Renewable energies such as wind, sun, and biogas are set to become increasingly important in generating electricity. If increasing numbers of wind turbines and photovoltaic systems feed electrical energy into the grid, it becomes denser – and more distributed. Therefore, instead of a small number of large power plants, it links a larger number of small, decentralized power plants with the washing machines, computers, and industrial machinery of consumers. Such a dense power grid, however, may not be as vulnerable to power outages as some experts fear....

Adolescent acne does not always result in a pathological condition; rather, it may be a natural, transient inflammatory state occurring when the maturing facial skin is exposed to new microbes and enhanced production of an oily substance called sebum, according to a Forum article published on September 26 in the journal Trends in Immunology. The authors argue that their novel framework suggests that the development of new treatments should focus on promoting mechanisms that restore homeostasis between facial skin and its microbial and chemical milieu....

Lizards and snakes are a key component of most terrestrial ecosystems on earth today. Along with the charismatic tuatara of New Zealand (a “living fossil” represented by a single living species), squamates (all lizards and snakes) make up the Lepidosauria—the largest group of terrestrial vertebrates in the planet today with approximately 11,000 species, and by far the largest modern group of reptiles. Both squamates and tuataras have an extremely long evolutionary history....

The samples Apollo 11 brought back to Earth from the Moon were humanity’s first from another celestial body. NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission will collect the first samples from another planet (the red one) for return to Earth by subsequent missions. In place of astronauts, the Perseverance rover will rely on the most complex, capable, and cleanest mechanism ever to be sent into space, the Sample Caching System. The final 39 of the 43 sample tubes at the heart of the sample system were loaded, along with the storage assembly that will hold them, aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover on May 20 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida....

Astronomers have found an extraordinary galaxy cluster, one of the largest objects in the universe, that is breaking several important cosmic records. Observations of the Phoenix cluster with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the National Science Foundation’s South Pole Telescope, and eight other world-class observatories may force astronomers to rethink how these colossal structures and the galaxies that inhabit them evolve. Stars are forming in the Phoenix cluster at the highest rate ever observed for the middle of a galaxy cluster....

The historic launch of NASA’s Artemis I flight test … A powerwalk outside the space station … And the beginnings of a new star … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA! Artemis I Mega Rocket Launches Orion to Moon “And here we go …”—Launch commentator On November 16, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft lit up the night sky at the Kennedy Space Center, to mark the start of NASA’s historic Artemis I flight test....

Just 50 to 150 nanometers thick, the laser is about 1/1,000th the thickness of a single human hair. At this size, the laser can fit and function inside living tissues, with the potential to sense disease biomarkers or perhaps treat deep-brain neurological disorders, such as epilepsy. Developed by researchers at Northwestern and Columbia Universities, the nanolaser shows specific promise for imaging in living tissues. Not only is it made mostly of glass, which is intrinsically biocompatible, the laser can also be excited with longer wavelengths of light and emit at shorter wavelengths....

This research compiles the data for each state in the U.S. and calculates the change in the infection rate before and after social distance measures were imposed last spring. “We investigate the change in the infection rate due to mitigation efforts and project death and infection counts through September 2020 for some of the most heavily impacted states: New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Louisiana,” said co-author Juana Moreno, LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy and the Center for Computation & Technology associate professor....

A cocktail of powerful antibodies identified in recovered patients locks the coronavirus infection machinery, inhibits SARS-CoV-2 attachment to host cells, and protects animals challenged with the pandemic coronavirus. A mix of ultrapotent antibodies from recovered COVID-19 patients has been shown to recognize and lock down the infection machinery of the pandemic coronavirus and keep it from entering cells. Each of the antibody types performs these overlapping tasks in a slightly different way....

Sequential treatment using antibiotics that are similar but swapped around frequently is an effective way to kill bacteria and prevent drug resistance, a study in eLife reports. The results challenge a broad assumption that using similar antibiotics promotes cross-resistance to drugs, and show that available antibiotics could offer unexplored, highly potent treatment options. “We are currently in an antibiotic crisis, where the overuse of antibiotics is leading to increased antibiotic resistance and certain infections have become difficult and even impossible to treat,” says first author Aditi Batra, a graduate student at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and the University of Kiel, Germany....

Based on the results of a computer simulation conducted using the “PC Cluster” computers at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), it is speculated that this giant crater could have resulted from the impact of an asteroid with a radius of 150km. If so, the structure is the largest impact structure identified in the solar system so far. The European Space Agency’s JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer) mission, which will be launched in 2022 and arrive in Jupiter’s system in 2029, aims to increase our knowledge regarding Jupiter’s satellites, including Ganymede....

New findings reveal many different structural models, which can eventually lead to developing more targeted antiviral vaccines. New research reveals that the way viruses were perceived in terms of their architecture will need to be retooled, because they are actually structured in many more patterns than previously understood. The findings could have a significant impact on how they are classified, our understanding of how they form, evolve, and infect hosts, and strategies to identify ways to design vaccines to target them....

Lower temperatures used in ‘energy saver’ washing machines may not be killing all pathogens. Washington, DC — For the first time ever, investigators have identified a washing machine as a reservoir of multidrug-resistant pathogens. The pathogens, a single clone of Klebsiella oxytoca, were transmitted repeatedly to newborns in a neonatal intensive care unit at a German children’s hospital. The transmission was stopped only when the washing machine was removed from the hospital....

When it comes to mountain snow, the Sierra Nevada is notorious for booms and busts: One year can be exceptionally bad, while the next can be exceedingly good. However, in 2021-22, there were booms and busts all within the same snow season. The result has been another year of insufficient snowfall, raising concerns about the impact on water supplies. “The Sierras tend to get big storms, with a lot of snow in bursts, or we get years of very little snow,” said Noah Molotch, a mountain hydrologist at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)....

The use of the synthetic stimulants collectively known as “bath salts” have gained popularity among recreational drug users over the last five years, largely because they were readily available and unrestricted via the Internet and at convenience stores, and were virtually unregulated. Recent studies point to compulsive drug taking among bath salts users, and several deaths have been blamed on the bath salt mephedrone (4-methylmethcathinone or “meow-meow”). This has led several countries to ban the production, possession, and sale of mephedrone and other cathinone derivative drugs....

“This summer has seen the highest global mean sea surface temperatures ever recorded since their systematic measuring started. Temperatures even exceed those of the record-breaking 1998 El Niño year,” says Axel Timmermann, climate scientist and professor, studying the variability of the global climate system at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa. From 2000-2013 the global ocean surface temperature rise paused, in spite of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations....

Arthropods from the Triassic period have been discovered preserved in amber. They are 100 million years older than previous amber inclusions. The two mites and one fly were found in millimeter-scale droplets of amber from northeastern Italy. Researchers published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Arthropods are invertebrate animals including insects, arachnids, and crustaceans. The specimens were preserved with microscopic fidelity, allowing the estimation of the amount of evolutionary change over millions of years....

Led by Professor Sean O’Donoghue, from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and CSIRO’s Data61, researchers compiled more than 2000 different structures involving the coronavirus’s 27 proteins. The analysis identified viral proteins that ‘mimic’ and ‘hijack’ human proteins – tactics that allow the virus to bypass cell defenses and replicate. These structural models can be freely accessed from the Aquaria-COVID resource, a website designed by the team to help the research community ‘zoom in’ on potential new targets on the virus for future treatments or vaccines, and crucially investigate new virus variants....

Diagnosing diabetes early is important since it can negatively affect every organ in your body from your kidneys to your heart. One in two people with diabetes dies of cardiovascular disease, showing the impact diabetes has on heart health. You might be familiar with some of the most common symptoms of diabetes, like increased thirst, urinating more often, increased appetite, and weight changes. However, some signs of diabetes are more subtle, and you might easily miss them....

According to a recent study by researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), computational techniques (artificial intelligence/AI) may be able to help alleviate some of the challenges associated with delivering dementia care to an aging population. “Even in circumstances where a specialized neurologist or neuro-radiologist is busy to directly provide a diagnosis, it is foreseeable that some degree of automation could step in to help, thereby enabling doctors and their patients to plan treatment accordingly,” explains corresponding author Vijaya B....