Hidden patterns in electric propulsion plasma beams could help ensure the success of long-term space missions. Go faster, farther, more efficiently.

That’s the goal driving spacecraft propulsion engineers like Chen Cui, a new assistant professor at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science. Cui is exploring ways to improve electric propulsion thrusters — a key technology for future space missions.

“In order to ensure the technology remains viable for long-term missions, we need to optimize EP integration with spacecraft systems,” Cui said.

Working with his former adviser, University of Southern California professor Joseph Wang, Cui published findings last month in Plasma Sources Science and Tec...

A new Tulane University study suggests the Mediterranean diet’s brain-boosting benefits may work by changing the balance of bacteria in the gut.

In a study published in Gut Microbes Reports, researchers at Tulane University School of Medicine found that subjects following a Mediterranean diet developed distinctly different gut bacteria patterns compared to those eating a typical Western diet. These bacterial changes correlated with better memory and cognitive performance.

“We’ve known that what we eat affects brain function, but this study explores how that could be happening,” said lead author Rebecca Solch-Ottaiano, Ph.D...

A new study in published in Physical Review Letters analyzes the most complete set of galaxy clustering data to test the ΛCDM model, revealing discrepancies in the formation of cosmic structures in the universe, hinting at a new physics.

The ΛCDM model is the standard model of cosmology describing the universe’s evolution, expansion, and structure. It encompasses cold dark matter (CDM), normal matter and radiation, and the cosmological constant (Λ), which accounts for dark energy.

The model has been successful in explaining several cosmological observations, including the large-scale structure of the univer...

Researchers are making strides in improving gene therapies for genetic diseases, particularly chronic kidney disease, using adeno-associated virus, or AAV, vectors. While AAV-based treatments have shown promise, delivering these therapies effectively to the kidneys has remained a challenge—until now.

There are many different types of AAV capsids—the protein shells of virus particles—that have been used to deliver genes to cells, each with unique effects...