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But for a future beyond Earth, humans will require places to accommodate homes, buildings, and other structures for millions of people to live and work. Thus far, space cities only exist in science fiction. But are space cities feasible in reality? And, if so, how? According to new research from University of Rochester scientists, our future may lie in asteroids. In what they deem a “wildly theoretical” paper, the researchers outline a plan for creating large cities on asteroids....

This year’s Kavli Prize Laureates are: Kavli Prize in Astrophysics: Andrew Fabian (UK)Kavli Prize in Nanoscience: Harald Rose (Germany), Maximilian Haider (Austria), Knut Urban (Germany) and Ondrej L. Krivanek (UK and Czech Republic)Kavli Prize in Neuroscience: David Julius (US) and Ardem Patapoutian (US) “The 2020 Kavli Prize Laureates represent truly pioneering science, the kind of science which will benefit humanity in a profound way, inspiring both current and future generations,” says Hans Petter Graver, president of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters....

Alex Travesset does not have a sparkling research lab stocked with the most cutting-edge instruments for probing new nanomaterials and measuring their unique properties. Instead of using traditional laboratory instruments, Alex Travesset, a professor of physics and astronomy at Iowa State University and an affiliate of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames National Laboratory, relies on computer models, equations, and figures to understand the behavior of new nanomaterials. When he joins a research project, he often contributes detailed analyses of nanoparticle assembly using these computational methods....

A new algorithm offers insights into consumer spending by identifying what someone purchased from only the bill total. At first, it seemed like the algorithm wasn’t working right. Michael Fleder, an MIT researcher and recent alumnus working with the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS), had been working on an algorithm that could break down anonymized bill totals into individual item costs, creating an overview of how many people are buying a specific item or service....

“These objects are way more massive​ than anyone expected,” said Joel Leja, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, who modeled light from these galaxies. “We expected only to find tiny, young, baby galaxies at this point in time, but we’ve discovered galaxies as mature as our own in what was previously understood to be the dawn of the universe.” Using the first dataset released from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the international team of scientists discovered objects as mature as the Milky Way when the universe was only 3% of its current age, about 500-700 million years after the Big Bang....

These images, taken by the first truly wide-field X-ray focusing imaging telescope ever launched in space, are the first wide-field X-ray images of our universe that are now accessible to the general public. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) presented the findings at the Second China Space Science Assembly in Taiyuan, China. Since the first X-ray signals from the furthest reaches of the universe were detected 60 years ago, there hasn’t been a wide-field X-ray focusing telescope available for X-ray surveys and monitoring until Pathfinder....

“After almost three decades, our famous logotype is back in action, and it is thrilling for all of us that worked on the original design to have it return in such an impressive way.” said Richard Danne, of the design team at Danne & Blackburn who originally created the logo. “It is particularly exciting to be involved with the Artemis program, so full of potential beginning with this promising first mission....

Tropical forests are a hotspot of biodiversity. Against the backdrop of climate change, their protection plays a special role and it is important to predict how such diverse forests may change over decades and even centuries. This is exactly what researchers at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the University of Leipzig (UL) and other international research institutions have achieved. Their results have been published in the scientific journal Science....

Lung cancer is a leading cause of death in Japan and across the globe. Among all the cancers, lung cancer has one of the lowest five-year survival rates. Smoking tobacco and using tobacco-based products are known to heavily contribute to the development of lung cancer. It is a clinically established fact that the active ingredients in various fruits minimize the risk of chronic diseases including cancer. “Sarunashi” (Actinidia arguta) is an edible fruit cultivated in Japan’s Okayama Prefecture....

The image was taken with Cassini’s narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 260,000 miles (418,000 kilometers) from Dione, through a polarized filter and a spectral filter sensitive to green light. 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....

Of the 309 people with long COVID studied, the most persistent symptoms were fatigue and shortness of breath (31% and 15%, respectively) in hospitalized persons, and loss of sense of smell (16%) in outpatients. Background Throughout the pandemic, the incidence and risk factors of Long COVID, as well as how to describe the illness, have remained unclear. In order to develop the most effective treatments, the researchers tried to assess its relationship with demographics and clinical factors....

Adults with high levels of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms are more likely to experience anxiety and depression than adults with high levels of autistic traits, according to new research led by psychologists at the University of Bath in the UK. This study is the first to show that ADHD is more predictive of poor mental health outcomes in adults than other neurodevelopmental conditions, like autism. Until now, there has been a dearth of information on the effects of ADHD on poor mental health, with far more research focusing on the impact of autism on depression, anxiety, and quality of life....

Brain organoids — also called mini-brains — are 3D cellular models that represent aspects of the human brain in the laboratory. Brain organoids help researchers track human development, unravel the molecular events that lead to disease and test new treatments. They aren’t perfect replicas, of course. Brain organoids do not replicate cognitive function, but researchers can check how an organoid’s physical structure or gene expression changes over time or as a result of a virus or drug....

Researchers have been exploring targeted protein degradation (TPD) as a way to get at hard-to-treat proteins, namely, the ones for which inhibitors or other conventional techniques fail. Though these degraders have shown some initial promise, things can get complicated if the proteins go through “post-processing,” or posttranslational modifications, after being formed. Thus far, no TPD technique has been able to target this type of protein. One protein that would be particularly advantageous to break down is p38, which is involved in several cellular signaling pathways and is linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease....

Still, massive increases in surface melting due to unusually warm weather can trigger catastrophic ice shelf collapses like that of the iconic shelf “Larsen B,” which shattered in 2002. Now, a study led by a researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology has modeled fracture chain reactions and how much water it would take for a repeat of that rare, epic collapse. Larsen B’s disintegration was preceded by an atypical heatwave that riddled it with meltwater ponds, focusing researchers’ attention on pond fracturing, also called hydrofracturing....

The researchers’ analysis uncovers a previously undocumented group of early Holocene Siberian people who lived in the Neolithic Altai-Sayan region, located in close proximity to the intersection of Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. The genetic data reveals that they were descendants of both paleo-Siberian and Ancient North Eurasian (ANE) individuals. “We describe a previously unknown hunter-gatherer population in the Altai as early as 7,500 years old, which is a mixture between two distinct groups that lived in Siberia during the last Ice Age,” says Cosimo Posth at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and senior author of the study....

The discovery of the role that amino acids played in shaping the genetic code of ancient microorganisms sheds new light on the age-old mystery of the origin of life on Earth. “You see the same amino acids in every organism, from humans to bacteria to archaea, and that’s because all things on Earth are connected through this tree of life that has an origin, an organism that was the ancestor to all living things,” said Stephen Fried, a Johns Hopkins chemist who co-led the research with scientists at Charles University in the Czech Republic....

The five fish hooks were among items carefully placed under the chin, and around the jaws of a female from the Pleistocene era, dating back 12,000 years. Distinguished Professor Sue O’Connor from the School of Culture, History and Language in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific said the discovery turns on its head the theory that most fishing activities on these islands were carried out by men. “These are the oldest known fish-hooks associated with mortuary practices from anywhere in the world and perhaps indicate that fishing equipment was viewed as essential for the transition to the afterlife in this area,” Professor O’Connor said....

An artificial organic neuron that closely mimics the characteristics of biological nerve cells has been created by researchers at Linköping University (LiU), Sweden. This artificial neuron can stimulate natural nerves, making it a promising technology for various medical treatments in the future. Work to develop increasingly functional artificial nerve cells continues at the Laboratory for Organic Electronics, LOE. In 2022, a team of scientists led by associate professor Simone Fabiano demonstrated how an artificial organic neuron could be integrated into a living carnivorous plant to control the opening and closing of its maw....