DNA-based computer could solve problems faster A theoretical DNA-based computer called a nondeterministic universal Turing machine could work out difficult problems faster than both conventional and quantum computers. The machine works by endlessly rearranging DNA via gene editing. New Scientist Temperature of Earth’s mantle recalculated Earth’s mantle is much hotter than researchers thought, coming in […]
Human gene expression still influenced by Neanderthal DNA Neanderthal DNA is still influencing the expression of human genes, affecting such things as the development of illnesses, height and immune systems. “Strikingly, we find that Neanderthal sequences present in living individuals are not silent remnants of hybridization that occurred over 50,000 years ago, but have ongoing […]
Signs of organic material spotted on Ceres Evidence of the building blocks of life has been found on the dwarf planet Ceres. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has detected signs of organic molecules around the Ernutet crater. Los Angeles Times Radio receivers around the world linking up to see black hole Astronomers think they’re very close to […]
Thickness of Mercury’s mysterious water ice deposits measured Water ice on Mercury is about 50 meters thick on average, but there is some flexibility in that number and exactly where that water came from remains a mystery. Researchers used data from the MESSENGER spacecraft’s Mercury Laser Altimeter instrument to reach their estimate. Seeker Parasite adds […]
New species of ghost shark with buckteeth found A new species of bucktoothed ghost shark has been described in Zootaxa. Hydrolagus erithacus is dark-colored, has a large head with big teeth and measures about 3 feet, or about 1 meter, long. Live Science Magnetic fields of stars close to our galaxy’s black hole amplified Stars […]
Hydrogen transformed into metal under extremely high pressures Hydrogen has been pressed into a metallic form using extremely high pressures. Researchers squeezed the hydrogen between two diamonds in a special apparatus. The New York Times Chimera embryos developed in sows for 28 days Human stem cells injected into pig embryos created chimera embryos that developed […]
Massive crack in Antarctic ice shelf grows The giant crack in the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica is continuing to grow, threatening to soon break off a large iceberg. The crack has grown about 6.2 miles, or about 10 kilometers, since the beginning of the year. BBC 3D-printed model helps researchers understand ancient portable […]
Protein found in bacteria can act like a prion A portion of a protein within the microbe Clostridium botulinum can act like a prion when placed into yeast or Escherichia coli. This is the first time prions, which are usually found in plants and animals, have been observed in bacteria. Nature World’s tightest knot created […]
Huge quantity of black holes seen in X-ray image taken by Chandra A vast number of supermassive black holes can be observed in an image taken by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory spacecraft. “With this one amazing picture, we can explore the earliest days of black holes in the universe and see how they change over […]
Megamaser galaxy seen in Hubble image A galaxy about 370 million light-years away from Earth that researchers think holds a megamaser has been spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope. “A megamaser is a process where some components within a galaxy (like gas clouds) are in the right stimulated physical condition to radiate intense energy,” read […]