The new adjustments require temporarily stopping instrument operation and data gathering on four Solar System science missions, which are part of the wider fleet of 21 spacecraft currently flown by the Agency from the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt. ESA implemented risk mitigation measures early on. The vast majority of ESA’s workforce has been teleworking for nearly two weeks. Only key personnel performing critical tasks, which include maintaining real-time spacecraft operations, are still present on site at ESA’s establishments throughout Europe....

Two common wild plants contain extracts that inhibit the ability of the virus that causes COVID-19 to infect living cells, an Emory University study finds. Scientific Reports published the results — the first major screening of botanical extracts to search for potency against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In laboratory dish tests, extracts from the flowers of tall goldenrod (Solidago altissima) and the rhizomes of the eagle fern (Pteridium aquilinum) each blocked SARS-CoV-2 from entering human cells....

Voters may form false memories after seeing fabricated news stories, especially if those stories align with their political beliefs, according to research in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The research was conducted in the week preceding the 2018 referendum on legalizing abortion in Ireland, but the researchers suggest that fake news is likely to have similar effects in other political contexts, including the U.S. presidential race in 2020....

Throughout their evolution, ancient carnivorous mammals developed a diverse array of skull and tooth shapes. However, few have been as striking as those of the iconic saber-toothed felid, Smilodon. Other groups of mammals, such as the extinct nimravids, also evolved similar morphology, but with shorter canines, akin to those of modern-day lions, tigers, caracals, domestic cats, etc. This phenomenon of similar morphologies appearing in different groups of organisms is known as convergent evolution; felids and nimravids are amazing examples of convergence....

Researchers design new COVID-19 therapy that uses a defective version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to drive the disease-causing version to extinction. What if the COVID-19 virus could be used against itself? Researchers at Penn State have designed a proof-of-concept therapeutic that may be able to do just that. The team designed a synthetic defective SARS-CoV-2 virus that is innocuous but interferes with the real virus’ growth, potentially causing the extinction of both the disease-causing virus and the synthetic virus....

On December 2 and 6, NASA’s Perseverance rover snagged two new samples from the Martian surface. Unlike the 15 rock cores collected to date, these newest samples came from a pile of wind-blown sand and dust similar to but smaller than a dune. Now contained in special metal collection tubes, one of these two samples will be considered for deposit on the Martian surface sometime this month as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign....

Konnect, with a launch mass of 3,619 kg (7,979 lb), was the first to be released after about 27 minutes. Konnect will provide broadband services for Europe and Africa and has a design life of 15 years. It was built by Thales Alenia Space for Eutelsat, its commercial operator, and is the first satellite from the new Spacebus Neo product line developed under an ESA Partnership Project managed jointly by ESA and the French Space Agency, CNES....

Brushing teeth three times a day or more is linked to an 8% lower risk of developing diabetes, while the presence of dental disease is associated with a 9% increased risk and many missing teeth (15 or more) is linked to a 21% increased risk. These findings underline the importance of good dental hygiene and are reported in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD)....

The scientists published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences¹. In the back reef of Ofu Island, in American Samoa, some of the Acropora hyacinthus corals are able to thrive in pools that experience daily heat fluctuations of up to 6°C. In order to find the molecular reason of this resilience, the researchers compared the gene activity in heat-resistant and heat-sensitive A. hyacinthus by measuring their transcriptome, the complement of RNA molecules transcribed from genes, under different sets of temperature....

But the authors also point out that while this unique, insect-based tourism can bring economic, social, and psychological benefits to local communities and tourists alike, it also threatens to extinguish some local firefly populations unless adequate protections are put in place. “With this review of the current state of firefly tourism and the declining health of their habitats, we are putting out a call to action to engage local communities and governments, as well as the tourists themselves, to act as guardians of the fireflies,” said lead author Sara Lewis, professor of biology at Tufts University and co-chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Firefly Specialist Group, which conducted the review....

In a new study published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, chemistry professor Victor Batista and his colleagues used the Google algorithm PageRank to identify key amino acids in the regulation of a bacterial enzyme essential for most microorganisms. Enzymes are biomolecules with the unique capability of accelerating chemical reactions that are necessary for life. Although these chemical reactions normally take place in a small portion of the enzyme — known as the active site — the acceleration of the reaction is usually regulated by the binding of a molecule in a different part of the enzyme....

An astro-statistics course University of California, Riverside, graduate student Remington O. Sexton took three years ago taught him techniques that led him to develop free, open-source code benefiting astronomers everywhere. Called BADASS, which stands for Bayesian AGN Decomposition Analysis for SDSS Spectra, the code in its current form fits astronomical spectra of active galactic nuclei, or AGNs, from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, or SDSS, using advanced statistical methods. “The code is unique in that it finally provides a way for astronomers to fit the stellar motions of stars simultaneously with many other components, is written in the popular programming language Python, and is versatile enough to fit not just AGNs, but normal galaxies as well,” said Sexton, who earned his doctoral degree in physics and astronomy in September 2020....

A team of researchers at MIT has come up with a new way of manufacturing the material that could eliminate these emissions altogether, and could even make some other useful products in the process. The findings were reported on September 16, 2019, in the journal PNAS in a paper by Yet-Ming Chiang, the Kyocera Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, with postdoc Leah Ellis, graduate student Andres Badel, and others....

This is the finding of new research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which adds to the list of known benefits of rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions to keep global heating below 1.5°C. Decreases in rainfall can impact the water resources of Mediterranean climates, which rely on winter rainfall to supply them through hot, dry summers. The study, led by the University of Reading in collaboration with the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISAC, Bologna) and Imperial College London, reveals new ways in which climate change affects regions characterized by such climates, such as California, central Chile, and the Mediterranean region itself....

Groundbreaking research by a University of Wyoming economist has shed new light on the controversial topic of the value of “thoughts and prayers” in response to natural and human-caused disasters. An experiment led by Assistant Professor Linda Thunstrom, of the Department of Economics in UW’s College of Business, found that Christians who suffer such adversity value thoughts and prayers from religious strangers, while atheists and agnostics believe they are worse off from such gestures....

Water evaporation, as observed when a puddle of water disappears on a summer day, is a remarkably powerful process. If it were harnessed, the process could provide a clean source of energy to power mechanical machines and devices. In a newly published paper in Nature Materials, an international team of scientists led by researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center at the Graduate Center, CUNY (CUNY ASRC) details the development of shape-shifting crystals that directly convert evaporation energy into powerful motions....

According to a recent study presented at the American Heart Association’s Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2022 conference, young mice with high blood pressure exhibited bone loss and osteoporosis-related bone damage similar to older mice. High blood pressure and osteoporosis are common disorders, and individuals may have both simultaneously. Researchers in this study investigated inflammation linked to high blood pressure in mice and discovered it could be related to osteoporosis. “Bone marrow is where both new bone and new immune cells are produced....

The orientation of these dunes tells us that the prevailing wind blows from right to left (east to west). The wind is continuously moving sand grains up the longer dune slope, towards the top. The small ripples on the slope are caused by this movement. When the sand grains arrive at the top, they fall down the steeper and shorter slope, which as a consequence, has no ripples. It is this gradual sand movement that causes the dunes to slowly move over time....

Honeybees exhibit subtle differences in their DNA, which is tied to their roles within the hive. These DNA modifications, which are normally fixed, can be changed and could be the first examples of reversible DNA changes associated to behavior. The scientists published their findings in the journal Nature Neuroscience. All honeybees (Apis mellifera) are born equal, but although genetically identical, the bees quickly take on roles within the hive. The roles of queen and worker aren’t just tied to behavior, but are linked to specific DNA changes....

The temperature in the inner urban areas of Honk Kong, China, is predicted to rise by two to three degrees Celsius in the next 30 years, according to researchers at the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). The scientists used remote sensing technology as well as satellite images to map the distribution of temperatures for daytime and nighttime over Hong Kong. Taking into consideration the temperature change due to greenhouse-induced warming as well as the impact of urbanization, known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, these maps model the temperature changes for the next 30 years....