New research shows giant holes in Venus’s atmosphere – which serve as extra clues for understanding this planet so different from our own. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Duberstein Underscoring the vast differences between Earth and its neighbor Venus, new research shows a glimpse of giant holes in the electrically charged layer of the Venusian atmosphere, called the ionosphere. The observations point to a more complicated magnetic environment than previously thought – which in turn helps us better understand this neighboring, rocky planet....

A recurrent feature, the cloud is made up of water ice, but despite appearances, it is not a plume linked to volcanic activity. Instead, the curious stream forms as airflow is influenced by the volcano’s ‘leeward’ slope − the side that does not face the wind. These images of the cloud, which can reach up to 1800-km in length, were taken on 17 and 19 July by the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on Mars Express, which has been studying the Red Planet from orbit for the past 16 years....

Nanoelectronics has taken another step forward. An international team including researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle has discovered an effect that can be used to produce silicon nanowires with particularly attractive electrical and morphological properties. These nanowires are grown in an elegant way with aluminum as the catalyst. The scientists have now discovered that the silicon incorporates significantly more aluminum in the process than it is expected from known theories....

Nanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom can destroy human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while leaving surrounding cells unharmed, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown. The finding is an important step toward developing a vaginal gel that may prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. “Our hope is that in places where HIV is running rampant, people could use this gel as a preventive measure to stop the initial infection,” says Joshua L....

NASA scientists have created a new recipe that captures key flavors of the brownish-orange atmosphere around Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. The recipe is used for lab experiments designed to simulate Titan’s chemistry. With this approach, the team was able to classify a previously unidentified material discovered by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in the moon’s smoggy haze. “Now we can say that this material has a strong aromatic character, which helps us understand more about the complex mixture of molecules that makes up Titan’s haze,” said Melissa Trainer, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland....

Secrets lie deep within Jupiter, shrouded in the solar system’s strongest magnetic field and most lethal radiation belts. On July 4, 2016, NASA’s Juno spacecraft will plunge into uncharted territory, entering orbit around the gas giant and passing closer than any spacecraft before. Juno will see Jupiter for what it really is, but first it must pass the trial of orbit insertion.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, space- and ground-based observations have shown that Earth’s atmosphere has seen significant reductions in some air pollutants. However, scientists wanted to know how much of that decline can be attributed to changes in human activity during pandemic-related shutdowns, versus how much would have occurred in a pandemic-free 2020. Using computer models to generate a COVID-free 2020 for comparison, NASA researchers found that since February, pandemic restrictions have reduced global nitrogen dioxide concentrations by nearly 20%....

The update follows a judge’s recent decision to uphold NASA’s selection of SpaceX to develop and demonstrate a modern human lunar lander for returning astronauts to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson spearheaded the conversation, laying out the path forward for early Artemis missions that will pave the way for lunar surface missions. “We’re pleased with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims’ thorough evaluation of NASA’s source selection process for the human landing system (HLS), and we have already resumed conversations with SpaceX....

Like a doctor recording vital signs, the team measured the levels of nine gases released from the icy nucleus into the comet’s thin atmosphere, or coma. Several of these gases supply building blocks for amino acids, sugars, and other biologically relevant molecules. Of particular interest were carbon monoxide and methane, which are so hard to detect in Jupiter-family comets that they’ve only been studied a few times before. The gases all originate from the hodgepodge of ices, rock, and dust that make up the nucleus....

Astronomers widely believe that the energy from quasars is responsible for limiting the growth of massive galaxies. Shortly after the launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, scientists plan to study the effect of three carefully selected quasars on their host galaxies in a program called Q3D. A supermassive black hole is very small compared to its host galaxy — it’s the equivalent of a penny in relation to the size of the entire Moon....

New observations from NASA’s Van Allen Probes show that there typically isn’t as much radiation in the inner belt as previously believed. Earth’s radiation belts, two doughnut-shaped regions of charged particles encircling our planet, were discovered more than 50 years ago, but their behavior is still not completely understood. Now, new observations from NASA’s Van Allen Probes mission show that the fastest, most energetic electrons in the inner radiation belt are not present as much of the time as previously thought....

The engineering team for NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is trying to solve a mystery: The interstellar explorer, which is currently over 14 billion miles from Earth, appears to be functioning normally, receiving and executing commands from Earth, along with gathering and returning science data. But readouts from the probe’s attitude articulation and control system (AACS) don’t accurately reflect what’s actually happening onboard. The AACS controls the 45-year-old spacecraft’s orientation. Among other tasks, it keeps Voyager 1’s high-gain antenna pointed precisely at Earth, enabling it to send data home....

A widely used modeling technique involves dividing the population into compartments, such as susceptible (S), infected (I), and recovered (R), in what is known as the SIR model. This approach models the rates of change that describe the movement of individuals from one compartment to another. KAUST researchers, led by Paula Moraga, integrated SIR compartment modeling in time and a point process modeling approach in space–time, while also taking into account age-specific contact patterns....

The popularity of artificial sweeteners has skyrocketed because they allow individuals to enjoy sweets without the accompanying calories. Although they are thought to be safe for intake by people, research on both humans and animals suggests that some of them may stimulate appetite, resulting in increased food consumption and weight gain as well as other negative health outcomes. As a result, scientists have started looking for low-calorie or very sweet compounds derived from natural sources as potential substitutes....

Salk Institute scientists have developed a new drug that acts like a master reset switch in the gut. Called FexD, the compound has previously been found to burn fat, lower cholesterol, and ward off colorectal cancer in mice. Now, the team reports that FexD can also prevent and reverse intestinal inflammation in mouse models of inflammatory bowel disease. The study was published on December 12, 2022, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences....

It has recently become prominent in Mexico and, similarly to other variants, presents a mutation in the Spike protein of the coronavirus. The “Mexican variant” was identified by a research group of the University of Bologna. A research group of the Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology of the University of Bologna analyzed more than one million SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences. This analysis led to the identification of a new variant that, over the past weeks, has been spreading mostly in Mexico but has also been found in Europe....

Dineobellator notohesperus adds to scientists’ understanding of the paleo-biodiversity of the American Southwest, offering a clearer picture of what life was like in this region near the end of the reign of the dinosaurs. Steven Jasinski, who recently completed his Ph.D. in Penn’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the School of Arts and Sciences, led the work to describe the new species, collaborating with doctoral advisor Peter Dodson of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Penn Arts and Sciences and as well as Robert Sullivan of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque....

A new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine has found no correlation between COVID-19 vaccinations and risk of first-trimester miscarriages, providing further evidence of the safety of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy. The study analyzed several national health registries in Norway to compare the proportion of vaccinated women who experienced a miscarriage during the first trimester and women who were still pregnant at the end of the first trimester....

In recent years more and more evidence has been accumulated to the effect that humans were a major factor in the extinction of large animals, and consequently had to adapt to hunting smaller game, first in Africa and later in all other parts of the world. In Africa, 2.6 million years ago, when humans first emerged, the average size of land mammals was close to 500kg. Just before the advent of agriculture this figure had decreased by over 90% — down to several tens of kg....

In recent years, the use of e-cigarettes has seen a significant surge, particularly among young adults and adolescents. Despite the widespread belief that e-cigarettes are a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes, they have been found to trigger pulmonary inflammation and increase the likelihood of lung disease. Moreover, their long-term safety has not been thoroughly evaluated, leaving many questions about their impact on health unanswered. This is the first PET study to use a novel radiotracer, 18F-NOS, to compare lung inflammation between cigarette and e-cigarette users in vivo....