ASU Insight

By attempting to solve avian E. coli infections in poultry, ASU researchers are hoping to also protect people against Salmonella, the leading cause of food-borne illness. --by Joe Caspermeyer

Scientists using a Mars-orbiting camera have found the first evidence for deposits of salts in numerous places on Mars. These deposits show where water was once abundant and may also provide evidence for the existence of former Martian life. --by Robert Burnham

Scientists have developed a method that extends the power of fluorescence-mediated bioimaging to see discrete pigments inside live cells of bacteria. The method is providing fresh insights into what happens on a molecular level during photosynthesis. It also promises to provide important information about the inner workings of cells as they engage in the process of collecting sunlight and turning it into chemical energy. --by Skip Derra

Scientists have long known that most compounds in living things exist in mirror-image forms. The two forms are like hands; one is a mirror reflection of the other. But amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins, are all "left-handed," while the sugars of DNA and RNA are "right-handed." ASU scientists have found new evidence that extraterrestrial amino acids, found in meteorites, are also largely left-handed. Their work suggests that precursor molecules, the aldehydes, also carried an excess of left-handedness. --by Jenny Green

We've all heard that playing video games can improve your hand-eye coordination--usually from kids trying to evade mom's order to go play outside. But those kids may be on to something. New research shows that playing a video game on the Nintendo Wii can help medical students become better surgeons by improving hand dexterity. --by Joe Kullman

Researchers have cracked the genetic code of a bacterium that harvests far-red light by making a rare form of chlorophyll (chlorophyll d). The bacterium, Acaryochloris marina, uses light from a part of the spectrum that few other organisms can use. Understanding how it works could help drive advances in agriculture and bioenergy. --by Skip Derra

Scientists have discovered shellfish remains, tiny stone blades and red ochre pigments in a cave in South Africa. The 164,000-year-old artifacts suggest that early humans were using tools, engaging in symbolic behavior, and even eating seafood much earlier than previously thought. --by Jodi Guyot

U.S. and Chinese high school students are taking aim at the Red Planet using an ASU-designed camera on a Mars-orbiting spacecraft. --by Robert Burnham

The "glassy state" is a sub-state of matter–glassy water and ice, for example, are chemically identical and are both solid, but have a different structure. Put another way, ice is crystalline, whereas glass is, well, chunky. Scientists know a lot about glasses that form from ordinary silicates, sugars and metals. But when water makes the transition to its glassy state, it behaves very oddly. ASU chemist C. Austen Angell has found a vital clue that helps explain water's bizarre behavior at the glass transition and gained important insights into phases of liquid water, as well. --by Nicholas Gerbis

Quick: What's the order of the planets in the solar system? It's Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, right? That's right today. But four billion years ago, Uranus and Neptune switched places. How do we know? With the help of a very Nice model, for starters. --by Nikki Staab