As the days get colder and shorter, we carve jack-o-lanterns and drink pumpkin spice lattes. But one fall tradition can actually keep you healthy: getting your flu shot. Like all vaccines, the flu shot trains the immune system to fend off infection, but some need help to produce the full effect. Today, in ACS Central Science, researchers report a new way to help improve vaccines using molecules that more effectively direct the immune system.
Heavens
The Vista Variables in the Vía Láctea Survey (VVV) [1] ESO public survey is using the VISTA telescope at the Paranal Observatory to take multiple images at different times of the central parts of the galaxy at infrared wavelengths [2].
We have long known the power of a good sing-along. Now, research from the University of Oxford has shown that singing is a great ice-breaker and can get groups of people to bond together more quickly than other activities can.
The new study, published in the Royal Society's Open Science journal, looked at how people attending adult education classes grew closer over seven months. The conclusion - singing groups bonded more quickly than creative writing or craft classes.
A North Carolina State University physicist and his German colleagues have created a new, more precise algorithm for simulating particle interactions when a single impurity is introduced into a Fermi sea. The algorithm shows that when these particles interact, the transition from quasiparticle to bound molecule in a polarized two-dimensional system is smooth. The new method may have implications for understanding the behavior of impurities in a variety of systems.
NASA's RapidScat analyzed the winds in the Gulf of Mexico that were associated with the hybrid storm the included the remnants of former Eastern Pacific Ocean Hurricane Patricia. NOAA's GOES-East satellite showed the extent of the hybrid system's cloud cover over the southeastern U.S. on October 27.
Patricia's remnants merged with an upper-level low pressure area after it made landfall, and that system has plagued the U.S. Gulf coast states with heavy rains and gusty winds since Sunday, Oct. 25.
Jupiter's moon Europa is believed to possess a large salty ocean beneath its icy exterior, and that ocean, scientists say, has the potential to harbor life. Indeed, a mission recently suggested by NASA would visit the icy moon's surface to search for compounds that might be indicative of life. But where is the best place to look?
After maintaining hurricane intensity for over a week former category four hurricane Olaf is now a post-tropical storm and moved into hurricane history. The GPM core observatory satellite flew above Olaf and analyzed the rainfall within the storm.
The Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core satellite is managed by both NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. It flew over Olaf on October 26, 2015 at 0510 UTC (1:10 a.m. EDT).
Ottawa (October 27, 2015) - A new expert panel report, Technology and Policy Options for a Low-Emission Energy System in Canada, released today by the Council of Canadian Academies, provides a review of options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and moving Canada toward a low-emission future.
Boulder, Colo. -- Oct. 26, 2015 -- Using a new process in planetary formation modeling, where planets grow from tiny bodies called "pebbles," Southwest Research Institute scientists can explain why Mars is so much smaller than Earth. This same process also explains the rapid formation of the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, as reported earlier this year.
A new survey of hot, X-ray-emitting gas in the Virgo galaxy cluster shows that the elements needed to make stars, planets and people were evenly distributed across millions of light-years early in cosmic history, more than 10 billion years ago.
The Virgo cluster, located about 54 million light-years away, is the nearest galaxy cluster and the second brightest in X-rays. The cluster is home to more than 2,000 galaxies, and the space between them is filled with a diffuse gas so hot it glows in X-rays.
As the remnants of Hurricane Patricia continue to generate flooding rainfall as it moved through the Gulf Coast states on October 26, NASA and NOAA satellites provided data on the storm.
Tropical Storm Olaf is leaving the Central Pacific Ocean and is headed "home" - that is, back to the Eastern Pacific Ocean where it developed 12 days ago. NASA's RapidScat satellite observed the winds in Olaf as it was headed toward the 140 degree latitude line that separates the two ocean basins.
Olaf was born on October 14 in the Eastern Pacific, moved west and crossed into the Central Pacific Ocean on October 20. Now, Olaf is moving to the northeast, and is expected to cross back into the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
WASHINGTON -- A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offers NASA a framework for prioritizing satellite observations and measurements of Earth based on their scientific value.
Boston, MA -- Unless there is a major shift in the way the world fights tuberculosis--from a reliance on biomedical solutions to an approach that combines biomedical interventions with social actions--the epidemic and drug resistance will worsen, say researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In a new study, they call for a "biosocial" approach that incorporates interventions in areas such as nutrition, urban planning, occupational health, addiction recovery, and mental health services.
Comet Lovejoy lived up to its name by releasing large amounts of alcohol as well as a type of sugar into space, according to new observations by an international team. The discovery marks the first time ethyl alcohol, the same type in alcoholic beverages, has been observed in a comet. The finding adds to the evidence that comets could have been a source of the complex organic molecules necessary for the emergence of life.