Posts Tagged ‘university of maryland research’
The climate on Venus is hell. The planet’s surface is roasted at over 400 degrees Celsius under a suffocating blanket rich in sulfuric acid clouds and atmosphere exerts overwhelming that more than 90 times the pressure that is our planet Earth.
Any variability that is detected in the meteorology of Venus is quite unexpected because the planet has many features that maintain atmospheric conditions within a narrow range and are usually very stable. The Earth has seasons because its rotation axis is tilted about 23 degrees, which causes changes in the intensity of sunlight and day length in each hemisphere, to pass the months.
However, the axis of rotation of Venus is inclined so that is almost completely upside down, leaving a net tilt less than three degrees from the sun. For this reason, the seasonal effect is negligible. In addition, its orbit is more circular than Earth, so the difference between the maximum distance of Venus to the Sun and the minimum does not cause significant variations in the heat received from the Sun. Read the rest of this entry »
A process analogous to sexual contact is established between certain flu viruses, can produce offspring, i.e., new influenza virus, resulting from the combination of the two “parents”, and the potential to trigger an epidemic that affects the Human Being.
Of course, viruses are not really capable of reproducing sexually between them, but sexual reproduction serves as a metaphor to explain some features of the biological process known as reassortment.
In the reorganization, two viruses enter the same cell, their genetic material is mixed, and there are new viruses are genetically different. Read the rest of this entry »
The team discovered by Professor Iqbal Hamza, University of Maryland, USA, could have a dual purpose: on the one hand, lead to new methods to treat infestations by worms, which affect more than a quarter of the population world. On the other hand, treating iron deficiency, a major nutritional disorders in the world.
Heme is a substance of great biological significance. It contains iron and allows the production of hemoglobin in the blood.
Using the C. elegans, a microscopic worm common, Hamza and colleagues identified a protein, HRG-3, which transports heme from the gut of the mother to her developing embryos. According to investigators, now identified this route to transport heme through the HRG-3, to the developing oocytes, it would be an excellent target to halt the reproduction of hookworm and other parasites that feed on the hemoglobin in red blood cells parasitic organisms. Read the rest of this entry »
In late 2010, astronomers noticed that an asteroid called Scheila had brightened unexpectedly, and even got to display a trail for a short period of time. Two independent studies have reached the same conclusion: All indications are that the changes in Scheila resulted from the asteroid was hit by another much smaller.
Asteroids are rocky bodies considered excess material of the solar system formed about 4,600 million years and its early development.
Millions orbit the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, in the main asteroid belt. Scheila has about a hundred miles in average diameter and completes a revolution around the sun every five years.
A team of scientists from the University of Maryland, including Dennis Bodewits and Michael Kelley, studied the plume of material detached from the asteroid, using the Swift satellite of NASA. Read the rest of this entry »