304 articles from TUESDAY 22.6.2021

NASA Extends Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System Mission

Portal origin URL: NASA Extends Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System MissionPortal origin nid: 471979Published: Tuesday, June 22, 2021 - 16:52Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: NASA has awarded a contract to the University of Michigan for the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) for mission operations and closeout.Portal...

Marine sediments explain how part of Brazil's Northeast region became semi-arid

Rainfall associated with the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), the belt of converging trade winds and rising air that encircles the Earth near the Equator, affects the food and water security of approximately 1 billion people worldwide. They include about 11% of the Brazilian population, concentrated in four states of the Northeast region—Rio Grande do Norte, Ceará, Piauí, and Maranhão....

Some seafloor microbes can take the heat: Here's what they eat

It's cold in the depths of the world's oceans; most of the seafloor is at a chilly 4°C. Not so the seafloor of Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California. Here, tectonic plates drift apart and heat from Earth's interior can rise up—so far up that it bakes large areas of the seafloor sediments, turning buried organic matter into methane and other energy-rich compounds.

Some seafloor microbes can take the heat: And here's what they eat

In two new studies on life in the seafloor of the Guaymas Basin, in the Gulf of California, scientists show that distinct regions within the Basin harbor specially adapted microorganisms; discover new microbial inhabitants of this deep-sea community; and suggest how the community may be dramatically influencing carbon cycling in the hot seafloor sediments.

In many cases, MS starts long before the diagnosis

Years before they are diagnosed, persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) make significantly more visits to doctors and hospitals than others. Specialists have recently discussed whether this might represent a preliminary phase of MS - known as a prodrome. A new study suggests that, in many cases, the complaints may relate to unrecognized early clinical MS events.

NASA’s Next Big Challenge? Space Laundry

(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) — How do astronauts do laundry in space? They don’t. They wear their underwear, gym clothes and everything else until they can’t take the filth and stink anymore, then junk them. NASA wants to change that — if not at the International Space Station, then the moon and Mars — and stop throwing away tons of dirty clothes every year, stuffing them...

An ally for alloys: AI helps design high-performance steels

Machine learning techniques have contributed to progress in science and technology fields ranging from health care to high-energy physics. Now, machine learning is poised to help accelerate the development of stronger alloys, particularly stainless steels, for America's thermal power generation fleet. Stronger materials are key to producing energy efficiently, resulting in economic and...

French spyware bosses indicted for their role in the torture of dissidents

Senior executives at a French spyware firm have been indicted for the company’s sale of surveillance software to authoritarian regimes in Libya and Egypt that resulted in the torture and disappearance of dissidents. While high-tech surveillance is a multibillion-dollar industry worldwide, it is rare for companies or individuals to face legal consequences for selling such technologies—even...

Flash mob in the nucleus: Study clarifies why some proteins 'flock together'

Almost all cells in our body contain a nucleus: a somewhat spherical structure that is separated from the rest of the cell by a membrane. Each nucleus contains all the genetic information of the human being. It serves as a kind of library—but one with strict requirements: If the cell needs the building instructions for a protein, it won't simply borrow the original information. Instead, a...