A study of bound protons and neutrons conducted at the Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility has allowed scientists, for the first time, to extract information through experimentation about the internal structur…
TEMPE, Ariz. — Unraveling the molecular basis of life is an age-old quest of humanity. A breakthrough towards this goal was reported in a pair of studies published Feb. 3 in the scientific journal Nature, detailing a new method developed to deter…
Menlo Park, Calif. — The Crab Nebula, one of our best-known and most stable neighbors in the winter sky, is shocking scientists with a propensity for fireworks — gamma-ray flares set off by the most energetic particles ever traced to a speci…
To answer the big questions, it often helps to look at the smallest details. That is the approach Stanford mineral physicist Wendy Mao is taking to understanding a major event in Earth’s inner history. Using a new technique to scrutinize how minute …
Menlo Park, Calif. — In a study that could rewrite biology textbooks, scientists have found the first known living organism that incorporates arsenic into the working parts of its cells. What’s more, the arsenic replaces phosphorus, an elem…
Astronomers find cosmic dust annoying when it blocks their view of the heavens, but without it the universe would be devoid of stars. Cosmic dust is the indispensable ingredient for making stars and for understanding how primordial diffuse gas…
Menlo Park, Calif. — Calcium regulates many critical processes within the body, including muscle contraction, the heartbeat, and the release of hormones. But too much calcium can be a bad thing. In excess, it can lead to a host of diseases, suc…
A galactic “super-volcano” in the massive galaxy M87 is erupting and blasting gas outwards, as witnessed by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and NSF’s Very Large Array. The cosmic volcano is being driven by a giant black hole in the galaxy’s …
A previously unseen band of stars beyond the edge of the Milky Way galaxy has been discovered by a team of scientists from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The discovery could help to explain how the galaxy was assembled 10 billion years ago.