Long-term memory controlled by protein synthesis in inhibitory cells A McGill-led multi-institutional research team has discovered that during memory consolidation, there are at least two distinct processes taking place in two different brain networks — the excitatory and inhibitory networks. The excitatory neurons are involved in creating a memory trace,Continue Reading
Ultraviolet light from giant stellar flares can destroy a planet’s habitability. New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will help astrobiologists understand how much radiation planets experience during super flares and whether life could exist on worlds beyond our solar system. Super flares are bursts ofContinue Reading
University of East Anglia Rising nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions are jeopardizing the climate goals of the Paris Agreement, according to a major new study by an international team of scientists. The growing use of nitrogen fertilizers in the production of food worldwide is increasing atmospheric concentrations of N2O — aContinue Reading
Stan sold for more than five times its low estimate. A 67 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex specimen nicknamed Stan has just shattered a record; on Tuesday (Oct. 6), Stan was sold at Christie’s New York for nearly $32 million. That makes it the most expensive fossil ever sold at an auction.Continue Reading
Scientists have finally recreated the initial steps of HIV infection in a test tube, offering an incredibly zoomed-in view of the virus in action. The amazing images show a cone-shaped shell of geometric tiles, called the capsid, that sits at the virus’s center and contains its genetic material, known asContinue Reading
A giant star died, blasting its guts out into space. But before the star detonated, some stellar thief had already stolen the giant’s skin. Now, astrophysicists think they’ve identified the culprit: another star blasting its own guts out nearby. Supernovas are fairly common in space. Most very large stars endContinue Reading
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX delivered its 13th batch of Starlink satellites to orbit Tuesday (Oct.6), following a two-week delay due to bad weather. The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 7:29 a.m. EDT (1129 GMT), hauling a full stack ofContinue Reading
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 with one half to Roger Penrose, University of Oxford, UK, “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity” and the other half jointly to ReinhardContinue Reading
The new coronavirus can linger on human skin much longer than flu viruses can, according to a new study from researchers in Japan. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, remained viable on samples of human skin for about 9 hours, according to the study. In contrast, a strain of theContinue Reading
The 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry went to two women who developed a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-Cas9, which snips DNA like a pair of molecular scissors. The technique “has not only revolutionized basic science, but also resulted in innovative crops and will lead to ground-breaking new medical treatments,” Claes Gustafsson,Continue Reading