Professor Jean-Michel Claverie and Dr. Chantal Aberge of the French University of Aix-Marseille (Aix-Marseille Université) have discovered the largest viruses in the world, that have been called Pandoravirus. They have found two species, the Pandoravirus salinus, that lives in the saline water near the mouth of the Chilean river Tunquen, and the Pandoravirus dulcis, that lives in a freshwater pond near Melbourne, Australia.
A software designed to process images taken by satellites has been adapted to be used in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. This new software, called AlzTools 3D Slicer, was created by a team of Elecnor Deimos in Spain, a company that operates in several fields of advanced technology. Developers have taken advantage of years of experience in developing software on behalf of ESA’s Envisat satellite mission.
The measurements taken by the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument of the Mars Rover Curiosity have provided evidence about the collapse of the ancient Martian atmosphere. The conclusions of the analysis of these data confirm that in the past the red planet had an atmosphere similar to that of Earth, much denser than at present. About 4 billion years ago, most of the Martian atmosphere dissipated in space.
