At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Wright works in the Scientific Visualization Studio, using NASA data to create accurate visuals of celestial bodies. Wright made the lunar imagery accompanying “Clair de Lune” with data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). This visualization attempts to capture the mood of Claude Debussy’s best-known composition, Clair de Lune, along with visuals of the moon captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter....

The collaboration conducted the search using the experiment’s second subdetector system, which consists of about 2400 aluminum bars with a total mass of 794 kg. The bars were exposed to proton–proton collisions produced at the LHC at an energy of 13 TeV between 2015 and 2017. A special device was then used to scan the bars and look for the presence of trapped magnetic charge belonging to dyons. This scanning procedure found no signs of dyons....

Released to the public for the first time, this Chandra/ESO image shows NGC 3576. A region of glowing gas in the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way galaxy, NGC 3576 is located about 9,000 light years from Earth. Such nebulas present a tableau of the drama of the evolution of massive stars, from the formation in vast dark clouds, their relatively brief (a few million years) lives, and the eventual destruction in supernova explosions....

Cancer cells have an innate randomness in their ability to respond to chemotherapy, which is another tool in their arsenal of resisting treatment, new research led by the Garvan Institute of Medical Research shows. Understanding why some tumor cells become resistant to chemotherapy is a core challenge in cancer research, as chemotherapy is still a frontline treatment for most cancers. The new research shows that tumor cells from neuroblastoma – cancer that develops in the body’s ‘fight or flight’ sympathetic nervous system – can move between states of responding, or not, to chemotherapy....

Nutrient supplements typically consist of a mixture of a legume — peanut, lentil, or chickpea paste — plus milk powder, oil and a full complement of the vitamins and minerals children need. “Picture a tiny package of fortified peanut butter that only has 100 calories,” said Christine Stewart, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and interim director of the Institute for Global Nutrition. “It’s enough to spread on a single piece of bread or it can be mixed with other foods....

Carolina researchers say downward trend in college drinking could change once students return to campus. First-year college students are reporting drinking less alcohol and having fewer episodes of binge drinking four months into the coronavirus pandemic than they were before the pandemic started, according to a study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The study is based on the experiences of 439 Carolina students and reflects how the COVID-19 pandemic affected students’ social lives and stress....

The fleet, which was launched six years ago and cost $100 million, is nearing the end of its operational life, with one satellite of the original six already scrapped. At a workshop last month at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, researchers proposed a network of 24 microsatellites, dubbed Community Initiative for Cellular Earth Remote Observation (CICERO) to replace it. These microsatellites could help address a gap in atmospheric data....

Because SARS-CoV-2 shares significant sequence similarity with its HCoV cousins, researchers have wondered if the immune system might recognize the new coronavirus from prior bouts with HCoVs. This could re-activate memory B cells, causing them to produce antibodies that helped the person overcome previous HCoV infections, and might also help fight COVID-19. On the other hand, if the antibodies against HCoVs recognize SARS-CoV-2, but not strongly enough to generate an immune response, they could cause ADE....

A COVID-19 outbreak among wild mountain gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda, could lead to the collapse of the population, according to a modeling study published in Scientific Reports. SARS-CoV-2 infections have previously been identified among captive western lowland gorillas, however, the potential risk that COVID-19 poses to wild apes, including endangered mountain gorillas, has been unclear. Fernando Colchero and colleagues simulated the probability that a COVID-19 outbreak in a population of mountain gorillas living in Volcanoes National Park could lead to the collapse of this population....

Coronavirus is changing life as we know it on a daily basis. But what will our world look like in the next five years? How will the pandemic permanently reshape our lives? In the video series “COVID 2025: Our World in the Next 5 Years,” leading scholars at the University of Chicago discuss how COVID-19 will change health care and international relations, education and urban life, and many other aspects of our lives....

Around the world and within the U.S., the percentage of people wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic has varied enormously. What explains this? A new study co-authored by an MIT faculty member finds that a public sense of “collectivism” clearly predicts mask usage, adding a cultural and psychological perspective to the issue. The study uses a series of datasets about mask usage and public attitudes, along with well-established empirical indices of collectivism, to evaluate the impact of those cultural differences on this element of the pandemic response....

To restore this population of cells, researchers extracted retinal stem cells from donated cadaver adult eyes, grew them into RPE cells and transplanted them into the eyes of monkeys. These unique cells have the potential to serve as an unlimited resource of human RPE, with the possibility of donor compatibility matching. The study is the first time the safety and feasibility of adult retinal stem cell-derived RPE transplants in non-human primates was assessed....

Occator Crater, measuring 57 miles (92 kilometers) across and 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) deep, contains the brightest area on Ceres, the dwarf planet that Dawn has explored since early 2015. The latest images, taken from 240 miles (385 kilometers) above the surface of Ceres, reveal a dome in a smooth-walled pit in the bright center of the crater. Numerous linear features and fractures crisscross the top and flanks of this dome....

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), characterized by an accumulation of ß-amyloid protein (Aß) in brain tissue, is a leading cause of dementia. Researchers at Tokyo University of Science have previously reported on the oxytocin-induced reversal of impaired synaptic plasticity triggered by amyloid ß peptide (25-35) (Aß25-35). They now show that an oxytocin derivative with modifications to enhance brain perfusion can reverse Aß25-35-induced cognitive impairment in mice. The cognitive decline and memory loss observed in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is attributed to the accumulation of ß-amyloid protein (Aß), which impairs neural function in the brain....

Just as René Magritte wrote “This is not a pipe” on his famous painting, this is also not a pipe. It is however a picture of part of a vast dark cloud of interstellar dust called the Pipe Nebula. This new and very detailed image of what is also known as Barnard 59 was captured by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory....

The asteroid is named Pallas, after the Greek goddess of wisdom, and was originally discovered in 1802. Pallas is the third largest object in the asteroid belt, and is about one-seventh the size of the moon. For centuries, astronomers have noticed that the asteroid orbits along a significantly tilted track compared with the majority of objects in the asteroid belt, though the reason for its incline remains a mystery. In a paper published today (February 10, 2020) in Nature Astronomy, researchers reveal detailed images of Pallas, including its heavily cratered surface, for the first time....

The pulp of a ripe durian emits an unusually potent and very persistent smell that is reminiscent of rotten onions. That is why the fruit has been banned on local public transportation in Singapore and at numerous hotels in Thailand. Nevertheless, different varieties of durian are highly valued in many Asian countries. Durian pulp has a high nutritional value, a distinctly sweet taste, and a pleasantly creamy consistency. Enzyme releases odorant from amino acid Previous research conducted at the [email protected] had already shown that the fruit’s stench is essentially due to the odorant ethanethiol and its derivatives....

You might even be reading this story because you got distracted. A new study suggests that distractions – those pesky interruptions that pull us away from our goals – might change our perception of what’s real, making us believe we saw something different from what we actually saw. Even more troubling, the study suggests people might not realize their perception has changed – to the contrary, they might feel great confidence in what they think they saw....

“Our study showed a higher incidence of physical IPV, both in absolute numbers and proportion, with more severe injuries despite fewer patients reporting IPV,” said Bharti Khurana, M.D., principal investigator and director of the Trauma Imaging Research and Innovation Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. “This indicates that victims are reporting to health care facilities in the late stages of the abuse cycle. Fear of contracting infection and closure of ambulatory sites might be preventing victims of mild physical or emotional abuse from seeking help compared to the pre-pandemic era....

Every 13 months, Jupiter is in opposition, making it look bigger and brighter than at any other time of the year. But that’s not all. This time, Jupiter will also make its closest approach to Earth in the last 59 years. This happens because Earth and Jupiter do not orbit the Sun in perfect circles, resulting in the planets passing each other at different distances throughout the year. This year’s views will be super extraordinary because Jupiter’s closest approach to Earth rarely coincides with opposition....