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    Moon Glows Brighter than Sun in Images from NASA’s Fermi

    August 18, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    These images show the steadily improving view of the Moon’s gamma-ray glow from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Each 5-by-5-degree image is centered on the Moon and shows gamma rays with energies above 31 million electron volts, or tens of millions of times that of visible light. At these energies, the Moon is actually brighter than the Sun. Brighter colors indicate greater numbers of gamma rays. This image sequence shows how longer exposure, ranging from two to 128 months (10.7 years), improved the view.
    Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

    If our eyes could see high-energy radiation called gamma rays, the Moon would appear brighter than the Sun! That’s how NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has seen our neighbor in space for the past decade...

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    Newfound Superconductor material could be the ‘Silicon of Quantum Computers’

    August 17, 2019, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Physics

    A cartoon of two islands in a blue sea. Each island has mountains and explorers. At bottom are clouds and a pot of gold.
    We have already found lots of superconductors, but this whimsical illustration shows why one superconductor’s newfound properties may make it especially useful. Most known superconductors are spin singlets, found on the island to the left. Uranium ditelluride, however, is a rare spin triplet, found on the island to the right, and also exists at the top of a mountain representing its unusually high resistance to magnetic fields. These properties may make it a good material for making qubits, which could maintain coherence in a quantum computer despite interference from the surrounding environment.
    Credit: N. Hanacek/NIST

    Possible ‘topological superconductor’ could overcome industry’s problem of quantum decoherence...

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    Vegetable-rich Diet lowers Fatigue in Multiple Sclerosis patients by raising Good Cholesterol

    August 17, 2019, Categories  Biology/Biotechnology

    People prepping vegetables.
    Lipid profile is associated with decreased fatigue in individuals with progressive multiple sclerosis following a diet-based intervention: Results from a pilot study. PLOS ONE, 2019; 14 (6): e0218075 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218075

    Fatigue affects majority of MS patients, impacting quality of life and ability to work full time. Higher levels of blood high-density lipoprotein (HDL) may improve fatigue in multiple sclerosis patients, according to a new University at Buffalo-led study.

    The pilot study, which investigated the effects of fat levels in blood on fatigue caused by multiple sclerosis, found that lowering total cholesterol also reduced exhaustion.

    The results, published recently in PLOS ONE and led by Murali Ramanathan, PhD, professor in the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharma...

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    Young Jupiter was Smacked Head-on by massive Newborn Planet

    August 17, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A rendering shows the effect of a major impact on the core of a young Jupiter, as suggested by scientists at Rice and Sun Yat-sen universities. They say the collision about 4.5 billion years ago could explain surprising readings from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Illustration by Shang-Fei Liu/Sun Yat-sen University

    Jupiter’s core may still be reeling from collision 4.5 billion years ago. A colossal, head-on collision between Jupiter and a still-forming planet in the early solar system, about 4.5 billion years ago, could explain surprising readings from NASA’s Juno spacecraft, according to a study this week in the journal Nature.

    Astronomers from Rice University and China’s Sun Yat-sen University say their head-on impact scenario can explain Juno’s previously puzzling gravitational rea...

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