Finely preserved brain features in a tiny marine arthropod fossil suggest that arachnids – spiders and their close kin – may have first evolved in the ocean rather than on land, challenging conventional wisdom. The fossilized brain shows the reverse arrangement of the front-to-back organization found in present-day crustaceans, insects and centipedes, and horseshoe crabs.

Researchers at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) have developed a new way to predict 2D materials that might transform electronics, such as sensors and solar cells. They used a mix of data mining, computer modeling, and structural analysis to reveal 83 candidate materials. Collaborators at the University of Maryland, College Park successfully synthesized some of the proposed materials in the lab, proving the UMBC predictions could be used to guide experiments with the novel materials. 

Georgia State University’s Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array is marking the 20th anniversary of its first scientific results, published in the July 20, 2005, issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

Fast X-ray transients (FXTs) are blasts of X-rays from distant galaxies. Astronomers have detected FXTs since the 1970s, but their origins have remained unknown. By studying the closest FXT associated with a supernova ever detected, scientists found it was produced by a geyser of high-energy particles trapped inside the outer layer of a massive star.

Borrowing from the anti-inflammatory properties of olive oil, Penn Engineers used a century-old chemical reaction to redesign the lipid nanoparticles that deliver mRNA. By adding phenol groups, antioxidant compounds found in olive oil, to the delivery molecules, they created a new class of lipids that reduce inflammation and enhance performance. The result is a safer, more effective platform for mRNA vaccines and therapies, with promising results in animal models of COVID-19, cancer and gene editing.