This visualization shows the difference in the forest cover between the region within the Gombe National Park, to the left of the red boundary line, and the regions outside of the park to the right. Credits: NASA/Goddard Scientific Visualiztion Studio/Cindy Starr

345,000 or less chimpanzees remain in the wild, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, a substantial decline from the more than 2 million that existed a hundred years ago. Humans’ closest genetic cousins, chimpanzees are an endangered species and scientists and conservationists are turning to the NASA-U.S. Geological Survey Landsat satellites to help bolster their efforts to preserve their forest homes...

In February 2016 the dwarf nova SS Cyg anomalous outburst lasted for more than 3 weeks. Rapid radio flaring was seen throughout the outburst and the most intriguing behavior was towards the end of the outburst, where a fast, luminous, giant flare, peaking at ~20 mJy and lasting for 15 minutes was observed. This is the first time that such a flare has been observed in SS Cyg. Rapid flares are defined as a sudden,rapid, and intense variation in brightness. Credit: Professor Robert Hynes, University of Louisiana

Incredibly rapid gas flares from a white dwarf binary star system have been detected for the first time by Oxford University scientists. The first sighting of such activity, it suggests that our current understanding of star habits and their capabilities is incomplete...

Diets high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish and nuts have been shown to reduce inflammation

Anti-inflammatory diets (high in vegetables, fruits, fish, whole grains) could boost bone health and prevent fractures in some women, a new study suggests. Researchers examined data from the Women’s Health Initiative to compare levels of inflammatory elements in the diet to bone mineral density and fractures and found new associations between food and bone health.

Women with the least-inflammatory diets (based on a scoring system called the Dietary Inflammatory Index) lost less bone density during the 6-year follow-up period than their peers with the most-inflammatory diets. This was despite the fact that they started off with lower bone density overall...

Regulation of type I interferon responses

Scientists have discovered that a biological molecule important in cell growth (STAT3) is also critical in protecting us against infection – so much so that we would be unable to fight the common flu virus without it. Their discovery could pave the way to the development of new therapeutics charged with restoring our natural immunity to a whole spectrum of viruses that have evolved ‘roadblocks’ to the immune response. In a world of newly emerging viral infections such as SARS, ZIKA and Ebola, the importance of understanding how viruses target our immune system, and the need to develop new therapies to cure and protect us, has never been greater.

During any viral infection our cells produce Interferon, which essentially ‘interferes’ with the battle ...