Today, NASA’s Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility bears her name and legacy housing a program that assures NASA’s safety and mission critical systems and software will operate reliably, safely and securely. Many women from diverse backgrounds are currently part of that program and look to Johnson’s life and achievements in the work they do. Trailblazer, contribution, extraordinary and perseverance are just a few words some of the IV&V Program’s female employees used to describe their thoughts on Johnson....

Now physicists at MIT and elsewhere have for the first time discovered fractal-like patterns in a quantum material — a material that exhibits strange electronic or magnetic behavior, as a result of quantum, atomic-scale effects. The material in question is neodymium nickel oxide, or NdNiO3, a rare earth nickelate that can act, paradoxically, as both an electrical conductor and insulator, depending on its temperature. The material also happens to be magnetic, though the orientation of its magnetism is not uniform throughout the material, but rather resembles a patchwork of “domains....

Engineers completed a detailed analysis of caulk on a seam between an ogive on Orion’s launch abort system and the crew module adapter and analyzed the potential risks if it were to detach during launch. The mission management team determined there is a low likelihood that it would pose a critical risk to the flight if additional material tears off. A quick recap of NASA’s history in space exploration segueing to Artemis serves as the opening video for the launch broadcast for the agency’s Artemis I mission....

Semi-aquatic anoles live along neotropical streams and frequently dive for refuge, remaining underwater for up to 16 minutes. Lindsey Swierk, assistant research professor of biological sciences at Binghamton University, documented this behavior in a Costa Rican anole species in 2019. She had been shocked to see an anole submerge itself for such long periods and used a GoPro underwater to document the behavior. “It’s easy to imagine the advantage that these small, slow anoles gain by hiding from their predators underwater — they’re really hard to spot!...

“It’s a really old question inherited from condensed matter physics,” said David Weld, an experimental physicist at UCSB with specialties in ultracold atomic physics and quantum simulation. The question falls into the category of ‘many-body’ physics, which interrogates the physical properties of a quantum system with multiple interacting parts. While many-body problems have been a matter of research and debate for decades, the complexity of these systems, with quantum behaviors such as superposition and entanglement, leads to multitudes of possibilities, making it impossible to solve through calculation alone....

A fireball in the sky, accompanied by a bang, amazed hundreds of eyewitnesses in northern Germany in mid-September last year. The reason for the spectacle was a meteoroid entering the Earth’s atmosphere and partially burning up. One day after the observations, a citizen in Flensburg found a stone weighing 24.5 grams and having a fresh black fusion crust on the lawn of his garden. Dieter Heinlein, coordinator of the German part of the European Fireball Network at the German Aerospace Center in Augsburg, directly recognized the stone as a meteorite and delivered the rock to experts at the “Institut für Planetologie” at Münster University....

A new analysis suggests that the movement of plankton and plankton-eating fish play a central role in driving local spikes of extreme biological productivity in tropical coral reefs, creating “sweet spots” of abundant fish. Renato Morais of James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, and colleagues present these findings in a study publishing today (November 2nd, 2021) in the open-access journal PLOS Biology. Although some ecosystems are limited by their intrinsic productivity (from photosynthesis, for example), previous research has shown that mobile resources like plankton can serve as vectors that transfer energy and nutrients from offshore ecosystems to coral reef ecosystems....

In experiments, researchers combined sheets of graphene, which are more than 1,000 times thinner than a postage stamp, with an antibody designed to target the infamous spike protein on the coronavirus. They then measured the atomic-level vibrations of these graphene sheets when exposed to COVID-positive and COVID-negative samples in artificial saliva. These sheets were also tested in the presence of other coronaviruses, like Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS-CoV. The UIC researchers found that the vibrations of the antibody-coupled graphene sheet changed when treated with a COVID-positive sample, but not when treated with a COVID-negative sample or with other coronaviruses....

With existing 3D television displays, viewers must wear stereo glasses to get the effect of seeing images on the screen in three dimensions, while viewers without the glasses see a blurry image. That’s because the 3D TV shows a different image to each eye through the stereo glasses, and a viewer without the glasses sees both images superimposed, resulting in “ghosting.” “There are a lot of reasons why it would be desirable to not need the glasses,” said James Davis, associate professor of computer science in the Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz, who led the project....

Current titanium alloys used in additive manufacturing often cool and bond together in column-shaped crystals during the 3D printing process, making them prone to cracking or distortion. And unlike aluminum or other commonly used metals, there is no commercial grain refiner for titanium that manufacturers can use to effectively refine the microstructure to avoid these issues. But now a new titanium alloy with copper, unveiled today (December 4, 2019) in the journal Nature, appears to have solved this problem....

During excavations at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey between 2013 and 2015, researchers found three 8,500-year-old teeth that appeared to have been intentionally drilled to be worn as beads in a necklace or bracelet. Subsequent macroscopic, microscopic and radiographic analyses confirmed that two of the teeth had indeed been used as beads or pendants, researchers conclude in a newly published article in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. “Not only had the two teeth been drilled with a conically shaped microdrill similar to those used for creating the vast amounts of beads from animal bone and stone that we have found at the site, but they also showed signs of wear corresponding to extensive use as ornaments in a necklace or bracelet,” University of Copenhagen archaeologist and first author of the article Scott Haddow said....

These gases are created when organisms combine an undesirable chemical element with three hydrogen atoms and a carbon atom. This process, known as methylation, may convert potential toxins into gases that float away into the atmosphere safely. These gases would be suggestive of life someplace on the planet if they were found in the atmosphere of another planet using telescopes. “Methylation is so widespread on Earth, we expect life anywhere else to perform it,” said Michaela Leung, a University of California, Riverside (UCR) planetary scientist....

In 2011, Yale undergraduates asked a question: How does a Siberian beetle survive some of the cruelest winters on Earth? Their answer appears on the cover of the April 26 issue of the Journal Biological Chemistry in the form of a peculiarly shaped protein with an ability to prevent ice from forming. The potent antifreeze protein culled from the beetle Rhagium inquisitor has the potential to make ice cream smooth and creamy or help preserve transplant organs long enough to save lives....

Rice University chemists have found a way to get the maximum amount of quality 2D hBN nanosheets from its natural bulk form by processing it with surfactant (aka soap) and water. The surfactant surrounds and stabilizes the microscopic flakes, preserving their properties. Experiments by the lab of Rice chemist Angel Martí identified the “sweet spot” for making stable dispersions of hBN, which can be processed into very thin antibacterial films that handle temperatures up to 900 degrees Celsius (1,652 degrees Fahrenheit)....

A potential solution could come from a class of drugs commonly used in cancer treatment: anthracyclines. The research team previously showed that these drugs can prevent organ failure in mice with sepsis without impacting the infection itself. This sparked a clinical trial in Germany to determine if the use of anthracyclines can improve sepsis outcomes and lower the risk of death in patients. However, to fully utilize these drugs, it is necessary to comprehend how they provide tolerance to infection....

On Thursday, June 10, 2021, people across the northern hemisphere will have the chance to experience an annular or partial eclipse of the Sun. Learn more about that here, where you will find visualizations, maps, and information on viewing the “ring of fire” solar eclipse. The video below, which features a ring of fire solar eclipse from 2013, provides some stunning clips of what it may look like depending on your location....

Under the right circumstances, the body’s T cells can detect and destroy cancer cells. However, in most cancer patients, T cells become disarmed once they enter the environment surrounding a tumor. Scientists are now trying to find ways to help treat patients by jumpstarting those lackluster T cells. Much of the research in this field, known as cancer immunotherapy, has focused on finding ways to stimulate those T cells directly....

In a recent paper published in the journal Nature Physics, Brian Zhou, an Assistant Professor of Physics at Boston College, and his colleagues have uncovered a surprising new method for converting light into electricity in Weyl semimetals using quantum sensors. Many contemporary technologies such as cameras, fiber optic systems, and solar panels rely on the transformation of light into electrical signals. However, in most materials, simply shining light on their surface does not result in the generation of electricity as there is no specific direction for the flow of electricity....

At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Origins and Habitability Lab, you can find a world in a test tube. This is a simplified representation of the early Earth, reconstructed to resemble the conditions that existed on our planet around 4 billion years ago. Through this simulation, scientists are able to focus on the potential chemical reactions that occurred during that time, including those that could have played a crucial role in the development of life on Earth or could indicate the existence of life on other planets....

Most of us are familiar with certain crystals like salt and sugar that we use in our everyday life. However, there is another set of crystals, hidden from the naked eye, that is crucial to our biology. In living cells, microscopic protein crystals help sustain processes like immune system activation, protein storage, and protection. Scientists developed the in-cell protein crystallization (ICPC) method to better understand the relationship between protein crystals’ structure and function....