Examining local conditions and global patterns at the same time allows scientists to zoom in on regions of high concern (at 30 km resolution), such as areas with complex geography influencing the regional climate, and zoom out on the surrounding areas (at 120 km resolution) that may not need such a detailed analysis. In this way, variable resolution modeling can get a better picture of global climate with minimal computational expense. Credit: MPAS modeling courtesy of the authors at PNNL

Local rain in Asia might cause global splash. That’s what scientists at PNNL found when they discovered connections between rain in Asia and the southern hemisphere’s jet stream, an atmospheric current influencing weather across the globe...

Artist’s impression of the planet orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. Credit: ESO

Dimitra Atri, an astrobiologist with the Blue Marble Institute of Space Science, has run simulations of planet Proxima b, an exoplanet circling the star Proxima Centauri, which could possibly support life. Last August, a team of scientists identified a planet circling Proxima Centauri—at 4.2 light-years away, the red dwarf is the closet star to our own sun and the discovery of a planet in its Goldilocks zone excited the astronomy community because it represented the possibility extraterrestrial life. Since that time, Atri has created and run simulations meant to measure the impact of stellar flares on the planet and whether they might be enough to prevent or allow life to exist on the planet.

Pr...

An artist’s depiction of a rapidly spinning supermassive black hole surrounded the rotating leftovers of a star that was ripped apart by the tidal forces of the black hole. Credit: ESO, ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser

Astronomers illuminate the role rapidly spinning black holes play in tidal disruption events. Back in 2015 when astronomers discovered an intense flare in a distant galaxy, they considered it the brightest supernova ever observed. Now, UC Santa Barbara astrophysicists and a group of international colleagues offer an entirely different interpretation based on new astronomical observation data from the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO), a global robotic telescope network, and the Hubble Space Telescope.

The new information indicates that the event, called ASASSN-15lh, is actually a tidal...

UCH-L3

Researchers at Mayo Clinic have identified an enzyme called UCHL3 that regulates the BRCA2 pathway, which is important for DNA repair. Results of this research are published online in Genes & Development. “DNA repair is a fundamental mechanism to prevent the accumulation of mutations in DNA and human disease,” says Zhenkun Lou, Ph.D., a molecular pharmacologist at Mayo Clinic.

“The BRCA2 pathway is important for DNA repair, and mutation of the BRCA2 gene is linked to increased cancer risk, especially breast cancer and ovarian cancer.” Dr. Lou says UCHL3 is highly expressed in some cancers, and mutated or deleted in other cancers. Cancer cells with high UCHL3 expression are resistant to chemotherapy; whereas, cancer cells with low UCHL3 are more sensitive to chemotherapy...