A dramatic triplet of galaxies takes centre stage in an image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which captures a three-way gravitational tug-of-war between interacting galaxies, reports Phys.org. This system – known as Arp 195 – is featured in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. The schedule for Hubble observations is calculated using a computer algorithm that allows the spacecraft to occasionally gather bonus snapshots of data between longer observations. The image of the clashing galaxy triplets in...
Biologist Sara Weinstein, a Smithsonian-Mpala postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and her colleagues saw African crested rats in Kenya chewing poisonous tree bark, and combing the toxin into specialized hairs on their coats, reports CBC's Quirks & Quarks. Their study confirmed an older hypothesis that the rats are sequestering toxins from the bark of a tree for defence against predators. At first glance, the African crested rat looks like a cute, furry,...
The world's first commercial fully re-programmable satellite lifted off from French Guiana today on board an Ariane 5 rocket, ushering in a new era of more flexible communications, Phys.org reports. Unlike conventional models that are designed and "hard-wired" on Earth and cannot be repurposed once in orbit, the Eutelsat Quantum allows users to tailor the communications to their needs – almost in real time. The satellite was placed in orbit about 36 minutes after launch. Because it can...
Research from the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science explores how to help non-experts effectively, efficiently and ethically use machine-learning algorithms to better enable industries beyond the computing field to harness the power of artificial intelligence, Tech Xplore reports. "We don't know much about how nonexperts in machine learning come to learn algorithmic tools," said Swati Mishra, a PhD student in the field of information science. "The reason is that there's a hype that's developed...
A University of Kentucky College of Medicine study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry provides foundational information about SARS-CoV-2's spike protein, Phys.org reports. The spike protein is found on the surface of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and is responsible for its entry into host cells. Because of this function, it is the focus of most COVID-19 vaccines including the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines. "The spike protein represents one of the most important therapeutic targets for COVID-19,"...
No, women are not required to wear bikinis to play beach volleyball at the Olympics. And the camera lingering on players' glutes as they make hand signals to teammates is not a problem for most players, CBC reports. "I have always felt like when you get somebody drawn in, however you get them into beach volleyball, they fall in love with the sport," said American April Ross, a three-time Olympian. "So, hopefully that happens also." Beach...
Researchers at Cornell University have found that it is possible to hide malware code inside of AI neural networks, Tech Xplore reports. Zhi Wang, Chaoge Liu, and Xiang Cui have posted a paper describing their experiments with injecting code into neural networks on the arXiv preprint server. As computer technology grows ever more complex, so do attempts by criminals to break into machines running new technology for their own purposes, such as destroying data or encrypting it...
There may be a global focus on COVID-19, but it's a good time to ask if a cure is finally in sight for HIV. Although many antiretroviral medications have been approved over the years, new strategies are under development that theoretically could deliver a knockout blow to HIV, Medical Xpress reports. Medical investigators are exploring the possibility of gene therapy as a potential HIV cure. Other teams are examining CAR T-cell therapy, a form of...
NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected a pulse of high-energy radiation that had been racing toward Earth for nearly half the present age of the universe, reports Phys.org. Lasting only about a second, it turned out to be one for the record books – the shortest gamma-ray burst (GRB) caused by the death of a massive star ever seen. GRBs are the most powerful events in the universe, detectable across billions of light-years. Astronomers classify...
NASA selected SpaceX to launch a planned voyage to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, reports Phys.org. The Europa Clipper mission is scheduled to launch in October 2024 on a Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The contract is worth $178 million. The mission was previously supposed to take off on NASA's own Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which has been plagued by delays and cost overruns. Critics have called the SLS a...
