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This colorized movie from NASA’s Cassini mission takes viewers over the largest seas and lakes on Saturn’s moon Titan. The movie is made from radar data received during multiple flyovers of Titan from 2004 to 2013. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is providing scientists with key clues about Saturn’s moon Titan, and in particular, its hydrocarbon lakes and seas. Titan is one of the most Earth-like places in the solar system, and the only place other than our planet that has stable liquid on its surface....

This newly released Cassini image shows Saturn’s Moons Enceladus and Janus. When taking images in directions opposite from the sun, most objects appear dark. Surprisingly, however, some of Saturn’s rings get brighter. Parts of Saturn’s main rings appear dark in backlit views, particularly the dense B ring. However, some rings are comparatively tenuous and made up of dust particles that tend to scatter light in roughly the original direction it was traveling....

The same phenomenon that causes a bumpy airplane ride, turbulence, may be the solution to a long-standing mystery about stars’ birth, or the absence of it, according to a new study using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the universe, held together by gravity. These behemoths contain hundreds or thousands of individual galaxies that are immersed in gas with temperatures of millions of degrees....

Described as the equivalent of discovering “a needle in a haystack,” the chemical compounds — collectively known as a ‘hexagonal perovskites’ — could be the key to unlocking the potential of ceramic fuel cells. Ceramic fuel cells are highly efficient devices that convert chemical energy into electrical energy and produce very low emissions if powered by hydrogen, providing a clean alternative to fossil fuels. Another advantage of ceramic fuel cells is that they can also use hydrocarbon fuels such as methane, meaning they can act as a ‘bridging’ technology which is an important asset in terms of the move away from hydrocarbons towards cleaner energy sources....

Great uncertainty surrounds the origins of SARS-CoV-2. Early on, some suggested a link between COVID-19 and a seafood market in Wuhan, China. Other theories are now circulating, though the origins of the virus are still unknown. In response, governments have pushed for the closing of so-called “wet markets” around the world, but this is not an effective policy solution, Princeton University researchers report. A widespread shuttering of all wet markets could have the unintended consequences of disrupting critical food supply chains, stimulating an unregulated black market for animal products, and stoking xenophobia and anti-Asian sentiment....

Seasonal colds are by all accounts no fun, but new research suggests the colds you’ve had in the past may provide some protection from COVID-19. The study, authored by infectious disease experts at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), also suggests that immunity to COVID-19 is likely to last a long time — maybe even a lifetime. The study, published in the journal mBio, is the first to show that the COVID-19-causing virus, SARS-CoV-2, induces memory B cells, long-lived immune cells that detect pathogens, create antibodies to destroy them and remember them for the future....

The 12,111 variants that cluster around areas of the genome involved with skeletal growth offer a strong genetic predictor of height. For people of European ancestry, the identified variants account for 40% of the variance in height, and for those of non-European ancestry, 10–20%. Adult height is mostly determined by the information encoded in our DNA; children of tall parents are likely to be taller, while children of short parents tend to be shorter, although these estimations aren’t perfect....

After studying the effectiveness of varying layers of masks in stopping respiratory droplets from escaping face masks, a team of international researchers has now turned their attention to modeling what happens to droplets when they come in contact with wet masks. Their results show that damp masks are still effective at stopping these droplets from escaping the mask and being atomized into smaller, easier-to-spread aerosolized particles. This study only investigated the effects of wet masks on droplet penetration; the researchers note that people should follow public health guidance to change their mask if it is wet, since wet masks are harder to breathe through, less efficient at filtering inhaled air, and can vent more around the edge of the mask than dry masks....

While the chemistry that gives some insects the almost magical ability to glow is now reasonably well-appreciated, much less is known about how these signals evolved. New research by a team of scientists led by the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS) has provided new insight on the evolution of this capacity. Their research focuses on the newly discovered family of Cretophengodidae, found in a Cretaceous amber fossil, which sheds light on bioluminescence in beetles....

With just the single solar array, Cygnus still has sufficient power to rendezvous with the space station on Wednesday, November 9. Northrop Grumman is working closely with NASA to monitor and assess the spacecraft ahead of tomorrow’s planned arrival, capture, and installation at the space station. Mission teams also are planning additional inspections of the cargo spacecraft during approach and after capture. NASA TV coverage of rendezvous and capture will begin at 3:30 a....

The harvestmen was collected by Peter Jager, an arachnologist at the Senckenberg Research Institute, while he was on a break filming a TV series in Laos’ southern province of Khammouan. The specimen has yet to be identified at a species level. The harvestmen is most likely of the genus Gagrella. Similarly-sized species of arachnids have been discovered in the surrounding area and have been linked with the cave systems. For now, the exact mechanisms or factors responsible for this frequency of gigantism are yet unclear....

A: Very carefully. Last month, crews at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in South Dakota strapped the central component of LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) – the largest direct-detection dark matter experiment in the U.S. – below an elevator and s-l-o-w-l-y lowered it 4,850 feet (1,478 meters) down a shaft formerly used in gold-mining operations. This final journey of LZ’s central detector on October 21, 2019, to its resting place in a custom-built research cavern required extensive planning and involved two test moves of a “dummy” detector to ensure its safe delivery....

Prostate cancer, the most common cancer in men, is often a localized, slow-growing cancer, which aids treatment and improves survival rates. However, highly aggressive, metastatic forms of the cancer occur frequently enough to make it the No. 2 cause of death in U.S. men. Part of the reason for this high mortality rate is the lack of effective drugs to fight these more aggressive cancers. SSRL is helping investigators change that....

Vesta, the second most massive asteroid in the Solar System, after the dwarf planet Ceres, was thought to be a dry place, but the most recent evidence from NASA’s spacecraft Dawn has found that smaller, water-rich asteroids once implanted themselves in Vesta’s surface. The water is locked up in hydrated minerals until subsequent impacts create enough heat to melt the rock and release the water as gas. The scientists described their findings in two papers published in the journal Science....

“Currently, we are experiencing a once-in-a-century life-changing event,” said Alafeef. “We are responding to this global need from a holistic approach by developing multidisciplinary tools for early detection and diagnosis and treatment for SARS-CoV-2.” There are two broad categories of COVID-19 tests on the market. The first category uses reverse transcriptase real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and nucleic acid hybridization strategies to identify viral RNA. Current FDA-approved diagnostic tests use this technique....

The foods we eat may have a direct impact on our cognitive acuity in our later years. This is the key finding of an Iowa State University research study spotlighted in an article published in the November 2020 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. The study was spearheaded by principal investigator, Auriel Willette, an assistant professor in Food Science and Human Nutrition, and Brandon Klinedinst, a Neuroscience Ph.D. candidate working in the Food Science and Human Nutrition department at Iowa State....

What’s Up for October? Evenings with giants, Mars changes course, and meteors from Orion. Giant planets Jupiter and Saturn are visible throughout the night in October. Early in the evening, you’ll find them to the southeast, moving slowly westward with the stars over the course of the night. They form a triangle with the bright star Fomalhaut. When observing this trio, note how the planets shine with a steady light, while the star twinkles....

Where there’s water, there’s life. That’s the case on Earth, at least, and also why scientists remain tantalized by any evidence suggesting there’s liquid water on cold, dry Mars. The Red Planet is a difficult place to look for liquid water: While water ice is plentiful, any water warm enough to be liquid on the surface would last for only a few moments before turning into vapor in Mars’ wispy air....

Though variations in weather from year to year cause variations in the monthly means for individual years, March 2020 shows the lowest monthly atmospheric nitrogen dioxide levels of any March during the OMI data record, which spans 2005 to the present. In fact, the data indicate that the nitrogen dioxide levels in March 2020 are about 30% lower on average across the region of the I-95 corridor from Washington, DC to Boston than when compared to the March mean of 2015-19....

When patients contract ordinary TB, they start to feel better after a few weeks or months on a selection of four antibiotics. Of the 542 people with TB at the hospital in 2005 and early 2006, 221 (41%) had multi-drug-resistant (MDR) TB, against which these therapies are useless. 53 of them didn’t even respond to the few antibiotics that form a second line of defense. Eventually, all but one of the 53 died, half of them within 16 days of the diagnosis....