Five days before NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope ended its mission on Jan. 30, 2020, scientists used the spacecraft's infrared camera to take multiple images of a region known as the California Nebula—a fitting target considering the mission's management and science operations were both based in Southern California at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech. This mosaic is made from those...

In a paper published in Science Advances, an international team of researchers have examined traits of marine megafauna species to better understand the potential ecological consequences of their extinction under different future scenarios.

NASA announced on Friday that a SpaceX rocket will send two American astronauts to the International Space Station in May, the first manned US spaceflight in nearly a decade.

Scientists have theorized that organometallic halide perovskites— a class of light harvesting "wonder" materials for applications in solar cells and quantum electronics— are so promising due to an unseen yet highly controversial mechanism called the Rashba effect. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory have now experimentally proven the existence of the effect in bulk...

Impact cratering both produces new regolith and causes seismic events that can degrade and erase small craters on the surface of asteroids, a paper by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist James Richardson says. 

Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have synthesized nanoparticles that can be induced by a change in pH to release a deadly dose of ionized iron within cells. This mechanism could potentially open up new approaches to the targeted elimination of malignant tumors.

For millennia, metallurgists have been meticulously tweaking the ingredients of steel to enhance its properties. As a result, several variants of steel exist today; but one type, called martensitic steel, stands out from its steel cousins as stronger and more cost-effective to produce. Hence, martensitic steels naturally lend themselves to applications in the aerospace, automotive and defense...

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have used molecular dynamics simulations to understand how sodium dodecyl sulfate causes protein unfolding. SDS is commonly used in labs to separate proteins and determine their molecular weights. However, it is still unclear how SDS influences protein structure.

After a wild couple of months of equity market volatility, many mutual fund investors are now cautiously exploring how best to rebalance their portfolios. As they do so, new research from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin says they should keep an important factor in mind: taxable capital gains.

Inspired by how human bone and colorful coral reefs adjust mineral deposits in response to their surrounding environments, Johns Hopkins researchers have created a self-adapting material that can change its stiffness in response to the applied force. This advancement can someday open the doors for materials that can self-reinforce to prepare for increased force or stop further damage. A report of...

The genetic material—DNA—of plants and animals (within the latter humans) is stored inside the cell, and DNA packing is guaranteed by proteins called histones. Furthermore, histones play a key role in regulating the activation of gene expression and its timing: a given stimulus modifies a histone, making it promote or repress the expression of a gene. The Cell Signaling laboratory at IRB...

For years, speculation about the poor quality of vital agricultural supplies in the African nation of Uganda has focused on questions of deliberate tampering with products—adding rocks to bags of seed in order to charge more money for the heavier product, for instance. But in a recent publication, two UConn researchers found no evidence of deliberate adulteration—but plenty of proof that...

The point when human embryonic stem cells irreversibly commit to becoming specialised has been identified by researchers at the Francis Crick Institute.

Diseases with a genetic cause could, in theory, be treated by supplying a correct version of the faulty gene. However, in practice, delivering new genetic material to human cells is difficult. A promising method for the delivery of such genes involves the use of DNA/lipid complexes (lipoplexes). Scientists at the University of Groningen have now used advanced simulations to investigate how these...

Scientists have understood quite well why so many poisonous or bad-tasting animals have brightly colored bodies—the colors send a message to the predators: "Don't eat me, or you'll get sick and die." These permanent warning signals became textbook examples of 'aposematism,' which is the use of conspicuous signals to warn predators.

The sudden halt of capital flow within a country indicates, according to experts, a bottleneck related to its foreign finance: That is to say, the bankruptcy of the country, as it leads to the contraction of international capital flows and the purchase and sale of foreign assets.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, scientists and governments have been advising people about the best hygiene practices to protect themselves. This advice has caused a significant surge in the sale and use of cleaning products and hand sanitisers. Unfortunately, these instructions rarely come with advice about using them responsibly or of the consequences of misuse.

In these uncertain and highly stressful times, there is heightened reliance on managers and supervisors to maintain the well-being, health and safety of their workforce.

Architects and building engineers strive to create safe, productive places where humans can live and work. We have developed complex codes, regulations and guidelines to achieve goals such as structural safety, fire safety, adequate ventilation and energy efficiency, and to anticipate extreme scenarios such as 100-year floods. The question for our profession now is whether and how the 100-year...

The jump in federal spending in response to the crisis of the coronavirus pandemic is not a new idea. Nearly 2,500 years ago, the people of ancient Athens had a similar plan—which succeeded in meeting the major threat they faced, but then tore Athenian society apart in a tangle of political recriminations after the crisis had passed.

Almost 50 years after the Apollo missions returned lunar material to Earth, ESA experts are helping to uncover the secrets of two previously unopened samples to learn more about ancient processes on the Moon—and to refine and practice techniques for future sample return missions.

Ninety-five percent of Americans have been ordered to stay at home to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

Globalisation has revolutionized food production and consumption in recent decades, and cultivation has become more efficient As a result, diets have diversified and food availability has increased in around the globe. However, it has also led to a situation where the majority of the world's population lives in countries that are dependent on, at least partially, imported food. This can intensify...

With the coronavirus economic crisis deepening, experts at University of Portsmouth are warning it will lead to the highest levels of fraud and cybercrime ever recorded. There are also concerns that existing preventative measures need to be reviewed urgently because they are unlikely to be sufficient to deal with the heightened threat that comes from a deep recession.