When most people think of cosmic rings, they think of Saturn, but there are actually five bodies in our solar system known to have them. Rings of gas and dust also encircle Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune along with a "centaur", Chariklo, an homage to the mythological Greek creature which was a hybrid of man and beast to note the unclear dual nature of small, rocky bodies that possess qualities of both asteroids and comets.

Microbial communities in different regions of the Pacific Ocean displayed strikingly similar daily rhythms in their metabolism despite inhabiting extremely different habitats, according to a new study.  

From the nutrient-rich waters off California to the nutrient-poor waters north of Hawai'i, dominant photoautotrophs - light-loving bacteria that need solar energy to help them photosynthesize food from inorganic substances - appear to initiate a cascade effect wherein the other major groups of microbes perform their metabolic activities in a coordinated and predictable way. As expected, different photoautotrophs dominated the coastal versus open ocean but many other heterotrophic bacterial groups were common to both habitats.

Adverse Drug Reactions are the biggest safety concern in the health field and they refer to harmful and unintended effects of drugs administered for the prevention and treatment of illness, both at normal dosages and in cases of incorrect usage or errors in medication. They are the fourth highest cause of death for patients in U.S. hospitals and  up to 15 percent of hospital expenses are due to drug-related complications despite the fact that clinical trials are larger, longer and more expensive than ever and pharmacovigilance area is high.

Light can be used to activate normal, non-genetically modified neurons through the use of targeted gold nanoparticles, report scientists from the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The new technique, described in the journal Neuron on March 12, represents a significant technological advance with potential advantages over current optogenetic methods, including possible use in the development of therapeutics toward diseases such as macular degeneration.

 Chitin is a molecule that forms hard structures like fungal cell walls and the exoskeletons of invertebrates such as insects and crustaceans. It forms a strong and pliable material that is made even stronger when complexed with other materials (such as proteins and minerals) to form the protective outer shells of insects and crustaceans.  

A generation ago, environmental activists declared war on yet another field of science - astronomy. A new telescope was going to disrupt a squirrel, they alleged, and so astronomy abandoned places in the U.S. like Arizona and began to move to Chile.

Environmentalists declared a victory against science but they don't understand systems, including ecological ones. Astronomy is a clean industry with people from all over the world and to keep it going means limiting light pollution - and another study has shown that light pollution is an unknown force.