Representative HAADF images and particle size distributions for the unsupported AuPd-PVP sol in the fresh (A to C) and after a CH4 oxidation reaction (D to F). CREDIT Graham J. Hutchings and Christopher J. Kiely

Liquid methanol is widely used as a feedstock for other chemicals and also has considerable potential as an alternative fuel source. However, converting methane—the primary component of abundant natural gas—into methanol is currently achieved by an indirect process which requires high heat and pressure. Now researchers have discovered a new approach that allows the direct conversion of methane to methanol utilizing molecular oxygen under much milder reaction conditions.

A team has used colloidal gold-palladium (Au-Pd) nanoparticles to directly oxidize methane to methanol with h...

This artist’s concept shows the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft passing by Earth. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/University of Arizona

Stargazers will be treated to a rare skyshow when NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft ‘sling-shots’ its way over Australian skies on September 23. Using Earth’s gravity to give it an orbital boost, OSIRIS-REx will rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu in 2018. The Earth flyby will give astronomers and those with high-end cameras a chance to view this rare encounter.

OSIRIS-REx is on an extraordinary journey to bring back to Earth a sample from the surface of the carbonaceous asteroid Bennu that could potentially record the early history of the solar system and molecular precursors to the origin of life...

First the galaxy is dominated by the disk component (left) but active star formation occurs in the huge dust and gas cloud at the center of the galaxy (center). Then the galaxy is dominated by the stellar bulge and becomes an elliptical or lenticular galaxy. Credit: NAOJ

Astronomers found that active star formation upswells galaxies, like yeast helps bread rise. Using 3 powerful telescopes on the ground and in orbit, they observed galaxies from 11 billion years ago and found explosive formation of stars in the cores of galaxies. This suggests that galaxies can change their own shape without interaction with other galaxies...

Neta Shlezinger et al. Sterilizing immunity in the lung relies on targeting fungal apoptosis-like programmed cell death, Science (2017). DOI: 10.1126/science.aan0365

A team from U.S., Germany and Israel has found that mice are able to ward off fungal lung infections because their immune systems cause fungal spores to die. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes the means by which they discovered how mice are able to ward off fungal lung infections and what their findings might mean for human patients.

Most people breathe in approximately 1000 fungal spores every single day. But the means by which people ward off fungal infections in the lungs has not been understood...