Science

In a study done in mice, a team of researchers found that short-term bursts of exercise — the human equivalent of a weekly game of pickup basketball, or 4,000 steps — promoted an increase in synapses in the hippocampus and prime the brain for learning. The findings were published in …

In a review paper published this week in the journal Trends in Plant Science, University of California, Santa Cruz’s Professor Lincoln Taiz and colleagues argue against the suggestion from ‘plant neurobiologists’ that plants possess consciousness. According to Taiz et al, plants don’t think, they grow. Image credit: Johannes Plenio. The …

Free-floating mats of brown macroalgae called Sargassum in the center of the North Atlantic were first reported by Christopher Columbus in the 15th century CE. Since 2011, these mats have increased in density and size to generate a 5,500-mile (8,850 km) long belt that extends from West Africa to the …

  NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is slowly taking shape. After adding the rover’s stereoscopic navigation cameras and prototype wheels, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have attached the rover’s SuperCam Mast Unit. This vital piece of equipment will allow Mars 2020 to analyze samples from a distance as it …

ESA’s Mars Express orbiter has observed several local and regional dust storms brewing at the north pole of the Red Planet. A dust storm underway at the edge of the north polar ice cap of Mars. The image was taken by Mars Express’ Visual Monitoring Camera on May 29, 2019. …

In a study of mice, an international team of scientists has discovered that signals from gut bacteria help to maintain a first line of defense in the lining of the lung: when mice with healthy gut bacteria were infected with influenza virus, around 80% of them survived; however, only a …

A team of scientists at MIT has developed a system for converting protein sequences into audible sound that resembles musical passages. Then, reversing the process, the researchers can introduce some variations into the sounds and convert them back into brand-new proteins. Yu et al report a method to translate amino …

  SpaceX’s next-generation Starship rocket is one step closer to launch today following a successful engine test. According to CEO Elon Musk, the engine performed as expected during a 51-second test burn. Based on previous timelines, Musk suggests the Starship “Hopper” could be ready for its first untethered flight later …

A process called nucleation plays a critical role in many physical and biological phenomena that range from crystallization, melting and evaporation to the formation of clouds and the initiation of neurodegenerative diseases. However, nucleation is a challenging process to study experimentally, especially in its early stages, when several atoms or …

Using the modified CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system and a therapeutic strategy known as long-acting slow-effective release antiviral therapy (LASER ART), a team of researchers has eliminated replication-competent HIV-1 DNA from the genomes of living mice. Published in the journal Nature Communications, the study marks a critical step toward the development of …