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    First Global Map of Water in Moon’s Soil

    September 15, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A new map reveals quantities of water trapped in the lunar soil. The amounts increase toward the poles, suggesting that much of the water was implanted by the solar wind (yellow dots mark Apollo landing sites). Credit: Milliken lab / Brown University

    A new map reveals quantities of water trapped in the lunar soil. The amounts increase toward the poles, suggesting that much of the water was implanted by the solar wind (yellow dots mark Apollo landing sites). Credit: Milliken lab / Brown University

    In research that may prove useful to future lunar explorers, scientists from Brown University have created the first quantitative map of water and its chemical building blocks trapped in the uppermost portion of the Moon’s soil. The study builds on the initial discovery in 2009 of water and a related molecule – hydroxyl – in the lunar soil. The latest study uses a new calibration of data taken from NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper, which flew aboard India’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, to quantify how much water is present on a global scale.

    “The si...

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    New Gravity Map suggests Mars has a Porous Crust

    September 15, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A new map of the thickness of Mars’ crust shows less variation between thicker regions (red) and thinner regions (blue), compared to earlier mapping. This view is centered on Valles Marineris, with the Tharsis Montes near the terminator to its west. The map is based on modeling of the Red Planet’s gravity field by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The team found that globally Mars’ crust is less dense, on average, than previously thought, which implies smaller variations in crustal thickness. Credit: NASA/Goddard/UMBC/MIT/E. Mazarico

    A new map of the thickness of Mars’ crust shows less variation between thicker regions (red) and thinner regions (blue), compared to earlier mapping. This view is centered on Valles Marineris, with the Tharsis Montes near the terminator to its west. The map is based on modeling of the Red Planet’s gravity field by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The team found that globally Mars’ crust is less dense, on average, than previously thought, which implies smaller variations in crustal thickness. Credit: NASA/Goddard/UMBC/MIT/E. Mazarico

    NASA scientists have found evidence that Mars’ crust is not as dense as previously thought, a clue that could help researchers better understand the Red Planet’s interior structure and evolution...

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    Mechanism Behind Calorie Restriction, Lengthened Lifespan Revealed

    September 14, 2017, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    DREAM analysis in CR animals. a Unsupervised hierarchical clustering analysis of methylation values in all genomic regions. The green to red scale indicates the methylation percentage. The color codes for age and caloric status are shown on the left. b DNA methylation in AL old animals vs. CR old animals. Average DNA methylation level of each CpG site in CR old individuals (x axis), methylation in AL old individuals is shown on the y axis. The red and green dots represent CpG sites within CGI and non-CGI, respectively. The full range (0–100%) of methylation level is shown on the left and the low range (0–20%) is magnified and shown on the right. c Correlation between the effects of CR and age-related methylation drift in AL animals. The x axis shows methylation changes per year in AL-fed animals. Positive/negative value means methylation increase/decrease with age, respectively. The y axis shows the differences of methylation percentage between CR old and AL old animals. Each dot represents a CpG site. Spearman r values and the corresponding two-tailed p-values were calculated

    DREAM analysis in CR animals. a Unsupervised hierarchical clustering analysis of methylation values in all genomic regions. The green to red scale indicates the methylation percentage. The color codes for age and caloric status are shown on the left. b DNA methylation in AL old animals vs. CR old animals. Average DNA methylation level of each CpG site in CR old individuals (x axis), methylation in AL old individuals is shown on the y axis. The red and green dots represent CpG sites within CGI and non-CGI, respectively. The full range (0–100%) of methylation level is shown on the left and the low range (0–20%) is magnified and shown on the right. c Correlation between the effects of CR and age-related methylation drift in AL animals...

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    Scientists discover Genetic Timetable of Brain’s Aging Process

    September 14, 2017, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Trajectories and turning points characterise brain age. (a) Percentage of TTTPs at each age of human lifespan. Mean age is 26.0 years for males and 27.5 years for females. (b) Percentage of TTTPs at each age of human lifespan using three different methods for fitting splines. Mean age is 31.3 years using cubic splines with 3 degrees of freedom, 21.6 years using cubic splines with 4 degrees of freedom and 25.2 years using Loess regression. (c) Percentage of TTTPs at each age of mouse. Mean age is 156 days for males and 165 days for females. (d) Cumulative sum of TTTP scores for every year of life in the Braincloud dataset. (e) Cumulative sum of TTTP scores for every year of life in the mouse hippocampus dataset. (f) The TTTPs for genes with the greatest expression changes prior to the TTTP (ΔE) were concentrated around the late-twenties. (g) Percentage of probes associated with TTTPs that up- or down-regulate prior to turning. (h) Percentage of probes with TTTPs which plateau or reverse after turning. (i) and (j). Age of individual mice and humans can be accurately predicted using a Support Vector Machine trained on the expression data. Individual points represent each mRNA sample.

    Trajectories and turning points characterise brain age. (a) Percentage of TTTPs at each age of human lifespan. Mean age is 26.0 years for males and 27.5 years for females. (b) Percentage of TTTPs at each age of human lifespan using three different methods for fitting splines. Mean age is 31.3 years using cubic splines with 3 degrees of freedom, 21.6 years using cubic splines with 4 degrees of freedom and 25.2 years using Loess regression. (c) Percentage of TTTPs at each age of mouse. Mean age is 156 days for males and 165 days for females. (d) Cumulative sum of TTTP scores for every year of life in the Braincloud dataset. (e) Cumulative sum of TTTP scores for every year of life in the mouse hippocampus dataset...

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