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A Second Pac-Man in the Saturn Moon Tethys, Thanks to Cassini
Scientists Find Ancient Microbes in Salty, Ice-Sealed Antarctic Lake
To Get the Best Look at a Person's Face, Look Just Below the Eyes
UCLA performs first 'breathing lung' transplant in United States
Did you see that? How could you miss it?
Researchers Make Flexible, Low-voltage Circuits Using Nanocrystals
New device hides, on cue, from infrared cameras
Researchers test novel power system for space travel
Seizures linked to surgery drugs can be prevented by anesthetics
Scanning innovation can improve personalized medicine
Fostering Curiosity: Mars Express relays rocky images
Risk Aversity Visible in the Brain
Impaired blood vessel function found in cystic fibrosis patients
The hidden disorder: Unique treatment proposed for children's neurological disorder

A Second Pac-Man in the Saturn Moon Tethys, Thanks to Cassini

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 07:11 PM PST

Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission have spotted a second Pac-Man, the feature shaped like the 1980s video game icon in the Saturn system, this time on the moon Tethys. The first Pac-Man feature was found on Mimas in 2010. The pattern on Tethys appears in thermal data obtained by Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer, with warmer areas making up the Pac-Man shape.

Scientists Find Ancient Microbes in Salty, Ice-Sealed Antarctic Lake

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 02:28 PM PST

Shedding light on the limits of life in extreme environments, scientists have discovered abundant and diverse metabolically active bacteria in the brine of an Antarctic lake sealed under more than 65 feet of ice.

To Get the Best Look at a Person's Face, Look Just Below the Eyes

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 12:46 PM PST

They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. However, to get a real idea of what a person is up to, according to UC Santa Barbara researchers Miguel Eckstein and Matt Peterson, the best place to check is right below the eyes. Their findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

UCLA performs first 'breathing lung' transplant in United States

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 12:38 PM PST

First there was the "heart in a box," a revolutionary experimental technology that allows donor hearts to be delivered to transplant recipients warm and beating rather than frozen in an ice cooler.

Now that same technology is being used to deliver "breathing lungs."

Did you see that? How could you miss it?

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 12:33 PM PST

You may have received CPR training some time ago, but would you remember the proper technique in an emergency? Would you know what to do in the event of an earthquake or a fire? A new UCLA psychology study shows that people often do not recall things they have seen — or at least walked by — hundreds of times.

Researchers Make Flexible, Low-voltage Circuits Using Nanocrystals

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 12:17 PM PST

Electronic circuits are typically integrated in rigid silicon wafers, but flexibility opens up a wide range of applications. In a world where electronics are becoming more pervasive, flexibility is a highly desirable trait, but finding materials with the right mix of performance and manufacturing cost remains a challenge.

New device hides, on cue, from infrared cameras

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 10:17 AM PST

Now you see it, now you don’t.

A new device invented at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) can absorb 99.75% of infrared light that shines on it. When activated, it appears black to infrared cameras.

Composed of just a 180-nanometer-thick layer of vanadium dioxide (VO2) on top of a sheet of sapphire, the device reacts to temperature changes by reflecting dramatically more or less infrared light.

Researchers test novel power system for space travel

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 10:08 AM PST

A team of researchers, including engineers from Los Alamos National Laboratory, has demonstrated a new concept for a reliable nuclear reactor that could be used on space flights.

Seizures linked to surgery drugs can be prevented by anesthetics

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 09:59 AM PST

Two drugs commonly given during cardiac surgery can lead to convulsive seizures, but anesthetics can help cut the risk, according to new research from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Scanning innovation can improve personalized medicine

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 09:36 AM PST

New combinations of medical imaging technologies hold promise for improved early disease screening, cancer staging, therapeutic assessment, and other aspects of personalized medicine, according to Ge Wang, director of Virginia Tech's Center for Biomedical Imaging, in a recent paper that appeared in the refereed journal PLOS ONE.

Fostering Curiosity: Mars Express relays rocky images

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 09:32 AM PST

For the first time, ESA’s Mars orbiter has relayed scientific data from NASA’s Curiosity rover on the Red Planet’s surface. The data included detailed images of ‘Rocknest3’ and were received by ESA’s deep-space antenna in Australia.

It was a small but significant step in interplanetary cooperation between space agencies.

Early on the morning of 6 October, ESA’s Mars Express looked down as it orbited the planet, lining up its lander communication antenna to point at Curiosity far below on the surface.

Risk Aversity Visible in the Brain

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 08:05 AM PST

Some people live their lives by the motto "no risk - no fun!" and avoid hardly any risks. Others are clearly more cautious and focus primarily on safety when investing and for other business activities. Scientists from the University of Bonn in cooperation with colleagues from the University of Zurich studied the attitudes towards risk in a group of 56 subjects.

Impaired blood vessel function found in cystic fibrosis patients

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 07:57 AM PST

The first evidence of blood vessel dysfunction has been found in a small cohort of generally healthy young people with cystic fibrosis, researchers report.

The hidden disorder: Unique treatment proposed for children's neurological disorder

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 07:49 AM PST

An Indiana University study in the Journal of Child Neurology proposes an innovative treatment for developmental coordination disorder, a potentially debilitating neurological disorder in which the development of a child's fine or gross motor skills, or both, is impaired.