299 articles from THURSDAY 16.4.2020

Spacewatch: IM-1 mission takes aim at moon's Ocean of Storms

Intuitive Machines announces its Nova-C lander will target touchdown near Vallis SchröteriThe Houston-based company Intuitive Machines has announced the intended touchdown site for its Nova-C lunar lander. The IM-1 mission is due to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in October 2021. It will land near Vallis Schröteri, a collapsed lava tunnel in the Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms) region...

Facebook’s digital currency project just got a lot less audacious

Remember Libra, Facebook’s plan to create a global digital currency? Unveiled last June, it was immediately met with resistance from policymakers and central bankers around the world. So, the team went back to the drawing board, and today it re-emerged with a new vision—one that is a lot less audacious than the original.  Here are the most substantial edits: A whole new plan for the...

Pushing the limits of 2-D supramolecules

Scientists at the University of South Florida have reached a new milestone in the development of two-dimensional supramolecules—the building blocks that make areas of nanotechnology and nanomaterial advancement possible.

Gas storage method could help next-generation clean energy vehicles

A Northwestern University research team has designed and synthesized new materials with ultrahigh porosity and surface area for the storage of hydrogen and methane for fuel cell-powered vehicles. The materials, a type of a metal-organic framework (MOF), can store significantly more hydrogen and methane than conventional adsorbent materials at much safer pressures and at much lower costs. A...

Study finds evidence for existence of elusive 'metabolon'

For more than 40 years, scientists have hypothesized the existence of enzyme clusters, or 'metabolons,' in facilitating various processes within cells. Using a novel imaging technology combined with mass spectrometry, researchers, for the first time, have directly observed functional metabolons involved in generating purines, the most abundant cellular metabolites. The findings could lead to the...

Molecular networks serve as cellular blueprints

Networks are at the heart of everything from communications systems to pandemics. Now researchers have found that a unique type of network also underlies the structures of critical cellular compartments known as membraneless organelles. These findings may provide key insights into the role of these structures in both disease and cellular operations.