, including early detection, risk assessment, and screening,” added Dr....

Chemotherapy kills blood cells as well as cancer cells, often with fatal results. Now Yale stem cell researchers have identified a method they hope one day will help cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy maintain a healthy blood supply, they report in the October 18 issue of the journal Cell Reports. The team, under the direction of Jun Lu, assistant professor of genetics at the Yale Stem Cell Center and Yale Cancer Center, studies how blood cells regenerate....

Moreover, AD subjects are more likely to develop other atopic conditions, including food allergies, asthma, and allergic rhinitis. As a result, it is critically important to clarify the possible mechanisms of AD to develop a more precise and effective preventive and treatment strategy. An analysis in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology & Venereology of relevant published studies found that early application of emollients, or moisturizers, is an effective strategy for preventing AD in high-risk infants....

Bacteria living within the gut could have a link to obesity, possibly explaining how antibiotics fatten farm animals, and humans as well, and predispose some organisms to obesity. Researchers published their findings in the journal Nature. In the study, the scientists replicated what farmers have been doing for decades to fatten up their livestock: feeding young mice a steady low dose of antibiotics, which in turn altered the composition of the bacteria in the gut....

Scientists say their idea — as yet unproven — is supported by the available evidence, which is that bacterial-induced inflammation is linked to cancer. The paper in the journal Medical Hypotheses is by Lancaster University medical student Auday Marwaha, Professor Jim Morris from the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, and Dr. Rachael Rigby from Lancaster University’s Faculty of Health and Medicine. The researchers say that: “There is a simple, inexpensive potential preventive remedy; which is for women to consume natural yogurt on a daily basis....