Heavens

Boston, Mass.—A multi-institutional research team has developed a method for embedding networks of biocompatible nanoscale wires within engineered tissues. These networks—which mark the first time that electronics and tissue have been truly merged in 3D—allow direct tissue sensing and potentially stimulation, a potential boon for development of engineered tissues that incorporate capabilities for monitoring and stimulation, and of devices for screening new drugs.

Sunbathing may be healthy – at least for one group of North American insects that apparently uses the activity to fight off germs, Simon Fraser University scientists have found.

Western Boxelder bugs (WBB), found largely in B.C. interior regions, are known to group together in sunlit patches and while there, release monoterpenes, strong-smelling chemical compounds that help protect the bugs by killing germs on their bodies.

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite, known as TRMM has been monitoring the rainfall rates within Tropical Storm Isaac as the storm entered the eastern Caribbean Sea.

NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of Tropical Storm Tembin after it made a quick track across southern Taiwan and re-emerged over the open waters of the Philippine Sea.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., August 23, 2012 — Members of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover ChemCam team, including Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists, squeezed in a little extra target practice after zapping the first fist-sized rock that was placed in the laser's crosshairs last weekend.

Much to the delight of the scientific team, the laser instrument has fired nearly 500 shots so far that have produced strong, clear data about the composition of the Martian surface.

NOAA researchers are getting a comprehensive view of the ocean floor using a new instrument, and have confirmed that there are high numbers of young sea scallops off of Delaware Bay.

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– In the August 24 issue of the journal Science, astronomers show for the first time that at least some thermonuclear (Type Ia) supernovae come from a recurrent nova. The results of the study, led by Ben Dilday, a postdoctoral researcher in physics at UC Santa Barbara and at Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT), are surprising because previous indirect –– but strong –– evidence had pointed to the merger of two white dwarf stars as the originators of other Type Ia supernovae.

From the Keck observations, astronomers noticed that the clouds of gas and dust surrounding PTF 11kx were moving too slowly to be coming from the recent supernova, but moving too quickly to be stellar wind. They suspected that maybe the star erupted, or went nova, previously propelling a shell of material outwards. The material, they surmised, must be slowing down as it collided with wind from a nearby red giant star. But for this theory to be true, the material from the recent supernova should eventually catch up and collide with gas and dust from the previous nova.

Tropical Depression 10 appeared more organized on NOAA's GOES-13 satellite imagery early on Aug. 23 (Eastern Daylight Time) and it was renamed Tropical Storm Joyce by the National Hurricane Center by 11 a.m. EDT

For the Princeton study, the researchers encoded each individual prey with various strengths of three traits — a tendency to be attracted to, swim in the same direction as, or ignore nearby individuals. Thus, individual prey would either swim alone, group together, or follow other prey, or exhibit a combination of traits.

Isaac formed from a tropical wave that moved off of the coast of Africa on Aug. 17. Four days later on the morning of Aug. 21, the wave had intensified and developed enough of a circulation to become a tropical depression, TD 9. Later that same day, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded the system to Tropical Storm Isaac with sustained winds reported at 35 knots (~40 mph). Isaac then continued to track westward through the central Atlantic towards the Lesser Antilles.

Spacetime may be less like beer and more like sipping whiskey.

Or so an intergalactic photo finish may suggest.

Physicist Robert Nemiroff of Michigan Technological University reached this heady conclusion after studying the tracings of three photons of differing wavelengths that were recorded by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in May 2009.

The photons originated about 7 billion light years away from Earth in one of three pulses from a gamma-ray burst. They arrived at the orbiting telescope just one millisecond apart, in a virtual tie.

They are one of the most destructive forces of nature on Earth, but now environmental scientists are working to tame the hurricane. In a paper, published in Atmospheric Science Letters, the authors propose using cloud seeding to decrease sea surface temperatures where hurricanes form. Theoretically, the team claims the technique could reduce hurricane intensity by a category.

The Milky Way seems to be a fairly typical galaxy on its own, but when paired with its close neighbors, the Magellanic Clouds, it is very rare, and could have been one of a kind, until a survey of our local Universe found another two examples just like us, according to research presented today at the International Astronomical Union General Assembly in Beijing, which has found the first group of galaxies that is just like ours, a rare sight in the local Universe.

Medical research saves lives, suffering and dollars – while also creating jobs and economic activity. The United States has long led the world, with hundreds of thousands of jobs and marketable discoveries generated by government research funding every year. Top students from around the world come here for training -- and often stay to help fuel medical innovation.

Now, warns a team of researchers in the New England Journal of Medicine, the U.S. risks losing out to Asia as the hub of medical discovery.