Mitochondria, the “energy centers” of the cells, are essential for maintaining good health. A decrease in the number or function of mitochondria may contribute to chronic and potentially serious conditions such as heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and type 2 diabetes. Exercise has been shown to create new mitochondria and improve the function of existing mitochondria. However, some people with chronic illnesses are not able to exercise long enough–previous research suggests close to two hours daily–to reap the benefits....

Astronomers have combined data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope and the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to conclude that apeculiar source of radio waves thought to be a distant galaxy is actually a nearby binary star system containing a low-mass star and a black hole. This identification suggests there may be a vast number of black holes in our Galaxy that have gone unnoticed until now....

Lunar dust poses a significant problem to any powered landers on the surface. The retrograde rockets needed to land on the moon’s surface softly will also kick dust and rock up into the air, potentially damaging the lander itself or any surrounding human infrastructure. A landing pad would lessen the impact of this dust and provide a more stable place for the landing itself. But constructing such a landing pad the traditional way would be prohibitively expensive....

People who received omega-3 fish oil supplements in randomized clinical trials had lower risks of heart attack and other cardiovascular disease (CVD) events compared with those who were given placebos, according to a new meta-analysis from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Researchers found an association between daily omega-3 supplementation and reduced risk of most CVD outcomes, including heart attack, death from coronary heart disease, and death from CVD, but did not see benefit for stroke....

Professor Jun Huang from the University of Sydney Nano Institute and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering is developing a carbon capture method that aims to go one step beyond storage, instead converting and recycling carbon dioxide (CO2) into raw materials that can be used to create fuels and chemicals. “Drawing inspiration from leaves and plants, we have developed an artificial photosynthesis method,” said Professor Huang. “To simulate photosynthesis, we have built microplates of carbon layered with carbon quantum dots with tiny pores that absorb CO2 and water....

Presently, Earth is the only known location where life exists in the Universe. This year the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to three astronomers who proved, almost 20 years ago, that planets are common around stars beyond the solar system. Life comes in various forms, from cell-phone-toting organisms like humans to the ubiquitous micro-organisms that inhabit almost every square inch of the planet Earth, affecting almost everything that happens on it....

The main panel of the graphic on the top of this article is an artist’s illustration of a close-up view of a quasar and its jet, like the one in PJ352-52. To the lower left, material is orbiting around a supermassive black hole in a disk. Once it loses enough speed and energy, the material can fall farther inwards to cross the so-called event horizon, the point of no return, shown as the black disk....

In a retrospective case study, Mayo Clinic researchers have found that antibiotics administered to children younger than 2 are associated with several ongoing illnesses or conditions, ranging from allergies to obesity. The findings appear in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Using health record data from the Rochester Epidemiology Project, a population-based research collaboration in Minnesota and Wisconsin, researchers analyzed data from over 14,500 children. About 70% of the children had received at least one treatment with antibiotics for illness before age 2....

Innovations in material science are as essential to modern life as indoor plumbing — and go about as unnoticed. For example, innovations in semiconducting devices continue to enable the transmission of more information, faster and through smaller hardware — such as through a device that fits in the palms of our hands. Improvements in imaging techniques have made it possible to collect mounds of data about the properties of the nanomaterials used in such devices....

Glaciers across the globe have lost over nine trillion tonnes of ice in half a century. How will glaciers look over the coming decades? “It all depends on what humans are doing now in terms of greenhouse gas emissions:” this is the message one scientist delivered during an ESA-led expedition to the Gorner Glacier in Switzerland – one of the biggest ice masses in the Alps. As world leaders gather for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of Parties, watch the exclusive premiere of the documentary that follows ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, along with a team of glaciologists and climate experts, on their journey across the Alps to learn how rising global temperatures are taking their toll on glaciers....

The study of over 6,000 American heterosexual couples over 15 years showed husbands are at their most anxious when they are the sole breadwinner, shouldering all the burden of responsibility for the household’s finances. Stress levels decline as their wives’ earnings approach 40% of household income. But as women’s earnings go through that point, the study showed husbands’ stress levels gradually increasing. “These findings suggest that social norms about male breadwinning ― and traditional conventions about men earning more than their wives ― can be dangerous for men’s health....

When anthropologist Amy Moran-Thomas first went to Belize to begin ethnographic research in 2008, she planned to chronicle human health concerns, focusing on diabetes. Then she learned that local diets contributing to such chronic conditions were changing, in part due to losses in ocean food webs, and kept hearing stories about how local plants were in trouble. “Listening and trying to learn from what people were saying, over the years I came to see human health and planetary health as deeply interconnected,” says Moran-Thomas, the Morrison Hayes Career Development Associate Professor of Anthropology at MIT....

In the famous book “Descartes’ Error” (2008), Portuguese neuroscientist António Damásio examines the crucial role of emotions in human rational behavior and supports the longstanding connection between emotions and cognition. Despite emotions and mood fluctuations being a natural part of human life, there are still limited studies on how these mood changes interact with metacognition and, specifically, with confidence in decision-making. Considering this state-of-the-art, researchers María da Fonseca, Giovanni Maffei, Rubén Moreno-Bote, and Alexandre Hyafil from the University of Pompeu Fabra (Spain), Koa Health B....

“I feel tremendously proud about the activities I’ve done at NASA,” said Green. “In many ways, NASA is not a job. It’s a way of life. We’re always looking for ways to do the impossible. The fact that we continue to succeed and do those things is a tremendous excitement for everyone, and really is important not just for NASA, but for the nation.” From starting up NASA’s first internet to conducting groundbreaking research to hosting NASA’s popular podcast “Gravity Assist,” Green’s contributions to the agency are countless and varied....

After most NASA science spacecraft launches, researchers wait patiently for months as instruments on board are turned on one at a time, slowly ramped up to full power, and tested to make sure they work at full capacity. It’s a rite of passage for any new satellite in space, and such a schedule was in place for the Van Allen Probes when they launched on August 30, 2012, to study two giant belts of radiation that surround Earth....

“One of our biggest challenges on a mission to Mars is protecting astronauts from radiation,” said NASA Space Radiation Element Scientist Lisa Simonsen, Ph.D.. “You can’t see it; you can’t feel it. You don’t know you’re getting bombarded by radiation.” A common misconception of space radiation is that it’s similar to radiation on Earth. It’s actually quite different. On Earth, radiation coming from the sun and space is mainly absorbed and deflected by our atmosphere and magnetic field....

Today (December 15), as part of its continuing exploration of Jupiter’s inner moons, NASA’s Juno mission is scheduled to obtain images of the Jovian moon Io, the most volcanically active world in the Solar System. Now in the second year of the solar-powered spacecraft’s extended mission to investigate the interior of Jupiter, Juno performed a close flyby of Ganymede in 2021 and of Europa earlier this year. “The team is really excited to have Juno’s extended mission include the study of Jupiter’s moons....

In mice, a vaccination strategy that uses an mRNA coronavirus vaccine injection followed by a nasal spray booster generates immune protection in the airways. A new coronavirus vaccine guards one body part especially vulnerable to infection: the nose. Dosing mice with a nasal spray booster recruited an army of immune defenders to both the nasal cavity, where coronaviruses typically enter the body, and the lungs, scientists report in a preprint posted January 26, 2022, on bioRxiv....

A new research study found that enhancing ecological connectivity, known as “corridors” or “linkages,” among several of the oldest and largest national parks in the Western United States would greatly extend the time that many mammal species populations can persist. The study was published on January 11, 2023, in the journal Scientific Reports. The authors analyzed the value of establishing ecological corridors for large mammals between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks and between Mount Rainier and North Cascades National Parks....

“Look at the resolution we obtain with this microscope I’ve designed,” the physicist says. “Great,” the biologist replies, “but my research organism moves fast. Can you boost the system’s speed?” “You’ll have terabytes of raw data coming off that microscope system,” says the computational scientist. “We’ll build in algorithms to manage the data and produce the most meaningful images.” Around they go, propelling a cycle of challenge and innovation that allows them to see more clearly into new dimensions of the microscopic world....