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To capture the data, the researchers designed an automated system consisting of an industrial robotic arm with precise control, a 3D motion-tracking system, depth and traditional cameras, and software that stitches everything together. The arm pushes around modular objects that can be adjusted for weight, shape, and mass distribution. For each push, the system captures how those characteristics affect the robot’s push. The dataset, called “Omnipush,” contains 250 different pushes of 250 objects, totaling roughly 62,500 unique pushes....

These images, however, are more than just beauty shots. They reveal a planet with a turbulent, dynamic atmosphere. This year’s Hubble offering, for example, shows that a large storm visible in the 2018 Hubble image in the north polar region has vanished. Smaller storms pop into view like popcorn kernels popping in a microwave oven before disappearing just as quickly. Even the planet’s banded structure reveals subtle changes in color....

The team, led by Yuping Huang, an associate professor of physics and director of the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, brings us closer to that goal with a nano-scale chip that facilitates photon interactions with much higher efficiency than any previous system. The new method, reported as a memorandum in the September 18 issue of Optica, works at very low energy levels, suggesting that it could be optimized to work at the level of individual photons — the holy grail for room-temperature quantum computing and secure quantum communication....

Recent measurements from NASA’s Van Allen Probes spacecraft showed that electrons can reach ultra-relativistic energies flying at almost the speed of light. Hayley Allison, Yuri Shprits, and collaborators from the German Research Centre for Geosciences have revealed under which conditions such strong accelerations occur. They had already demonstrated in 2020 that during solar storm plasma waves play a crucial role for that. However, it was previously unclear why such high electron energies are not achieved in all solar storms....

When blessed with a resource in overwhelming abundance it’s generally a good idea to make valuable use of that resource. Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant organic material on Earth. For thousands of years it has been used as animal feed, and for the past two centuries has been a staple of the paper industry. This abundant resource, however, could also supply the sugars needed to produce advanced biofuels that can supplement or replace fossil fuels, providing several key technical challenges are met....

One of the hallmarks of chronic pain is inflammation, and scientists at the UNC School of Medicine have discovered that anti-inflammatory cells called MRC1+ macrophages are dysfunctional in an animal model of neuropathic pain. Returning these cells to their normal state could offer a route to treating debilitating pain caused by nerve damage or a malfunctioning nervous system. The researchers, who published their work in Neuron, found that stimulating the expression of an anti-inflammatory protein called CD163 reduced signs of neuroinflammation in the spinal cord of mice with neuropathic pain....

Speed as important as size in predicting potentially damaging impacts of coronal mass ejections. Space weather forecasters need to predict the speed of solar eruptions, as much as their size, to protect satellites and the health of astronauts, scientists have found. Scientists at the University of Reading found that by calculating the speed of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) when they hit Earth, forecasters could provide more useful early warnings. This would help operators of critical infrastructure such as satellites know if they need to take evasive action or switch off systems to protect them, and warn astronauts when they need to shelter inside shielded parts of the International Space Station....

Scientists have estimated that the age of an individual does not indicate how likely they are to be infected by SARS-CoV-2. However, development of symptoms, progression of the disease, and mortality are age-dependent. There have been a large number of deaths due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and it has been shown that elderly individuals disproportionately develop severe symptoms and show higher mortality. A team of scientists, including Associate Professor Ryosuke Omori from the Research Center for Zoonoses Control at Hokkaido University, have modeled available data from Japan, Spain and Italy to show that susceptibility to COVID-19 is independent of age, while occurrence of symptomatic COVID-19, severity and mortality is likely dependent on age....

The research, led by Professor Roy Taylor at Newcastle University, UK, is published in the academic journal, Cell Metabolism. The study involved a group of people from Tyneside who previously had Type 2 diabetes but had lost weight and successfully reversed the condition as part of the DiRECT trial, which was funded by Diabetes UK and led by Professors Roy Taylor and Mike Lean (Glasgow University). The majority remained non-diabetic for the rest of the two-year study, however, a small group went on to re-gain the weight and re-developed Type 2 diabetes....

Experiments will give scientists a closer look at how exploding stars create world’s heaviest elements. How do the chemical elements, the building blocks of our universe, get built? This question has been at the core of nuclear physics for the better part of a century. At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists discovered that elements have a central core or nucleus. These nuclei consist of various numbers of protons and neutrons....

The Chinese dancing horse sculpture at the museum is so lifelike that it seems to be ready to gallop off its pedestal. However, H ou-mei Sung, an expert in East Asian art, questioned the authenticity of a decorative tassel on the terracotta horse’s forehead that resembled the horn of a mythical unicorn. Pietro Strobbia, an assistant professor of chemistry at the UC College of Arts and Sciences, was contacted by the museum to help establish if the tassel belonged to the original piece....

In a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, researchers from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) introduce scientists to successful culturing methods for O. chierchiae that were developed at the MBL. “The pygmy zebra octopus has certain biological features that make them attractive and more appropriate for laboratory research, compared to other octopuses,” says Bret Grasse, MBL’s manager of Cephalopod Operations and co-author on the paper. Also known as the “lesser Pacific striped octopus,” the pygmy zebra octopus shares many useful similarities with other research organisms—such as small adult body size—but it also has unique features that distinguish it from other cephalopods (the group of animals that include octopus, squid, and cuttlefish)....

The discovery may be an important step toward a methanol fuel economy with abundant methane as the feedstock, an advance that could fundamentally change how the world uses natural gas. Methanol – the simplest alcohol ­­– is used to make various products, like paints and plastics, and as an additive to gasoline. Rich in hydrogen, methanol can drive new-age fuel cells that could yield significant environmental benefits. If natural gas, of which methane is the primary component, could be converted economically into methanol, the resulting liquid fuel would be much more easily stored and transported than natural gas and pure hydrogen....

B cells have antigen receptors on their surface that allow them to identify invading pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. When a B cell receptor binds to an antigen, that is, to a foreign structure, the B cell is activated which triggers the production of antibodies. Antibodies are critical for human survival because they protect us from severe diseases from infections with pathogens such as COVID-19. Vaccines provide protection by activating antigen receptors, triggering an immune response....

More than half of the climate tipping points identified a decade ago are now “active,” a group of leading scientists have warned. This “cascade” of changes sparked by global warming could threaten the existence of human civilizations. Evidence is mounting that these events are more likely and more interconnected than was previously thought, leading to a possible domino effect. In an article published in the journal Nature on November 27, 2019, the scientists call for urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to prevent key tipping points, warning of a worst-case scenario of a “hothouse,” less habitable planet....

The left and right side of our brain are specialized for some cognitive abilities. For example, in humans, language is processed predominantly in the left hemisphere, and the right hand is controlled by the motor cortex in the left hemisphere. The functional lateralization is reflected by morphological asymmetry of the brain. Left and right hemispheres differ subtly in brain anatomy, the distribution of nerve cells, their connectivity, and neurochemistry. Asymmetries of outer brain shape are even visible on endocasts....

DESI is an international science collaboration managed by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) with primary funding for construction and operations from DOE’s Office of Science. DESI scientists are presenting the performance of the instrument, and some early astrophysics results, this week at a Berkeley Lab-hosted webinar called CosmoPalooza, which will also feature updates from other leading cosmology experiments. “There is a lot of beauty to it,” said Berkeley Lab scientist Julien Guy, one of the speakers....

Enter Travunijana djokovici, a new species of aquatic snail named after famous Serbian ten­nis player Novak Djokovic. Slovak biospeleologist Jozef Grego and Montenegrin zoologist Vladimir Pesic of the University of Montenegro discovered the new snail in a karstic spring near Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, during a field trip in April 2019. Their scientific article, published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal Subterranean Biology, says they named it after Djokovic “to acknowledge his inspiring enthusiasm and energy....

Their initial discovery seemed like a contradiction because most other polymer fibers were embrittle in the cold. But after many years of working on the problem, the group of researchers have discovered that silk’s cryogenic toughness is based on its nano-scale fibrils. Sub-microscopic order and hierarchy allow silk to withstand temperatures of down to -200ºC (-328ºF). And possibly even lower, which would make these classic natural luxury fibers ideal for applications in the depths of chilly outer space....

A team of international scientists, including Tracy Frank, the Professor and Department Head of the UConn Department of Earth Sciences, and Professor Christopher Fielding, are collaborating to uncover the cause and events of the Latest Permian Mass Extinction (LPME) by studying the mercury deposits found in sediments in Australia and South Africa, which originated from Siberian volcanoes. Their research has recently been published in the journal Nature Communications. Though the LPME happened over 250 million years ago, there are similarities to the major climate changes happening today, explains Frank: “It’s relevant to understanding what might happen on earth in the future....