Actually, yes. But not like we experience here on Earth. On the Moon, water is found all over the surface, but it’s mainly in the form of ice and not pools of liquid water. Some places have more water than others. At the poles of the Moon are areas that never receive any sunlight, and so they’re extremely cold. We call these permanently shadowed regions, and there could be a lot of ice inside them....
Wearing Face Masks at Home Might Help Ward Off COVID-19 Spread Among Family Members Wearing face masks at home might help ward off the spread of COVID-19 infection among family members living in the same household, but only before symptoms develop, suggests a study of Chinese families in Beijing, accepted for publication in BMJ Global Health. This practice was 79% effective at curbing transmission before symptoms emerged in the first person infected, but it wasn’t protective once symptoms had developed, the study shows....
Gamma-ray bursts (GRB) are the most energetic sources in the Universe: in a few seconds, a typical GRB will release more energy than the Sun in its entire lifetime. While there has been some progress identifying the progenitors of various types of GRBs, the physical origin of their emission is still unknown. Synchrotron emission, i.e. radiation emitted by charged particles if their path is bent somehow, was one of the early contenders, but was disregarded as it did not manage to fit some of the properties of the observed GRB spectra....
Researchers in Li Zhao‘s lab studied mutations that occur during the production of sperm from germline cells, known as spermatogenesis. They found that mutations are common in the testes of both young and old fruit flies, but more abundant in older flies from the outset. Moreover, many of these mutations seem to be removed in younger fruit flies during spermatogenesis by the body’s genomic repair mechanisms—but they fail to be fixed in the testes of older flies....
The work led by The Australian National University (ANU) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes has a silver lining, helping to improve our understanding of climate variations and the management of risk caused by Indian Ocean variability. Lead researcher Professor Nerilie Abram said the phenomenon her team studied, known as the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), was a big player in the severe drought and record hot temperatures last year....
Emotions powerfully affect our health. Witness a heart attack-mimicking condition that’s become known as “broken heart syndrome.” UW Medicine Heart Institute cardiologist April Stempien-Otero sees a handful of cases every year that are serious enough to merit treatment in the intensive care unit. “Most [cases] are associated with either a personal emotional trauma or also with natural disasters,” said Stempien-Otero. “It’s totally biologic. I mean, it’s stress hormones. It is inflammation caused by those emotions in our brain....
By scraping tubeworms off the bottom of boats in the San Diego harbor to study them, San Diego State University researchers discovered that a beneficial bacterium that aids them in establishing colonies could also be a boon for human health, because the same process might already take place in the human gut. By examining this bacterium that causes metamorphosis in the humble tubeworm, marine microbiologists at SDSU discovered that the nanoscale syringe-like structures produced by it – a structure nicknamed the Death Star for the effect it has – could be used in the future to deliver novel therapeutics or vaccines to targeted cells and tissues in humans....
The experimental therapy was given to patients through a “compassionate use” program that allows providers access to treatments not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration when a patient has a life-threatening condition and no other options are available. The analysis, published online today by The New England Journal of Medicine, evaluated data from 53 patients in the U.S, Europe, Canada, and Japan who received at least one dose of remdesivir by March 7....
This well-preserved, ancient asteroid, known as Bennu, is currently more than 200 million miles (321 million kilometers) from Earth. Bennu offers scientists a window into the early solar system as it was first taking shape billions of years ago and flinging ingredients that could have helped seed life on Earth. If Tuesday’s sample collection event, known as “Touch-And-Go” (TAG), provided enough of a sample, mission teams will command the spacecraft to begin stowing the precious primordial cargo to begin its journey back to Earth in March 2021....
Sea ice can act as an agent of climate change on a variety of timescales and spatial scales—it’s not just a passive responder to change.The Little Ice Age may have arisen “out of the blue,” from internal variability within the climate system, rather than in response to an external push from volcanic eruptions or other factors.A far-flung pulse of sea ice may have contributed to the demise of the Norse colonies in Greenland in the 14th and 15th centuries....
With a thin sliver of diamond, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have transformed the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) into an even more precise tool for exploring the nanoworld. The improvements yield laser pulses focused to higher intensity in a much narrower band of X-ray wavelengths, and may enable experiments that have never before been possible. In a process called “self-seeding,” the diamond filters the laser beam to a single X-ray color, which is then amplified....
Biomedical engineers from Duke University have demonstrated that, despite significant advancements in protection from ballistics and blunt impacts, modern military helmets are no better at protecting the brain from shock waves created by nearby blasts than their World War I counterparts. And one model in particular, the French Adrian helmet, actually performed better than modern designs in protecting from overhead blasts. The research could help improve the blast protection of future helmets through choosing different materials, layering multiple materials of different acoustic impedance, or altering their geometry....
Known to many as the world’s first analog computer, the Antikythera Mechanism is the most complex piece of engineering to have survived from the ancient world. The 2,000-year-old device was used to predict the positions of the Sun, Moon and the planets as well as lunar and solar eclipses. Published in Scientific Reports, the paper from the multidisciplinary UCL Antikythera Research Team reveals a new display of the ancient Greek order of the Universe (Cosmos), within a complex gearing system at the front of the Mechanism....
The findings were recently published in the prestigious journal Nature. A remote location in south China’s Guizhou Province has yielded magnificent fossil findings, including solitary teeth identified as belonging to a new species (Qianodus duplicis) of primitive jawed vertebrate from the ancient Silurian period (about 445 to 420 million years ago). Qianodus, named after the ancient name for the present-day Guizhou, possessed unusual spiral-like dental elements carrying several generations of teeth that were inserted throughout the course of the animal’s life....
“The analyses we have carried out give us a very detailed picture of the ship’s last journey and also tell us about the geographical origins of its cargo. Much of this is completely new knowledge for us,” says Staffan von Arbin, a maritime archaeologist. It was previously unknown, for example, that calcium oxide (CaO), often known as quicklime or burnt lime, was exported from Gotland in the 15th century. The Skaftö wreck was discovered at the bottom of the sea at Lysekil, north of Gothenburg, in 2003....
A fossil skull found in a Bavarian town in the 1770s has been recognized as the now-extinct species Mystriosaurus laurillardi, which lived in tropical waters during the Jurassic Period. For the past 60 years, it was thought the animal was part of a similar species, known as Steneosaurus bollensis, which existed around the same time, researchers say. Paleontologists identified the animal by analyzing fossils unearthed in the UK and Germany....
Researchers expect the procedure to allow new investigations into the digestive system’s microbiome as well as the causes of diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer and their treatments. The procedure described online today (December 11, 2019) in Nature Communications involves surgically implanting a transparent window into a mouse’s abdominal skin above the colon. Similar setups are already being used to allow live looks into the detailed inner workings of the brain, spinal cord, liver, lungs, and other organs....
COVID-19 is now the third leading cause of death in the United States. The U.S. accounts for about 25 percent of COVID-19 cases (4.4 million) and deaths (170,000) in the world today while comprising less than 5 percent of the population. In a commentary published ahead of print in The American Journal of Medicine, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine and a collaborator, compare responses to the pandemic from two democratic republics: South Korea and the U....
Patients are often advised to use non-pharmacological treatments to manage lower back pain such as exercise and mind-body interventions. But, do they really help? In a review published in the journal Holistic Nursing Practice, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s College for Design and Social Inquiry and Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing evaluated the evidence of the effects of three movement-based mind-body interventions on chronic low back pain. They examined yoga, tai chi, which combines gentle physical exercise and stretching with mindfulness, and qigong, a traditional Chinese meditative movement therapy focused on body awareness and attention during slow, relaxed, and fluid repetitive body movements....
During a gunshot, two sound events occur — the muzzle blast and the supersonic shock wave. Acoustic sensors, such as single or arrays of microphones, can capture these sounds and use them to approximate the shooter’s location. Luisa Still, of Sensor Data and Information Fusion, will discuss the important factors in determining shooter localization accuracy as part of the 182nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel....
