New ground-breaking research from the University of Surrey could change the way scientists understand and describe lasers – establishing a new relationship between classical and quantum physics. In a comprehensive study published by the journal Progress in Quantum Electronics, a researcher from Surrey, in partnership with a colleague from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Fraunhofer IOSB in Germany, calls into question 60 years of orthodoxy surrounding the principles of lasers and the laser spectral linewidth – the foundation for controlling and measuring wavelengths of light....

“ILD is a relatively common complication in people with RA and can progress and lead to premature death in up to 10% of these patients,” said Joshua Solomon, MD, director of the Interstitial Lung Disease Program at National Jewish Health and first author of the study. “This research is a big step forward for patients suffering from RA-ILD.” Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common autoimmune diseases in the world....

The scientific team used the UH Mānoa Hawai‘i Undersea Research Laboratory’s submersible and remotely-operated vehicles to examine coral communities on submarine lava flows of various ages on the leeward flank of the Island of Hawai‘i. Utilizing the fact that the age of the lava flows—between 61 and 15,000 years—is the oldest possible age of the coral community growing there, they observed the deep-water coral community in Hawai‘i appears to undergo a pattern of ecological succession over time scales of centuries to millennia....

First spotted on October 31, 2016, the Halloween Crack runs from an area of Antarctica known as McDonald Ice Rumples – which is where the underside of the floating ice sheet is grounded on the shallow seabed. This pinning point slows the flow of ice and fractures the ice surface. The Halloween Crack, which is currently stable, runs adjacent to the more precarious tip of the Brunt Ice Shelf. This tip of the shelf is hanging by a thread – it is now only held in place by a narrow strip of ice around 600 meters (2000 feet) long at the northern end of the long chasm cutting through the western and remaining eastern part of the ice shelf....

A new research study found that eating two ounces of walnuts a day for 16 weeks in undergraduate university students improved self-reported mental health indicators, had a protective effect against some of the negative impacts of academic stress, and aided self-reported sleep quality in the longer term. The study, from researchers at the University of South Australia, was published recently in the journal Nutrients.[2] “We’ve always known walnuts to be a health-promoting food, but because of the design and length of this study, the findings really paint a picture of how a simple food like walnuts can help combat stress,” explains Mauritz F....

Since their discovery in the 1960s quasars have provided a treasure trove of questions for astronomers to answer. These energetic sources – up to 10,000 times brighter than the Milky Way – are the nuclei of distant galaxies with supermassive black holes at their heart. As gas is pulled into an accretion disc towards the black hole it heats to very high temperatures and radiates energy across the electromagnetic spectrum from radio to X-rays – in this way the signature luminosity of the quasar is born....

In his first year of graduate school, Rice University biochemist Zachary Wright discovered something hidden inside a common piece of cellular machinery that’s essential for all higher order life from yeast to humans. What Wright saw in 2015 — subcompartments inside organelles called peroxisomes — is described in a study published today in Nature Communications. “This is, without a doubt, the most unexpected thing our lab has ever discovered,” said study co-author Bonnie Bartel, Wright’s Ph....

A University of California, Irvine-led team of glaciologists has unveiled the most accurate portrait yet of the contours of the land beneath Antarctica’s ice sheet – and, by doing so, has helped identify which regions of the continent are going to be more, or less, vulnerable to future climate warming. Highly anticipated by the global cryosphere and environmental science communities, the newly released Antarctica topography map, BedMachine, and related findings were published on December 12 in the journal Nature Geoscience....

About the size of a Rubik’s cube and encased in clear acrylic, the seismometer has a sleek, consumer-ready look. The device’s geophone detects incoming ground motion, while onboard hardware and software translate the geophone’s electrical signals into a digital waveform. The device has detected all earthquakes over magnitude 3.0 around Los Angeles since September 2020. When earthquakes are stronger than the alert threshold set by the user, the device can sound the onboard alarm for on-site warning, send a text message to local subscribers of the regional warning service, and can be controlled from a smartphone....

As the COVID-19 vaccines reach more people across the country, some people have asked: Could we delay the second dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to allow more people to be vaccinated more quickly? And, how safe am I after my first dose? As an immunologist, I hear this question frequently. The answer is that a single dose is very effective – but I would add that you should still get both doses....

Scientists have calculated the mass range for Dark Matter – and it’s tighter than the science world thought. Their findings – due to be published in Physical Letters B in March – radically narrow the range of potential masses for Dark Matter particles, and help to focus the search for future Dark Matter-hunters. The University of Sussex researchers used the established fact that gravity acts on Dark Matter just as it acts on the visible universe to work out the lower and upper limits of Dark Matter’s mass....

The virus that causes COVID-19 remains for several hours to days on surfaces and in aerosols, a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found. The study suggests that people may acquire the coronavirus through the air and after touching contaminated objects. Scientists discovered the virus is detectable for up to three hours in aerosols, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard, and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel....

In a newly published study, nanoscientists look ahead to what we can expect in the coming decade, and conclude that nanoscience is poised to make important contributions in many areas, including health care, electronics, energy, food and water. Nanoscience research involves molecules that are only 1/100th the size of cancer cells and that have the potential to profoundly improve the quality of our health and our lives. Now nine prominent nanoscientists look ahead to what we can expect in the coming decade, and conclude that nanoscience is poised to make important contributions in many areas, including health care, electronics, energy, food and water....

Exercise not only trains the muscles but can also prevent the development of fatty liver. A new study by the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), Helmholtz Munich and Tübingen University Hospital shows which molecular adaptations, in particular of the liver mitochondria, can be observed in this process. The study has now been published in Molecular Metabolism. Worldwide one in four persons suffers from non-alcoholic liver disease (NAFLD, also called metabolic liver disease MAFLD)....

In fact, most of the known Neptune-sized exoplanets are merely “warm,” because they orbit farther away from their star than those in the region where astronomers would expect to find hot Neptunes. The mysterious hot-Neptune deficit suggests that such alien worlds are rare, or, they were plentiful at one time, but have since disappeared. A few years ago astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope found that one of the warmest known Neptunes (GJ 436b) is losing its atmosphere....

Galaxy clusters can contain thousands of galaxies all held together by the glue of gravity. At one point in time they were believed to be the largest structures in the Universe — until they were usurped in the 1980s by the discovery of superclusters, which typically contain dozens of galaxy clusters and groups and span hundreds of millions of light-years. However, clusters do have one thing to cling on to; superclusters are not held together by gravity, so galaxy clusters still retain the title of the biggest structures in the Universe bound by gravity....

Most galaxies possess a majestic spiral or elliptical structure. About a quarter of galaxies, though, defy such conventional, rounded aesthetics, instead sporting a messy, indefinable shape. Known as irregular galaxies, this group includes NGC 5408, the galaxy that has been snapped here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. English polymath John Herschel recorded the existence of NGC 5408 in June 1834. Astronomers had long mistaken NGC 5408 for a planetary nebula, an expelled cloud of material from an aging star....

As its name suggests, this cluster belongs to the Messier catalogue of objects — however, when astronomer Charles Messier first added Messier 28 to his list in 1764, he catalogued it incorrectly, referring to it as a “[round] nebula containing no star”. While today we know nebulae to be vast, often glowing clouds of interstellar dust and ionized gases, until the early twentieth century a nebula represented any astronomical object that was not clearly localized and isolated....

The oblate shells of ESO 455-10, previously held tightly together as layers of its central star, not only give this planetary nebula its unique appearance, but also offer information about the nebula. Seen in a field of stars, the distinct asymmetrical arc of material over the north side of the nebula is a clear sign of interactions between ESO 455-10 and the interstellar medium. The interstellar medium is the material — consisting of matter and radiation — between star systems and galaxies....

Containing an incredible half a million stars, this eight-billion-year-old cosmic bauble is one of the largest and brightest globular clusters ever discovered. However, what makes Messier 3 extra special is its unusually large population of variable stars — stars that fluctuate in brightness over time. New variable stars continue to be discovered in this sparkling stellar nest to this day, but so far we know of 274, the highest number found in any globular cluster by far....