The research, which was published on November 24 in the journal Science, was conducted by a team from Rice’s Laboratory for Nanophotonics, Syzygy Plasmonics Inc., and Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Recent government and industry investments to create infrastructure and markets for carbon-free liquid ammonia fuel that will not contribute to greenhouse warming synergize nicely with this research. Because it is easy to transport and packs a lot of energy, with one nitrogen and three hydrogen atoms per molecule, liquid ammonia is a promising clean fuel of the future....

Theoretical models predict very unusual structures and properties of materials under extreme pressure-temperature conditions. But so far, these predictions could not be verified in experiments at compression pressures of more than 200 gigapascals. On the one hand, complex technical requirements are necessary to expose material samples to such extreme pressures, and on the other hand, sophisticated methods for simultaneous structural analyses were lacking. The experiments published in Nature, therefore, open up completely new dimensions for high-pressure crystallography: materials can now be created and studied in the laboratory that exist – if at all – only under extremely high pressures in the vastness of the Universe....

The University of Queensland’s Professor Jonathan Aitchison said the finding revises the long-held understanding of the location of one of biology and geography’s most significant barriers – the Wallace line. “The Wallace line – named after its discoverer Alfred Russel Wallace – delineates major biological division separating the species with Asian origins from those with Australasian ones,” Professor Aitchison said. “It runs along the narrow seaways separating Bali from Lombok, and Borneo from Sulawesi....

At around 2,200 kilometers in diameter, Hellas Planitia is the largest visible impact basin in the Solar System, and hosts the lowest elevations on Mars’ surface as well as a variety of landscapes. This image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) covers a small central portion of the basin and shows a dune field with lots of dust devil trails. In the middle, we see what appears to be long and straight “scratch marks” running down the southeast (bottom-right) facing dune slopes....

A supernova in a nearby galaxy may have originated from an explosion of a blue supergiant formed by the merger of two stars, simulations by RIKEN astrophysicists suggest. The asymmetric nature of this explosion may provide hints for where to look for the elusive neutron star birthed in this stellar cataclysm. A core-collapse supernova occurs when the core of a massive star can no longer withstand its own gravity. The core collapses in on itself, triggering a violent explosion that blasts away the star’s outer layers, leaving behind a neutron star or black hole....

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have once again demonstrated the incredible capabilities of metamaterials – artificial nanoconstructs whose optical properties arise from their physical structure rather than their chemical composition. Engineering a unique two-dimensional sheet of gold nanoantennas, the researchers were able to obtain the strongest signal yet of the photonic spin Hall effect, an optical phenomenon of quantum mechanics that could play a prominent role in the future of computing....

A new study from MIT suggests that the dozens of mutations in the spike protein of the Omicron variant help it to evade all four of the classes of antibodies that can target the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. This includes antibodies generated by vaccinated or previously infected people, as well as most of the monoclonal antibody treatments that have been developed, says Ram Sasisekharan, the Alfred H. Caspary Professor of Biological Engineering and Health Sciences and Technology (HST) at MIT....

No two hearts beat alike. The size and shape of the heart can vary from one person to the next. These differences can be particularly pronounced for people living with heart disease, as their hearts and major vessels work harder to overcome any compromised function. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers are hoping to help doctors tailor treatments to patients’ specific heart form and function, with a custom robotic heart....

New technique unexpectedly finds that black carbon in rivers and oceans differs significantly. In understanding the global carbon cycle, “black carbon” — decay-resistant carbon molecules altered by exposure to fire or combustion — has long been presumed to originate on land and work its way to the ocean via rivers and streams. An unexpected finding published today (November 7, 2019) in Nature Communications challenges that long-held assumption and introduces a tantalizing new mystery: If oceanic black carbon is significantly different from the black carbon found in rivers, where did it come from?...

Ancient Rapanui carvers worked at the behest of the elite ruling class to carve nearly 1,000 Moai because they, and the community at large, believed the statues were capable of producing agricultural fertility and thereby critical food supplies, according to a new study from Jo Anne Van Tilburg, director of the Easter Island Statue Project, recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Van Tilburg and her team, working with geoarchaeologist and soils specialist Sarah Sherwood, believe they have found scientific evidence of that long-hypothesized meaning thanks to careful study of two particular Moai excavated over five years in the Rano Raraku quarry on the eastern side of the Polynesian island....

Scientists have developed a nanotechnology platform that can change the way the immune system sees solid tumor cells, making them more receptive to immunotherapy. This adaptable immune conversion approach has the potential for broad application across many cancer types, according to preclinical findings. The study details the use of this platform to artificially attach an activation molecule to the surface of tumor cells, triggering an immune response in both in vivo and in vitro models....

“We are continuing to collect flight test data and buy down risk for crewed flight,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager. “We continue to learn how the system is performing, where our margins are, and how to operate and work with the vehicle as an integrated team.” On Flight Day 15, Orion also performed a planned orbit maintenance burn to maintain the spacecraft’s trajectory and decrease its velocity ahead of its Thursday departure from a distant lunar orbit....

Catching a ride from one solar system body to another isn’t easy. You have to figure out how to land your spacecraft safely and then get it on its way to the next destination. The landing part is especially tricky for asteroids and comets, which have low gravitational pull. A concept called Comet Hitchhiker, developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, puts forth a new way to get into orbit and land on comets and asteroids, using the kinetic energy — the energy of motion — of these small bodies....

Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon, almost certainly has a vast ocean beneath its icy shell. In fact, scientists believe this ocean contains more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. The complex chemistry required for life as we know it to exist requires liquid water, making this ocean one of the key reasons astrobiologists want to study Europa. NASA’s Europa Clipper will be equipped with science instruments needed to study Europa to see if it harbors conditions suitable for supporting life....

The instrument, called the Contribution to ARIEL Spectroscopy of Exoplanets, or CASE, adds scientific capabilities to ESA’s (the European Space Agency’s) Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, or ARIEL, mission. The ARIEL spacecraft with CASE on board is expected to launch in 2028. CASE will be managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, with JPL astrophysicist Mark Swain as the principal investigator. “I am thrilled that NASA will partner with ESA in this historic mission to push the envelope in our understanding of what the atmospheres of exoplanets are made of, and how these planets form and evolve,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington....

Three abrasions and four sample cores later, the rover has finally departed the Séítah area and is embarking on the return leg of the crater floor campaign. One major difference between the “out” trip and this return trip is the pace of Perseverance’s driving. As we drove towards Séítah earlier in the mission, our average daily drive distance was shorter, in part because we were doing scientific reconnaissance at important stops along the way, and in part because we were still learning how to maximize drive efficiency with our rover....

A major component of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft has been delivered to the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the phase known as assembly, test, and launch operations is now underway. Over the next year, the spacecraft will finish assembly and undergo rigorous checkout and testing before it’s shipped to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for an August 2022 launch to the main asteroid belt. The Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) Chassis, crafted by Maxar Technologies’ team in Palo Alto, California, is the size of a van and represents more than 80% (by mass) of the hardware that will ultimately make up the Psyche spacecraft....

NASA’s Lunar Flashlight mission successfully launched on December 11, 2022, to begin its four-month journey to the Moon, where the small satellite, or SmallSat, will test several new technologies with a goal of looking for hidden surface ice at the lunar South Pole. While the SmallSat is largely healthy and communicating with NASA’s Deep Space Network, the mission operations team has discovered that three of its four thrusters are underperforming....

NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, is giving the wider astronomical community a first look at its unique X-ray images of the cosmos. The first batch of data from the black-hole hunting telescope is publicly available today, August 29, via NASA’s High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, or HEASARC. “We are pleased to present the world with NuSTAR’s first look at the sky in high-energy X-rays with a true focusing telescope,” said Fiona Harrison, the mission’s principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena....

Most satellites, not designed to withstand high levels of particle radiation, wouldn’t last a day in the Van Allen Radiation belts. Trapped by Earth’s magnetic field into two giant belts around the planet, high-energy particles in the region can batter the spacecraft and even interfere with onboard electronics. But NASA’s Van Allen Probes have been traveling through this hazardous area since August 30 2012 – they are now celebrating their fifth year in space studying this dynamic region....