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Curiosity’s main activity in the 62nd sol of the mission (October 8, 2012) was to image a small, bright object on the ground using the Remote Micro-Imager of the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument. The rover team’s assessment is that the bright object is something from the rover, not Martian material. It appears to be a shred of plastic material, likely benign, but it has not been definitively identified. To proceed cautiously, the team is continuing the investigation for another day before deciding whether to resume processing of the sample in the scoop....

NASA’s Curiosity rover is in a position on Mars where scientists and engineers can begin preparing the rover to take its first scoop of soil for analysis. Curiosity is the centerpiece of the two-year Mars Science Laboratory mission. The rover’s ability to put soil samples into analytical instruments is central to assessing whether its present location on Mars, called Gale Crater, ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. Mineral analysis can reveal past environmental conditions....

As it approaches the second anniversary of its landing on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover is also approaching its first close look at bedrock that is part of Mount Sharp, the layered mountain in the middle of Mars’ Gale Crater. The mission made important discoveries during its first year by finding evidence of ancient lake and river environments. During its second year, it has been driving toward long-term science destinations on lower slopes of Mount Sharp....

This second drilling target, called “Cumberland,” lies about nine feet (2.75 meters) west of the rock where Curiosity’s drill first touched Martian stone in February. Curiosity took the first rock sample ever collected on Mars from that rock, called “John Klein.” The rover found evidence of an ancient environment favorable for microbial life. Both rocks are flat, with pale veins and a bumpy surface. They are embedded in a layer of rock on the floor of a shallow depression called “Yellowknife Bay....

Published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, the research is not only one of the largest studies, but also the first to assess how sleep deprivation impacts placekeeping — or, the ability to complete a series of steps without losing one’s place, despite potential interruptions. This study builds on prior research from MSU’s sleep scientists to quantify the effect lack of sleep has on a person’s ability to follow a procedure and maintain attention....

The thruster firing occurred at 8:25 p.m. EDT and the maneuver had no impact on station operations. It was predicted that the fragment could have passed within about three miles of the station without the maneuver. The PDAM increased the station’s altitude by 2/10 of a mile at apogee and 8/10 of a mile at perigee and left the station in an orbit of 264.3 x 255.4 statute miles. The Progress 81 spacecraft is a Russian resupply cargo ship that arrived at the ISS on June 3....

Cognitive impairment is highly likely for patients in the ICU and could be lasting. More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers are revealing the many devastating consequences that patients can face both during and after hospitalization. A new study of nearly 150 patients hospitalized for COVID at the beginning of the pandemic found that 73% had delirium, a serious disturbance in mental state wherein a patient is confused, agitated and unable to think clearly....

The first-known fossils of tyrannosaur embryos have shed light on the early development of the colossal animals, which could grow to 40 feet in length and weigh eight tonnes. A team of paleontologists, led by an Edinburgh researcher, made the discovery by examining the fossilized remains of a tiny jaw bone and claw unearthed in Canada and the US. Baby tyrannosaurs Producing 3D scans of the delicate fragments revealed that they belonged to baby tyrannosaurs – cousins of T....

A new peer-reviewed paper from five prominent ocular scientists will help eye care practitioners (ECPs) instruct and reassure contact lens wearers during the global COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic. Published in Contact Lens & Anterior Eye, “The COVID-19 Pandemic: Important Considerations for Contact Lens Practitioners” delves into multiple aspects of eye health amidst the global health crisis, with a specific emphasis on the safe use of contact lenses. “Our findings indicate that contact lenses remain a perfectly acceptable form of vision correction during the coronavirus pandemic, as long as people observe good hand hygiene and follow appropriate wear-and-care directions,” said Dr....

Apparently, the rapid retreat of Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica is driven by different processes under its floating ice shelf than researchers previously understood. Novel observations from where the ice enters the ocean show that while melting beneath much of the ice shelf is weaker than expected, melting in cracks and crevasses is much faster. Despite the suppressed melting the glacier is still retreating, and these findings provide an important step forward in understanding the glacier’s contribution to future sea-level rise....

Hydrogen is a pollution-free energy source when it’s extracted from water using sunlight instead of fossil fuels. But current strategies for “splitting” or breaking apart water molecules with catalysts and light require the introduction of chemical additives to expedite the process. Now, researchers reporting in ACS ES&T Engineering have developed a catalyst that destroys medications and other compounds already present in wastewater to generate hydrogen fuel, getting rid of a contaminant while producing something useful....

Since July 16th, 16 people have died in Uganda from an Ebola outbreak. Contrary to previous outbreaks, a laboratory in Entebbe, near Uganda’s capital Kampala helped deal with the situation and passed its first major test by taking a leading role in confirming and tracking the infection. The lab is run by the US CDC and based at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) to test tissue samples from patients demonstrating symptoms of the viral hemorrhagic fever....

The scientists published their findings in the journal Nature. Back in 2007, Todd Sacktor was able to wipe out month-old memories of unpleasant smells in rats by injecting their brains with ZIP, a peptide that was meant to block PKM-ζ. Other teams obtained similar results, erasing different kinds of memory by injecting ZIP into the brains of rodents, flies, and sea slugs. In 2011, Sacktor was able to strengthen the memory of unpleasant tastes in rats by injecting their brains with viruses carrying extra copies of PKM-ζ....

Specifically, changes in the ratio of argon-40 and helium-3 can indicate how frothy the magma is, which signals the risk of different types of eruptions. Understanding which ratios of which gases indicate a certain type of magma activity is a big step. Next, the researchers hope to construct a 24/7 volcanic activity monitoring and early warning system by developing portable equipment which can provide on-site, real-time measurements. Does the thought of standing on a volcano make you quiver with excitement, or fear?...

Nature published their commentary raising the alarm that non-human great apes are susceptible to human respiratory diseases. The 25 authors call for urgent discussions on the need to severely limit human interaction with great apes in the wild, and in sanctuaries and zoos, until the risk of COVID-19 subsides. “The COVID-19 pandemic is a critical situation for humans, our health, and our economies,” says Thomas Gillespie, a disease ecologist at Emory University, and a lead author of the commentary....

Gas bubbles trapped in the cores — which are the oldest yet recovered — contain pristine samples of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases that serve as “snapshots” of prehistoric atmospheric conditions and temperatures, the researchers recently reported in the journal Nature. The cores were collected in the remote Allan Hills of Antarctica. First author Yuzhen Yan, who received his Ph.D. in geosciences from Princeton in 2019, explained that because ice flows and compresses over time, continual ice cores only extend back to 800,000 years ago....

The largest of Pluto’s five moons, Charon, was discovered on June 22, 1978, by James Christy and Robert Harrington at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona – only about six miles from where Pluto itself was discovered at Lowell Observatory. They weren’t even looking for satellites of Pluto – Christy, examining a series of grainy telescope images, trying to refine Pluto’s orbit around the Sun. Christy and others tell the story of this amazing scientific find, which fueled Pluto’s transformation from a telescopic dot into an actual planetary system – and a source of many discoveries to come....

In the three years since it first provided images of the sun in the spring of 2010, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has had virtually unbroken coverage of the sun’s rise toward solar maximum, the peak of solar activity in its regular 11-year cycle. This video shows those three years of the sun at a pace of two images per day. Each image is displayed for two frames at a 29....

This decade must be the turning point, where we transform humanity’s relationship with nature and put the planet on a path to recovery, argues a global team of researchers in a paper published on Friday, January 22, 2021, outlining a new framework for implementing global commitments to restoring nature, The Mitigation and Conservation Hierarchy — or, more snappily, Four Steps for the Earth. The United Nations is currently developing a new post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, for the world to ‘live in harmony with nature’ by 2050....

Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Electronics Science and Technology Division, dive into underwater photovoltaic research to develop high bandgap solar cells capable of producing sufficient power to operate electronic sensor systems at depths of 9 meters. Underwater autonomous systems and sensor platforms are severely limited by the lack of long-endurance power sources. To date, these systems must rely on on-shore power, batteries or solar power supplied by an above water platform....