This artistic impression shows the universe around the star formation area with, as an overlay, the scientists’ observations.(c) Veronica Allen/Alexandra Elconin (http://alsewhere.weebly.com)

An international team of astronomers, led by Dutch scientists, has discovered a region in our Milky Way that contains many nitrogen compounds in the southeast of a butterfly-shaped star formation disk and very little in the north-west. The astronomers suspect that multiple stars-to-be share the same star formation disk, but the precise process is still a puzzle.

They studied the star forming region G35.20-0.74N, more than 7000 light years from Earth in the southern sky. The astronomers used the (sub)millimeter telescope ALMA which can map molecular gas clouds in which stars form...

SAF-A Regulates Interphase Chromosome Structure through Oligomerization with Chromatin-Associated RNAs

Researchers have identified properties in DNA’s protective structure that could transform the way scientists think about the human genome. Molecules involved in DNA’s supportive scaffolding – once thought to be fixed – go through dynamic and responsive changes to shield against mutations, the research shows. Experts say this finding is crucial to understanding DNA damage and genome organisation and could impact current thinking on DNA-linked diseases, including cancers.
In human cells, DNA is wrapped around proteins to form chromatin. Chromatin shields DNA from damage and regulates what genetic information can be read, ie transcription.

Researchers—led by the University of Edinburgh—showe...

Materials scientists at Argonne National Laboratory synthesized single crystals of a metallic trilayer nickelate compound, which shows similarities to a technologically valuable class of materials called high-temperature superconductors — and with the right ingredients, could potentially become one. Above: The crystal structure of such a compound. Credit: Zhang et. al

A team at DOE Argonne National Laboratory has identified a nickel oxide compound as an unconventional but promising candidate material for high-temperature superconductivity. The team successfully synthesized single crystals of a metallic trilayer nickelate compound, a feat the researchers believe to be a first. “It’s poised for superconductivity in a way not found in other nickel oxides...

This artist concept shows the MAVEN spacecraft and the limb of Mars. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

On June 17, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission) will celebrate 1,000 Earth days in orbit around the Red Planet. Since its launch in November 2013 and its orbit insertion in September 2014, MAVEN has been exploring the upper atmosphere of Mars. MAVEN is bringing insight to how the sun stripped Mars of most of its atmosphere, turning a planet once possibly habitable to microbial life into a barren desert world. “MAVEN has made tremendous discoveries about the Mars upper atmosphere and how it interacts with the sun and the solar wind,” said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from the University of Colorado, Boulder...