Bacteria do not sexually reproduce, but that does not stop them from exchanging genetic information as it evolves and adapts. During conjugal transfer, a bacterium can connect to another bacterium to pass along DNA and proteins. Escherichia coli bacteria, commonly called E. coli, can transfer at least one of these gene-containing plasmids to organisms across taxonomic kingdoms, including to fungi and protists. Now, researchers from Hiroshima University have a better understanding of this genetic hat trick, which has potential applications as a tool to promote desired characteristics or suppress harmful ones across genetic hosts....

Scientists have focused attention and research on the so-called Kitaev-type of spin liquid, named in honor of the Russian scientist, Alexei Kitaev, who first proposed it. In particular, they have looked extensively at two materials – RuCl3 and Na2IrO – as candidates for this type. Both have small quantum spin numbers. “Traditional candidates are pretty limited to only these two,” said Changsong Xu, a researcher in the Department of Physics and first author of a paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters....

In the brain, dedicated groups of neurons that connect up in microcircuits help us process information about things we see, smell, and taste. Knowing how many and what type of cells make up these microcircuits would give scientists a deeper understanding of how the brain computes complex information about the world around us. But existing techniques have failed to paint a complete picture. The new technique, developed by researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, overcomes previous limitations and has enabled them to map out all 250 cells that make up a microcircuit in part of a mouse brain that processes smell – something that has never been achieved before....

Living organisms have developed sophisticated ways to maintain stability in a changing environment, withstanding fluctuations in temperature, pH, pressure, and the presence or absence of crucial molecules. The integration of similar features in artificial materials, however, has remained a challenge—until now. In the July 12 issue of the journal Nature, a Harvard-led team of engineers presented a strategy for building self-thermoregulating nanomaterials that can, in principle, be tailored to maintain a set pH, pressure, or just about any other desired parameter by meeting the environmental changes with a compensatory chemical feedback response....

A University at Buffalo-led research team has discovered a technique that could help increase the effectiveness of vaccines against the novel coronavirus, the virus that causes COVID-19. Jonathan F. Lovell, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UB, is the primary investigator on the research, titled “SARS-CoV-2 RBD Neutralizing Antibody Induction is Enhanced by Particulate Vaccination,” which was published online in Advanced Materials today, October 28, 2020....

Managers from NASA and SpaceX, along with international partners, met throughout the day Tuesday as part of the mission’s Flight Readiness Review (FRR) in preparation for the sixth crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the microgravity laboratory. The FRR focused on the preparedness of SpaceX’s crew transportation system, the space station, and its international partners to support the flight, as well as the certification of flight readiness. The Crew-6 launch will carry two NASA astronauts, Mission Commander Stephen Bowen and Pilot Warren “Woody” Hoburg, along with UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, who will serve as mission specialists, to the space station for a science expedition mission....

The Solar System’s Kuiper Belt is a vast region of leftover material from the earliest period of our system’s formation. Studying the Kuiper Belt provides important insight into the history of the Solar System and can yield clues as to how the system ultimately became capable of supporting a habitable planet, the Earth. Identifying similar structures around other stellar systems provides a point of comparison, and could help astrobiologists better understand our own region of space....

Images obtained by NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft reveal previously undetected small fault scarps— cliff-like landforms that resemble stair steps. These scarps are small enough that scientists believe they must be geologically young, which means Mercury is still contracting and that Earth is not the only tectonically active planet in our solar system, as previously thought. The findings will be reported in a paper in the October issue of Nature Geoscience....

Beginning on November 30, Cassini’s orbit will send the spacecraft just past the outer edge of the main rings. These orbits, a series of 20, are called the F-ring orbits. During these weekly orbits, Cassini will approach to within 4,850 miles (7,800 kilometers) of the center of the narrow F ring, with its peculiar kinked and braided structure. “During the F-ring orbits we expect to see the rings, along with the small moons and other structures embedded in them, as never before,” said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California....

NASA’s next Mars rover has a new name — Perseverance. The name was announced Thursday by Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate, during a celebration at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia. Zurbuchen was at the school to congratulate seventh grader Alexander Mather, who submitted the winning entry to the agency’s “Name the Rover” essay contest, which received 28,000 entries from K-12 students from every U....

For the first time in history, a spacecraft has touched the Sun. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has now flown through the Sun’s upper atmosphere – the corona – and sampled particles and magnetic fields there. The new milestone marks one major step for Parker Solar Probe and one giant leap for solar science. Just as landing on the Moon allowed scientists to understand how it was formed, touching the very stuff the Sun is made of will help scientists uncover critical information about our closest star and its influence on the solar system....

A “deep dive” for buried treasure into one of Webb’s iconic First Images, the Cosmic Cliffs, has revealed a hotbed of young stars in a particularly elusive stage of development. Close analysis of data from a specific wavelength of light, only captured by Webb, is now opening new doors to intriguing finds. Webb Space Telescope Unveils Young Stars in Early Stages of Formation Scientists taking a “deep dive” into one of Webb’s iconic first images have discovered dozens of energetic jets and outflows from young stars previously hidden by dust clouds....

A team of scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and Universities Space Research Association (USRA) has detected signs of the recent shutdown of business and transportation around Hubei province in central China. As reported by the U.S. State Department, Chinese authorities suspended air, road, and rail travel in the area and placed restrictions on other activities in late January 2020 in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the region....

With this award, NASA has put in place another cornerstone of returning astronauts to the Moon under Artemis. Their goal is to support continued scientific breakthroughs, benefiting humanity back on Earth. NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon as part of its planned human lunar spaceflight missions. After reviewing proposals from its two eligible spacesuit vendors, NASA selected Axiom Space for the task order....

A new map of Mars’ gravity made with three NASA spacecraft is the most detailed to date, providing a revealing glimpse into the hidden interior of the Red Planet. “Gravity maps allow us to see inside a planet, just as a doctor uses an X-ray to see inside a patient,” said Antonio Genova of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts. “The new gravity map will be helpful for future Mars exploration, because better knowledge of the planet’s gravity anomalies helps mission controllers insert spacecraft more precisely into orbit about Mars....

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is one of the most common causes of death in preterm infants. Medically-fragile term infants, such as neonates born with a congenital heart defect, are also at an elevated risk of NEC. Two prior studies reported conflicting trends in NEC rates. One study from 2000-2011 showed increasing rates of death from the condition over time. Another study reported declining rates of NEC from 2006-2017. Researchers in the current study wanted to determine the trends in NEC-related deaths in the US spanning both of these periods....

C. elegans can be trained to prefer a temperature, and the Yale team, led by neuroscientists Daniel Colón-Ramos and Josh Hawk, studied what happens at the cellular level when animals learn to prefer a new temperature. They found that a sensory neuron in the worm can integrate two plasticity mechanisms to guide learned behavioral preferences. Sensory adaptation allows the neuron to act as a sort of compass, telling the worm which way it is bearing on a temperature gradient....

Is it nature or nurture that ultimately shapes a human? Are actions and behaviors a result of genes or environment? Variations of these questions have been explored by countless philosophers and scientists across millennia. Yet, as biologists continue to better understand the mechanisms that underlie brain function, it is increasingly apparent that this long-debated dichotomy may be no dichotomy at all. In a study published in Nature Neuroscience, neuroscientists and systems biologists from Harvard Medical School reveal just how inexorably interwoven nature and nurture are in the mouse brain....

As described in a paper published today by Science Advances, an LLNL team co-led by engineer Seth Watts used topology optimization software that Watts wrote to create two unique unit cell designs composed of micro-architected trusses, one of which was designed to have isotropic (identical and omnidirectional) material properties. These new structures were then fabricated and tested, and were found to outperform the octet truss, a standard geometric pattern for 3D-printed lattice structures....

Pasadena, California– With the sun now shining down over the north pole of Saturn’s moon Titan, a little luck with the weather, and trajectories that put the spacecraft into optimal viewing positions, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has obtained new pictures of the liquid methane and ethane seas and lakes that reside near Titan’s north pole. The images reveal new clues about how the lakes formed and about Titan’s Earth-like “hydrologic” cycle, which involves hydrocarbons rather than water....