The location of the pancreas in the human body. (Credit: Magic mine/Shutterstock)
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer — a virtually incurable condition. But now, a serendipitous discovery is providing new hope: A sugar molecule associated with the disease, but long thought harmless, known as CA19-9, actually plays an active role in the genesis of pancreatic cancer, researchers say, and could become a new target for therapy. The discovery uncovers new possible ways ...read more
A blazar is an active black hole hurling jets of material directly at Earth. (Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab)
The Event Horizon Telescope made history on April 10 when it captured the first image of a supermassive black hole’s event horizon at the heart of galaxy M87. While there’s only one other target close enough to image that way – the black hole at the center of our own Milky Way – there are plenty of other targets where EHT’s sharp gaze can ...read more
Falcon Heavy made its second launch on April 11 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. (Credit: SpaceX)
The third launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket is scheduled to blast off from Kennedy Space Center late at night on June 24. Along for the ride will be 24 satellites and a slate of experiments, including new technology developed by NASA that will help guide our way to Mars.
The Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC) is a step forward for NASA’s spacecraft guidance systems. Right n ...read more
An artist depicts the powerful quasar blowing away material immediately around it, but with the outer reaches of the galaxy still containing red dust and gas. (Credit: Michelle Vigeant)
Quasars are supermassive black holes actively gobbling material from the galaxy around them. While black holes are known for pulling material in, the turbulent swirl of that whirlpool often also flings material and radiation out at high energies, enabling quasars to be seen from across the universe. They are ...read more
This animated spiral portrays the simulated changes in the global average monthly air temperature from 1850 through the present relative to 1850-1900, and then where they are projected to head if we do nothing to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. (Source: Jay Alder, USGS)
The Trump administration has rolled back Obama-era climate change rules in an effort to save coal-fired electric power plants in the United States.
The action comes in the form of the "Affordable Clean Energy rule," wh ...read more
The lines scribbled over this famous Georges Seurat painting come from an experiment that tracked how the human eye jerks around as it takes in the details of the scene. (Credit: R. Wurtz / Daedalus 2015 / Public Domain)
The image above, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” was painted in 1884 by French artist Georges Seurat. The black lines crisscrossing it are not the work of a toddler wreaking havoc with a permanent marker, but that of neuroscientist Robert Wu ...read more
Climate change could mean trouble for Himalayan glaciers. New research reports that they're melting twice as fast today as they were at the turn of the century. (Credit: Nik Bruining/Shutterstock)
Home to Mount Everest and many more of the world’s tallest peaks, the Himalayas rise up from the Ganges River north to the Tibetan Plateau. This iconic mountain range is also home to thousands of glaciers.
These rivers of ice provide valuable fresh water to surrounding regions. But th ...read more
NEEMO 23 crew members test out a prototype of the LESA device. (Credit: ESA/NASA)
This week, astronauts and scientists are venturing under the sea as part of NEEMO-23, the 23rd expedition of the NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations. NEEMO sends specialists to Aquarius, an underwater research station located 3.5 miles off the coast of Key Largo in Florida, and 62 feet under the surface.
Thanks to the buoyancy of seawater and the sandy seafloor,
the area around Aquarius is a ...read more
A flooded rice field. Microbes in the soil release methane when rice fields are flooded, adding to greenhouse gas emissions. (Credit: Jet Rockkk/.Shutterstock)
The real impact of climate change depends on tiny organisms we can’t even see, argues an international panel of more than 30 microbiologists in a consensus statement published Tuesday.
Microbes, or microorganisms, are any organism or virus invisible to the naked eye. Numbering in the nonillions (in the U.S., that’s 10,0 ...read more
(Credit: SewCream/Shutterstock)
When it comes to medical diagnoses, Alzheimer’s is a grim one. Those who develop the disease, which causes ever-worsening memory and behavioral problems, don’t have many treatment options. There are a handful of drugs that can ease symptoms, but none of them slow down the disease’s progression or offer a cure. But one approach, outside the realm of drugs and medications, is quickly showing some strong potential for treatment -- fasting.
Typ ...read more
