Science

A stunning new image from NASA’s Juno robotic orbiter shows the famed Great Red Spot and a smaller storm called Oval BA. This image was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it performed its most recent close flyby of Jupiter on December 21, 2018. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / …

A mixture of mosquito-repelling compounds isolated from a Gram-negative bacterium called Xenorhabdus budapestensis exhibits potent feeding-deterrent activity against three important mosquito species (Aedes aegypti, Anopheles gambiae, and Culex pipiens), and works at lower doses than repellents currently on the market, including DEET and picaridin, according to a study published in …

In the final phase of NASA’s Cassini mission, the spacecraft dived between Saturn and its innermost ring, at altitudes 1,616-2,423 miles (2,600-3,900 km) above the cloud tops. During six of these crossings, a radio link with Earth was monitored to make the first accurate estimate of the amount of material …

  Scientists watching Saturn’s moon Titan have finally gotten evidence that the planet experiences seasons like Earth. It’s subtle, but a shimmering region in the higher latitudes indicates that summer has started in Titan’s northern hemisphere. This discovery has been years in the making because of Titan’s exceedingly long orbit, …

An international team of researchers led by a University of Liverpool scientist has discovered three new genes associated with increased risk of age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in the elderly. Dry age-related macular degeneration is one of the most common causes of vision loss in people …

  You might want to clear some time in your schedule this weekend to look up at the night sky. Those in the western hemisphere will be treated to a rare celestial alignment known colloquially as the “super blood moon.” It sounds pretty cool, but it’s just science — cool …

  One of the common features of star systems is that both stars and their planets tend to orbit in the same plane. That means the equator of the star tends to align with the plane of the planets in orbit around it. In our own solar system, for example, …

Observations from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft provide evidence of rainfall on the north pole of Saturn’s moon Titan. The rainfall would be the first indication of the start of a summer season in the northern hemisphere of the hazy moon. It’s raining on Titan. Image credit: David A. Hardy, AstroArt / …

Fasting affects peripheral circadian clocks in the liver and skeletal muscle, causing them to rewire their metabolism, which can ultimately lead to improved health and protection against aging-associated diseases, according to a new study published in the journal Cell Reports. Kinouchi et al reveal that fasting affects peripheral circadian clocks …

The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), the world’s largest living carnivorous marsupial, is threatened with extinction by a horizontally transmitted cancer termed devil facial tumor disease (DFTD). Using an integrative systems-wide approach, a team of researchers in Austria has identified molecular mechanisms that are crucial for DFTD’s transmissibility. Their results appear …