Science

By Manoj Kovalam, University of Western Australia December 22, 2021 Artist’s illustration of a black hole and neutron star orbiting each other and about to merge. Credit: Carl Knox, OzGrav-Swinburne University Multimessenger astronomy is an emerging field that aims to study astronomical objects using different ‘messengers’ or sources, like electromagnetic radiation (light), neutrinos, and gravitational … Read more

This artist’s impression shows an example of a rogue planet with the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex visible in the background. Rogue planets have masses comparable to those of the planets in our Solar System but do not orbit a star, instead roaming freely on their own. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser Rogue planets are elusive cosmic objects … Read more

Artistic rendering NASA’s Perseverance rove at Mars’ Jezero Crater. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Six months ago, we began the dedicated investigation of the Jezero crater floor, and now in December 2021 we are more than halfway through this first science campaign. Since our first sampling experience at Roubion and our first sample pair from the Rochette rock, we … Read more

Lesions (red) occur near areas that must stretch more to accommodate pressure changes of the circulating cerebrospinal fluid. When the walls of the CSF-filled ventricle (black) wear thin, CSF leaks into the brain tissue (grey) and creates lesions. Credit: Stevens Institute of Technology Researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology show that strain on ventricular walls … Read more

Higher numbers of microplastics of various shapes, such as sheets (left) and fibers (right) were found in the feces of people with IBD than in healthy controls. Credit: Adapted from Environmental Science & Technology 2021, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c03924 Microplastics — tiny pieces of plastic less than 5 mm in length – are everywhere, from bottled water … Read more

By NASA December 22, 2021 Credit: NASA, ESA, and K. Stapelfeldt (Jet Propulsion Laboratory); Processing; Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) This Hubble Space Telescope image captures a portion of the reflection nebula IC 2631, which contains a protostar, the hot, dense core of a forming star that is accumulating gas and dust. Eventually, the … Read more

Hanging mistletoe is a Christmas tradition. A parasitic plant with potentially poisonous berries might not sound like something that would boost your Christmas decorations to the next level. But, botanically speaking, that’s what mistletoe is. There are some 1,300 species of this evergreen plant worldwide. They’re all parasitic or semiparasitic, meaning they can survive only … Read more

A group of women use a traditional rice-threshing machine in a remote village in the Bankura district of west Bengal. Credit: iStockphoto MIT field experiment from India finds a one-time economic boost helps the very poor fare better for at least a decade. A field experiment in India led by MIT antipoverty researchers has produced … Read more

Human Chest Cavity illustration: Right lung, left lung, heart. Credit: Copyright American Heart Association An analysis of more than 600,000 U.S. death records from a national database found that middle-aged adults, men, Black adults, and adults living in rural areas had higher rates of heart attack death compared to young adults, women, white adults, and … Read more

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the next of NASA’s Great Observatories; following in the line of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. JWST combines qualities of two of its predecessors, observing in infrared light, like Spitzer, with fine resolution, like Hubble. Credit: … Read more