One belief is that Jupiter's moon Europa has a deep, hidden ocean of salty liquid water beneath its icy shell. Whether the Jovian moon has the raw materials and chemical energy in the right proportions to support biology is a topic of speculation and  the answer may hinge on whether Europa has environments where chemicals are matched in the right proportions to power biological processes. Life on Earth exploited such niches and still does today.

Mountains aren't the first thing that hit you when you look at images of Jupiter's innermost moon, Io. But once you absorb the fact that the moon is slathered in sulfurous lava erupted from 400 active volcanoes, you might turn your attention to scattered bumps and lumps that turn out, on closer inspection, to be Io's version of mountains.There are about 100 of them, and they don't look anything like the low lying volcanoes.

They also don't look like mountains on our home world. While we favor majestic ranges stretching from horizon to horizon, the mountains on Io are isolated peaks of great height that jut up out of nowhere. From space, they look rather like the blocky chips in the fancier kind of chocolate chip cookie.

Fuel cells, which generate electricity from chemical reactions without harmful emissions, have the potential to power everything from cars to portable electronics, and could be cleaner and more efficient than combustion engines.

Solid oxide fuel cells, which rely on low- cost ceramic materials, are among the most efficient and promising type of fuel cell. Now, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have found a way to harness the quantum behavior of these fuel cells to make them even more efficient and robust. In doing so, they've observed a new type of phase transition in an oxide material.

The research is described in the journal Nature.

Controversial evolutionary psychologist  Dr. Satoshi Kanazawahas written a new evolutionary psychology paper arguing that women may have been evolutionarily designed to be sexually fluid, changing their sexual desires and identities from lesbian, to bisexual, to heterosexual and back again, in order to allow them to have sex with their co-wives in polygynous marriages.

This is because it helps in reducing conflict and tension inherent in such marriages while at the same time successfully reproducing with their husbands in heterosexual unions.

Inflammation occurs naturally in the body but when it goes wrong or goes on too long, it can trigger disease processes. Uncontrolled inflammation plays a role in many major diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.

A new study has identified food stuffs that can help prevent chronic inflammation that contributes to many leading causes of death. Their correlation claims diets rich in fruits and vegetables, which contain polyphenols, protect against age-related inflammation and chronic diseases.

Cell-to-cell communication

Meal kit delivery services are here and they seem to be flourishing.

According to the Meal Kit Delivery Services in the U.S. report from market research publisher Packaged Facts, meal kit delivery services have exploded over the past few years by bridging the space between home-cooked meals and takeout. The services offer people a convenient way to cook at home without having to do the meal planning and grocery shopping. Online portals let consumers order meals ahead from picture menus and the services deliver the pre-measured fresh ingredients along with recipes to their doorstep to help them cook meals at home.

ANN ARBOR, Mich -- Nearly half of parents whose child had leftover pain medication from a surgery or illness say they kept the prescription opioids at home -- representing a potential problem down the line.

Parents whose child's provider discussed what to do with the pills, however, were far more likely to dispose them properly, according to a report from the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A new study reveals that police recruits and experienced officers are more likely than others to subscribe to colorblind racial beliefs -- the notion that they - and people in general -- see no differences among people from different racial groups and treat everyone the same.

The findings appear in the journal Race and Social Problems.

The U.S. police force is roughly 75 percent white and male, said University of Illinois anthropology professor Cris Hughes, who led the research with colleagues in anthropology, psychology, advertising and the U. of I. Police Training Institute.

Scientists have found evidence of a huge asteroid that struck the Earth early in its life with an impact larger than anything humans have experienced.

Tiny glass beads called spherules, found in north-western Australia were formed from vaporised material from the asteroid impact, said Dr Andrew Glikson from The Australian National University (ANU).

"The impact would have triggered earthquakes orders of magnitude greater than terrestrial earthquakes, it would have caused huge tsunamis and would have made cliffs crumble," said Dr Glikson, from the ANU Planetary Institute.

As climatologists closely monitor the impact of human activity on the world's oceans, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have found yet another worrying trend impacting the health of the Pacific Ocean.

A new modeling study conducted by researchers in Georgia Tech's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences shows that for decades, air pollution drifting from East Asia out over the world's largest ocean has kicked off a chain reaction that contributed to oxygen levels falling in tropical waters thousands of miles away.