Promising COVID-19 Research Highlighted and Warnings of Misleading Studies in New Peer Reviews
The preprints selected for review in Rapid Reviews: COVID-19 (RR:C19), an open-access overlay journal published by the MIT Press, cover a wide range of…
Saturn’s Moon Titan Has Ingredients for Life
Catherine Neish is counting the days until her space launch. While the Western planetary geologist isn’t space-suiting up for her own interstellar voyage, she is…
Progress on Universal Flu Vaccine That Could Work Against Any Influenza Strain
With computer models and lab experiments, researchers are working on a strategy for vaccines that could protect against any influenza virus. Each year, the flu…
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Will Peer Beneath Mars’ Surface to Search for Signs of Life
The agency’s newest rover will use the first ground-penetrating radar instrument on the Martian surface to help search for signs of past microbial life. After…
Reality Does Not Depend on the Measurer According to New Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
For 100 years scientists have disagreed on how to interpret quantum mechanics. A recent study by Jussi Lindgren and Jukka Liukkonen supports an interpretation that…
Sheila Widnall: A Lifetime Exploring the Unknown at MIT and in the U.S. Air Force
During 64 years at MIT, the Institute Professor Emerita has been a trailblazer in aerospace and the U.S. military, and a changemaker for women in…
Black and Asian Patients at Increased Risk of Severe COVID-19 at Different Stages of the Disease
Patients of Black ethnicity have an increased risk of requiring hospital admission for COVID-19, while patients of Asian ethnicity have an increased risk of dying…
Hubble Observes Spectacular Supernova Time-Lapse – “No Earthly Fireworks Display Can Compete”
The NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope has tracked the fading light of a supernova in the spiral galaxy NGC 2525, located 70 million light years away….
A Curved New World: Mind and Space Bending Physics on a Convenient Chip
Thanks to Einstein, we know that our three-dimensional space is warped and curved. And in curved space, normal ideas of geometry and straight lines break…
Evolved to Strike Terror: Paleontologists Identify New Species of Mosasaur
Ancient lizard’s long, crocodile-like snout suggests it carved out a niche in a competitive marine ecosystem. A new species of an ancient marine reptile evolved…
Switching Voltage of an Electrode Alone Can Fine-Tune the Reactivity of a Molecule
One Electrode Fits All Functional Groups As we learned in chemistry class, chemical reaction occurs with the formation or cleavage of bonds between atoms. These…
New Research Suggests Coronavirus Antibodies Last at Least 3 Months After COVID-19 Infection
Coronavirus antibodies can last at least three months after a person becomes infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a new study published…
Optical Matter Machine: Nanoscale Machines Convert Light Into Work
Based on optical matter, new machines could be used to move and manipulate tiny particles. Researchers have developed a tiny new machine that converts…
Over-Exchange of DNA in Sperm and Eggs Results in Chromosome Defects That Can Increase Infertility
University of Oregon and Northwestern University biologists show that too many crossover events can increase infertility. The exchange of DNA between chromosomes during the early…
BepiColombo’s First Venus Flyby – Gravity Assist to Set the Spacecraft on Course for Mercury Orbit
The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission is getting ready to fly by Venus. It will make a close approach of the planet on October 15, 2020, at…
Our Species Is Still Evolving: Forearm Artery Reveals Humans Evolving From Changes in Natural Selection
Study shows our species is still evolving and changes in natural selection could be the major reason. Humans haven’t developed genetic mutations for telepathy or…
Black Silicon Photodetector Breaks the 100% Efficiency Limit, Shocking Scientists
The efficiency was so high that at first the researchers had a hard time believing the result. Now Aalto University spin-off company ElFys Inc. already…
Stunning Time-Lapse of a Fiery Satellite Reentry Test
What would a satellite look like as it burns up in the atmosphere? Researchers attempted to duplicate this fiery fate for a bulky satellite electronics…