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    First Discovery of an exoplanet with SPHERE/VLT

    July 8, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Picture taken by SPHERE, showing the planet made visible after the star has been hidden by the coronograph (A). Credit: © UNIGE

    Picture taken by SPHERE, showing the planet made visible after the star has been hidden by the coronograph (A).
    Credit: © UNIGE

    An international team, including members of the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, discovered an exoplanet by direct imaging using SPHERE, an instrument designed and developed by a consortium of 12 European institutes on the Very Large Telescope VLT ESO, based in Chile. The instrument, which corrects in real time the terrestrial atmospheric turbulences and occults the light of the star, allows to take a real “photography” of the exoplanet. While more than 3600 exoplanets were discovered through indirect methods, only a handful of them could be observed by direct imaging.

    In order to take this kind of image, SPHERE is equipped with a deformable mirror that ...

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    Cosmic barbecue: Researchers spot 60 new ‘hot Jupiter’ candidates

    July 8, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The diagram above shows a hot Jupiter at various phases of its orbit. The sizes of the star and planet and the separations between them are to scale for a typical hot Jupiter. The amount of reflected starlight that is observed depends on the planet's position within its orbit and the inclination of the orbit with respect to the observer.

    The diagram above shows a hot Jupiter at various phases of its orbit. The sizes of the star and planet and the separations between them are to scale for a typical hot Jupiter. The amount of reflected starlight that is observed depends on the planet’s position within its orbit and the inclination of the orbit with respect to the observer.

     
    Yale researchers have identified 60 potential new “hot Jupiters” — highly irradiated worlds that glow like coals on a barbecue grill and are found orbiting only 1% of Sun-like stars. Hot Jupiters constitute a class of gas giant planets located so close to their parent stars that they take less than a week to complete an orbit. Second-year Ph.D...
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    Gene that could play key Role in Depression identified

    July 7, 2017, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Reduced Slc6a15 in Nucleus Accumbens D2-Neurons Underlies Stress Susceptibility. The Journal of Neuroscience, 2017; 37 (27): 6527 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3250-16.2017

    Reduced Slc6a15 in Nucleus Accumbens D2-Neurons Underlies Stress Susceptibility. The Journal of Neuroscience, 2017; 37 (27): 6527 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3250-16.2017

    A gene can either amplify or reduce stress, depending on its level of activity. Globally, depression affects more than 300 million people annually. Nearly 800,000 die from suicide every year – it is the second-leading cause of death among people between 15 to 29 years old. Beyond that, depression destroys quality for life for tens of millions of patients and their families. Although environmental factors play a role in many cases of depression, genetics are also crucially important.

    A new study by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) has pinpointed how one particular gene plays a central role –...

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    New Material may help Cut Battery Costs for Electric cars, Cellphones

    July 7, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas and Seoul National University have designed a novel battery cathode material that offers a potentially lower-cost, more eco-friendly option to lithium-ion batteries. Their sodium-ion design, which retains the high energy density of a lithium-ion cathode, replaces the most of the lithium atoms (green) with sodium (yellow). The layered structure of the new material also incorporates manganese (purple) and oxygen (red). The research is published in the journal Advanced Materials. Credit: University of Texas at Dallas

    Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas and Seoul National University have designed a novel battery cathode material that offers a potentially lower-cost, more eco-friendly option to lithium-ion batteries. Their sodium-ion design, which retains the high energy density of a lithium-ion cathode, replaces the most of the lithium atoms (green) with sodium (yellow). The layered structure of the new material also incorporates manganese (purple) and oxygen (red). The research is published in the journal Advanced Materials. Credit: University of Texas at Dallas

    In the battle of the batteries, lithium-ion technology is the reigning champion, powering that cellphone in your pocket as well as an increasing number of electric vehicles on the road...

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