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Imagine you are looking for your wallet on a cluttered desk. As you scan the area, you hold in your mind a mental picture of what your wallet looks like. MIT neuroscientists have now identified a brain region that stores this type of visual representation during a search. The researchers also found that this region sends signals to the parts of the brain that control eye movements, telling individuals where to look next....

On August 17, the Laser Interferometry Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detected the fifth fingerprint of a massive disturbance in spacetime since LIGO began operations in September 2015. Unlike the first four sets of ripples, which reflected collisions between two black holes, the shape of these spacetime distortions suggested a collision between two neutron stars. While black hole collisions produce almost no signature other than gravitational waves, the collision of neutron stars can be — and was — observed up and down the electromagnetic spectrum....

Substance abuse and depression are common in many patients, and efforts to treat both conditions simultaneously have had limited success. One recent study suggested that the antidepressant effects of ketamine might be blunted by the administration of naltrexone, used to limit the cravings of those addicted to opioid drugs and alcohol. A preliminary study of five patients suffering from both depression and substance abuse disorders suggests that isn’t the case....

The planet Venus can be seen as the Earth’s evil twin. At first sight, it is of comparable mass and size as our home planet, similarly consists mostly of rocky material, holds some water and has an atmosphere. Yet, a closer look reveals striking differences between them: Venus’ thick CO2 atmosphere, extreme surface temperature and pressure, and sulfuric acid clouds are indeed a stark contrast to the conditions needed for life on Earth....

“We knew that a mission to Pluto would bring some surprises, and now — 10 days after closest approach — we can say that our expectation has been more than surpassed,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. “With flowing ices, exotic surface chemistry, mountain ranges, and vast haze, Pluto is showing a diversity of planetary geology that is truly thrilling.” Just seven hours after closest approach, New Horizons aimed its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) back at Pluto, capturing sunlight streaming through the atmosphere and revealing hazes as high as 80 miles (130 kilometers) above Pluto’s surface....

A dying star is throwing a cosmic tantrum in this composite image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), which NASA has lent to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. In death, the star’s dusty outer layers are unraveling into space, glowing from the intense ultraviolet radiation being blasted out by the hot stellar core. This object, called the Helix nebula, lies 650 light-years away, in the constellation of Aquarius....

Unfortunately, there are also significant disadvantages to using conventional methods to produce CNOs. Some call for harsh synthesis conditions, including high temperatures or vacuum, while others demand a great deal of time and energy. While certain methods may get beyond these limitations, they still need complicated catalysts, expensive carbon sources, or potentially hazardous acidic or basic conditions. This severely restricts CNOs’ potential. Scientists have developed a simple, fast, and energy-efficient synthesis method for producing exceptional carbon nano-onions from fish scales....

Researchers from the Institute of Process Engineering (IPE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) have developed a new platelet-based formulation which demonstrated potent therapeutic effects against cancer in murine models. The scientists utilized the aggregation and activation features of the platelets to address issues of tumor targeting and intratumoral penetration. Upon carrying photothermal nanoparticles and immunostimulators, this biomimetic formulation also achieves an efficient combination therapy against multiple types of cancer....

The plasma engines of today consume less propellant than chemical combustion rockets, enabling them to carry out lighter space missions, and as such, less costly ones. However, there have complexity and durability problems: in order to operate they need metallic electrodes in contact with the plasma, which over time erode to the point that the device stops working. “This limits its efficiency and flexibility, since modifying the point of operation without affecting the electrodes is very complex,” explained Mario Merino, researcher from the UC3M Department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering....

The new molecules — synthetic antibody mimics (SyAMs) — attach themselves simultaneously to disease cells and disease-fighting cells. The result is a highly targeted immune response, similar to the action of natural human antibodies. “Unlike antibodies, however, our molecules are synthetic organic compounds that are approximately one-twentieth the size of antibodies,” said David A. Spiegel, a professor of chemistry at Yale whose lab developed the molecules. “They are unlikely to cause unwanted immune reactions due to their structure, are thermally stable, and have the potential to be administered orally, just like traditional, small-molecule drugs....

We here describe a new species of pelomedusoid turtle from a geological formation in Madagascar otherwise known for its exquisitely preserved fossil birds, dinosaurs, crocodilians, and mammals. The new turtle possesses an unusually flattened skull combined with a particularly gracile lower jaw and enlarged tongue bones (hyoids), which not only gave it a frog-like appearance, but also suggests that it was adapted to a specialized feeding mode called suction-feeding. Suction feeders open their mouths rapidly to suck in prey items under water, which is in contrast to other subaquatic feeding modes in which animals shoot their heads forward to reach for prey....

Other giant planets with highly elliptical orbits have been found around other stars, but none of those worlds were located at the very outer reaches of their star systems like this one. “This planet is unlike the planets in our solar system, but more than that, it is unlike any other exoplanets we have discovered so far,” says Sarah Blunt, a Caltech graduate student and first author of the new study publishing in The Astronomical Journal....

That’s the finding arising from research conducted by a team of scientists led by Professor Joss Bland-Hawthorn from Australia’s ARC Center of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) and soon to be published in The Astrophysical Journal. The phenomenon, known as a Seyfert flare, created two enormous ‘ionization cones’ that sliced through the Milky Way — beginning with a relatively small diameter close to the black hole, and expanding vastly as they exited the Galaxy....

The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen and diclofenac, is not associated with any adverse effects in people who have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a new study published today (September 8, 2020) in PLOS Medicine by Anton Pottegård of the University of Southern Denmark and colleagues from Aarhus University Hospital and the Danish Medicines Agency. During the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns were raised that the use of the painkiller ibuprofen may lead to a more severe course of coronavirus disease....

According to new research, upper ocean heating in the equatorial Pacific – a key oceanographic region in Earth’s climate system – is likely to make the East Asian monsoon season wetter. Recent increases in ocean heat content – where energy is absorbed by the waters – have been implicated in the intensification of tropical storms that draw their energy from the surface of the ocean. However, the link between ocean heating and rainfall on land is less clear....

A multi-institutional team of researchers that included scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has created the first artificial molecules whose chirality can be rapidly switched from a right-handed to a left-handed orientation with a beam of light. This holds potentially important possibilities for the application of terahertz technologies across a wide range of fields, including reduced energy use for data-processing, homeland security, and ultrahigh-speed communications....

Ever since December 1972, when the crew of Apollo 17 left the lunar surface, humans have been eager to return to the Moon. In 2017, the US government launched the Artemis program, which intends to bring “the first woman and the next man” to the lunar south pole by 2024. The Artemis mission will use a new orbital platform, dubbed the Lunar Gateway, which is going to be a permanent space station from which reusable modules will bring astronauts back to the Moon....

The spacecraft – comprised of the crew module and service module – arrived in Ohio during the fall of 2019, where two phases of testing occurred inside the world’s largest space simulation vacuum chamber. First, the spacecraft demonstrated it could handle the extreme temperatures of space during thermal vacuum testing, simulating sunlight and shadow Orion will encounter during flight. During this test, the spacecraft was exposed to temperatures ranging from -250 to around 200 degrees Fahrenheit (-150 to around 100 degrees Celsius)....

The images were taken on February 25 while the spacecraft was in orbit around Bennu, approximately 1.1 miles (1.8 km) from the asteroid’s surface. The observation plan for this day provided for one MapCam and two PolyCam images every 10 minutes, allowing for this combination of context and detail of Bennu’s surface.

It was previously thought that such gigantism in birds only ever existed on the islands of Madagascar and New Zealand as well as Australia. The newly-discovered specimen, discovered in the Taurida Cave on the northern coast of the Black Sea, suggests a bird as giant as the Madagascan elephant bird or New Zealand moa. It may have been a source of meat, bones, feathers, and eggshell for early humans. “When I first felt the weight of the bird whose thigh bone I was holding in my hand, I thought it must be a Malagasy elephant bird fossil because no birds of this size have ever been reported from Europe....