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    Astronomers detect Large Amounts of Oxygen in Ancient Star’s Atmosphere

    January 26, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    ARTISTIC IMAGE OF THE SUPERNOVA EXPLOSIONS OF THE FIRST MASSIVE STARS THAT FORMED IN THE MILKY WAY. THE STAR J0815+4729 WAS FORMED FROM THE MATERIAL EJECTED BY THESE FIRST SUPERNOVAE. Credit: Gabriel Pérez Díaz, SMM (IAC)
    Artistic image of the supernova explosions of the first massive stars that formed in the Milky Way. The star JO815+4729 was formed from the material ejected by these first supernovae. Credit: Gabriel Pérez Díaz, SMM (IAC)

    An international team of astronomers from the University of California San Diego, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), and the University of Cambridge have detected large amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere of one of the oldest and most elementally depleted stars known – a “primitive star” scientists call J0815+4729.

    This new finding, which was made using W. M...

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    Researchers Regrow Damaged Nerves with Polymer and Protein

    January 25, 2020, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    We’re the first to show a nerve guide without any cells was able to bridge a large, 2-inch gap between the nerve stump and its target muscle,” said senior author Kacey Marra, Ph.D., professor of plastic surgery at Pitt and core faculty at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. “Our guide was comparable to, and in some ways better than, a nerve graft.” 

    University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers have created a biodegradable nerve guide – a polymer tube – filled with growth-promoting protein that can regenerate long sections of damaged nerves, without the need for transplanting stem cells or a donor nerve.

    So far, the technology has been tested in monkeys, and the results of those experiments appeared today in Science Translational Medicine.

    “We’...

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    Integrating Micro Chips for Electronic Skin

    January 25, 2020, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Flexible electronic skin equipped with an array of giant magneto resistance sensors and complex electronics circuit designed and developed for sensing distribution of magnetic field. Photo: Masaya Kondo

    Researchers present the first fully integrated flexible electronics made of magnetic sensors and organic circuits which opens the path towards the development of electronic skin. Human skin is a fascinating and multifunctional organ with unique properties originating from its flexible and compliant nature. It allows for interfacing with external physical environment through numerous receptors interconnected with the nervous system. Scientists have been trying to transfer these features to artificial skin for a long time, aiming at robotic applications...

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    Mars’ Water was Mineral-Rich and Salty

    January 25, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Methodology to reconstruct water chemistry One of the clay minerals, smectite, can trap ions in water through ion exchanges in the presence of water. Even after loss of water, smectite records ion compositions within interlayers of its structure. Credit: Nature Communications
    Methodology to reconstruct water chemistry
    One of the clay minerals, smectite, can trap ions in water through ion exchanges in the presence of water. Even after loss of water, smectite records ion compositions within interlayers of its structure.
    Credit: Nature Communications

    New study finds surface waters on early Mars may have been habitable for microbial life. Presently, Earth is the only known location where life exists in the Universe. This year the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to three astronomers who proved, almost 20 years ago, that planets are common around stars beyond the solar system...

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