Kapteyn's Star, named after Dutch astronomer Jacobus Kapteyn, who discovered it at the end of the 19th century, is the second fastest-moving star in the sky and belongs to the Galactic halo, an extended group of stars orbiting our Galaxy on very elliptical orbits. 

With a third of the mass of the Sun, this red-dwarf can be seen with an amateur telescope in the southern constellation of Pictor. 

An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of two new planets orbiting Kapteyn's Star. One of these planets orbits the star at the right distance to allow liquid water to exist on its surface, a key ingredient to support life. 

Deep sea fish help keep more than one million tons of CO2 from UK and Irish surface waters every year - that's worth £10 million per year in carbon credits, if anyone actually paid full price for those. Those fish living in deep waters on the continental slope around the UK may play an important role in carrying carbon from the surface to the seafloor, but they do it solely for free. 

A team led by Gregorio Valdez, an assistant professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, have created a search engine called EvoCor that identifies genes that are functionally linked.

EvoCor is a portmanteau of "evolution" and "correlation" and connotes the idea that genes with a similar evolutionary history and expression pattern have evolved together to control a specific biological process.

Individuals who are hospitalized for the skin conditions of Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis appear to have a high risk of recurrence, according to a new study.

Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are life-threatening conditions that develop primarily as responses to drugs, and result in extensive epidermal detachment (upper layers of the skin detach from the lower layers). Recurrence has been reported in isolated cases, and the overall risk of recurrence has been unknown, according to background information in the article.

One of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpieces, a self-portrait, was drawn in red chalk on paper during the early 1500s. As you can imagine, a chalk drawing on paper from the Renaissance is in extremely poor condition.

Centuries of exposure to humid storage conditions and a lack of understanding about preservation has led to widespread and localized yellowing and browning of the paper, which is reducing the contrast between the colors of chalk and paper and substantially diminishing the visibility of the drawing - but a group of researchers from Italy and Poland are trying to help. 

A new study in the journal Molecular Psychiatry has linked children who later developed autism with exposure to elevated levels of steroid hormones (for example testosterone, progesterone and cortisol) in the womb.

Liver cancer is among the fastest-growing and deadliest cancers in the United States with a 17 percent three-year survival rate. Vaccines help direct the immune system to attack invaders by showing it a representative substance, called an antigen, that the body will recognize as foreign, in this case,  Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) – normally expressed during development and by liver cancer cells. 

AFP is expressed by about 80 percent of most common liver cancer cells but not typically by healthy adults. For cancer to flourish, cells must revert to an immature state, called dedifferentiation, which is why liver cancer cells express a protein during development and why the immune system can recognize AFP as "self."

Researchers have reported the discovery of 46 ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurs (marine reptiles)  in the vicinity of the Tyndall Glacier in the Torres del Paine National Park of southern Chile. Among them are numerous articulated and virtually complete skeletons of adults, pregnant females, and juveniles. 

Preservation is excellent and occasionally includes soft tissue and embryos. The skeletons are associated with ammonites, belemnites, inoceramid bivalves, and fishes as well as numerous plant remains.

The enormous concentration of ichthyosaurs is unique for Chile and South America and places the Tyndall locality among the prime fossil Lagerstätten for Early Cretaceous marine reptiles worldwide.

PHILADELPHIA (June 2, 2014) – A new study from researchers at Drexel University adds evidence that using common antidepressant medications during pregnancy may contribute to a higher risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in children, although this risk is still very small.

Results from past studies of prenatal use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and ASD risk have not been consistent. An ongoing challenge in this line of research is trying to tease apart potential effects of the medication on risk from the effects associated with the condition for which the medication was prescribed (most commonly depression). Based on past studies, both SSRIs and genetic factors associated with depression are likely associated with greater risk of ASD.

The federal government could save taxpayers over $5 billion in the first year by changing the way the government assigns Part D plans for Medicare beneficiaries eligible for low-income subsidies.