A bright member of the Phoenicid meteor shower appears at the bottom left of this photo taken at 02h15m39s UT on December 2, 2014. The Moon is captured to the lower right of center in the photo. Camera: Pentax K-3 + SIGMA 4.5mm F2.8, 3 second exposure time, at Sandy Point, North Carolina, U.S.A.. Credit: Hiroyuki Toda, NAOJ

The Phoenicid meteor shower (named after the constellation Phoenix) was discovered by the first Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition on December 5, 1956, during their voyage in the Indian Ocean. However, it has not been observed again. This has left astronomers with a mystery: where did the Phoenicids come from and where did they go?

Two Japanese teams have found an answer to these questions by linking the Phoenicid meteor shower to a vanished celestial body, Comet Bl...

Scientists have detected the first X-rays from what appears to be a type Ia supernova, located inside the spiral-shaped galaxy ESO 336-G009, about 260 million light-years from Earth. Credit: Vikram Dwarkadas/Digitized Sky Survey

Exploding stars carry a cloak of dense material that puzzles astronomers. A team of scientists, including scholars from the University of Chicago, appear to have found the first X-rays coming from type Ia supernovae. Astronomers are fond of type Ia supernovas, created when a white dwarf star in a two-star system undergoes a thermonuclear explosion, because they burn at a specific brightness. This allows scientists to calculate how far away they are from Earth, and thus to map distances in the universe...

NAFLD patients have augmented plasma DPP4 activity.
•Hepatocyte-specific DPP4 overexpression in mice.
(1) promotes fatty liver disease.
(2) induces hepatic insulin resistance.
(3) reduces systemic levels of active GLP-1.
(4) enhances adipose tissue expansion and inflammation.

In mice given a high-fat diet, an increased production of the enzyme DPP4* by the liver promotes an increase in body fat, the development of fatty liver disease and insulin resistance. These were the findings of a current study by DZD-researchers in Potsdam and Tübingen...

Crystalline samples of CeRhIn5 from Los Alamos were cut into microscopic, crystalline conducting paths with a focused ion beam at MPI-CPfS.
© MPI CPfS

New research shows a rare state of matter in which electrons in a superconducting crystal organize collectively. The findings lay the groundwork for answering one of the most compelling questions in physics: How do correlated electron systems work, and are they related to one another? Electrons in most metals act individually, free to move through a metal to conduct electric currents and heat. But in a special sample of layered cerium, rhodium and indium (CeRhIn5), scientists discovered that electrons unite to flow in the same direction (a behavior called “breaking symmetry”) when in high magnetic fields of 30tesla...