The Electric Sands of Titan

An artist's rendering of the surface of Titan, a moon of Saturn. Courtesy: iPhoto Stock, manjik. Inset: This composite image shows an infrared view of Saturn's moon Titan from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, acquired during the mission's "T-114" flyby on Nov. 13, 2015. Credit: NASA/JPL

An artist’s rendering of the surface of Titan, a moon of Saturn. Courtesy: iPhoto Stock, manjik. Inset: This composite image shows an infrared view of Saturn’s moon Titan from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, acquired during the mission’s “T-114” flyby on Nov. 13, 2015.
Credit: NASA/JPL

The grains that cover Saturn’s moon act like clingy packing peanuts. Experiments led by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology suggest the particles that cover the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, are “electrically charged.” When the wind blows hard enough (~15 mph), Titan’s non-silicate granules get kicked up and start to hop in a motion referred to as saltation...

Read More

Planetary Waves, first found on Earth, are discovered on Sun

Coronal BP detection at three distinct vantage points in space. BP detections by the STEREO and SDO spacecraft taken around 00:00 UT on 2 February 2011 when the entire solar corona could first be seen by all three spacecraft. The top row (a–c) shows coronal images from a plasma formed around 1.5 MK. The small bright concentrations seen in these images are BPs. The bottom row (d–f) shows the same images with respective BP detections15 shown in red (STEREO-Behind), white (SDO) and blue (STEREO-Ahead).

Coronal BP detection at three distinct vantage points in space. BP detections by the STEREO and SDO spacecraft taken around 00:00 UT on 2 February 2011 when the entire solar corona could first be seen by all three spacecraft. The top row (a–c) shows coronal images from a plasma formed around 1.5 MK. The small bright concentrations seen in these images are BPs. The bottom row (d–f) shows the same images with respective BP detections15 shown in red (STEREO-Behind), white (SDO) and blue (STEREO-Ahead).

Waves may influence space weather, offer a source of predictability...

Read More

Microrna treatment Restores Nerve Insulation, Limb Function in Mice with MS

This image shows restored presence of proteins indicating myelin reformation (shown in red) in the lumbar spinal cord of a mouse treated with miR-219 mimic after injury to its central nervous system. Researchers report March 27 in Developmental Cell treatment with the micro-RNA partially repaired damaged nerves and restored limb function in mice. Credit: Cincinnati Children's

This image shows restored presence of proteins indicating myelin reformation (shown in red) in the lumbar spinal cord of a mouse treated with miR-219 mimic after injury to its central nervous system. Researchers report March 27 in Developmental Cell treatment with the micro-RNA partially repaired damaged nerves and restored limb function in mice. Credit: Cincinnati Children’s

Scientists partially re-insulated ravaged nerves in mouse models of multiple sclerosis (MS) and restored limb mobility by treating the animals with a small non-coding RNA called a microRNA...

Read More

Scientists discover Mechanism that causes Cancer Cells to Self-Destruct

Aberrant spindles and impaired spindle poles in human cancer cells treated with the phenanthridine PJ34.

Aberrant spindles and impaired spindle poles in human cancer cells treated with the phenanthridine PJ34. (A) Small aberrant spindles were identified by confocal microscopy in randomly scanned human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells incubated with PJ34 (20 μM, 27 h). Spindles were immunolabeled for HSET/kifC1 (green) bound to microtubules. Similarly immunolabeled spindles are not impaired in PJ34 treated normal human breast epithelial cells MCF10A. Bars indicate the spindle length measured by the scale bar (n = 20; 3 different experiments), 95% of the spindles in MDA-MB-231 cells were shorter, 60 ± 5% in size. (B) Upper panel: Impaired spindle poles were identified in randomly scanned fixed MDA-MB-231 cells treated with PJ34 (20 μM, 27 h)...

Read More