People of all ages can get sick from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. But the severity of the illness tends to worsen the older the patient is. Through the end of September, 79% of COVID-19 deaths in the United States had been in patients over 65. These statistics are broadly similar in countries around the world. What is it that puts older people at increased risk from viruses like SARS-CoV-2?...

For some time, researchers have known that the protein FKBP51 is associated with depression and anxiety disorders. It is involved in the regulation of the stress system – when the system does not function properly; mental disorders may develop. Now, researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry have discovered a new, surprising role for this protein: It acts as a molecular link between the stress regulatory system and metabolic processes in the body....

Gyroscopes sense rotational motions to provide directional guidance without relying on satellites, so they are immune to signal jamming and other cyber threats, making them ideal for aircraft and submarines. Integrating the devices into smaller defense and consumer electronics has been challenged by fundamental obstacles. At micro sizes, gyroscopes’ electrical components can produce noise that interferes with their operation. To maintain performance at the microscale, the team developed an all-mechanical device with no on-chip electrical components....

A newly published study by Cornell scientists details how they examined insect species that feed on plants containing powerful toxins called cardenolides to better under evolution and the genetics of adaptation. The famous biologist Stephen J. Gould once asked: If we rerun the tape of life, would the outcome of evolution be the same? For years, scientists have questioned whether evolution is predictable, or whether chance events make such predictability unlikely....

A research team at Keio University, led by Associate Professor Tomoharu Oka, has discovered intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) candidates at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. It is about 30,000 light-years from the solar system in the direction of Sagittarius. IMBH candidates are considered to be the “seeds” that form and grow massive black holes. Using radio telescopes, the research team led by Associate Professor Oka has found four “warm, dense (more than 50 degrees Kelvin, more than 10,000 hydrogen molecules per cubic centimeter)” masses of molecular gas at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy....

What geologists call vertical land motion—or subsidence and uplift—is a key reason why local rates of sea level rise can differ from the global rate. California offers a good example of how much sea level can vary on a local scale. “There is no one-size-fits-all rule that applies for California,” said Em Blackwell, a graduate student at Arizona State University. Blackwell worked recently with Virginia Tech geophysicist Manoochehr Shirzaei to estimate vertical land motion along California’s coast by analyzing radar measurements made by satellites....

“Our team is the first to report that although evolution of similar color patterns in Heliconius may be driven by similar forces–like predators avoiding a particular kind of butterfly–the pathway to that outcome is not predictable,” said Carolina Concha, lead author of the paper and a post-doctoral fellow at STRI. “This really surprised us because it reveals the importance of history and chance in shaping the genetic pathways leading to butterfly wing-pattern mimicry....

Kimbrough and Pesquet successfully unfolded the solar array, bolted it into place, and connected cables to the station’s power supply to complete deployment. Additionally, the astronauts removed and stowed hardware in preparation for releasing the second iROSA from the flight support structure for installation. The pair will work toward the second solar array upgrade – this one on the P6 truss’ 4B power channel – during another spacewalk, tentatively scheduled for June 25....

The team concluded the issue is likely caused by increased contact forces between sub-components of the wheel central bearing assembly under certain conditions. Based on this, the team developed and vetted a plan for how to use the affected mechanism during science operations. The James Webb Space Telescope will explore the infrared Universe. It will use four cutting-edge instruments, including the Mid-InfraRed Instrument. MIRI supports all of Webb’s science goals....

Peering deep into the heart of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a rich tapestry of more than half a million stars. Apart from a few, blue, foreground stars, almost all of the stars pictured in the image are members of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster, the densest and most massive star cluster in the galaxy. Hidden in the center of this cluster is the Milky Way’s resident supermassive black hole....

Engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have recently finished developing three drones and the artificial intelligence needed for them to navigate an obstacle course by themselves. As a test of these algorithms, they raced the drones against a professional human pilot. Drone racing is a high-speed sport demanding instinctive reflexes — but humans won’t be the only competitors for long. Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, put their work to the test recently....

Data from Juno helped scientists discover another, less visible effect of those winds: Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field changes over time. The winds extend more than 1800 miles (3000 kilometers) deep, where the material lower in Jupiter’s atmosphere is highly conductive, electrically. Scientists determined that the wind shears this conductive material apart and carries it around the planet, which changes the shape of the magnetic field. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this false-color image using data from the JunoCam camera....

A kilonova (also called a macronova or r-process supernova) is a transient astronomical event that occurs in a compact binary system when two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole merge into each other. Kilonovae are thought to emit short gamma-ray bursts and strong electromagnetic radiation due to the radioactive decay of heavy r-process nuclei that are produced and ejected fairly isotropically during the merger process.

Chance finds of prehistoric stone tools and fragments of pottery, picked up from a rabbit hole by the wardens of Skokholm Island, have surprised experts and hint at new chapters in the prehistory of this famous island. Nicknamed ‘Dream Island’, Skokholm lies two miles off the south Pembrokeshire coast and is owned and managed by The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales. It is famed for its tens of thousands of nesting seabirds in the spring and summer months....

After a decade of research hinting that magnesium supplements could potentially boost your memory and cognitive abilities, it’s finally being put into a small clinical trial. The research is being led by the biopharmaceutical company Magceutics, of Hayward, California, and they began testing the ability of their supplement Magtein to boost magnesium ion levels in the brain. The trial will track whether the ions can decrease anxiety and improve sleep quality, as well as see if there are changes in memory and cognitive ability in the participants....

“This study reinforces what we are learning about how manipulating vision can have a significant effect on the ability of an animal to hear long after the window for auditory learning was thought to have closed,” said Patrick Kanold, professor of biology at UMD and senior author of the study. It was once thought that the sensory regions of the brain were not adaptable after a critical period in childhood....

Microglia are brain cells, who’s spider-like resting state was somewhat mysterious until Axel Nimmerjahn, biophysicist at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, began to try and figure out what exactly they did. Microglia are part of the immune system and are particularly sensitive. In live brains, they retract their many appendages and morph into a big, round bogs that gobble up pathogens and clear away cellular wreckage. In order to visualize microglia in action, Nimmerjahn used a new approach to image the live brains of mice....

When you’re responsible for a multimillion-dollar satellite hurtling through space at thousands of miles per hour, you want to be sure it’s running smoothly. And time series can help. A time series is simply a record of a measurement taken repeatedly over time. It can keep track of a system’s long-term trends and short-term blips. Examples include the infamous COVID-19 curve of new daily cases and the Keeling curve that has tracked atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations since 1958....

Now a team of engineers at MIT has developed a polymer thermal conductor — a plastic material that, however counterintuitively, works as a heat conductor, dissipating heat rather than insulating it. The new polymers, which are lightweight and flexible, can conduct 10 times as much heat as most commercially used polymers. “Traditional polymers are both electrically and thermally insulating. The discovery and development of electrically conductive polymers has led to novel electronic applications such as flexible displays and wearable biosensors,” says Yanfei Xu, a postdoc in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering....

With the world battling the current COVID-19 outbreak, a new project at MIT seeks to develop innovative solutions to fight this and future pandemics. The Pandemic Response CoLab is a joint project by the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence (CCI), MIT Media Lab’s Community Biotechnology Initiative, and founding member MilliporeSigma, the life science business of Merck KGaA in Darmstadt, Germany. The Pandemic Response CoLab is an open, online collaboration platform that invites anyone, from individuals to groups, from communities to businesses, to develop actionable solutions for challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic....