Heavens

Simone Silvestro and colleagues present evidence of dune and ripple migration over the dune field that lies along Curiosity's traverse to Aeolis Mons in the NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) landing site.

They further estimate wind directions within the dune field through analysis of dune and ripple morphologies and atmospheric modeling and measured a ripple migration rate of 0.66 m/Earth year and dune migration rate of 0.4 m/Earth year in the southwest dune field sector.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- While many people recognize that clean water and air are signs of a healthy ecosystem, most do not realize that a critical part of the environment is right beneath their feet, according to a Penn State hydrologist.

February 17 – Boston, MA – Quantum information processing promises not only breakthroughs for computing, communications and cryptography, but it can also help us devise tools for navigating and controlling the nano-scale world. Sensors that operate according to quantum mechanics may achieve sensitivity, selectivity, precision and robustness far beyond their classical counterparts.

PHILADELPHIA - Garret FitzGerald, MD, FRS, chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has long said the current drug-development system in the United States is in need of change, "representing an unsustainable model."

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- As people move more often and become more urbanized, skin color -- an adaptation that took hundreds of thousands of years to develop in humans -- may lose some of its evolutionary advantage, according to a Penn State anthropologist.

About 2 million years ago, permanent dark skin color imparted by the pigment -- melanin -- began to evolve in humans to regulate the body's reaction to ultraviolet rays from the sun, said Nina Jablonski, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology.

In perhaps no other scientific field does the adage "form follows function" hold more true than in biology, especially the biology of living cells, which is why our knowledge of cells starts with imaging. Optical microscopy is limited by low spatial resolution – about 200 nanometers, and electron microscopy is limited by the poor penetration of electrons and the requirement that it be performed in a vacuum, which means cells must be sectioned off into tissue-thin slices and dehydrated.

Ever wonder why sand can both run through an hourglass like a liquid and be solid enough to support buildings? It's because granular materials – like sand or dirt – can change their behavior, or state. Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that the forces individual grains exert on one another are what most affect that transition.

A team of physicists at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, performed an experiment that seems to contradict the foundations of quantum theory -- at first glance. The team led by Rainer Blatt reversed a quantum measurement in a prototype quantum information processor. The experiment is enabled by a technique that has been developed for quantum error correction in a future quantum computer.

A new study using observations from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveals the first clear-cut evidence the expanding debris of exploded stars produces some of the fastest-moving matter in the universe. This discovery is a major step toward understanding the origin of cosmic rays, one of Fermi's primary mission goals.

Middle school students from small towns and rural communities who received any of three community-based prevention programs were less likely to abuse prescription medications in late adolescence and young adulthood. The research, published today in the American Journal of Public Health, was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the National Institute of Mental Health, all components of the National Institutes of Health.

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite known as TRMM measured Cyclone Gino's rainfall from space and saw the bulk of precipitation was south of the center. Gino's rainfall is being pushed away from the center by vertical wind shear.

From providing living cells with energy, to nitrogen fixation, to the splitting of water molecules, the catalytic activities of metalloenzymes – proteins that contain a metal ion – are vital to life on Earth. A better understanding of the chemistry behind these catalytic activities could pave the way for exciting new technologies, most prominently artificial photosynthesis systems that would provide clean, green and renewable energy. Now, researchers with the U.S.

This release is available in Japanese.

We are constantly being bombarded by speedy, energetic, and yet unassuming, particles called cosmic rays. These charged particles (mostly protons), continuously assail the Earth from outer space. There is general consensus among scientists that supernova remnants (the leftovers of a supernova explosion) are the sources of cosmic rays, but the final proof has been elusive since cosmic rays are deflected on their way from the source to Earth.

In the year 1006 a new star was seen in the southern skies and widely recorded around the world. It was many times brighter than the planet Venus and may even have rivaled the brightness of the Moon. It was so bright at maximum that it cast shadows and it was visible during the day. More recently astronomers have identified the site of this supernova and named it SN 1006. They have also found a glowing and expanding ring of material in the southern constellation of Lupus (The Wolf) that constitutes the remains of the vast explosion.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Electrical engineers at Oregon State University have discovered a way to use high- frequency sound waves to enhance the magnetic storage of data, offering a new approach to improve the data storage capabilities of a multitude of electronic devices around the world.

The technology, called acoustic-assisted magnetic recording, has been presented at a professional conference, and a patent application was filed this week.