Artist’s illustration of Jupiter and Europa (in the foreground) with the Galileo spacecraft after its pass through a plume erupting from Europa’s surface. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Michigan

Scientists re-examining data from an old mission bring new insights to the tantalizing question of whether Jupiter’s moon Europa has the ingredients to support life. The data provide independent evidence that the moon’s subsurface liquid water reservoir may be venting plumes of water vapor above its icy shell.

Data collected by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in 1997 were put through new and advanced computer models to untangle a mystery – a brief, localized bend in themagnetic field – that had gone unexplained until now...

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

By studying a stream on the UK coast, experts have calculated how much organic matter we might find on Mars, and where to look. Imperial College London scientists have found traces of fatty acids – key building blocks of biological cells – in Dorset’s acidic streams. They say that because of the similarity of acidic streams in Dorset and on Mars, their findings hint that life might once have existed on Mars.

By applying their findings to the Red Planet, they concluded that there could be nearly 12,000 Olympic sized pools of organic matter on Mars that could represent traces of past life. Dorset is home to highly acidic sulphur streams that host bacteria which thrive in extreme conditions...

Artificial cells (false-color image) in a range of structures. Credit: Imperial College London

Researchers have used lasers to connect, arrange and merge artificial cells, paving the way for networks of artificial cells that act like tissues. The team say that by altering artificial cell membranes they can now get the cells to stick together like ‘stickle bricks’ – allowing them to be arranged into whole new structures.

Biological cells can perform complex functions, but are difficult to controllably engineer. Artificial cells, however, can in principle be made to order...

The molecule (yellow) blocks human NMT (blue), essential for the virus to assemble the capsid ‘shell’ that encloses its RNA genome (green)

Researchers have lab-tested a molecule that can combat the common cold virus by preventing it from hijacking human cells. Early lab-based tests with human cells have shown the molecule’s ability to completely block multiple strains of cold virus, and the team hope to move to animal and then human trials. The results of initial tests are published today in the journal Nature Chemistry.

The common cold is caused by a family of viruses with hundreds of variants, making it nearly impossible to become immune to or vaccinate against all of them. On top of that, the viruses evolve rapidly, meaning they can quickly gain resistance to drugs...