Science Acumen

Science Acumen features groundbreaking advances in science, space, technology, health, the environment, our culture and history.

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The mechanical properties of DNA are crucial for its biological functions. Biophysicists have discovered that DNA is not just a passive molecule carrying genetic information but has significant mechanical flexibility and strength, which are critical for replication, repair, and packaging into the tight confines of a cell nucleus.

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This is the most detailed model of a human cell to date, obtained using x-ray, NMR and cryoelectron microscopy datasets. ‘Cellular landscape cross-section through a eukaryotic cell.’ ~ by Evan Ingersoll and Gael McGill.

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The air entering a peregrine falcon's nose during its high speed dives (320 km/h) would cause its lungs to explode, but bony tubercles in its nares safely regulate the passage of air. Engineers solved the air intake in jet engines in a similar way.

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Panulirus Ornatus is a large spiny lobster with 11 larval stages. It migrates annually from the Torres Strait to Yule Island in the Gulf of Papua in order to breed...🦞

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A mysterious primate appeared in North America 30 million years ago, long after the continent's native primates had died out, and even longer before the next big influx of primates – humans – would arrive. This lemur-like species, named Ekgmowechashala, has long puzzled paleontologists.

Read more: https://rb.gy/6s9gq1

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Scientists finally figured out how to measure that damn thing. Measuring the Sun is tricky business, as direct observations rely on solar eclipses to get an accurate measurement of the Sun's light-emitting photosphere.

Read more: https://rb.gy/vd1kxl

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Enceladus now appears likely to have all three of the ingredients scientists think life needs: liquid water, a source of energy (like sunlight or chemical energy), and the right chemical ingredients (like carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen).

Read more: https://rb.gy/lfc74k

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In our universe, time can only run forward—the future is infinite—and that forbids the creation of a white hole. Meanwhile, in our multiverse counterpart, time can only play backward—the past stretches into infinity—and that forbids the existence of black holes while allowing white holes: https://rb.gy/fvhmly

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Scientists have described two lamprey fossils with "extensively toothed" mouths from the Jurassic period, shining a light on how this group has evolved into its modern forms since the Devonian: https://rb.gy/pw6v8

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The hellish super-Earth '55 Cancri e' may be constantly losing and re-growing its atmosphere, a new study of the planet's strange transit signals suggests. The first super-Earth astronomers ever discovered has given off strange signals for nearly two decades, and scientists may have finally figured out why.

Read more: https://rb.gy/j6zzh

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Physicists distorted a type of material known as a photonic crystal to divert the path of light much as it would passing through a gravitational field.

Read more: https://rb.gy/v4nz5

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A trio of researchers has found evidence of a mother spider protecting her young in an amber sample dated back to 99 million years ago.

Read more: https://rb.gy/vms0h

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Scientists trapped light inside a magnetic metamaterial and made the material itself 10 times more magnetic in the process: https://rb.gy/ecbuy

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Superionic ice is strangely different, and yet it may be among the most abundant forms of water in the Universe – presumed to fill not only the interiors of Uranus, Neptune, but also similar exoplanets: https://rb.gy/si2b0

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New research suggests that our climate some nearly 13,000 years ago might have been severely changed due to a cosmic intervention. A global team of researchers has presented its case in four peer-reviewed papers to study the substantially disputed Younger Dryas (YD) impact hypothesis.

Read more: https://rb.gy/fq1qv

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A pristine asteroid sample that could serve as a time capsule from the early days of our solar system has finally been revealed. The rocks and dust contain water and a large amount of carbon, said NASA administrator Bill Nelson, which suggests that asteroids may have delivered the building blocks of life to Earth: https://rb.gy/bx8nq

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Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers discovered that when our 13.8-billion-year-old universe was between 4 billion and 6 billion years old, it housed fewer feeding supermassive black holes than previously suspected: https://rb.gy/fmyg0