Recent Comments

    ALMA and VLT find too many Massive Stars in a Starburst galaxies, near and far

    June 5, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This artist's impression shows a dusty galaxy in the distant Universe that is forming stars at a rate much higher than in our Milky Way. New ALMA observations have allowed scientists to lift the veil of dust and see what was previously inaccessible -- that such starburst galaxies have an excess of massive stars as compared to more peaceful galaxies. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

    This artist’s impression shows a dusty galaxy in the distant Universe that is forming stars at a rate much higher than in our Milky Way. New ALMA observations have allowed scientists to lift the veil of dust and see what was previously inaccessible — that such starburst galaxies have an excess of massive stars as compared to more peaceful galaxies. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

    Astronomers using ALMA and the VLT have discovered that both starburst galaxies in the early Universe and a star-forming region in a nearby galaxy contain a much higher proportion of massive stars than is found in more peaceful galaxies. These findings challenge current ideas about how galaxies evolved, changing our understanding of cosmic star-formation history and the build up of chemical elements.

     
    Zhang and his...
    Read More

    Atomic Clock Comparison Confirms Key assumptions of ‘Einstein’s Elevator’

    June 5, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This image, taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), both installed on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the peculiar galaxy NGC 3256. The galaxy is about 100 million light-years from Earth and is the result of a past galactic merger, which created its distorted appearance. As such, NGC 3256 provides an ideal target to investigate starbursts that have been triggered by galaxy mergers. Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA

    This image, taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), both installed on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the peculiar galaxy NGC 3256. The galaxy is about 100 million light-years from Earth and is the result of a past galactic merger, which created its distorted appearance. As such, NGC 3256 provides an ideal target to investigate starbursts that have been triggered by galaxy mergers. Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA

     
    By comparing different types of remote atomic clocks, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have performed the most accurate test ever of a key principle underlying Albert Einstein’s famous theory of general relativity, which describes how gravity relates to space and time...
    Read More

    Secrets behind Pluto’s Dunes revealed

    June 3, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This image taken during the New Horizons mission shows the mountain range on the edge of the Sputnik Planitia ice plain, with dune formations clearly visible in the bottom half of the picture. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

    This image taken during the New Horizons mission shows the mountain range on the edge of the Sputnik Planitia ice plain, with dune formations clearly visible in the bottom half of the picture. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

    Scientists have discovered dunes on Pluto, and say they are likely to have been formed of methane ice grains released into its rarefied atmosphere. Writing in Science, an international team of geographers, physicists and planetary scientists have analysed detailed images of the dwarf planet’s surface, captured in July 2015 by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft...

    Read More

    Secret to Longevity may Lie in the Microbiome and the Gut

    June 3, 2018, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Model of mechanisms of gut microbiota-host communication influencing aging factors. The gut microbiota communicates with the metabolic, inflammatory and oxidative stress pathways via direct and indirect mechanisms. As the physiological changes in all three of these axes are cross-regulatory, the simultaneous action implemented by the gut microbiota makes it a powerful influence in aging and age-related chronic disease development. Abbreviations: glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1, insulin receptor (IR), insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), protein kinase B (Akt), target of rapamycin (TOR), Forkhead Box O protein (FOXO), sterol regulatory element binding protein (SREBP), acetyl CoA carboxylase (ACC), fatty acid synthase (FAS), tight junction proteins (TJPs), lipopolysaccharide (LPS), toll-like receptor (TLR)4, nuclear factor kappa-light-chain enhancer of activated B cells (NF-kB), activator protein (AP)-1, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-6, T helper (Th)17, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator (PGC)-1α, sirtuin (SIRT), reactive oxygen species (ROS).

    Model of mechanisms of gut microbiota-host communication influencing aging factors. The gut microbiota communicates with the metabolic, inflammatory and oxidative stress pathways via direct and indirect mechanisms. As the physiological changes in all three of these axes are cross-regulatory, the simultaneous action implemented by the gut microbiota makes it a powerful influence in aging and age-related chronic disease development...

    Read More