NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope orbits the Sun in concert with the Earth, slowly drifting away from Earth. Credit: NASA Kepler Mission/Dana Berry

Search considered successful ‘dress rehearsal’ for exoplanet hunter TESS. Scientists at MIT and elsewhere have analyzed data from K2, the follow-up mission to NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, and have discovered a trove of possible exoplanets amid some 50,000 stars. Scientists report the discovery of nearly 80 new planetary candidates, including a particular standout: a likely planet that orbits the star HD 73344, which would be the brightest planet host ever discovered by the K2 mission.

The planet appears to orbit HD 73344 every 15 days, and based on the amount of light that it blocks each time it passes in front of its star, scientists estimate ...

An artistic rendering of the mechanism responsible for relocalization of heterochromatic repair sites during homologous recombination. A nuclear myosin walks along a dynamic nuclear actin filament, carrying broken DNA for repair. Credit: Yekaterina Kadyshevskaya, USC

‘Walking molecules’ haul away damaged DNA to the cell’s emergency room. Amid the rise of CRISPR and genome editing, scientists are still learning more about DNA repair and its significance in aging and diseases such as cancer. The cell has its own paramedic team and emergency room to aid and repair damaged DNA, a new USC Dornsife study reveals.

The findings are timely, as scientists are delving into the potential of genome editing with the DNA-cutting enzyme, CRISPR-Cas9, to treat diseases or to advance scientific knowledge ab...

Two different aspects of fat: left, mature human fat cells grown in a Petri dish (green: lipid droplets); right, a section of mouse fat tissue with in the middle, a blood vessel (red circle) surrounded by Aregs (arrows), newly discovered cells capable of suppressing adipogenesis. Credit: Bart Deplancke/EPFL

A study has revealed a new cell type that resides in the body’s fat depots where it can actively suppress fat cell formation. This discovery was made using single-cell transcriptomics and opens entirely new avenues to combat obesity and related diseases such as diabetes.

Adipogenesis – the formation of mature fat cells from their precursor cells – has been linked to obesity and related health problems such as cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes...

Cube of advanced material featuring photochromic molecules. Credit: Victor Sans Sangorrin

New research proves that advanced materials containing molecules that switch states in response to environmental stimuli such as light can be fabricated using 3D printing. The study findings have the potential to vastly increase the functional capabilities of 3D-printed devices for industries such as electronics, healthcare and quantum computing.

“This bottom-up approach to device fabrication will push the boundaries of additive manufacturing like never before. Using a unique integrated design approach, we have demonstrated functional synergy between photochromic molecules and polymers in a fully 3D-printed device...