Pre-cue Spindles Prevented Post-cue Spindle Increases and Negatively Predicted Memory Retention

Sleep spindles may help memory storage keep memories separate. Leading theories propose that sleep presents an opportune time for important, new memories to become stabilized. And it’s long been known which brain waves are produced during sleep. But in a new study, researchers set out to better understand the brain mechanisms that secure memory storage.

The team from Northwestern and Princeton universities set out to find more direct and precisely timed evidence for the involvement of one particular sleep wave – known as the “sleep spindle.” In the study, sleep spindles, described as bursts of brain activity typically lasting around one second, were linked to memory reactivation...

The Jezero Crater delta, a well-preserved ancient river delta on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL

Iron-rich rocks near ancient lake sites on Mars could hold vital clues that show life once existed there, research suggests. These rocks – which formed in lake beds – are the best place to seek fossil evidence of life from billions of years ago, researchers say. A new study that sheds light on where fossils might be preserved could aid the search for traces of microbes — on Mars, which it is thought may have supported primitive life forms around four billion years ago.

A team of scientists has determined that sedimentary rocks made of compacted mud or clay are the most likely to contain fossils. These rocks are rich in iron and a mineral called silica, which helps preserve fossils...

Ralph Instrument Pluto Maps. New Horizons not only showed humanity what Pluto looks like, but also provided information on the composition of Pluto’s atmosphere and surface. These maps — assembled using data from the Ralph instrument — indicate regions rich in methane (CH4), nitrogen (N2), carbon monoxide (CO) and water (H2O) ices. Sputnik Planitia shows an especially strong signature of nitrogen near the equator. SwRI scientists combined these data with Rosetta’s comet 67P data to develop a proposed “giant comet” model for Pluto formation. Credit: Image Courtesy of NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

New Horizons, Rosetta data fusion points to new theory...

This composite image of E0102 allows astronomers to learn new details about this object discovered more than three decades ago. X-rays from Chandra are blue and purple, and visible light data from VLT’s Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument are bright red. Additional data from the Hubble Space Telescope are dark red and green. Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/ESO/F.Vogt et al); Optical (ESO/VLT/MUSE & NASA/STScI)

Astronomers have discovered a special kind of neutron star for the first time outside of the Milky Way galaxy, using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. Neutron stars are the ultra dense cores of massive stars that collapse and undergo a supernova explosion...