Science

Tags:

NASA's Hubble Spots Possible Water Plumes Erupting on Jupiter's Moon Europa

hs-2016-33-a-large_web_0.jpg
This composite image shows suspected plumes of water vapor erupting at the 7 o'clock position off the limb of Jupiter's moon Europa. The plumes, photographed by NASA's Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, were seen in silhouette as the moon passed in front of Jupiter. Hubble's ultraviolet sensitivity allowed for the features, rising over 100 miles above Europa's icy surface, to be discerned. The water is believed to come from a subsurface ocean on Europa.

Tags:

Gold nanoparticles conjugated quercetin inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition, angiogenesis and invasiveness via EGFR/VEGFR-2 mediated pathway in breast cancer

Epidermal growth factor plays a critical role in breast malignancies by enhancing cell proliferation, invasion, angiogenesis and metastasis. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a crucial process by which epithelial cells lose polarity and acquire migratory mesenchymal properties. Gold nanoparticles are an efficient drug delivery vehicle for carrying chemotherapeutic agents to target cancer cells and quercetin is an anti-oxidative flavonoid known with potent anti-malignant cell activity.

Cell viability was assessed by MTT assay, and protein expression was examined by Western blotting and immunocytochemistry. Cell invasion was monitored using invasion chambers, and cell migration was analysed by scratch wound-healing assay. In vitro and ex vivo angiogenesis studies were performed by capillary-like tube formation assay and chick embryo angiogenesis assay (CEA). 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) induced mammary carcinoma in Sprague-Dawley rats.

Tags:

Hubble: Possible Water Plumes on Jupiter's Moon Europa

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have imaged what may be water vapor plumes erupting off the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. This finding bolsters other Hubble observations suggesting the icy moon erupts with high altitude water vapor plumes.

Tags:

Scientists Find Twisting 3-D Raceway for Electrons in Nanoscale Crystal Slices

Mysterious quantum properties in material crafted at Berkeley Lab point to new applications in electronics.

Researchers have created an exotic 3-D racetrack for electrons in ultrathin slices of a nanomaterial they fabricated at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

Tags:

Chains of nanogold – forged with atomic precision

Researchers at Nanoscience Center of University of Jyväskylä in Finland have succeeded in producing short chains and rings of gold nanoparticles with unprecedented precision. They used a special kind of nanoparticles with a well-defined structure and linked them together with molecular bridges. These structures – being practically huge molecules – allow extremely accurate studies of light–matter interaction in metallic nanostructures and plasmonics. This research was funded by The Academy of Finland.

Researchers at Nanoscience Center of University of Jyväskylä in Finland have succeeded in producing short chains and rings of gold nanoparticles with unprecedented precision. They used a special kind of nanoparticles with a well-defined structure and linked them together with molecular bridges. These structures – being practically huge molecules – allow extremely accurate studies of light–matter interaction in metallic nanostructures and plasmonics.

Tags:

Hubble Finds Planet Orbiting Pair of Stars

hs-2016-32-a-large_web_0.jpg
This artist's illustration shows a gas giant planet circling a pair of red dwarf stars.
The Saturn-mass planet orbits roughly 300 million miles from the stellar duo. The two red dwarf stars are a mere 7 million miles apart. The illustration is based on Hubble Space Telescope observations that helped astronomers confirm the existence of a planet orbiting two stars in the system OGLE-2007-BLG-349, located 8,000 light-years away.

Tags:

NEWS & PRESS Astronomers observe star reborn in a flash

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers has been able to study stellar evolution in real time. Over a period of 30 years dramatic increases in the temperature of the star SAO 244567 have been observed. Now the star is cooling again, having been reborn into an earlier phase of stellar evolution. This makes it the first reborn star to have been observed during both the heating and cooling stages of rebirth. The team, led by Nicole Reindl of the University of Leicester, UK, publish their results in a paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Tags:

Starving Black Hole Returns Brilliant Galaxy to the Shadows

Many galaxies are found to have an extremely bright core powered by a supermassive black hole. These cores make “active galaxies” some of the brightest objects in the Universe. They are thought to shine so brightly because hot material is glowing fiercely as it falls into the black hole, a process known as accretion. This brilliant light can vary hugely between different active galaxies, so astronomers classify them into several types based on the properties of the light they emit.

Tags:

“I took my piano and made it everything: my work, and my studies at university; to teach children music,” begins Ayham al-Ahmad, in an interview with United Nations Radio, ahead of a UN summit on large movements of refugees and migrants on 19 September 20

Individual photons of light now can be detected far more efficiently using a device patented (link is external) by a team including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), whose scientists have overcome longstanding limitations with one of the most commonly used type of single-photon detectors. Their invention could allow higher rates of transmission of encrypted electronic information and improved detection of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Light is widely used for communications, carrying phone conversations and video signals through fiber-optic cables around the world in pulses composed of many photons. Single photons are the weakest signal that can be transmitted, and they too have a wide range of applications, including observing how single molecules or atoms behave (link is external), implementing an encryption technique called quantum key distribution, and creating high-resolution maps (link is external). However, single photons of light typically have very little energy, making them difficult to detect.

Tags:

Cassini Begins Epic Final Year at Saturn

After more than 12 years studying Saturn, its rings and moons, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has entered the final year of its epic voyage. The conclusion of the historic scientific odyssey is planned for September 2017, but not before the spacecraft completes a daring two-part endgame.