Trans-Neptunian Object Arrokoth: Flattening of a Snowman

Arrokoth’s flattened shape can only be seen from a certain perspective. The first images returned by NASA’s New… [more]
© NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Only in the course of several million years did Arrokoth, also known by its nickname Ultima Thule, acquire its bizarre, pancake-flat shape. The trans-Neptunian object Arrokoth, also known as Ultima Thule, which NASA’s space probe New Horizons passed on New Year’s Day 2019, may have changed its shape significantly in the first 100 million years since its formation...

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Preliminary results of 2 large Immune Therapy studies show promise in Advanced Cervical Cancer

Preliminary results from two independent, phase II clinical trials investigating a new PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1)-based immune therapy for metastatic cervical cancer suggest potential new treatment options for a disease that currently has limited effective options and disproportionately impacts younger women.

David O’Malley, MD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center — Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC — James), presented the preliminary study results at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress 2020 on Sept. 18. O’Malley was the lead presenter for both trials, which were sponsored by Agenus Inc.

Each study involved more than 150 patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical can...

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New Algorithm could Unleash the Power of Quantum Computers

A new algorithm leaps past limits restricting quantum computers.
A new algorithm leaps past limits restricting quantum computers.

Fast-forwarding quantum calculations skips past the time limits imposed by decoherence, which plagues today’s machines. A new algorithm that fastforwards simulations could bring greater use ability to current and near-term quantum computers, opening the way for applications to run past strict time limits that hamper many quantum calculations.

“Quantum computers have a limited time to perform calculations before their useful quantum nature, which we call coherence, breaks down,” said Andrew Sornborger of the Computer, Computational, and Statistical Sciences division at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and senior author on a paper announcing the research...

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Gemini South’s high-def version of ‘A Star is Born’

Two near-infrared images of the star-forming region in the Carina Nebula known as the Western Wall illustrate the capabilities of a wide-field adaptive optics camera at the Gemini South 8.1-meter telescope on Cerro Pachón mountain in Chile. Both images were captured by captured by Rice University astronomer Patrick Hartigan and colleagues from telescopes at the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab observatory near near Vicuña, Chile. The lefthand image was taken with the four-meter Blanco telescope’s Extremely Wide-Field Infrared Imager in 2015. The righthand image, taken in January 2018, has about 10 times finer resolution thanks to a mirror in the Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager that changes shape to correct for atmospheric distortion caused by Earth’s atmosphere...
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