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    Earth’s Orbital Changes have influenced Climate, Life Forms for at least 215 million years

    May 8, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Rutgers University-New Brunswick Professor Dennis Kent with part of a 1,700-foot-long rock core through the Chinle Formation in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The background includes boxed archives of cores from the Newark basin that were compared with the Arizona core. Credit: Nick Romanenko/Rutgers University-New Brunswick

    Rutgers University-New Brunswick Professor Dennis Kent with part of a 1,700-foot-long rock core through the Chinle Formation in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The background includes boxed archives of cores from the Newark basin that were compared with the Arizona core. Credit: Nick Romanenko/Rutgers University-New Brunswick

    Gravity of Jupiter and Venus elongates Earth’s orbit every 405,000 years, Rutgers-led study confirms. Every 405,000 years, gravitational tugs from Jupiter and Venus slightly elongate Earth’s orbit, an amazingly consistent pattern that has influenced our planet’s climate for at least 215 million years and allows scientists to more precisely date geological events like the spread of dinosaurs, according to a Rutgers-led study.

    The findings are published onlin...

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    Universal Antibody Drug for HIV-1 Prevention and Immunotherapy

    May 8, 2018, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Design and characterization of 5 IAs.(A, B) Schematic diagrams show the...

    Design and characterization of 5 IAs. (A, B) Schematic diagrams show the structures of IAs, which are scFv-hIgG-Fc–like molecules bearing antibody-binding domains to gp120 or human CD4. scFv, single-chain variable fragment; hIgG, human immunoglobulin G, VH, variable heavy chain; VL, variable light chain; CH, constant heavy chain. (C) The released IAs in culture supernatants were detected by Western blot analysis under reducing conditions. (D) Each IA displayed neutralizing activity against pseudovirus HIV-1ADA. (E) Paired IAs were tested for synergistic effects in a checkerboard neutralization assay. The synergy volumes of –50 to 50, 50 to 100, and >100 in a synergy plot at the 95% CI were used to define additive, slight synergistic, and synergistic effects, respectively...

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    Astronomers find Exoplanet Atmosphere Free of Clouds

    May 8, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    WASP-18b is a 'hot Jupiter' located 325 light-years from Earth. Credit: NASA/GSFC

    WASP-18b is a ‘hot Jupiter’ located 325 light-years from Earth. Credit: NASA/GSFC

    An international team of astronomers, led by Dr Nikolay Nikolov from the University of Exeter, have found that the atmosphere of the ‘hot Saturn’ WASP-96b is cloud-free. Using Europe’s 8.2m Very Large Telescope in Chile, the team studied the atmosphere of WASP-96b when the planet passed in front of its host-star. This enabled the team to measure the decrease of starlight caused by the planet and its atmosphere, and thereby determine the planet’s atmospheric composition.

    Just like an individual’s fingerprints are unique, atoms and molecules have a unique spectral characteristic that can be used to detect their presence in celestial objects...

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    What Will Happen when our Sun Dies?

    May 7, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Abell 39, the 39th entry in a catalog of large nebulae discovered by George Abell in 1966, is a beautiful example of a planetary nebula. It was chosen for study by George Jacoby (WIYN Observatory), Gary Ferland (University of Kentucky), and Kirk Korista (Western Michigan University) because of its beautiful and rare spherical symmetry. This picture was taken at the WIYN Observatory's 3.5-m (138-inch) telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson, AZ, in 1997 through a blue-green filter that isolates the light emitted by oxygen atoms in the nebula at a wavelength of 500.7 nanometers. The nebula has a diameter of about five light-years, and the thickness of the spherical shell is about a third of a light-year. The nebula itself is roughly 7,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Hercules. Credit: T.A.Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF and NOAO/AURA/NSF) and B.A.Wolpa (NOAO/AURA/NSF) WIYN

    Abell 39, the 39th entry in a catalog of large nebulae discovered by George Abell in 1966, is a beautiful example of a planetary nebula. It was chosen for study by George Jacoby (WIYN Observatory), Gary Ferland (University of Kentucky), and Kirk Korista (Western Michigan University) because of its beautiful and rare spherical symmetry. This picture was taken at the WIYN Observatory’s 3.5-m (138-inch) telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson, AZ, in 1997 through a blue-green filter that isolates the light emitted by oxygen atoms in the nebula at a wavelength of 500.7 nanometers. The nebula has a diameter of about five light-years, and the thickness of the spherical shell is about a third of a light-year...

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