Category: 7. Science

A European Space Agency spacecraft on its way to Jupiter’s moons has tested out one of its science instruments on our own Moon.

And it’s focussed on the same patch of the lunar surface seen in one of the most iconic images in science.

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) is headed to Jupiter to study its icy moons to search for signs of alien life, or conditions that could support alien life.

And as it flew past our Moon in August 2024, its Radar for Icy Moon Exploration (RIME) instrument listened to radio wave echoes bounced off the Moon to determine the height of the lunar surface.

Juice and the search for life

Scientists interested in the search for signs of life beyond Earth, and for signs of habitable worlds beyond Earth, say the icy moons of our Solar System are some of the most promising places.

That’s because moons like Enceladus at Saturn or Europa at Jupiter have liquid oceans beneath their icy, frozen surfaces.

And liquid water being a prerequisite for life on Earth as we know it, the presence of liquid water on these moons means they are potentially habitable.

Juice is on its way to study Jupiter’s moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto.

It will arrive there in July 2031 and begin its exploration of these frozen worlds.

But in the meantime, flybys of other worlds – including our Moon – are giving science teams back on Earth the chance to test Juice’s instruments are working properly.

RIME’s radargram on the Moon

One of Juice’s instruments is the Radar for Icy Moon Exploration (RIME), which is a radar sounder that will give scientists information about what’s going on beneath the surface of the icy moons, as deep as 9km (5.5 miles) into their liquid subsurface oceans.

As Juice passed on our Moon, RIME captured this image of a section of the lunar surface.

Scientists say RIME’s first-ever radargram of a patch of lunar surface matches an elevation model of the same area captured by NASA’s Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA), seen below.

The bright pink and yellow line that waves across the dark purple background shows the height of the Moon’s surface.

The bumps and dips in the RIME data match up the height of the land in LOLA’s elevation map.

The test was an important stepping stone for RIME, as electronic noise coming from the rest of the spacecraft has been disturbing its readings.

During the flyby of the Moon, all of Juice’s instruments were switched off for 8 minutes, giving RIME the chance to observe in silence.

RIME scientists were then able check how the electronic noise affects the performance of the instrument.

Based on the data collected, they’ve been able to create an algorithm that counteracts disturbances to RIME caused by the rest of the spacecraft.

The team are satisfied the test worked, and RIME is up to the job of providing accurate information on what’s going on beneath Jupiter’s icy moons.

Not just any old patch of the Moon

The patch of the Moon studied by RIME is the same patch that can be seen in astronaut William Anders’ ‘Earthrise’ photo, which was captured on 24 December 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission.

Anders’ Earthrise photo is considered one of the most important images in science, as it gave humanity an unprecedented glimpse of what it would be like to see our home planet from the surface of another world.

The biggest crater, seen in the foreground of the image, was later renamed from ‘Pasteur T’ to ‘Anders’ Earthrise’.

So what next for Juice? The European Space Agency says the spacecraft is due to fly by Venus in August 2025.

This is a gravity assist manoeuvre, using Venus’s gravity to give Juice a boost on its journey.

Onwards to Jupiter, and the chance to find out whether Jupiter’s icy moons do indeed have the potential to host life.

An international team of scientists has, for the first time, directly detected sulfur in both its gas and solid phases in the interstellar medium — the gas- and dust-filled space between stars. This breakthrough was made possible by the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) satellite.

To detect sulfur, a team of researchers led by Lia Corrales — an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor — studied X-rays from two binary star systems, GX 340+0 and 4U 1630-472. The Resolve instrument aboard XRISM allowed the scientists to measure the energy of the X-rays, revealing sulfur signatures in both gas and solid phases.

While past missions have studied sulfur in space, they have only directly detected it in its gaseous state. Brian Williams, the XRISM project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, described XRISM’s measurements of space sulfur as “the most detailed yet.”

The solid sulfur detected by XRISM could only be accurately modeled when combined with iron, suggesting the two elements are likely mixed together in space. This finding raises further questions about how elements bond and travel through cosmic environments.

The iron-sulfur model, though needing further studies, isn’t strange; as iron-sulfur compounds are often found in meteorites. Elisa Costantini, a senior astronomer at the Space Research Organization Netherlands and the University of Amsterdam, shared that new sulfur measurements will soon be available to compare with XRISM data.

Sulfur plays a crucial role in the functioning of cells in our bodies. Hence, understanding its distribution in the galaxy holds significant importance. XRISM’s latest discovery is unraveling sulfur’s hiding place in space, providing more insights into the chemical composition of the galaxy we call home.

I have always been fascinated by technology and digital devices my entire life and even got addicted to it. I have always marveled at the intricacy of even the simplest digital devices and systems around us. I have been writing and publishing articles online for about 6 years now, just about a year ago, I found myself lost in the marvel of smartphones and laptops we have in our hands every day. I developed a passion for learning about new devices and technologies that come with them and at some point, I asked myself, “Why not get into writing tech articles?” It is useless to say I followed up the idea — it is evident. I am an open-minded individual who derives an infinite amount of joy from researching and discovering new information, I believe there is so much to learn and such a short life to live, so I put my time to good use — learning new things. I am a ‘bookworm’ of the internet and digital devices. When I am not writing, you will find me on my devices still, I do explore and admire the beauty of nature and creatures. I am a fast learner and quickly adapt to changes, always looking forward to new adventures.

This week, a Cretaceous-era trackway in Canada provides the first evidence of a dinosaur herd combining two species, scientists walked back on the claims that 10,000 is the optimal number of steps per day, and the so-called “entropy catastrophe” has been bypassed after researchers superheated gold to 14 times its melting point. Finally, we explore whether natural antidepressants are a legit alternative or just a load of nonsense.

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Missing 40 Percent Of Matter In The Universe Finally Discovered: “The Simulations Were Right All Along”

The regular matter that makes us, planets, stars, and galaxies is about 5 percent of the matter-energy content of the universe. The rest is made of dark matter and dark energy, though we are not sure what they are. There is also uncertainty around regular matter, since for a long time over one-third of it was not accounted for. Models had suggested that it would exist in the space between galaxies, and different groups using wildly different methods have now confirmed that it really is there. Read the full story here

Could We Be On Track Towards A Universal Cancer Vaccine? New Findings Say: Maybe

An experimental mRNA vaccine that supercharges existing cancer treatments could be laying the groundwork for a “universal” cancer vaccine, according to the team behind the breakthrough. Scientists at the University of Florida tested the innovation in mice and found it provoked a strong antitumor response when paired with immunotherapy. Read the full story here

First Evidence Of A Dinosaur Herd Combining Two Species Revealed In Cretaceous Tracks

A Late Cretaceous trackway in Canada contains the footprints of at least nine dinosaurs from four species. Two of the trackmakers were large tyrannosaurs, which may have sparked the motions of the other dinosaurs. However, while that part of the puzzle remains unsolved, the presence of both ceratopsians and an ankylosaurid moving together appears far more certain, suggesting multi-species herding similar to zebras and wildebeests during their great migration. Read the full story here

Here’s The Actual Number Of Steps You Should Walk Per Day (It’s Not 10,000)

We’re often told we need to walk “X number” of steps every day in order to stay healthy, although most of these claims are made by people who talk the talk but can’t walk the walk. With little or no scientific evidence to back up these daily benchmarks, it has until now remained unclear exactly how many times we should be putting one foot in front of the other. Read the full story here

Solid Gold Superheated To 14 Times Its Melting Point, Bypassing The “Entropy Catastrophe”

Researchers have been able to heat up a sample of solid gold to over 14 times its melting temperature for a fraction of a second, bypassing a theoretical limit known as the entropy catastrophe. The approach, known as superheating, might lead to a better understanding of how substances change phase at a fundamental level and even to improved production of materials. Read the full story here

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Feature of the week: 

Natural Antidepressants: Legit Alternative Or A Load Of Nonsense?

What do zinc, bitter orange, lavender, saffron, and vitamin D all have in common? No, they’re not the ingredients to a bizarre-sounding salad, but they are all products that have been touted as natural antidepressants. The real question is – do any of them actually work? Read the full story here

More content:

Have you seen our e-magazine, CURIOUS? Issue 36 (July 2025) is available now. This month we asked, “How To Fake A Fossil” – check it out for exclusive interviews, book excerpts, long reads, and more.

PLUS, the We Have Questions podcast – an audio version of our coveted CURIOUS e-magazine column – continues. In episode 11, we ask, “Why Are Yawns Contagious?”

The Big Questions podcast has returned, and we’re continuing season 5 with episode 3’s big question: How Do Black Holes Shape The Universe?

Why is Microcarb important?

Rüdiger Lang: 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded, both globally and across Europe – a stark reminder of the urgency of tackling the climate crisis driven by human greenhouse gas emissions. While we know how much carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere overall, we still lack detailed information about exactly where emissions come from.

The Paris Agreement created momentum to invest in better ways to monitor emissions, and as the first dedicated European CO2 mission, Microcarb is a vital part of Europe’s efforts to track greenhouse gases, hold emitters accountable, and guide climate action. To build a complete picture, we need to separate natural flows of carbon dioxide from those caused by humans and identify sources that remain underrepresented or undetected. If countries can pinpoint emissions more accurately, they can implement targeted policies and, crucially, see whether those measures are working.

Measuring emissions this precisely is extremely challenging, but Microcarb’s sensors achieve accuracy close to 99.98%, making it possible to detect and distinguish both natural and human contributions. Microcarb will quantify how much carbon dioxide is released from both natural and human-made sources and how CO2 moves between the Earth surface, the oceans, the forests, and the atmosphere. The satellite can also zoom in to capture high-resolution snapshots of specific targets such as cities or farming regions.

There is a real need for consistent, reliable data to fill gaps in our understanding, and Microcarb will play an important role in that effort, support more effective climate policies, as well as helping to lay the foundation for larger systems like the Copernicus CO2M constellation.

The largest interstellar comet discovered could be an alien technology. The newly found Manhattan-sized object, named 3I/ATLAS, is approximately 7 miles wide and racing through our solar system.

Avi Loeb, a Harvard scientist, considering the size of the object, gave a hypothesis that it could be an alien probe or artificial technology.

“The hypothesis in question is that 3I/ATLAS is a technological artifact, and has active intelligence. If this is the case, then two possibilities follow,” he said.

The experts opined that, “First, that its intentions are entirely benign and second, they are malign.”

Scientists are investigating the composition and direction of the activity. NASA classified this object as a comet. There is a lack of consensus that 3I/ATLAS poses an alien threat. It will come closer to the sun in October 2025.

This is the third time an object entering our solar system has been detected.

The International Astronomical Union called it a comet and designated it the largest detected object. 

The new object is “moving considerably faster than the other two extra-solar objects that we previously detected”, said Mark Norris, an astronomer at the University of Central Lancashire, UK.

The first interstellar visitor was Oumuamua, discovered in 2017, and the second was 21/Borisov, found in 2019.

How many interstellar objects have been discovered?

As for now, three interstellar objects have been detected: 3I/ATLAS, Oumuamua, and 21/Borisov. 

The origin of some neuropsychiatric diseases, such as autism, bipolar disorder, or depression, and certain neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, can be found in very early stages of brain formation in the fetus. That is, earlier than previously recognized, according to a study by the Hospital del Mar Research Institute and Yale University, published in Nature Communications.

The work focused “on searching for the origin of mental illnesses in the earliest stages of fetal development, especially in the brain stem cells“, explains Dr. Gabriel Santpere, Miguel Servet researcher and coordinator of the Neurogenomics Research Group at the Biomedical Informatics Research Program of the Hospital del Mar Research Institute, a joint group with Pompeu Fabra University.

To do this, they used a list of nearly 3,000 genes linked to neuropsychiatric diseases, neurodegenerative pathologies, and cortical malformations, and simulated the effect of their alteration on the cells involved in brain development. The results indicate that many of these genes are already functional during the initial phases of fetal development in stem cells, the progenitors that build the brain, creating neurons and their supporting structures.

Achieving this was not easy. This moment of brain development is very difficult to study. For this reason, the researchers combined multiple data from human and mouse brains, as well as in vitro cellular models. As Dr. Nicola Micali, associate researcher at Dr. Pasko Rakic’s lab at Yale University and co-leader of the research, points out, “scientists usually study the genes of mental illnesses in adults, but in this work we discovered that many of these genes already act during the early stages of fetal brain formation, and that their alterations can affect brain development and promote mental disorders later on“.

During the study, specific regulatory networks for each cell type involved in brain development were simulated to see how the activation or deactivation of the analyzed genes linked to various brain diseases affected progenitor cells in their different stages. This allowed them to observe the importance of each gene in the emergence of alterations that cause various diseases. The list ranges from microcephaly and hydrocephaly to autism, depression, bipolar disorder, anorexia, or schizophrenia, and also includes Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

In all these pathologies, genes involved in the earliest phases of brain development when neural stem cells are functional are found. “We cover a wide spectrum of diseases that the brain can have and look at how the genes involved in these conditions behave in neural stem cells”, adds Xoel Mato-Blanco, researcher at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute. At the same time, he points out that the work “identifies temporal windows and cell types where the action of these genes is most relevant, indicating when and where you should target the function of these genes”.

Having this information “is useful to understand the origin of diseases that affect the cerebral cortex, that is, how genetic alterations translate into these pathologies”, says Dr. Santpere. Understanding these mechanisms and the role of each gene in each disease can help develop targeted therapies that act on them, opening opportunities for gene therapy and personalized treatments.

A new artificial intelligence model can improve the process of drug and vaccine discovery by predicting how efficiently specific mRNA sequences will produce proteins, both generally and in various cell types. The new advance, developed through an academic-industrial partnership between The University of Texas at Austin and Sanofi, helps predict how much protein cells will produce, which can minimize the need for trial-and-error experimentation, accelerating the next generation of mRNA therapeutics.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) contains instructions for which proteins to make and how to make them, enabling our bodies to grow and carry out the day-to-day processes of life. Among the most promising areas of health and medicine, the ability to develop new mRNA vaccines and drugs – able to fight viruses, cancers and genetic disorders – involves the frequently challenging process of coaxing cells in a patient’s body to produce enough protein from therapeutic mRNA to effectively combat disease. 

The new model, called RiboNN, stands to guide the design of new mRNA-based therapeutics by illuminating what will yield the highest amount of a protein or better target specific parts of the body such as the heart or liver. The team described their model today in one of two related papers in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

“When we started this project over six years ago, there was no obvious application. We were curious whether cells coordinate which mRNAs they produce and how efficiently they are translated into proteins. That is the value of curiosity-driven research. It builds the foundation for advances like RiboNN, which only become possible much later.”

Can Cenik, Associate professor, Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas, Austin

The work was made possible by funding support from the National Institutes of Health, The Welch Foundation and the Lonestar6 supercomputer at UT’s Texas Advanced Computing Center.

In tests spanning more than 140 human and mouse cell types, RiboNN was about twice as accurate at predicting translation efficiency as earlier approaches. This advance may lend researchers the ability to make predictions in cells in ways that could help expedite treatments for cancer and infectious and hereditary diseases. 

You can think of the way cells in your body make proteins as the way a team of chefs might bake cakes. To cook up a batch of proteins, the chefs in one of your cells (ribosomes) look up the recipe in your own unique protein cookbook (a.k.a. DNA), copy the recipe onto notecards called messenger RNAs (mRNAs), and then combine ingredients (amino acids) according to the recipe to bake up the cakes (proteins).

An mRNA vaccine or therapeutic coaxes these chefs in your cells into making proteins. In the case of a vaccine, they might produce a protein found on the surface of a pathogenic virus or cancer cells, essentially waving a big red flag in front of your immune system to make antibodies against the virus or cancer. In the case of a disorder caused by a genetic mutation, they might produce a protein that your body can’t properly make on its own, reversing the disorder.

Before developing their new predictive model, Cenik and the UT team first curated a set of publicly available data from over 10,000 experiments measuring how efficiently different mRNAs are translated into proteins in different human and mouse cell types. Once they had created this training dataset, AI and machine learning experts from UT and Sanofi came together to develop RiboNN.

One goal of the predictive tool is to one day make therapies that are targeted to a particular cell type, said Cenik, who also is affiliate faculty at UT’s Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences and a CPRIT scholar, receiving research support from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

“Maybe you need a next-generation therapy to be made in the liver or the lung or in immune cells,” he said. “This opens up an opportunity to change the mRNA sequence to increase the production of that protein in that cell type.”

In a companion paper also in Nature Biotechnology, the team demonstrated that mRNAs with related biological functions are translated into proteins at similar levels across different cell types. Scientists have long known that the process of transcribing genes with related functions into mRNAs is coordinated, but it hadn’t been previously shown that translating mRNAs into proteins is also coordinated.