Koji Atarashi et al. Ectopic colonization of oral bacteria in the intestine drives TH1 cell induction and inflammation, Science (2017). DOI: 10.1126/science.aan4526 Credit: CC0 Public Domain

An international team has found evidence that suggests certain types of oral bacteria may cause or exacerbate bowel disorders. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes testing the impact of introducing bacteria found in the mouths of humans to mice models. Xuetao Cao with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences offers a Perspective piece on the work done by the team in the same journal issue and suggests that the work might one day lead to the development of new kinds of treatments for common bowel disorders.

Bowel disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome, IBS, ulcerative ...

Gas molecules widening the gaps between rows of the team’s graphene nano-ribbons. Nebraska’s Alexander Sinitskii and his colleagues have proposed that this phenomenon partly explains how the nano-ribbons grant sensors an unprecedented boost in sensitivity. Credit: University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Pinning DNA-sized ribbons of carbon to a gas sensor can boost its sensitivity far better than any other known carbon material, says a new study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. When the researchers integrated a film of graphene nano-ribbons into the circuitry of a gas sensor, it responded about 100X more sensitively to molecules than did sensors featuring even the best-performing carbon-based materials...

This artist concept shows NASA’s Dawn spacecraft above dwarf planet Ceres, as seen in images from the mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA has authorized a second extension of the Dawn mission at Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. During this extension, the spacecraft will descend to lower altitudes than ever before at the dwarf planet, which it has been orbiting since March 2015. The spacecraft will continue at Ceres for the remainder of its science investigation and will remain in a stable orbit indefinitely after its hydrazine fuel runs out.

The Dawn flight team is studying ways to maneuver Dawn into a new elliptical orbit, which may take the spacecraft to less than 120 miles (200 kilometers) from the surface of Ceres at closest approach...

Gemini Planet Imager observations reveal a complex pattern of variations in brightness and polarization around the HR 4796A disk. Credit: Marshall Perrin (Space Telescope Science Institute), Gaspard Duchene (UC Berkeley), Max Millar-Blanchaer (University of Toronto), and the GPI Team

Narrow dense rings of comets are coming together to form planets on the outskirts of at least 3 distant solar systems, astronomers have found in data from a pair of NASA telescopes. Estimating the mass of these rings from the amount of light they reflect shows that each of these developing planets is at least the size of a few Earths, according to Carey Lisse, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.

Over the past few decades, using powerful NA...