Jets from Massive Protostars might be very different from Lower-Mass Systems

Artist’s conception of the young star Cep A HW2, showing a wide-angle wind originating close to the star and a disk of material orbiting the star (called an accretion disk), with a much narrower jet farther away.
Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF

VLA reveals new details of protostellar jet. Astronomers studying the fast-moving jet of material ejected by a still-forming, massive young star found a major difference between that jet and those ejected by less-massive young stars. The scientists made the discovery by using the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to make the most detailed image yet of the inner region of such a jet coming from a massive young star.

Both low- and high-mass young stars, or protostars, propel jets outward perpendicular to ...

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People who eat a Healthy Diet including Whole Fruits may be Less likely to develop Diabetes

People who eat a healthy diet including whole fruits may be less likely to develop  diabetes

Research links fruit but not fruit juice to lower type 2 diabetes risk. A new study finds people who consume two servings of fruit per day have 36 percent lower odds of developing type 2 diabetes than those who consume less than half a serving. The research was published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Diabetes is a disease where people have too much sugar in their bloodstream, and it is a huge public health burden. Approximately 463 million adults worldwide were living with diabetes in 2019, and by 2045 this number is expected to rise to 700 million. An estimated 374 million people are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease...

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Changing the Shape of Soft Matter using Logic Circuits made from DNA

Changing the shape of soft matter using logic circuits made from DNA
Credit: Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2021). DOI: 10.1002/anie.202102169

The myriad processes occurring in biological cells may seem unbelievably complex at first glance. And yet, in principle, they are merely a logical succession of events, and could even be used to form digital circuits. Researchers have now developed a molecular switching circuit made of DNA, which can be used to mechanically alter gels, depending on the pH. DNA-based switching circuits could have applications in soft robotics, say the researchers in their article in Angewandte Chemie.

DNA is a long molecule that can be folded and twisted in various ways. It has a backbone and bases that stick out from the backbone and pair up with counterparts in other DNA strands...

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What if the Black Hole at the Center of the Milky Way is actually a mass of Dark Matter?

Milky Way
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A team of researchers at the International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics has found evidence that suggests Sagittarius A* is not a massive black hole but is instead a mass of dark matter. In their paper published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, the group describes the evidence they found and how it has stood up to testing.

For several years the scientific community has agreed that there is a mass at the center of the Milky Way galaxy and that the mass is a supermassive black hole—it has been named Sagittarius A*. Its presence has never been verified directly, however, instead it has been inferred by noting the behavior of bodies around it...

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