Micro organisms from our planet could survive on celestial bodies where water is present, such as Mars. That is the conclusion of PhD candidate Tommaso Zaccaria after experiments with simulated space conditions. Our immune system reacts less effectively to pathogens that have undergone such a simulated space journey. According to his supervisors, his dissertation provides extraterrestrial insights that are also useful on Earth.

In a study published in Nature Astronomy, an Israeli-US team led by researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science has now defined a new kind of life’s signature. It could offer a relatively simple way to address the age-old question: Are we alone? The new approach relies less on complicated chemistry and more on statistical patterns. The central idea is to examine molecular diversity, with the understanding that life reorganizes chemistry according to function. Sometimes that means expanding diversity and sometimes narrowing it. Instead of focusing on individual molecules, the researchers looked at statistical patterns in groups of molecules – their spread and relative abundances.

• UCF Associate Professor Samik Bhattacharya’s research on wing shapes could help develop mathematical models that improve the performance and stability of the U.S. military’s amphibious vehicles.

• The technology can also be used for search-and-rescue missions and disaster response.

• The work is supported through a grant from the DEVCOM Army Research Office.

Researchers from Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering under the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Centre for Advanced Semiconductors and Integrated Circuits (CASIC), have achieved a major breakthrough in cryogenic electronics. The team have developed a programmable neuromorphic hardware platform that operates near absolute zero, providing a potential solution for scaling up quantum computers and enabling deep-space exploration.