News Archive for March 2023

The FASER Collaboration reports the first observation of collider neutrino events. Image credit: FASER Collaboration.

Physicists Detect Collider Neutrinos for First Time

Mar 24, 2023 by News Staff

Using the ForwArd Search ExpeRiment (FASER), a particle detector installed at CERN, particle physicists were able to detect very high energy neutrinos...

In two large population-based cohorts, Ochoa-Rosales et al. observed longitudinal associations between higher habitual coffee consumption and lower risk of type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. Image credit: Sci.News.

Coffee Consumption Reduces Risk of Type 2 Diabetes, New Study Suggests

Mar 24, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Coffee is among the most consumed beverages worldwide. Coffee consumption has been associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes, but underlying mechanisms...

An artist’s impression of the TOI-1266 planetary system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astronomers in Hunt for Rocky Exoplanets in Venus Zone

Mar 23, 2023 by News Staff

To facilitate studies of exo-Venus candidates, astronomers from the University of California, Riverside, the University of California, Santa Cruz, Brown...

An artist’s impression of the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI.

Scientists Explain Why Jupiter’s and Saturn’s Icy Moons Have Extreme Radar Properties

Mar 23, 2023 by News Staff

The radar properties of icy satellites of Jupiter and Saturn commonly differ by more than an order of magnitude from those of rocky planets because of...

Hartwig et al. shed a new light on solving the mystery of the first stars from the complex data set of Galactic archaeology surveys. Image credit: Kavli IPMU.

Universe’s First Stars were Born in Small Clusters, Study Suggests

Mar 23, 2023 by News Staff

In unveiling the nature of the first stars, the main astronomical clue is the elemental compositions of the second generation of stars, observed as extremely...

Using an interventional study in healthy, normal-weight participants, Thanarajah et al. demonstrate that, independent of body weight gain and alterations in metabolic markers, exposure to high-fat/high-sugar food: (i) reduces preferences for low-fat food, (ii) plays a critical role in up-regulating brain responses to anticipation and consumption of highly palatable, energy-dense food, and (iii) has a generalized effect on the neuronal encoding of prediction errors in the context of associative learning and independent of food rewards. Taken together, repeated consumption of high-fat/high-sugar relative to isocaloric low-fat/low-sugar food, and in the absence of changes in body weight or metabolic state, can rewire brain circuits and thereby induce neurobehavioral adaptations. Hence, changing the food environment and reducing the availability of energy-dense high-fat/high-sugar food items is pivotal to combating the obesity pandemic. Image credit: Thanarajah et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2023.02.015.

Daily Consumption of Sweet and Fatty Snacks Alters Our Reward Circuits: Study

Mar 23, 2023 by News Staff

Western diets rich in fat and sugar promote excess calorie intake and weight gain; however, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. To close this gap, researchers...

This artist’s impression shows ‘Oumuamua, the first interstellar object discovered in our Solar System. Recent observations show that the object is moving faster than predicted while leaving the Solar System. Astronomers assume that venting material from its surface due to solar heating is responsible for this behavior. This outgassing can be seen in this artist’s impression as a subtle cloud being ejected from the side of the object facing the Sun. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Astronomers Offer New Explanation for Interstellar Object Oumuamua’s Unusual Acceleration

Mar 23, 2023 by News Staff

The previously unreconciled acceleration of 1I/2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua, a strange object of extrasolar origin discovered on October 19, 2017 by the Pan-STARRS...

The lavender-blushed dartfish (Nemateleotris lavandula), underwater photograph from Siaes Tunnel, Palau. Image credit: Yi-Kai Tea & Helen Larson, doi: 10.26107/RBZ-2023-0019.

Colorful New Species of Dartfish Discovered in Pacific Ocean

Mar 22, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Scientists from the Australian Museum Research Institute, the University of Sydney and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory have described...

An artist’s impression of a gas-giant exoplanet. Image credit: Sci.News.

Low-Mass Stars are Able to Host Giant Jupiter-Like Exoplanets, Study Suggests

Mar 22, 2023 by News Staff

Gas giants, like other planets, form from protoplanetary disks of material around protostars. According to core accretion theory, they first form a core...

Oba et al. report the detection of uracil, one of the four nucleobases in ribonucleic acid, in aqueous extracts from Ryugu samples. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / JAXA / Dan Gallagher.

Scientists Find Vitamin B3 and Uracil in Samples from Asteroid Ryugu

Mar 22, 2023 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has detected nicotinic acid (also known as vitamin B3 or niacin) and uracil, one of the four nucleobases in ribonucleic...

Life reconstruction of Thylacosmilus atrox. Image credit: Jorge Blanco.

Study: Thylacosmilus atrox Adapted to View the World in Unique Way

Mar 22, 2023 by News Staff

Paleontologists from the American Museum of Natural History, the Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales and CONICET investigated...

Dong et al. elucidate grapevine evolution and domestication histories with 3,525 cultivated and wild accessions worldwide: in the Pleistocene, harsh climate drove the separation of wild grape ecotypes caused by continuous habitat fragmentation; then, domestication occurred concurrently about 11,000 years ago in Western Asia and the Caucasus to yield table and wine grapevines; the Western Asia domesticates dispersed into Europe with early farmers, introgressed with ancient wild western ecotypes, and subsequently diversified along human migration trails into muscat and unique western wine grape ancestries by the Late Neolithic. Image credit: Dong et al., doi: 10.1126/science.add8655.

New Study Sheds Light on Origins and Domestication of Grapevines

Mar 22, 2023 by News Staff

Humans have extensively shaped animals and plants through domestication. Although wine and table grapes have been important culturally for thousands of...

Faisal et al. demonstrated three-dimensional micropatterned sensors based on a subnanometer-thick epitaxial graphene for detecting the electroencephalography signal from the challenging occipital region of the head. Image credit: Faisal et al., doi: 10.1021/acsanm.2c05546.

Researchers Develop Non-Invasive Graphene Sensors for Brain-Machine Interfaces

Mar 21, 2023 by News Staff

Using their non-invasive sensors, Professor Francesca Iacopi from the University of Technology Sydney and her colleagues have demonstrated hands-free communication...

This artist’s illustration shows the ejection of a cloud of debris after NASA’s DART spacecraft collided with the asteroid Dimorphos. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

VLT Observes Aftermath of Collision between DART and Dimorphos

Mar 21, 2023 by News Staff

On September 26, 2022, NASA’s DART spacecraft collided with the asteroid Dimorphos in a controlled test of our asteroid deflection capabilities. The...

Compound (a-d) and median (e-p) eyes of trilobites. Image credit: B. Schoenemann & E.N.K. Clarkson, doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-31089-7.

Median Eyes Were Really Present in Trilobites, Paleontologists Say

Mar 21, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Arthropods typically possess two types of eyes: compound eyes, and the ocellar, so-called median eyes. Only trilobites, an important group of arthropods...

This Hubble image shows a portion of Messier 55, a globular cluster located some 20,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Sarajedini, Florida Atlantic University / M. Libralato, STScI, ESA & JWST / Gladys Kober.

Hubble Space Telescope Takes Close Look at Messier 55

Mar 21, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released a brilliant photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the globular cluster Messier 55. This Hubble image shows a portion...

Spiranthes hachijoensis in Ena-shi, Japan: (a) inflorescence; (b) flower, lateral view; (c) flower, top view; (d) dorsal sepal; (e) petal; (f) lateral sepal; (g) labellum; (h) close-up of basal labellum callosities; (i) ovary and column; (j, k) column, bottom view; (l) column, top view; (m) pollinia without a viscidium. Scale bars - 20 mm in (a), 3 mm in (b-g), 0.5 mm in (h), and 1 mm in (i-m). Image credit: Suetsugu et al., doi: 10.1007/s10265-023-01448-6.

New Species of Orchid Discovered in Japan

Mar 21, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Spiranthes hachijoensis occurs in Kyushu, Shikoku, Chubu, and Kanto districts of Japan. Spiranthes hachijoensis in Ena-shi, Japan: (a) inflorescence; (b)...

Life reconstruction of Alienopterix santonicus with hypothetical greenish-reddish coloration. Image credit: Márton Zsoldos.

Enigmatic Metallic Cockroach Lived alongside Dinosaurs

Mar 20, 2023 by Sergio Prostak

Alienopterix santonicus was found preserved in a piece of ajkaite, a unique Late Cretaceous type of amber from western Hungary. Life reconstruction of...

A relict glacier near Mars’ equator. Image credit: Lee et al. / LPSC 2023 / NASA.

Relict Glacier Spotted near Martian Equator

Mar 20, 2023 by News Staff

A so-called light-toned deposit (LTD) in Eastern Noctis Labyrinthus, about 160 km (99.4 miles) north-west of Oudemans crater near Mars’ equator, presents...

Some exoplanets have one side permanently facing their star while the other side is in perpetual darkness. The ring-shaped border between these permanent day and night regions is called a terminator zone. Image credit: Ana Lobo / University of California, Irvine.

Exoplanetary ‘Terminator Zones’ Have Potential to Support Alien Life, Study Suggests

Mar 20, 2023 by News Staff

Rocky exoplanets orbiting red dwarf (M-dwarf) stars are among the most promising and abundant astronomical targets for detecting habitable climates. Planets...

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