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This tiny package is an ejectable data module (EDM) for a NASA technology demonstration, Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID). LOFTID will demonstrate an inflatable heat shield technology that could potentially be used to land humans on Mars. Once the LOFTID vehicle reaches space following the launch, the heat shield will inflate, then the LOFTID re-entry vehicle will enter Earth’s atmosphere and splash down in the Pacific Ocean....

To improve access to this key information, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced a concept for the Earth Information Center in October 2021, and released the first concept in September 2022. The goal is to allow users to see how our planet is changing and provide easy-to-use information and resources that support decision-makers in developing the tools they need to mitigate, adapt, and respond to climate change. Earth Information Center will deliver critical data directly into the hands of people in ways and forms that they can immediately use....

Helping take a step forward in the agency’s goal to build a robust economy at the Moon by working with commercial service providers, Axiom Space hosted the event for students and media to ask questions and get a close-up look at the spacesuit. “NASA’s partnership with Axiom is critical to landing astronauts on the Moon and continuing American leadership in space. Building on NASA’s years of research and expertise, Axiom’s next-generation spacesuits will not only enable the first woman to walk on the Moon, but they will also open opportunities for more people to explore and conduct science on the Moon than ever before,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson....

Many of the chemicals used to deter or eliminate disease-carrying mosquitoes can pollute ecosystems and drive the evolution of even more problematic, insecticide-resistant species — but thankfully, we may have better options soon. Scientists previously discovered that a strain of naturally occurring bacteria called Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) produces several compounds that kill mosquito larvae, yet are harmless to most other organisms. These compounds exist in crystal form inside the bacteria, and when the microbes are eaten by a larva, the high pH and digestive enzymes in their gut cause the crystals to dissolve and rearrange into molecules that perforate the larva’s gut cell membranes, quickly killing the insect....

Timing is critical for playing a musical instrument, swinging a baseball bat, and many other activities. Neuroscientists have come up with several models of how the brain achieves its exquisite control over timing, the most prominent being that there is a centralized clock, or pacemaker, somewhere in the brain that keeps time for the entire brain. However, a new study from MIT researchers provides evidence for an alternative timekeeping system that relies on the neurons responsible for producing a specific action....

Petit-spot volcanoes are a relatively new phenomenon on Earth. They are young, small volcanoes that come about along fissures from the base of tectonic plates. As the tectonic plates sink deeper into the Earth’s upper mantle, fissures occur where the plate begins to bend causing small volcanoes to erupt. The first discovery of petit-spot volcanoes was made in 2006 near the Japan Trench, located to the northeast of Japan. Rock samples collected from previous studies of petit-spot volcanoes signify that the magma emitted stems directly from the asthenosphere – the uppermost part of Earth’s mantle which drives the movement of tectonic plates....

A new study using the antibody drug BMS-936558 (MDX-1106, anti-PD-1), resulted in tumor shrinkage of at least 30 percent in 18 percent of lung cancer patients, 28 percent of melanoma patients, and 27 percent of renal-cell patients. About a quarter of patients with deadly cancers had significant reductions of tumor size after taking a new antibody drug, according to results of a large early-stage clinical trial conducted by scientists from Yale School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and other major institutions....

In a study, published on March 9, 2022, in the journal Scientific Reports, the antimicrobial treatment for air filters — coated with a chemical biocide called chlorhexidine digluconate (CHDG) — were rigorously tested and compared to commonly used standard ‘control’ filters in the laboratory, in industrial air condensing units, and in a trial on-board trains operating on the UK’s railways. In the laboratory, cells of the Wuhan strain of SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 — were added to the surface of both the treated and control filters and measured at intervals over a period of more than an hour....

Novel fiber-reinforced composites are becoming increasingly important as stable and lightweight materials. One example of this type of composite is carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP), which are used in aircraft construction or in the construction of Formula 1 racing cars and sports bicycles. The properties of these materials depend to a large extent on how the tiny fibers are aligned and how they are arranged and embedded in the surrounding material, influencing the mechanical, optical, or electromagnetic behavior of the composites....

Daphnis, one of Saturn’s ring-embedded moons, is featured in this view, kicking up waves as it orbits within the Keeler gap. The mosaic combines several images to show more waves in the gap edges than seen in a previously released image. Daphnis is a small moon at 5 miles (8 kilometers) across, but its gravity is powerful enough to disrupt the tiny particles of the A ring that form the Keeler gap’s edge....

Unlike with some blockbuster films, the sequel to a movie from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is better than the first. This latest movie features a deeper look at a fast-moving jet of particles produced by a rapidly rotating neutron star, and may provide new insight into the nature of some of the densest matter in the universe. The hero of this Chandra movie is the Vela pulsar, a neutron star that was formed when a massive star collapsed....

Researchers at MIT have taken a significant step toward battery-free monitoring systems — which could ultimately be used in biomedical devices, environmental sensors in remote locations and gauges in hard-to-reach spots, among other applications. Previous work from the lab of MIT professor Anantha Chandrakasan has focused on the development of computer and wireless-communication chips that can operate at extremely low power levels, and on a variety of devices that can harness power from natural light, heat and vibrations in the environment....

But neural nets are large, and their computations are energy intensive, so they’re not very practical for handheld devices. Most smartphone apps that rely on neural nets simply upload data to internet servers, which process it and send the results back to the phone. Now, MIT researchers have developed a special-purpose chip that increases the speed of neural-network computations by three to seven times over its predecessors, while reducing power consumption by 94 to 95 percent....

The findings shed light on the interior structures of giant gas planets, not only of Uranus, a planet for which observational data are sparse, but also those of the many extrasolar planets that are being discovered. When Voyager-2 flew by Uranus in January 1986 and sent the first close-up images back to Earth, it revealed a giant, pale blue icy ball that lacked the stunningly detailed, colorful bands and swirls of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune....

Antibiotic resistance poses a major threat to human health around the world, and Staphylococcus aureus has become one of the most notorious multidrug-resistant pathogens. Led by Dr. Maisem Laabei and Dr. Ian Blagbrough at the University of Bath, scientists have discovered a compound that both inhibits the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) superbug and renders it more vulnerable to antibiotics. The novel compound – a polyamine – seems to destroy S....

In a study that will be published today (July 13, 2022) in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Infectious Diseases, one research team describes a new approach to identifying molecules that interfere with this protein, a step toward the development of pan-coronavirus antivirals. While vaccines prepare the immune system to fight off the virus, antiviral medications treat infections that have already started by interfering with an essential part of the viral machinery....

A newly published report describes the new drug candidate known as phenanthriplatin, a compound that showed a different pattern of activity than that of cisplatin and, depending on the cancer type, was found to be four to 40 times more potent than cisplatin. Drugs containing platinum are among the most powerful and widely used cancer drugs. However, such drugs have toxic side effects, and cancer cells can eventually become resistant to them....

Astronomers have released a new image of the outer atmosphere of Betelgeuse – one of the nearest red supergiants to Earth – revealing the detailed structure of the matter being thrown off the star. The new image, taken by the e-MERLIN radio telescope array operated from the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, also shows regions of surprisingly hot gas in the star’s outer atmosphere and a cooler arc of gas weighing almost as much as the Earth....

A new super-Earth planet that may have an Earth-like climate and be just right to support life has been discovered around a nearby star by an international team of astronomers, led by Mikko Tuomi, University of Hertfordshire, and Guillem Anglada-Escude, University of Goettingen. The new super-Earth planet exists in the habitable zone of a nearby star and is part of a six-planet system. The system was previously thought to contain three planets in orbits too close to the star to support liquid water....

The cold dust that builds blazing stars is revealed in new images that combine observations from the Herschel Space Observatory, a European Space Agency-led mission with important NASA contributions; and NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. The new images map the dust in the galaxies known as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two of the closest neighbors to our own Milky Way galaxy. The Large Magellanic Cloud looks like a fiery, circular explosion in the combined Herschel-Spitzer infrared data....