Precise experiments have revealed for the first time how Lou Gehrig’s disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), progresses on a genetic and cellular level. The work opens new avenues for developing potential treatments for the disease, which affects around 450,000 people worldwide.
The Simons Foundation is delighted to announce Michael Shelley as the new director of the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Biology (CCB). Shelley, a distinguished applied mathematician, will lead the center in its mission of better understanding complex biological processes through the development and application of computational tools and theory.
Black holes consume everything that falls within their reach, yet astronomers have spotted jets of particles fleeing from black holes at nearly the speed of light. New computer simulations have revealed what gives these particles such speed: cosmic robbery.
The American Astronomical Society has awarded its 2019 Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy to Blakesley Burkhart, an associate research scientist at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics.
As New Yorkers headed to the polls on November 6, nearly four dozen high school students headed to the Flatiron Institute to learn about careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
Astronomers have discovered a ghostlike galaxy that looms large on the fringes of the Milky Way. The newly discovered dwarf galaxy, dubbed Antlia 2, stretches roughly 19,000 light-years across. That makes it the vastest satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. Despite its enormous extent, though, Antlia 2 is incredibly faint and barren: It is by far the sparsest galaxy ever seen in the universe, its discoverers report in a paper posted November 13 at arXiv.org.
DNA flows inside a cell’s nucleus in a choreographed line dance, new simulations reveal. The finding is the first large-scale explanation of genetic material moving within a working cell.
On August 17, 2017, scientists witnessed one of the most dramatic collisions in the universe. Two dense neutron stars had combined in a galaxy 130 million light-years away, generating ripples through space-time and emitting bursts of light. The observations of the event sparked scientific breakthroughs across many areas of cosmology, but many questions linger.
Astrophysicists finally have an explanation for the violent mood swings of some of the biggest, brightest and rarest stars in the universe.
The dome of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City burst into a confetti-like field of colorful puffs of light. Below, an audience of scientists and non-scientists alike oohed and aahed at the multicolored light show. “It looks like cotton candy falling down,” observed astrophysicist Jackie Faherty, a senior scientist and education manager at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. “It’s pretty, right? But it’s also science.”