Science

Researchers accidentally discover that mixing water with a peptide results in self-assembled, self-healing glass

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Cracking and self-healing of peptide glass. Credit: Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07408-x A team of materials scientists from Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, both in Israel, working with a colleague from the California Institute of Technology in the US, have discovered that mixing a certain peptide with water results in creating a … Read more

Pacific coast gray whales have become 13% shorter in past 20-30 years, study finds

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This plot shows the difference in length between a PCFG gray whale born in 2020 versus one born before 2000. OSU researchers determined that a PCFG gray whale born in 2020 is expected to reach an adult body length of 1.65 meters (about 5 feet, 5 inches) shorter than a gray whale born before 2000. … Read more

The secret to living the last 120 years? Nanobots

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I have had many conversations over the years about life extension, and the idea often meets with resistance. People get upset when they hear about an individual whose life is shortened by a disease, but when faced with the possibility of the overall extension of human life, they react negatively. “Life is too hard to … Read more

Scientists adapt astronomy method to unlock microscopy images

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Sensing deflected wavefronts in fluorescence microscopy. Credit: Optics (2024). DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.518559 A team led by researchers at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus has adapted a class of techniques used in astronomy to whiten images of distant galaxies for use in the life sciences, offering biologists a faster and cheaper way to get clearer and sharper microscopic … Read more

NASA’s Chandra checks for habitability of exoplanets

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This graphic shows a three-dimensional map of the stars near the sun. These stars are close enough that they could be prime targets for direct imaging searches for planets using future telescopes. Blue haloes represent stars that have been observed with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton. The yellow star in the center of … Read more

ESA-China lunar collaboration may end with Chang’e-6

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HELSINKI — European-Chinese cooperation in lunar exploration may end despite successful cooperation on the ongoing Chang’e-6 mission. ESA provided a payload for China’s remote lunar sampler return mission Chang’e-6, which launched on May 3. The mission aims to collect and return samples from the lunar far side, providing unprecedented insights into the moon’s composition and … Read more

Satellite data reveals anomalies up to 19 days before the 2023 Turkey earthquake

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Intensity map and geographic location of the 2023 Turkey earthquake. A black star indicates the epicenter of the earthquake (https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes). Credit: Journal of Applied Geodesy (2024). DOI: 10.1515/jag-2024-0024 A recent study in Journal of Applied Geodesy suggests. Developing early warning systems for earthquakes can be very helpful in preventing death and destruction. One such proposed … Read more

Was this sea creature our ancestor? Scientists turn a famous fossil on its head.

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Over the past 500 million years, vertebrates have evolved into a dizzying variety of forms, from hummingbirds to elephants, bullfrogs to hammerhead sharks, not to mention our unique species of great ape. But beneath all that diversity, vertebrates share some key features. We all have a spine made of vertebrae, for example, along with a … Read more