This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover shows a site with a network of prominent mineral veins below a cap rock ridge on lower Mount Sharp. The APXS instrument on Curiosity discovered unusual material in these veins that has the highest germanium concentrations found in Gale Crater. Credit: NASA

New data gathered by the Mars Curiosity rover indicates a potential history of hydrothermal activity at Gale Crater on the red planet, broadening the variety of habitable conditions once present there, scientists report in a new study. Researchers found concentrations of the elements zinc and germanium to be 10 to 100 times greater in sedimentary rocks in Gale Crater compared to the typical Martian crust.

Zinc and germanium tend to be enriched together in high temp...

Credit: Judy Wu / UCLA Division of Cardiology Image of LeXis (pink dots) inside a cell. The larger blue dots marks the nuclei of liver cells.

Scientists from UCLA and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute successfully used a gene that suppresses cholesterol levels as part of a treatment to reduce plaque in mice with a disorder called familial hypercholesterolemia. In a preclinical study, gene LeXis, lowered cholesterol and blockages in the arteries, and the treatment appeared to reduce the build-up of fat in liver cells. Familial hypercholesterolemia is an inherited condition characterized by extremely high levels of LDL and an increased risk of early heart disease.

The LeXis gene belongs to a unique group of genes that until recently were considered “junk DNA” because scientists believed th...

Dendritic Hematite Nanoarray Photoanode Modified with a Conformal Titanium Dioxide Interlayer for Effective Charge Collection. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2017; DOI: 10.1002/anie.201705772

Modification of a hematite photoanode by a conformal titanium dioxide interlayer for effective charge collection. Earth-abundant, cheap metals are promising photocatalytic electrode materials in artificial photosynthesis. The nanostructured electrode benefits from two separate effects. This design combining nanostructure with chemical doping may be exemplary for improved “green” photocatalytic systems.

With the help of a catalyst, sunlight can drive the oxidation of water to oxygen and the release of electrons for current generation, a process also called artificial photosynthesis...

This image from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft shows members of the Pleiades star cluster taken during Campaign 4 of the K2 Mission. The cluster stretches across two of the 42 charge-coupled devices (CCDs) that make up Kepler’s 95 megapixel camera. The brightest stars in the cluster – Alcyone, Atlas, Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygeta, and Pleione – are visible to the naked eye. Kepler was not designed to look at stars this bright; they cause the camera to saturate, leading to long spikes and other artefacts in the image. Despite this serious image degradation, the new technique has allowed astronomers to carefully measure changes in brightness of these stars as the Kepler telescope observed them for almost three months. Credit: NASA / Aarhus University / T. White

The Seven Sisters, as they ...