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Diversity Reveals Distinct Alzheimer's Biomarker Patterns
1 hour ago•Source: Neuroscience News
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6.575 min•2 hours ago
MIT’s JWST-Powered Detect-and-Track System Aims to Shield Space Infrastructure
MIT researchers unveil a JWST-based method to detect and track decameter-scale asteroids that are too faint for ground-based telescopes, enabling earlier threat assessment to protect satellites and space infrastructure; the approach, demonstrated with asteroid 2024 YR4, is part of a broader planetary-defense effort that leverages collaborations with observatories like Vera Rubin and MIT facilities to accelerate detection-to-mitigation.
3.665 min•2 hours ago
MOTHRA: a 1,140-lens telescope to map the cosmic web and dark matter
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Gut bacteria may steer aging memory through the brain–gut nerve highway
Medical News Today•3 hours ago
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Blazar Jets as Cosmic Neutrino Engines? New Record Points to Extreme Galaxies
A Mediterranean KM3NeT/ARCA detector captured a 220 PeV neutrino—the most energetic yet—sparking a study that points to blazars (jets from supermassive black holes aligned toward Earth) as likely accelerators. The team cross-checked with IceCube and Fermi data and noted no electromagnetic counterpart, suggesting a diffuse background of multiple sources rather than a single cataclysmic event. With KM3NeT expanding to full size, researchers expect more high-energy neutrinos to sharpen the origin story.
Artemis II risk talk underscores uncertainty for crewed lunar flight
NASA officials at Kennedy Space Center gave an unusually blunt briefing on Artemis II risks, saying the exact probability of failure is hard to pin down with only Artemis I data and a multi-year gap, but leaders still aim for roughly a 1-in-50 chance of loss of crew. The discussion highlighted key risks—heat shield/entry, environmental control and life support, power, and micrometeoroid/debris exposure—along with the Launch Abort System as a major mitigation during ascent. Delays from a leaky hydrogen seal and helium-loading issues have pushed launch opportunities into April, with up to six windows planned. The crew, including commander Reid Wiseman, acknowledge unknowns but remain committed, while Artemis III and IV depend on Artemis II’s ultimate outcome.
11-year-old uncovers colossal Triassic sea titan on Somerset beach
On a Somerset beach in 2020, 11-year-old Ruby Reynolds and her father found jawbone fragments that led scientists to identify Ichthyotitan severnensis, a giant ichthyosaur potentially about 82 feet long. Further fossils confirmed a whale-sized marine reptile from the Triassic, offering insights into ancient oceans and showing how a shoreline discovery can rewrite natural history.
Astronomers Capture Rare Planet Collision 11,000 Light-Years Away
Astronomers observed a rare planetary smash around Gaia20ehk, about 11,000 light-years away, inferred from dips in visible light paired with a surge in infrared as a hot debris cloud occludes the star—providing a rare real-time glimpse of a planet-formation catastrophe similar to how Earth's Moon formed.
Psychedelics Turn Awake Vision into Memory-Derived Imagery in Mice
A mouse study found that activating the 5-HT2A receptor with psychedelic-like compounds amplified theta rhythms in the visual cortex and synchronized it with the retrosplenial memory region, dampening responses to real visuals and causing the brain to fill in images from memory—a state akin to dreaming while awake. The researchers caution that while insightful, these results may not directly translate to humans and have limitations to consider when mapping to human experiences and neuroplasticity applications.
Ancient North Sea asteroid sparked a colossal 100-meter tsunami
Researchers confirm that the Silverpit Crater beneath the North Sea was formed by a 160-meter-wide asteroid about 43–46 million years ago, triggering a tsunami over 100 meters tall and blasting a 1.5-km-high plume of rock and water. Using advanced seismic imaging and analyses of shocked minerals, the study resolves the crater’s origin as an asteroid impact and highlights the rare preservation of an oceanic impact site.
Aging in Steps: Behavior Predicts Lifespan in Killifish
Researchers monitored 81 African turquoise killifish from adolescence to death, identifying 100 behavioral building blocks and showing that by early adulthood, differences in sleep and movement predict total lifespan. Shorter-lived fish nap more during the day and swim slower, while longer-lived fish stay active during daylight. Aging appears as 2–6 rapid transitions rather than a smooth decline, with coordinated changes in liver gene activity related to protein production and cellular maintenance aligning with the predictive behavioral shifts. The work suggests behavior can be a sensitive, noninvasive readout of aging and hints wearables could reveal human aging trajectories and potential intervention windows.
politics5 hours ago
Trump Administration Reverses EPA Endangerment Finding, Igniting Economic Debate
The Trump administration rescinded the EPA's 2009 endangerment finding, a move that could reshape climate regulation, provoke economic debate, and invite legal challenges.
0.67 g Threshold: A Gravity Benchmark for Sustaining Muscles in Space
A study on mice aboard the ISS exposed them to 0.33 g, 0.67 g, and 1 g for up to 28 days to assess muscle atrophy. It found 0.67 g is the threshold below which muscles deteriorate, while 0.33 g preserved muscle but changed fiber composition; while humans may share a similar threshold (roughly 0.5–0.75 g) based on parabolic-flight data, Moon and Mars gravity (0.17 g and 0.38 g) would likely require artificial gravity or stronger countermeasures for long missions, with further research needed to refine the human threshold and inform NASA's Artemis-era plans.
Gravitational lens splits distant supernova into four images to probe cosmic expansion
A distant Type I superluminous supernova, SN 2025wny at z=2.01, was gravitationally lensed by a foreground galaxy into four images arriving at different times. By analyzing these time delays and light curves, astronomers aim to refine measurements of the universe's expansion and shed light on dark energy, potentially addressing the Hubble tension.