Heavens

A number of studies suggest that children delivered by Caesarean section have a different intestinal flora than children delivered by natural birth. But it is still unknown why this is the case and what it means for the immune system. Researchers from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences therefore decided to scrutinise the impact of birth on the development of the immune system in a study of newborn mouse pups.

As anybody who has started a campfire by rubbing sticks knows, friction generates heat. Now, computer modeling by NASA scientists shows that friction could be the key to survival for some distant Earth-sized planets traveling in dangerous orbits.

The findings are consistent with observations that Earth-sized planets appear to be very common in other star systems. Although heat can be a destructive force for some planets, the right amount of friction, and therefore heat, can be helpful and perhaps create conditions for habitability.

Understanding the sun from afar isn't easy. How do you figure out what powers solar flares – the intense bursts of radiation coming from the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots – when you must rely on observing only the light and particles that make their way to near-Earth's orbit?

NOAA's GOES-West and NASA-JAXA's Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM mission satellite helped forecasters at the National Hurricane Center determine that what was once Tropical Storm Fausto is now a remnant area of low pressure in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

Forecaster Beven at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted that "satellite imagery, overnight scatterometer data, and a recent GPM satellite microwave overpass indicate that Fausto has degenerated to a trough of low pressure."

There are billions of stars and planets in the universe. A star is glowing sphere of gas, while planets like Earth are made up of solids. The planets are formed in dust clouds that swirled around a newly formed star. Dust grains are composed of elements like carbon, silicon, oxygen, iron, and magnesium. But where does the cosmic dust come from? New research from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University shows that not only can grains of dust form in gigantic supernova explosions, they can also survive the subsequent shockwaves they are exposed to.

Christian Roos' research team at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Innsbruck has established a new experimental platform for investigating quantum phenomena: In a string of trapped ultracold ions they can precisely initialise, control and measure the states and properties of quasiparticle excitations in a many-body quantum system. "Quasiparticles are a well-established concept in physics to describe the collective behaviour of particles in a simplified way," says Christian Roos.

Entanglement propagation

The origin of cosmic dust in galaxies is still a mystery [1]. Astronomers know that supernovae may be the primary source of dust, especially in the early Universe, but it is still unclear how and where dust grains condense and grow. It is also unclear how they avoid destruction in the harsh environment of a star-forming galaxy. But now, observations using ESO's VLT at the Paranal Observatory in northern Chile are lifting the veil for the first time.

A new Yale-led study quantifies for the first time the primary causes of the "urban heat island" (UHI) effect, a common phenomenon that makes the world's urban areas significantly warmer than the surrounding countryside and may increase health risks for city residents.

Too cool and faint, many objects in the universe are impossible to detect with visible light. Now a Northwestern University team has refined a new technology that could make these colder objects more visible, paving the way for enhanced exploration of deep space.

Astronomers have studied the carbon monoxide in a galaxy over 12 billion light years from Earth and discovered that it's running out of gas, quite literally, and headed for a 'red and dead' future.

The galaxy, known as ALESS65, was observed by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in 2011 and is one of less than 20 known distant galaxies to contain carbon monoxide.

The shape model, which is now published by the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, was developed using only a single emission line of near-infrared light emitted by molecular hydrogen gas. The characteristic 2.12-micron light shifts in wavelength slightly depending on the speed and direction of the expanding gas, allowing the team to probe even dust-obscured portions of the Homunculus that face away from Earth.

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 12:20 p.m. EDT on July 8, 2014, and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory flew over Hurricane Arthur five times between July 1 and July 5, 2014. Arthur is the first tropical cyclone of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season.

GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The Core Observatory was launched Feb. 27 from Japan and began its prime mission on May 29, just in time for the hurricane season.

TEMPE, Ariz. - Planet Mercury's unusual metal-rich composition has been a longstanding puzzle in planetary science. According to a study published online in Nature Geoscience July 6, Mercury and other unusually metal-rich objects in the solar system may be relics left behind by collisions in the early solar system that built the other planets.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] —The cognitive scientists in the Virtual Environment Navigation lab at Brown University are not only advancing a frontier of behavioral research but also of technology.

Led by Professor William Warren, the group developed a wireless virtual reality system to study a phenomenon that scientists don't yet understand: how pedestrians interact with each other and how those individual behaviors, in turn, generate patterns of crowd movement. It's an everyday experience for all kinds of animals including ants, birds, fish and people.