A new optoelectronic camouflage system inspired by the skins of cephalopods automatically reads its environment and adapts to mimic its surroundings. It could be a fun party trick – put your cell phone down on a table and watch it fade into the woodwork – or part of a lifesaving technology used by industry or the military. Researchers have developed a technology that allows a material to automatically read its environment and adapt to mimic its surroundings....

An immune response is triggered as a consequence of infection with the SARS coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) or a COVID-19 vaccination, resulting in the development of neutralizing antibodies that help guard against (re)infection with SARS-CoV-2 or a severe course of the disease. By attaching to the viral spike protein, neutralizing antibodies provide protection and stop the virus from entering cells. However, certain SARS-CoV-2 variants, notably the Omicron variant, avoid neutralizing antibodies and cause symptomatic infections even in vaccinated or convalescent individuals due to mutations in the spike protein....

Inspections and analyses over the previous week have confirmed minimal work is required to prepare the rocket and spacecraft to roll out to Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida following the roll-back due to Hurricane Ian. Teams of engineers and technicians will perform standard maintenance to repair minor damage to the foam and cork on the thermal protection system. They will also recharge or replace batteries on the rocket, several secondary payloads, and the flight termination system....

The technology involves customizable collections of proteins which are attached to a variant of Cas9, the protein at the heart of CRISPR, that will bind to DNA but not cut it as it would when used for genetic modification. When these Cas9-fused proteins are applied to a microchip sporting thousands of unique DNA molecules, each protein within the mixture will self-assemble to the position on the chip containing its corresponding DNA sequence....

Helmets used in both combat and American football require impact-absorbing materials that protect against ongoing impacts, but it remains difficult to design materials that remain effective over time without compromising on volume, mass, or cost. Although helmet foams have evolved in the past decades, improvements have been relatively marginal. “Our technology could revolutionize football, batting, bicycle, and motorcycle helmets, making them better at protecting the wearer and much easier to have on your head due to the increased airflow,” says Eric Clough, a researcher at HRL Laboratories, a materials science doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the lead scientist on the study....

By using refined techniques to compare the measurements of oxygen isotopes in lunar samples with those from Earth, a team of astronomers has provided new evidence that the Moon formed from the collision of the Earth with another planet-sized astronomical body. A new series of measurements of oxygen isotopes provides increasing evidence that the Moon formed from the collision of the Earth with another large, planet-sized astronomical body, around 4....

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have for the first time found that the outer region of a dusty disc encircling a brown dwarf contains millimeter-sized solid grains like those found in denser discs around newborn stars. The surprising finding challenges theories of how rocky, Earth-scale planets form, and suggests that rocky planets may be even more common in the Universe than expected. The research paper is printed in the Astrophysical Journal Letters....

This High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) image reveals the changing dunes of Wirtz Crater on Mars. The large dark feature is a classic Martian sand dune. Most sand on Earth is made from the mineral quartz, which is white and bright. On Mars, most sand is composed of dark basalt, a volcanic rock. For this reason, dunes on Mars are darker than those on Earth. The dunes in this observation, within Wirtz Crater, are known as “barchans....

Due to the defective enzyme, a specific metabolite accumulates in the body causing harm instead of being broken down for energy. MMA is currently considered incurable. While doctors can offer a certain degree of help, patients may experience delayed growth, kidney failure, and severe neurological impairment. Affected children and adolescents often use wheelchairs and do not always survive to reach adulthood. Network brings success The University Children’s Hospital Zurich is one of the leading global centers for diagnosing and treating this disease....

These aren’t the last Ultima Thule images New Horizons will send back to Earth – in fact, many more are to come — but they are the final views New Horizons captured of the KBO (officially named 2014 MU69) as it raced away at over 31,000 miles per hour (50,000 kilometers per hour) on January 1. The images were taken nearly 10 minutes after New Horizons crossed its closest approach point....

For the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, it’s been a long time between dinners. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has found that the black hole ate its last big meal about 6 million years ago, when it consumed a large clump of infalling gas. After the meal, the engorged black hole burped out a colossal bubble of gas weighing the equivalent of millions of suns, which now billows above and below our galaxy’s center....

Jupiter completely fills the image, with only a hint of the terminator (where daylight fades to night) in the upper right corner, and no visible limb (the curved edge of the planet). Juno took this image of colorful, turbulent clouds in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere on December 16, 2017 at 9:43 a.m. PST (12:43 p.m. EST) from 8,292 miles (13,345 kilometers) above the tops of Jupiter’s clouds, at a latitude of 48....

While scientists have super-cooled atoms, doing the same for molecules, which are more complex in their behavior and structure, has proven to be a much bigger challenge. Now MIT physicists have found a way to cool molecules of sodium lithium down to 200 billionths of a Kelvin, just a hair above absolute zero. They did so by applying a technique called collisional cooling, in which they immersed molecules of cold sodium lithium in a cloud of even colder sodium atoms....

Hydrogen fuel derived from the sea could be an abundant and sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, but the potential power source has been limited by technical challenges, including how to practically harvest it. Researchers at the University of Central Florida have designed for the first time a nanoscale material that can efficiently split seawater into oxygen and a clean energy fuel — hydrogen. The process of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen is known as electrolysis and effectively doing it has been a challenge until now....

Catalysts increase the rate of chemical reactions. They play a vital role in many important industrial processes, from making fuels to medicines, to helping limit harmful vehicle emissions. They are also essential building blocks for new, sustainable technologies like fuel cells, where electricity is generated through a reaction between oxygen and hydrogen. Catalysts can also contribute to breaking down environmental toxins, through cleaning water of poisonous chemicals, for example. To design more effective catalysts for the future, fundamental knowledge is needed, such as understanding catalysis at the level of individual active catalytic particles....

After the start of the SARS-C0V-2 pandemic, investigators from ResearchPath LLC and their collaborators at Rutgers University quickly dedicated resources to develop accurate and reliable COVID-19 testing. As variants emerged, they developed a PCR test that uses molecular beacons not only to diagnose COVID-19 infection, but also to identify the specific variant causing that infection. Their research appears in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, published by Elsevier. Their methodology is openly available so that it can be replicated by any facility that can run a PCR test....

Astronomers have discovered giant holes, or cavities, in the hot gas that pervades the Phoenix Cluster, revealing new details about this remarkable system. Galaxy clusters are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerations of galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter and represent the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity. Galaxy clusters tend to be poor at producing new stars in their centers. They generally have one giant galaxy in their middle that forms stars at a rate significantly slower than most galaxies – including our Milky Way....

“Our 15-year research project aimed to build a hologram printer with all the advantages of previous technologies while eliminating known drawbacks such as expensive lasers, slow printing speed, limited field of view, and unsaturated colors,” said research team leader Yves Gentet from Ultimate Holography in France. “We accomplished this by creating the CHIMERA printer, which uses low-cost commercial lasers and high-speed printing to produce holograms with high-quality color that spans a large dynamic range....

Analysis shows requiring masks for public-facing U.S. business employees on April 1 would have saved tens of thousands of lives. The research described in this article has been published as a working paper but has not yet been peer-reviewed by experts in the field. Masks reduce the spread of COVID-19. But just how much of an effect do they have? A study co-authored by an MIT professor finds that if the U....

This technology can be applied for the examination of prostate cancer and pancreatic cancer without an additional analysis process by only irradiating light after a small volume (10uL) of urine dropping at the time of need for a test. The test device is manufactured in the form of a strip so that cancer can be diagnosed quickly and with high sensitivity in the field. The research team paid attention to the difference in metabolomic components present in the urine of cancer patients and normal people....