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    Life on Venus? Probe mission could search Venus clouds for unexplained hydrogen-rich gases

    July 11, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Life on Venus? UK probe could reveal the answer
    An artist’s impression of the proposed VERVE mission to Venus the answer whether tiny bacterial lifeforms really do exist in the planet’s clouds. Credit: Danielle Futselaar

    The answer to whether tiny bacterial life-forms really do exist in the clouds of Venus could be revealed once and for all by a UK-backed mission.

    Over the past five years, researchers have detected the presence of two potential biomarkers—the gases phosphine and ammonia—which on Earth can only be produced by biological activity and industrial processes.

    Their existence in the Venusian clouds cannot easily be explained by known atmospheric or geological phenomena, so Cardiff University’s Professor Jane Greaves and her team are plotting a way to get to the bottom of it.

    Revealing a new mission concept at ...

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    Running injuries often strike suddenly, not gradually: Study challenges understanding of overuse injuries

    July 10, 2025, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    running
    Credit: RF._.studio _ from Pexels

    A new study from Aarhus University turns our understanding of how running injuries occur upside down. The research project, which is the largest of its kind ever conducted, shows that running-related overuse injuries do not develop gradually over time, as previously assumed, but rather suddenly—often during a single training session. The research is published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

    “Our study marks a paradigm shift in understanding the causes of running-related overuse injuries. We previously believed that injuries develop gradually over time, but it turns out that many injuries occur because runners make training errors in a single training session,” explains Associate Professor Rasmus Ø...

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    Astronomers Catch Planets in the Act of Being Born

    July 10, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An artist’s impression of dust and tiny grains in a protoplanetary disc surrounding a young star (left) alongside an e-MERLIN map showing the tilted disc structure around the young star DG Tauri (top right) and the HL Tau disc captured by e-MERLIN is shown overlaid on an ALMA image, revealing both the compact emission from the central region of the disc and the larger scale dust rings (bottom right).
    An artist’s impression of dust and tiny grains in a protoplanetary disc surrounding a young star (left) alongside an e-MERLIN map showing the tilted disc structure around the young star DG Tauri (top right) and the HL Tau disc captured by e-MERLIN is shown overlaid on an ALMA image, revealing both the compact emission from the central region of the disc and the larger scale dust rings (bottom right).

    Credit
    NASA/JPL-Caltech/Hesterly, Drabek-Maunder, Greaves, Richards, et al./Greaves, Hesterly, Richards, and et al./ALMA partnership et al.
    Licence type
    Attribution (CC BY 4.0)

    Astronomers have spotted centimeter-sized “pebbles” swirling around two infant stars 450 light-years away, revealing the raw ingredients of planets already stretching to Neptune-like orbits...

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    Metabolic differences in male and female muscles may explain diabetes variations

    July 10, 2025, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Focus on muscle metabolism: Sex differences in sport and obesity
    Graphical abstract. Credit: Molecular Metabolism (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.molmet.2025.102185

    The skeletal muscles of men and women process glucose and fats in different ways. A study conducted by the University Hospital of Tübingen, the Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases of Helmholtz Munich and the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) e.V. provides the first comprehensive molecular analysis of these differences. The results, published in Molecular Metabolism, possibly give an explanation for why metabolic diseases such as diabetes manifest differently in women and men—and why they respond differently to physical activity.

    Skeletal muscles are far more than just “movement driving motors...

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