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A University of Washington study published this month in the journal Physics of Plasmas proposes a model of plasma motion that would explain the 11-year sunspot cycle and several other previously mysterious properties of the sun. “Our model is completely different from a normal picture of the sun,” said first author Thomas Jarboe, a UW professor of aeronautics and astronautics. “I really think we’re the first people that are telling you the nature and source of solar magnetic phenomena — how the sun works....

It is the first time a spacecraft has attached to the new Nauka module, which arrived at the station in July, and is the 20th Soyuz port relocation in station history and the first since March 2021. The relocation frees the Rassvet port for the arrival October 5 of another Soyuz spacecraft, designated Soyuz MS-19, which will carry Soyuz commander and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and spaceflight participants Klim Shipenko and Yulia Peresild....

In a paper published on December 16, 2020, in Biology Letters, lead author Megan Whitney, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, examined thin fossil slices of gorgonopsian’s teeth and discovered similar complex arrangement of tissues that made the steak-knife-like serrations in theropods. Gorgonopsians are a group of synapsids from the middle-late Permian 270-252 million years ago. These animals, like other synapsids, are considered to be the forerunners of mammals and fall within the lineage that eventually gave rise to mammals....

A recent study by Kaveh Abhari of San Diego State University and Isaac Vaghefi of the City University of New York found that monitoring cellphone screen time with the help of existing smartphone applications can improve focused or mindful cellphone usage, which in turn increases perceived productivity and user satisfaction. The study was recently published in the journal AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction (THCI). The Positive Effect of Self-Monitoring While a lot of research has focused on the negative effects of cellphone screen time (tolerance, withdrawal, and conflict with work-related tasks), Abhari and Vaghefi’s study sought to see if self-regulatory behaviors could result in changed user behavior....

Harvard researchers, captivated by a strange coiling behavior in the grasping tendrils of the cucumber plant, have characterized a new type of spring that is soft when pulled gently and stiff when pulled strongly. Instead of unwinding to a flat ribbon under stress, as an untwisted coil normally would, the cucumber’s tendrils actually coil further. Understanding this counterintuitive behavior required a combination of physical and mathematical modeling and cell biology — not to mention a large quantity of silicone....

NASA’s future will continue to be a story of human exploration, science, engineering, and technology. Working together, we define the future, achieve the impossible and discover the unknown. With our Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon....

The research suggests that biodiversity hotspots – such as the Daintree Rainforest in Australia and the Cloud Forests of Ecuador – are teeming with species because they have been ecologically stable for long periods of time, allowing evolution to forge ahead undisturbed. The findings highlight the threat posed by climate change to some of the most extraordinary places on earth and the importance of giving nature the protection it needs to thrive, the authors of the study say....

Theory and simulations reveal why seemingly weak effects sometimes play a strong role in how particles move through the air close to the Earth’s surface. Non-dimensional numbers may sound like a scary, incomprehensible term reserved for scientists in a laboratory, but you have more experience with them than you know. The Mach number measures the speed of an object relative to the speed of sound, so whether measuring in kilometers per second or miles per hour, Mach 2 is always twice the speed of sound....

The findings could help interpret data from future NASA missions such as Europa Clipper, which will assess the habitability of Jupiter’s moon, Europa. Using the Spallation Neutron Source’s SNAP instrument, the scientists replicated the cold vacuum of space and added a few molecules at a time of heavy water to a plate cooled to 25 Kelvin to produce amorphous ice. They then used neutron scattering to observe the ice’s structural changes at varying temperatures before it transitioned to crystalline ice....

The sun provides a daunting source of electromagnetic disarray – chaotic, random energy emitted by the massive ball of gas arrives to Earth in a wide spectrum of radio frequencies. But in that randomness, Stanford researchers have discovered the makings of a powerful tool for monitoring ice and polar changes on Earth and across the solar system. In a new study, a team of glaciologists and electrical engineers show how radio signals naturally emitted by the sun can be turned into a passive radar system for measuring the depth of ice sheets and successfully tested it on a glacier in Greenland....

Venomous fishes and insects diversify around twice as fast as their non-venomous counterparts, the research showed. Venom provides an effective means of repelling predators or catching prey, which may allow species to exploit more opportunities in their environment, potentially leading to the formation of new species as they diversify in their ecology. Over 1 million species of insects have so far been identified, which is three-quarters of all invertebrate species on Earth....

ESA and NASA will be broadcasting live as the James Webb Space Telescope is launched to space on ESA’s Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 12:20 GMT / 13:20 CET (7:20 a.m. EST / 4:20 a.m. PST) on Saturday, December 25. This mission is the culmination of decades of meticulous planning and international cooperation between ESA, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. Webb will be the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space....

When the solar system settled into its current layout over four billion years ago, Mars and Earth formed from the same materials and looked very similar. Both are terrestrial planets, with a central core, a rocky mantle, and a solid crust. Early on, we know that Mars once had lakes, streams, and perhaps even a northern ocean. The two worlds diverged, and we have two very different planets today. Despite the fact that Mars may once have been warm and wet, it is now a cold, dry place....

It’s easy to think of urban mobility strictly in terms of infrastructure: Does an area have the right rail lines, bus lanes, or bike paths? How much parking is available? How well might autonomous vehicles work? MIT Associate Professor Jinhua Zhao views matters a bit differently, however. To understand urban movement, Zhao believes, we also need to understand people. How does everyone choose to use transport? Why do they move around, and when?...

No matter how – or if – you enjoy candy corn, the triangular treats are unquestionably iconic during the Halloween season. And for anyone who might doubt its popularity and ubiquity, candy corn is the second most popular treat for the Halloween season. The only thing that scored higher is chocolate. Rounding out the top three most popular Halloween treats is gummy candy as a category.

“Most men experienced the onset or worsening of mental illness symptoms during a distressed relationship or following the breakdown of a relationship,” says the study’s lead author Dr. John Oliffe, a Canada Research Chair and UBC professor of nursing whose work focuses on men’s mental health. He noted that marital separation quadruples the risk of male suicide and suggests that distressed relationships as well as separation and divorce contribute to men’s mental health challenges....

New fear and exposure therapy research provides fundamental “Newtonian physics” to behavioral health treatment – leading the way for better, personalized treatments. To help patients face and get past their distressing and impairing fears, clinicians often turn to exposure therapy as a leading treatment option. However, in as many as 50% of patients, the fears can return. Groundbreaking behavioral health models were presented in a study by University of Colorado researchers that was recently published in the journal Computational Psychiatry....

Video Transcript: In April 1995, a truck bomb ripped apart a building in downtown Oklahoma City. In August 2015, a series of explosions shook the port of Tianjin and northern China. And in August 2020, a warehouse fire set off a blast in Beirut so powerful that neighboring countries could feel it. These were all caused by the compound ammonium nitrate, which over the last century has been involved in at least 30 disasters and terrorist attacks....

Medicine has advanced since this mid-19th century process of variolation, used to inoculate against smallpox. Vaccines today are created in sterile labs and tested rigorously before being released to the general public. But there is no vaccine available for the novel coronavirus, which has grown into a global pandemic. In the absence of widespread testing, the United States has turned instead to an older public health measure: isolation. “For now, we have to rely heavily on social participation,” said University of Chicago historian Christopher Kindell, PhD’19, a scholar of public health, mobility, and race....

Because dark matter is by far the dominant component of matter in the universe, its distribution and gravity have profoundly influenced the evolution of galactic structures as well as the distribution of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Indeed, the remarkable agreement between the values of key cosmic parameters (like the universe’s rate of expansion) derived independently from two completely different cosmic structures, galaxies and the microwave background, lend credence to big bang models that require an important role for dark matter....