Science News
Cells in the human body often need to move in particular directions. Cell movement is crucial for embryo development, immune defense, and tissue repair and regeneration. It’s also key in cancer progression, as metastatic cells spread throughout the body. »
Kalahari, the name conjures an arid, almost lifeless expanse, its red, iron oxide sands stretching to the horizon and beyond. Kgala, Tswana natives called it, the great thirst. Kgalagadi, it's also named: the waterless place. »
Our Milky Way galaxy is littered with the still-sizzling remains of exploded stars. When the most massive stars explode as supernovas, they don't fade into the night, but sometimes glow ferociously with high-energy gamma rays. What powers these energetic stellar remains? »
The Ebola virus can cause severe illness and death in people and other primates. The 2014 Ebola outbreak is the largest outbreak in history, with more than 3,600 infections and 1,800 deaths as of the end of August, according to the World Health Organization. The outbreak is the first in West Africa and the first to affect major cities. »
Malaria is caused by the Plasmodium parasite, which is transmitted to people through mosquitoes. More than 40% of the world’s population lives in at-risk regions. Malaria affects about 300-500 million people each year. Most cases can be successfully treated, but nearly 1 million still die of the disease every year, including about 800,000 children under age 5 in Sub-Saharan Africa. »
Paleontologists have identified a new species of titanosaurian, a member of the large-bodied sauropods that thrived during the final period of the dinosaur age, in Tanzania. »
The human genome sequence, published in 2003, has helped researchers identify countless genes involved in health and disease. But genes tell only part of a biological story. Many other types of DNA sequences also have biological function. These regions control gene activity and affect DNA structure, dynamics, and replication. Chromatin, the complex of DNA and protein that forms chromosomes, also affects how genes are expressed (turned on and off). »
A small asteroid, designated 2014 RC, will safely pass very close to Earth on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014. At the time of closest approach, based on current calculations to be about 2:18 p.m. EDT (11:18 a.m. PDT / 18:18 UTC), the asteroid will be roughly over New Zealand. From its reflected brightness, astronomers estimate that the asteroid is about 20 meters in size. »
In a finding that has implications for life in other extreme environments, both on Earth and elsewhere in the solar system, researchers published a paper confirming that the waters and sediments of a lake that lies 800 meters (2,600 feet) beneath the surface of the West Antarctic ice sheet support "viable microbial ecosystems." »
New research led by NASA and the University of Washington, Seattle, confirms that springtime snow on sea ice in the Arctic has thinned significantly in the last 50 years, by about a third in the Western Hemisphere and by half near Alaska. »
Once every 50 years, more or less, a massive star explodes somewhere in the Milky Way. The resulting blast is terrifyingly powerful, pumping out more energy in a split second than the sun emits in a million years. At its peak, a supernova can outshine the entire Milky Way. »
Bioengineers have created three-dimensional brain-like tissue that functions like and has structural features similar to tissue in the rat brain and that can be kept alive in the lab for more than two months. »
Located in the Brabazon Range of southeastern Alaska, Yakutat Glacier is one of the fastest retreating glaciers in the world. It is the primary outlet for the 810-square kilometer Yakutat ice field, which drains into Harlequin Lake and, ultimately, the Gulf of Alaska. »
NASA research shows Earth's atmosphere contains an unexpectedly large amount of an ozone-depleting compound from an unknown source decades after the compound was banned worldwide. »
A track about one-third of a mile (500 meters) long on Mars shows where an irregularly shaped boulder careened downhill to its current upright position, seen in a July 3, 2014, image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. »
NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has captured an extreme and rare event in the regions immediately surrounding a supermassive black hole. A compact source of X-rays that sits near the black hole, called the corona, has moved closer to the black hole over a period of just days. »
In the past, many atmospheric scientists believed that pollen particles probably had a negligible effect on climate because they were so big. In recent years, however, as they began to realize that pollen particles were not as sturdy as they once thought, they have been rethinking their old assumptions. »
Researchers developed a lightweight microscope that attaches to a cell phone. The compact fluorescent imaging device can detect single nanoparticles and viruses. It might one day be used to conduct biomedical tests in remote and resource-limited areas. »
Researchers at Ohio University have found the oldest definitive fossil evidence of modern, venomous snakes in Africa. The newly discovered fossil was unearthed in the Rukwa Rift Basin of Tanzania. »
Livestock, particularly horses, have been identified as a significant threat to panda survival. The reason: Horses have been beating pandas to the bamboo buffet. »
The European Space Agency's Rosetta probe is approaching Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for a historic mission to orbit and land on the comet's nucleus. As Rosetta approaches the comet (now less than 9,000 km away), the form of the nucleus is coming into focus, and it is extraordinary. »
For the last 2.5 million years, Earth has experienced millennia-long cold and warm cycles. During cold periods, continental-scale ice sheets have blanketed large tracts of the Northern Hemisphere. »
New research counters a widely-held scientific view that thawing permafrost uniformly accelerates atmospheric warming, indicating instead that certain Arctic lakes store more greenhouse gases than they emit into the atmosphere. »
Some single-celled creatures have structures called motile cilia that beat rhythmically to allow the cells to move. Motile cilia are also found in larger organisms, including people. For example, motile cilia are on cells that line the trachea, where their coordinated wave-like motions carry mucus—along with the inhaled dust, bacteria, and other small particles it contains—toward the mouth to be coughed or sneezed out of the body. »
Emerging fungal pathogens pose a greater threat to biodiversity than any other parasitic group, scientists say, causing population declines of amphibians, bats, corals, bees and snakes. Now, research results reveal that amphibians can acquire behavioral or immunological resistance to a deadly chytrid fungus implicated in global amphibian population declines. »
The solar wind of particles streaming off the sun helps drive flows and swirls in space as complicated as any terrestrial weather pattern. Scientists have now spotted at planet Mercury, for the first time, a classic space weather event called a hot flow anomaly, or HFA, which has previously been spotted at Earth, Venus, Saturn and Mars. »
A newly discovered planet in a binary, or twin, star system located 3,000 light-years from Earth is expanding astronomers' notions of where Earth-like -- and even potentially habitable -- planets can form, and how to find them. »
Scientists have sketched out one of the greatest baby booms in North American history, a centuries-long "growth blip" among southwestern Native Americans between 500 and 1300 A.D. »
While electric vehicles offer many advantages--including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the country's dependence on imported petroleum--at least one barrier stands in the way of their large-scale adoption: "range anxiety." »
Researchers identified variations in a gene that are associated with lower triglyceride levels and a reduced risk of coronary heart disease. The findings may suggest new directions for development of therapeutics. »
Memories of recent events may be held by a small number of neurons distributed across the brain’s hippocampus, a new study suggests. Understanding how the brain stores memories will yield insights into memory problems that come with normal aging and dementia. »
Less than half the distance between Earth and moon separates Rosetta from its destination, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The European Space Agency's spacecraft will become the first to orbit a comet and land a probe on its nucleus. »
Researchers discovered a receptor that mosquitoes use to detect both carbon dioxide and skin odor, and they identified compounds that interact with the receptor. The findings may help guide strategies to control mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit. »
NASA scientists have created a new recipe that captures key flavors of the brownish-orange atmosphere around Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. »
The Herschel Space Observatory has uncovered a weird ring of dusty material while obtaining one of the sharpest scans to date of a huge cloud of gas and dust, called NGC 7538. The observations have revealed numerous clumps of material, a baker's dozen of which may evolve into the most powerful kinds of stars in the universe. »
Researchers completed a draft map of the human proteome—the set of all proteins in the human body. The accomplishment will help advance a broad range of research into human health and disease. »
Scientists determined the structure of the intact NMDA receptor, an ion channel involved in many brain-related illnesses including Alzheimer’s disease, depression, schizophrenia, and autism. The finding may aid in the development of future therapies. »
A small dose of low-power laser light activated dental stem cells in rat molars to generate dentin, one of the major components of teeth. The finding may lead to new approaches to develop low-cost, non-invasive therapies for treating dental disease and tooth damage. »
Researchers gained insights into how cells in the auditory system become organized to hear different frequencies. The findings could lead to new approaches for certain kinds of hearing loss. »
Researchers developed a liver-inspired 3-D device made of hydrogel and nanoparticles that can remove toxins from blood. Designed for use outside the body, the device provides a proof-of-concept model for new detoxification techniques. »
A coronal mass ejection, or CME, surged off the side of the sun on May 9, 2014, and NASA's newest solar observatory caught it in extraordinary detail. This was the first CME observed by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, which launched in June 2013 to peer into the lowest levels of the sun's atmosphere with better resolution than ever before. »
Stars that are just beginning to coalesce out of cool swaths of dust and gas are showcased in this image from Spitzer Space Telescope and the Two Micron All Sky Survey. »
Tonight when the new Moon rises, or in the next few nights when the Moon is a slim crescent, go outside and look up. You might see Earth’s reflected light in the dim glow. »
A survey of more than 170,000 supermassive black holes, using NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), has astronomers reexamining a decades-old theory about the varying appearances of these interstellar objects. »
Scientists have created the first living organism that can grow and reproduce using DNA base pairs that aren’t found in nature. The achievement is a major step toward creating novel therapeutics and nanomaterials. »
People with a variant form of a lifespan-related gene tend not only to live longer but to have better cognitive skills than those who lack the variant, a new study reports. Experiments done in mice might help explain why. The findings could lead to new approaches for improving thinking skills at various life stages. »
Scientists at NASA and the University of California, Irvine, have found that canyons under Greenland's ocean-feeding glaciers are deeper and longer than previously thought, increasing the amount of Greenland's estimated contribution to future sea level rise. »
A new study by researchers at NASA and the University of California, Irvine, finds a rapidly melting section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to be in an irreversible state of decline, with nothing to stop the glaciers in this area from melting into the sea. »
The largest moon in our solar system, a companion to Jupiter named Ganymede, might have ice and oceans stacked up in several layers like a club sandwich, according to new NASA-funded research that models the moon's makeup. »
Dukono Volcano has been blasting ash above Helmahara Island and the surrounding waters since 2003. On April 28, 2014 the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite captured this natural-color view of the erupting volcano. »