In revealing that Saturn’s moon Enceladus has many of the ingredients needed for life, the Cassini-Huygens mission has inspired a pivot to the exploration of “ocean worlds” that has been sweeping planetary science over the past decade. “Cassini has transformed our thinking in so many ways, but especially with regard to surprising places in the solar system where life could potentially gain a foothold,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at Headquarters in Washington....

Three of the white oval storms known as the “String of Pearls” are visible near the top of the image. Each of the alternating light and dark atmospheric bands in this image is wider than Earth, and each rages around Jupiter at hundreds of miles (kilometers) per hour. The lighter areas are regions where gas is rising, and the darker bands are regions where gas is sinking. The Juno Spacecraft acquired the image on May 19, 2017, at 11:30 a....

Having spent just over a month in space, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is working and already zeroing in on some of the hottest, most energetic objects in the universe. A joint effort between NASA and the Italian Space Agency, IXPE is the first space observatory dedicated to studying the polarization of X-rays coming from objects like exploded stars and black holes. Polarization describes how the X-ray light is oriented as it travels through space....

The observation is helping scientists to better understand the fascinating and dynamic environment of Saturn’s largest moon. “Titan is a very active moon,” said Sebastien Rodriguez, an astronomer at the Université Paris Diderot, France, and the paper’s lead author. “We already know that about its geology and exotic hydrocarbon cycle. Now we can add another analogy with Earth and Mars: the active dust cycle, in which organic dust can be raised from large dune fields around Titan’s equator....

During a meeting this morning, September 24, teams decided to stand down on preparing for the Tuesday launch date to allow them to configure systems for rolling back the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). However, engineers deferred a final decision about the roll to Sunday, September 25, to allow for additional data gathering and analysis. If Artemis I managers elect to roll back the rocket to the VAB, it would begin late Sunday night or early Monday morning....

A team of neuroengineers based at Brown University has developed a fully implantable and rechargeable wireless brain sensor capable of relaying real-time broadband signals from up to 100 neurons in freely moving subjects. Several copies of the novel low-power device, described in the Journal of Neural Engineering, have been performing well in animal models for more than year, a first in the brain-computer interface field. Brain-computer interfaces could help people with severe paralysis control devices with their thoughts....

CSHL neuroscientist Anthony Zador shows how evolution and animal brains can be a rich source of inspiration for machine learning, especially to help AI tackle some enormously difficult problems, like… doing the dishes. Artificial intelligence (AI) still has a lot to learn from animal brains, says Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) neuroscientist Tony Zador. Now, he’s hoping that lessons from neuroscience can help the next generation of artificial intelligence overcome some particularly difficult barriers....

An artificial intelligence tool could help governments decide whether or not to bail out a bank in crisis by predicting if the intervention will save money for taxpayers in the long term. The AI tool, developed by researchers at University College London (UCL) and Queen Mary University of London, assesses not only if a bailout is the best strategy for taxpayers, but also suggests how much should be invested in the bank, and which bank or banks should be bailed out at any given time....

Taking it easy as you get older? Wrong. Message of new Lieberman study: ‘Because we evolved to be active throughout our lives, our bodies need physical activity to age well.’ Just about everyone knows that exercise is good for you. Some people can even rattle off reasons it keeps your muscles and joints strong, and how it fights off certain diseases. But how many people can tell you the story of why and how physical activity was built into human biology?...

If confirmed as a pathogen, the novel canine-like coronavirus could represent the eighth unique coronavirus known to cause disease in humans. The discovery also suggests coronaviruses are being transmitted from animals to humans more commonly than was previously thought. “How common this virus is, and whether it can be transmitted efficiently from dogs to humans or between humans, nobody knows,” said Gregory Gray, M.D., a professor of medicine, global health and environmental health at Duke University....

We Need Global “Maximum Suppression” At the end of 2020, there was a strong hope that high levels of vaccination would see humanity finally gain the upper hand over SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. In an ideal scenario, the virus would then be contained at very low levels without further societal disruption or significant numbers of deaths. But since then, new “variants of concern” have emerged and spread worldwide, putting current pandemic control efforts, including vaccination, at risk of being derailed....

Experts in Japan have identified a fundamental part of the immune system’s long-term memory, providing a useful new detail in the pursuit to design better vaccines for diseases, ranging from COVID-19 to malaria. The research, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, reveals a new role for the enzyme TBK1 in deciding the fate of immune system memory B cells. The immune system is made of many cell types, but the two types relevant for this University of Tokyo research project are white blood cells called CD4+ follicular helper T cells and B cells....

Astronomers may now understand why the similar planets Uranus and Neptune have distinctive hues. Researchers constructed a single atmospheric model that matches observations of both planets using observations from the Gemini North telescope, the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, and the Hubble Space Telescope. The model reveals that excess haze on Uranus accumulates in the planet’s stagnant, sluggish atmosphere, giving it a lighter hue than Neptune. The planets Neptune and Uranus have much in common — they have similar masses, sizes, and atmospheric compositions — yet their appearances are notably different....

For the first time, Northwestern University engineers have created a double layer of atomically flat borophene, a feat that defies the natural tendency of boron to form non-planar clusters beyond the single-atomic-layer limit. Although known for its promising electronic properties, borophene — a single-atom-layer-thick sheet of boron — is challenging to synthesize. Unlike its analog two-dimensional material graphene, which can be peeled away from innately layered graphite using something as simple as scotch tape, borophene cannot merely be peeled away from bulk boron....

The new eye-catching views from the Herschel space observatory are fit for a princess. They show the elegant spiral galaxy Andromeda, named after the mythical Greek princess known for her beauty. The Andromeda galaxy, also known as Messier 31, lies 2 million light-years away, and is the closest large galaxy to our own Milky Way. It is estimated to have up to one trillion stars, whereas the Milky Way contains hundreds of billions....

Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is the most widely used diagnostic method to detect RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV-2. However, it requires expensive laboratory equipment and global shortages of reagents for RNA purification has increased the need to find simple but reliable alternatives. One alternative to the qPCR technology is RT-LAMP (reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification). This test amplifies the desired target sequences of the virus at a constant temperature, using minimal equipment compared to qPCR....

Despite the fact that the word “qudit” may appear to be a typo, this less well-known relative of the qubit, or quantum bit, has the ability to carry more data and is more noise-resistant, two crucial characteristics required to enhance the performance of quantum networks, quantum key distribution systems, and eventually the quantum internet. In contrast to traditional computer bits, which classify data as ones or zeros, qubits can hold values of one, zero, or both....

As we get older, our endurance declines, in part because our blood vessels lose some of their capacity to deliver oxygen and nutrients to muscle tissue. An MIT-led research team has now found that it can reverse this age-related endurance loss in mice by treating them with a compound that promotes new blood vessel growth. The study found that the compound, which re-activates longevity-linked proteins called sirtuins, promotes the growth of blood vessels and muscle, boosting the endurance of elderly mice by up to 80 percent....

Model could recreate video from motion-blurred images and “corner cameras,” may someday retrieve 3D data from 2D medical images. MIT researchers have developed a model that recovers valuable data lost from images and video that have been “collapsed” into lower dimensions. The model could be used to recreate video from motion-blurred images, or from new types of cameras that capture a person’s movement around corners but only as vague one-dimensional lines....

Researchers at Northwestern University and Argonne National Laboratory have developed a new material that opens doors for a new class of neutron detectors. With the ability to sense smuggled nuclear materials, highly efficient neutron detectors are critical for national security. Currently, there are two classes of detectors which either use helium gas or flashes of light. These detectors are very large — sometimes the size of a wall. Northwestern and Argonne’s material introduces a third class: a semiconductor that can absorb neutrons and generate electrical signals that can be easily measured....