Recent Comments

    Webb data suggest many Early Galaxies were Long and Thin, not Disk-like or Spherical

    January 18, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Sample shapes of distant galaxies identified by the James Webb Space Telescope’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey.
    Sample shapes of distant galaxies identified by the James Webb Space Telescope’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey. [(Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Steve Finkelstein (UT Austin), Micaela Bagley (UT Austin), Rebecca Larson (UT Austin)]

    Columbia researchers analyzing images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found that galaxies in the early universe are often flat and elongated, like breadsticks—and are rarely round, like balls of pizza dough.

    “Roughly 50 to 80% of the galaxies we studied appear to be flattened in two dimensions,” explained Viraj Pandya, a NASA Hubble Fellow at Columbia University and the lead author of a new paper slated to appear in The Astrophysical Journal that outlines the findings...

    Read More

    Research demonstrates that Killer T cells can support Tissue Regeneration

    January 17, 2024, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Killer T cells support tissue regeneration
    Wound healing and target killing are both effector mechanisms of CD8 T cells. (A) Combined proliferation and killing assay in the presence of influenza-specific CD8 T cells and varying amounts of pulsed peptides on MRC-5 and HaCaT cells seeded in a 30:70 ratio. Left, representative image with labels (0 versus 5 h; T cells only versus T cells + 100 ng/ml peptide). Right, representative quantification of Cas3/7 activity (green) and HaCaT proliferation (red) with titrated amounts of influenza peptide, with statistical verification across experiments using normalized area under the curve (AUC, n = 3, one-way ANOVA, symbols indicate individual experiments). Scale bars = 400 µm; enhanced for improved visibility...
    Read More

    Team develops a new Deepfake Detector designed to be Less Biased

    January 17, 2024, Categories  Physics

    Study: New deepfake detector designed to be less biased
    Deepfake detection algorithms often perform differently across races and genders, including a higher false positive rate on Black men than on white women. New algorithms developed at the University at Buffalo are designed to reduce such gaps. Credit: Siwei Lyu

    University at Buffalo computer scientist and deepfake expert Siwei Lyu created a photo collage out of the hundreds of faces that his detection algorithms had incorrectly classified as fake—and the new composition clearly had a predominantly) darker skin tone.

    “A detection algorithm’s accuracy should be statistically independent from factors like race,” Lyu says, “but obviously many existing algorithms, including our own, inherit a bias.”

    Lyu, Ph.D...

    Read More

    ALMA Observations show how Double, Triple, Quadruple and Quintuple Star Systems Form Simultaneously in a Molecular Cloud

    January 17, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Blue-green-yellow splashes of colour with red-white islands against a blue background.
    False-color image of the massive star formation region G333.23–0.06 from data obtained with the ALMA radio observatory. North is to the left. The insets show regions in which Li et al. were able to detect multiple systems of protostars. The star symbols indicate the location of each newly forming stars. The image covers a region 0.62 by 0.78 light-years in size (which on the sky covers a mere 7.5 times 9.5 arc seconds). For comparison: If you look at the sky along an outstretched thumb, it spans a viewing angle of around two degrees. One degree corresponds to 3600 arc seconds.
    © S. Li, MPIA / J. Neidel, MPIA Graphics Department / Data: ALMA Observatory

    For humans, the chance of giving birth to multiples is less than 2%...

    Read More