What’s Mars made of?

(left) line graphs on a white background and (right) grey textured rectangles on a black background
Sound velocity measurements. Pulsed waves propagate through samples at the speed of sound. © 2020 Nishida et al.

Researchers simulate the core of Mars to investigate composition and origin. Earth-based experiments on iron-sulfur alloys thought to comprise the core of Mars reveal details about the planet’s seismic properties for the first time. This information will be compared to observations made by Martian space probes in the near future. Whether the results between experiment and observation coincide or not will either confirm existing theories about Mars’ composition or call into question the story of its origin.

Mars is one of our closest terrestrial neighbors, yet it’s still very far away – between about 55 million and 400 million kilometers depending on where Earth and Mars ...

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Excess Coffee Consumption a Culprit for Poor Health

sick face on froth of coffee
Association between habitual coffee consumption and multiple disease outcomes: A Mendelian randomisation phenome-wide association study in the UK Biobank
Konstance Nicolopoulos, Anwar Mulugeta, Ang Zhou,Elina Hyppönen

Published:March 13, 2020DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2020.03.009

Cappuccino, latte or short black, coffee is one of the most commonly consumed drinks in the world. But whether it’s good or bad for your health can be clarified by genetics, as a world-first study from the University of South Australia’s Australian Centre for Precision Health shows that excess coffee consumption can cause poor health.

Using data from over 300,000 participants in the UK Biobank, researchers examined connections between genetically instrumented habitual coffee consumption and a full ra...

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Durable, Washable Textile Coating can Repel Viruses

An illustration shows the treated textile’s ability to repel fluids.

New research could lead to safely reusable PPE. Researchers have created a textile coating that can not only repel liquids like blood and saliva but can also prevent viruses from adhering to the surface. Masks, gowns, and other personal protective equipment (PPE) are essential for protecting healthcare workers. However, the textiles and materials used in such items can absorb and carry viruses and bacteria, inadvertently spreading the disease the wearer sought to contain.

When the coronavirus spread amongst healthcare professionals and left PPE in short supply, finding a way to provide better protection while allowing for the safe reuse of these items became paramount.

Research from the LAMP Lab at the Universit...

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Powerful new AI Technique Detects and Classifies Galaxies in Astronomy image data

A Hubble Space Telescope image of a region in the Hubble Legacy Fields includes a large disk galaxy (above). The image next to it shows the Morpheus morphological classification results for the same region. (Image credits: NASA/STScI and Ryan Hausen)

Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have developed a powerful new computer program called Morpheus that can analyze astronomical image data pixel by pixel to identify and classify all of the galaxies and stars in large data sets from astronomy surveys.

Morpheus is a deep-learning framework that incorporates a variety of artificial intelligence technologies developed for applications such as image and speech recognition...

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