NASA’s first Weather report from Jezero Crater on Mars

One of the wind sensors aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover can be seen deploying from the mast in this image taken on Mar. 1, 2021, the 10th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The sensor is part of a suite of weather sensors called MEDA. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The weather often plays a role in our daily plans. You might put on a light jacket when the forecast calls for a cool breeze or delay your travel plans because of an impending storm. NASA engineers use weather data to inform their plans, too, which is why they’re analyzing the conditions millions of miles away on Mars.

The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) system aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover first powered on for 30 minutes Feb. 19, approximately one day after the rover touched down on the Red Planet...

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Leptin puts the Brakes on Eating via Novel Neurocircuit

Summary diagram of the modulatory effect of leptin on the mesolimbic DA system.

Energy balance includes modulation of dopamine reward signaling. Since the discovery of leptin in the 1990s, researchers have wondered, how does leptin, a hormone made by body fat, suppress appetite? Despite tremendous gains in the intervening three decades, many questions still remain. Now, a new study in mice describes novel neurocircuitry between midbrain structures that control feeding behaviors that are under modulatory control by leptin.

John Krystal, MD, Editor of Biological Psychiatry, said of the findings, “Omrani and colleagues shed light on how, in non-obese animals, leptin puts the brakes on overeating.”

Leptin acts as a critical link between the body and the brain, providing information a...

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A New, Positive Approach could be the Key to Next-Generation, Transparent Electronics

The optical transparency of the new materials could enable futuristic, flexible, transparent electronics . Click for full-resolution version (available for publication). Credit: RMIT University.

Such see-through devices could potentially be integrated in glass, in flexible displays and in smart contact lenses, bringing to life futuristic devices that seem like the product of science fiction. For several decades, researchers have sought a new class of electronics based on semiconducting oxides, whose optical transparency could enable these fully-transparent electronics.

Oxide-based devices could also find use in powerelectronics and communication technology, reducing the carbon footprint of our utility networks.

A RMIT-led team has now introduced ultrathin beta-tellurite to the tw...

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Hubble Spots Double Quasars in Merging Galaxies

This artist’s conception shows the brilliant light of two quasars residing in the cores of two galaxies that are in the chaotic process of merging. The gravitational tug-of-war between the two galaxies stretches them, forming long tidal tails and igniting a firestorm of starbirth. Quasars are brilliant beacons of intense light from the centers of distant galaxies. They are powered by supermassive black holes voraciously feeding on infalling matter. This feeding frenzy unleashes a torrent of radiation that can outshine the collective light of billions of stars in the host galaxy. In a few tens of millions of years, the black holes and their galaxies will merge, and so will the quasar pair, forming an even more massive black hole...
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