Strong whistler mode waves observed in the vicinity of Jupiter’s moons. Nature Communications, 2018; 9 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05431-x

Chorus waves are electromagnetic waves. Converted to sound they sound like singing and chirping birds at dawn. They can cause polar lights above the Earth as well as damage to satellites. Now, a team of researchers has found that such waves are intensified million-fold around Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. This study provides important observational constraints for theoretical studies.

These are the new results from a systematic study on Jupiter’s wave environment taken from the Galileo Probe spacecraft...

Cellular senescence in human cells. Credit: Eva Latorre

Breakthrough could be ‘basis for a new generation of anti-degeneration drugs’. Key aspects of the ageing of human cells can be reversed by new compounds developed at the University of Exeter, research shows. In a laboratory study of endothelial cells – which line the inside of blood vessels – researchers tested compounds designed to target mitochondria.

In the samples used in the study, the number of senescent cells (older cells that have deteriorated and stopped dividing) was reduced by up to 50%. The Exeter team also identified 2 splicing factors (a component of cells) that play a key role in when and how endothelial cells become senescent.

The findings raise the possibility of future treatments not only for blood vessels – which be...

NWA 11119 is an unusual light-green fusion crust, silica mineral-rich achondrite meteorite.
Credit: UNM Institute of Meteoritics

Scientists believe the solar system was formed some 4.6 billion years ago when a cloud of gas and dust collapsed under gravity possibly triggered by cataclysmic explosion from a nearby massive star or supernova. As this cloud collapsed, it formed a spinning disk with the sun in the center. Since then scientists have been able to establish the formation of the solar system piece by piece. Now, new research has enabled scientists from The University of New Mexico, Arizona State University and NASA’s Johnson Space Center to add another piece to that puzzle with the discovery of the oldest-ever dated igneous meteorite.

The research titled, Silica-rich volcanism in the...

A new fabrication process enables the creation of soft robots at the millimeter scale with features on the micrometer scale as shown here with the example of a small soft robotic peacock spider with moving body parts and colored eyes and abdomens.
Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

Scientists have created – of all things – a soft robotic spider. Don’t worry, it doesn’t bite: the spider is a demonstration of a new manufacturing process that can produce soft robots on the millimeter scale with micrometer-scale features for microsurgery and other procedures.

Roboticists are envisioning a future in which soft, animal-inspired robots could be safely deployed in difficult-to-access natural and human-made environments, such as in delicate surgical procedures in the human body, or in spac...