science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Σάββατο 21 Ιουλίου 2012

Science News SciGuru.com

Solar Corona Revealed in Super-High-Definition
High consumption of vitamin E may lower liver cancer risk
Unexpectedly slow motions below the Sun’s surface
Locating muscle proteins
Researchers create highly transparent solar cells for windows that generate electricity
River networks on Titan point to a puzzling geologic history
Like a transformer? Protein unfolds and refolds for new function

Solar Corona Revealed in Super-High-Definition

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 02:41 PM PDT

Today, astronomers are releasing the highest-resolution images ever taken of the Sun's corona, or million-degree outer atmosphere, in an extreme-ultraviolet wavelength of light. The 16-megapixel images were captured by NASA's High Resolution Coronal Imager, or Hi-C, which was launched on a sounding rocket on July 11th. The Hi-C telescope provides five times more detail than the next-best observations by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

High consumption of vitamin E may lower liver cancer risk

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 02:29 PM PDT

High consumption of vitamin E either from diet or vitamin supplements may lower the risk of liver cancer, according to a study published July 17 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study was conducted by investigators from the Shanghai Cancer Institute, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute.

Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin which is considered an antioxidant, and numerous experimental studies have suggested that vitamin E may prevent DNA damage.

Unexpectedly slow motions below the Sun’s surface

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 02:10 PM PDT

The interior motions of the Sun are much slower than predicted. Rather than moving at the speed of a jet plane (as previously understood) the plasma flows at a walking pace. The result of this new study, whose lead author is from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, will be published in an upcoming issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). The scientists use observations of solar oscillations from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to see into the Sun's interior. As Laurent Gizon and Aaron C.

Locating muscle proteins

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 02:03 PM PDT

Muscle contraction and many other movement processes are controlled by the interplay between myosin and actin filaments. Two further proteins, tropomyosin and troponin, regulate how myosin binds to actin. While theoretical models have in fact described exactly how these muscle proteins interact, this interaction has never previously been observed in detail.

Researchers create highly transparent solar cells for windows that generate electricity

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 12:42 PM PDT

UCLA researchers have developed a new transparent solar cell that is an advance toward giving windows in homes and other buildings the ability to generate electricity while still allowing people to see outside. Their study appears in the journal ACS Nano.

The UCLA team describes a new kind of polymer solar cell (PSC) that produces energy by absorbing mainly infrared light, not visible light, making the cells nearly 70% transparent to the human eye. They made the device from a photoactive plastic that converts infrared light into an electrical current.

River networks on Titan point to a puzzling geologic history

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 12:36 PM PDT

For many years, Titan's thick, methane- and nitrogen-rich atmosphere kept astronomers from seeing what lies beneath. Saturn's largest moon appeared through telescopes as a hazy orange orb, in contrast to other heavily cratered moons in the solar system.

Like a transformer? Protein unfolds and refolds for new function

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 09:21 AM PDT

New research has shown that a protein does something that scientists once thought impossible: It unfolds itself and refolds into a completely new shape.

This protein, called RfaH, activates genes that allow bacterial cells to launch a successful attack on their host, causing disease. The researchers determined that RfaH starts out in its alpha form, composed of two spiral shapes. Later, in its beta form, it resembles spokes on a wheel and is called a barrel.