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    New Research reveals Secret to Jupiter’s Curious Aurora Activity

    April 12, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This 2016 image is a composite of two different Hubble observations. The auroras were photographed during a series of Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph far-ultraviolet-light observations taking place as NASA’s Juno spacecraft approaches and enters into orbit around Jupiter. Credits: NASA

    Jupiter’s polar cap is threaded in part with closed magnetic field lines rather than entirely with open magnetic field lines, new research finds. Auroral displays continue to intrigue scientists, whether the bright lights shine over Earth or over another planet. The lights hold clues to the makeup of a planet’s magnetic field and how that field operates.

    New research about Jupiter proves that point — and adds to the intrigue.

    Peter Delamere, a professor of space physics at the Universit...

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    Autism Gene Study finds Widespread Impact to Brain’s Growth Signaling Network

    April 11, 2021, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    A side-by-side look at the brains of a normal newborn mouse and one lacking the autism and intellectual disability risk gene Dyrk1a. Mice without the gene display profound microcephaly, along with undergrowth of pyramidal neurons in the cerebral cortex. (Image courtesy of the Page laboratory at Scripps Research.)

    Mutations to Dyrk1a gene lead to brain undergrowth; an existing drug rescues the condition in newborn mice. Damage to the autism-associated gene Dyrk1a, sets off a cascade of problems in developing mouse brains, resulting in abnormal growth-factor signaling, undergrowth of neurons, smaller-than-average brain size, and, eventually, autism-like behaviors, a new study from Scripps Research, Florida, finds.

    The study from neuroscientist Damon Page, PhD, describes a new mechanis...

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    Mars didn’t Dry Up in one go

    April 10, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    View of hillocks on the slopes of Mount Sharp, showing the various types of terrain that will soon be explored by the Curiosity rover, and the ancient environments in which they formed, according to the sedimentary structures observed in ChemCam’s telescope images (mosaics A and B).
    © NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/CNES/CNRS/LANL/IRAP/IAS/LPGN

    A research team has discovered that the Martian climate alternated between dry and wetter periods, before drying up completely about 3 billion years ago. The Perseverance rover has just landed on Mars. Meanwhile, its precursor Curiosity continues to explore the base of Mount Sharp (officially Aeolis Mons), a mountain several kilometres high at the centre of the Gale crater...

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    Parkinson’s, Cancer, type 2 Diabetes Share a Key Element that Drives Disease

    April 9, 2021, Categories  Biology/Biotechnology

    Enzyme with central role in cancer and type 2 diabetes also activates. Researchers have discovered a direct link between a master sensor of cell stress and a protein that protects the power stations of cells. The same pathway is also tied to type 2 diabetes and cancer, which could open a new avenue for treating all three diseases.

    When cells are stressed, chemical alarms go off, setting in motion a flurry of activity that protects the cell’s most important players. During the rush, a protein called Parkin hurries to protect the mitochondria, the power stations that generate energy for the cell. Now Salk researchers have discovered a direct link between a master sensor of cell stress and Parkin itself...

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