NASA’s Nancy Gracy Roman Space Telescope won’t launch until 2027, and it won’t start operating until some time after that. But that isn’t stopping excited scientists from dreaming about their new toy and all it will do. Who can blame them? A new study examines the Roman Space Telescope’s power in detail to see if it can help us answer one of our most significant questions about the Universe. The question?...

“As the director of our Heliophysics Division, Nicky was instrumental in expanding the impacts and awareness of NASA’s solar exploration missions and I look forward to working with her as she brings her talents, expertise, and passion to her new role,” Nelson said. “We’re all grateful for the interim leadership of Sandra Connelly, who has done an incredible job keeping the mission moving forward over the last couple of months....

New research expands how habitable zones are defined by taking into account the impact of stellar activity, which can threaten an exoplanet’s atmosphere with oxygen loss. The search for life beyond Earth starts in habitable zones, the regions around stars where conditions could potentially allow liquid water – which is essential for life as we know it – to pool on a planet’s surface. New NASA research suggests some of these zones might not actually be able to support life due to frequent stellar eruptions – which spew huge amounts of stellar material and radiation out into space – from young red dwarf stars....

The key to the team’s nimble design lies in the printer’s compact printhead, which incorporates two new, speed-enhancing components: a screw mechanism that feeds polymer material through a nozzle at high force; and a laser, built into the printhead, that rapidly heats and melts the material, enabling it to flow faster through the nozzle. The team demonstrated its new design by printing various detailed, handheld 3D objects, including small eyeglasses frames, a bevel gear, and a miniature replica of the MIT dome — each, from start to finish, within several minutes....

Numerous devices in everyday life today use computerized cameras to identify objects — think of automated teller machines that can “read” handwritten dollar amounts when you deposit a check, or internet search engines that can quickly match photos to other similar images in their databases. But those systems rely on a piece of equipment to image the object, first by “seeing” it with a camera or optical sensor, then processing what it sees into data, and finally using computing programs to figure out what it is....

“Much of our understanding of the cuttlefish brain has been based on a single species, the nocturnal European common cuttlefish,” Lead author Dr. Wen-Sung Chung from QBI’s Marshall Lab said. “We wanted to fill in the gaps of this knowledge by focusing on selected cuttlefish which are active during the day and further compare with other species from the Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific regions.” The research team from The University of Queensland’s Queensland Brain Institute utilized gross anatomy and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to monitor alterations in the visual and learning areas of the brain and compared their findings with those from other cuttlefish species to develop a comprehensive brain connectivity map....

The novel protein significantly reduced lung damage and resulted in only mild symptoms in mice infected with SARS-Cov-2, while untreated animals in this model all succumbed to the infection. “We envision this soluble ACE2 protein will attenuate the entry of coronavirus into cells in the body mainly in the respiratory system and, consequently, the serious symptoms seen in severe COVID 19,” said lead investigator Dr. Daniel Batlle, a professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine physician....

The electrode design provides the same amount of energy storage, and delivers as much power, as similar electrodes, despite being much smaller and lighter. In experiments it produced 30 percent better capacitance — a device’s ability to store an electric charge — for its mass compared to the best available electrode made from similar carbon materials, and 30 times better capacitance per area. It also produced 10 times more power than other designs and retained 95 percent of its initial capacitance after more than 10,000 charging cycles....

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have developed a new electrolyte mixture and a simple additive that could have a place in the next generation of lithium-ion batteries. For many decades, scientists have been vigorously hunting for new electrode materials and electrolytes that can produce a new generation of lithium-ion batteries offering much greater energy storage while lasting longer, costing less, and being safer. This new generation will likely make electric vehicles more widespread and accelerate the electric grid’s expansion into renewable energy through cheaper and more reliable energy storage....

The clinical presentation of COVID-19 varies from patient to patient and understanding individual genetic susceptibility to the disease is therefore vital to prognosis, prevention, and the development of new treatments. For the first time, Italian scientists have been able to identify the genetic and molecular basis of this susceptibility to infection as well as to the possibility of contracting a more severe form of the disease. The research will be presented to the 53rd annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics, being held entirely on-line due to the COVID-19 pandemic, today [Saturday]....

Hydrocephalus is characterized by a dangerous buildup of pressure on the brain caused by excessive amounts of fluid. Researchers have long believed that the condition, which affects one of every thousand babies born, was caused by excessive production of cerebral spinal fluid or an inability of the brain to properly absorb it. A new genetic study found another explanation, Yale University researchers report July 5 in the journal Neuron. An analysis of all genes of 125 hydrocephalus patients and parents showed that 13 percent of sporadic hydrocephalus cases are linked to new mutations in genes that regulate neural stem fate....

National Eye Institute (NEI) scientists have mapped the organization of human retinal cell chromatin. These are the fibers that package 3 billion nucleotide-long DNA molecules into compact structures that fit into chromosomes within each cell’s nucleus. The resulting comprehensive gene regulatory network provides insights into the regulation of gene expression in general, and in retinal function, in both rare and common eye diseases. The study will be published today (October 7, 2022) in the journal Nature Communications....

Researchers at USC have developed a new lithium-ion battery design that uses porous silicon nanoparticles in place of traditional graphite anodes to provide superior performance. The new batteries — which could be used in anything from cellphones to hybrid cars — hold three times as much energy as comparable graphite-based designs and recharge within 10 minutes. The design, currently under a provisional patent, could be commercially available within two to three years....

The Sun glows with a surface temperature of about 5500 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, its hot outer layer (the corona) has a temperature of over a million degrees, and ejects a wind of charged particles at a rate equivalent to about one-millionth of the moon’s mass each year. Some of these wind particles bombard the Earth, producing radio static, auroral glows, and (in extreme cases) disrupted global communications. There are two important, longstanding, and related questions about the corona that astronomers are working to answer: how is it heated to temperatures that are so much hotter than the surface?...

How can a drug be delivered exactly where it is needed, while limiting the risk of side effects? The use of nanoparticles to encapsulate a drug to protect it and the body until it reaches its point of action is being increasingly studied. However, this requires identifying the right nanoparticle for each drug according to a series of precise parameters. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the Ludwig Maximilians Universität München (LMU) has succeeded in developing a fully biodegradable nanoparticle capable of delivering a new anti-inflammatory drug directly into macrophages – the cells where uncontrolled inflammatory reactions are triggered – ensuring its effectiveness....

The current version of the new material is a synthetic gel-like substance that performs a chemical process similar to the way plants incorporate carbon dioxide from the air into their growing tissues. The material might, for example, be made into panels of a lightweight matrix that could be shipped to a construction site, where they would harden and solidify just from exposure to air and sunlight, thereby saving on the energy and cost of transportation....

New research by Rutgers scientists reaffirms that modern sea-level rise is linked to human activities and not to changes in Earth’s orbit. Surprisingly, the Earth had nearly ice-free conditions with carbon dioxide levels not much higher than today and had glacial periods in times previously believed to be ice-free over the last 66 million years, according to a paper published in the journal Science Advances. “Our team showed that the Earth’s history of glaciation was more complex than previously thought,” said lead author Kenneth G....

Mars is blanketed by a thin, mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere — one that is far too thin to keep water from freezing or quickly evaporating. However, geological evidence has led scientists to conclude that ancient Mars was once a warmer, wetter place than it is today. To produce a more temperate climate, several researchers have suggested that the planet was once shrouded in a much thicker carbon dioxide atmosphere. For decades that left the question, “Where did all the carbon go?...

The researchers found that noise caused adhesion and infiltration of inflammatory cells in the vascular and cardiac tissue. This was accompanied by an increased percentage of leukocytes with a pro-inflammatory, reactive oxygen species (ROS)-producing phenotype and expression of the phagocytic NADPH oxidase/phospho-NFκB in peripheral blood. In order to induce myocardial infarction and worsen cardiac function, the group used the permanent LAD ligation model. Noise exposure before MI induced more severe endothelial dysfunction and more pronounced increases in vascular ROS and signs of inflammation in animals preconditioned with noise....

In an international phase 3a clinical trial, adolescents who took semaglutide once a week experienced a 16.1% decrease in their body mass index (BMI), while those who took a placebo saw an increase of 0.6% in their BMI. Semaglutide is already approved for use in adults with obesity or overweight. “Rates of obesity are increasing, not just in the U.S., but all over the world,” said senior author Silva Arslanian, M....