A team of scientists has successfully reproduced conditions in one of the most hostile environments in the galaxy, enabling them to find out more about how atoms behave in these extreme settings. The study modeled conditions near to the surface of a white dwarf star – a stellar remnant comprising the dead embers which are left behind after Sun-like stars have exhausted their fuel. The environment is characterized by very high gravitational forces, very high temperatures, and occasionally very high magnetic fields....

Neuroscientists show that calorie-reduced diets stop the normal rise and fall in activity levels of close to 900 different genes linked to aging and memory formation in mice. The adage ‘you are what you eat’ has been around for years. Now, important new research provides another reason to be careful with your calories. In a presentation prepared for the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on November 17, researchers say their experimental results, conducted in female mice, suggest how diets with fewer calories derived from carbohydrates likely deter some aspects of aging and chronic diseases in mammals, including humans....

Soon after an individual’s initial infection with HIV, damage to brain volume and cortical thickness progressively worsens until anti-retroviral treatment is started, a new study shows. “We knew HIV could cause neurological damage, but we did not know it happened so early in the infection,” said Serena Spudich, professor of neurology at Yale and co-senior author of the paper published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. “The findings emphasize the importance of identifying infected people early and treating them so we can halt its progression....

Last year, a team of researchers at Brown University discovered that certain skin cells use a light-sensitive receptor found outside of the eye to sense ultraviolet light and quickly begin pumping out melanin to protect against DNA damage. In a new study, lab members identify a key player in that biomolecular chain of events that could someday become a pharmacological target for improving this protective response. The new discovery, set to be published the week of January 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is that human melaoncyte skin cells rely on an ion channel called TRPA1 to allow a flood of calcium ions into the cells when they are exposed to UVA light....

From Ireland to the Balkans, Europeans are basically one big family, closely related to one another for the past thousand years, according to a new study of the DNA of people from across the continent. The study, co-authored by Graham Coop, a professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, is published on May 7 in the journal PLoS Biology. “What’s remarkable about this is how closely everyone is related to each other....

Researchers observing the magnetar SGR 1935+2154 detected a sudden slowing of the star’s angular momentum, often referred to as a spin-down glitch, on October 5, 2020. In the following days, the magnetar emitted three Fast Radio Burst-like radio bursts followed by a month-long episode of pulsed radio emission, despite there being no signs of variation in the X-ray emission behavior in the star or evidence of a strong X-ray burst....

Sugar can silence a key protein required for colonization by a gut bacterium associated with lean and healthy individuals, according to a new Yale study published the week of December 17 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. The gut microbiota plays a key role in human health, and its composition is associated with diet. Until recently, scientists believed that sugar was absorbed into the intestine and never reached the gut....

These data were gathered under Hubble’s LEGUS (Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey) program, the sharpest and most comprehensive ultraviolet survey of star-forming galaxies in the nearby universe. LEGUS is imaging 50 spiral and dwarf galaxies in our cosmic neighborhood in multiple colors using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. The survey is picking apart the structures of these galaxies and resolving their constituent stars, clusters, groups and other stellar associations. Star formation plays a huge role in shaping its host galaxy....

Synthetic biology researchers at Northwestern University have developed a system that can rapidly create cell-free ribosomes in a test tube, then select the ribosome that can perform a certain function. The system, called ribosome synthesis and evolution (RISE), is an important step toward using ribosomes beyond their natural capabilities. The key feature of RISE is the ability to evolve ribosomes without cell viability constraints. The result could be new ways to synthesize materials, like nylon, or therapies, like new antibiotics that could address rising antibiotic resistance....

Taking a dip in cold water may cut ‘bad’ body fat in men and decrease the risk of disorders such as diabetes. These are the findings suggested by a major scientific review published on September 22 in International Journal of Circumpolar Health, a peer-reviewed journal. According to the authors, many of the 104 studies they analyzed demonstrated significant effects from cold water swimming including also on brown fat, also known as ‘good’ fat, which helps burn calories....

Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA’s XMM-Newton, Germany’s ROentgen SATellite (ROSAT), the NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and other telescopes, researchers have studied more than 700 quasars – rapidly growing supermassive black holes – to isolate the factors that determine why these black holes launch jets. Jets from supermassive black holes can inject huge amounts of energy into their surroundings and strongly influence the evolution of their environments....

Corn has been bred to grow in various climates of the world, from temperate to tropical, and from highlands to lowlands. Ware says: “Humans have brains. Our main adaptive component is our ability to transfer culture and knowledge, right? And that’s how we deal with our environment. A plant’s strategy is to have a fluid genome. They have a very intimate relationship with these transposons, where they use them to bring in new genetic diversity so that they can deal with these events because they can’t run away....

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have successfully threaded atoms of indium metal in between individual fibers in bundles of transition metal chalcogenide nanofibers. By steeping the bundles in indium gas, rows of atoms were able to make their way in between the fibers to create a unique nanostructure via intercalation. Through simulations and resistivity measurements, individual bundles were shown to have metallic properties, paving the way for application as flexible nanowires in nanocircuitry....

The position of a single atom in a material can change the fundamental properties of that material, so scientists need something in their toolbox to measure how that atom will behave. A research team led by the University of Leeds, in collaboration with colleagues at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, have shown for the first time that it is possible to develop a diagnostic technique loosely related to the idea of a tuning fork....

New research indicates that baited shark diving can influence tiger shark social behavior. Scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (UM) and the Institute of Zoology at the Zoological Society London (ZSL) found that tiger sharks, often considered a solitary nomadic species, are social creatures, having preferences for one another. A first of its kind, the study also evaluated if exposure of the tiger shark to baited dive tourism impacted their social behavior....

“As people continue to live longer, conditions like dementia are becoming more common, so detecting and understanding preventable risk factors is key to reducing the increase of this disease,” said study author Ehsan Abolhasani, MD, MSc, of Western University in London, Canada. “Since a report by the World Health Organization showed that more than 90% of the world population is living in areas with higher than recommended levels of air pollution, our results provide more evidence for enforcing regulations for air quality and accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to sustainable energies....

Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas and much of our atmospheric methane comes from wetlands. A great deal of research is being carried on into exactly how much methane is emitted via this route, but models typically assume that the gas is only produced when the ground is completely flooded and underwater. In wetland areas where there are no trees, methane would typically be consumed by the soil on its way to the surface, but in forested wetland areas, the researchers say the tree roots could be acting as a transport system for the gas, up to the surface where it vents into the atmosphere from the tree trunks....

A simple longitudinal twist converts certain microstructured optical fibers into filters. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen have measured this effect in detail in photonic crystal fibers and found a theory to explain it. The results of their research will allow new applications in optical communications and the construction of lasers, sensors, and light amplifiers. Glass fibers are used generally to transport light over long distances – for example, fast data transmission over the internet....

LASCO, which is aboard SOHO, was developed in 1995 to see the extremely faint emission from the region around the Sun called the corona. Operating in space for nearly 25 years, the telescope has seen much more space action than researchers originally anticipated — discovering well over half of all known comets. “In less than 25 years SOHO has added this huge volume to the archives of our comet knowledge, and it comes from a telescope not designed to see comets,” said Karl Battams, NRL computational scientist....

The device that the researchers developed is an integral part of the battery and works by emitting ultrasound waves to create a circulating current in the electrolyte liquid found between the anode and cathode. This prevents the formation of lithium metal growths, called dendrites, during charging that lead to decreased performance and short circuits in LMBs. The device is made from off-the-shelf smartphone components, which generate sound waves at extremely high frequencies—ranging from 100 million to 10 billion hertz....