As more and more plastic trash permeates the oceans, microplastics are making their way into fish and shellfish, and potentially into humans. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/hundreds-fish-species-consume-microplastics-including-human-food…
Tag: the human body
Image: Study explores how astronauts’ nervous systems adjust to microgravity
If the orientation of this image is a little disorienting, then you know how astronauts feel in their first few hours in space. in weightlessness, the human body loses its cues for up and down and requires adjustments in over to move and manipulate objects. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-12-image-explores-astronauts-nervous-adjust.html…
Scientists discover new way to measure turbulence of large planets and exoplanets
The swirls, eddies, and wavy bands of Jupiter and Saturn may remind us of a soothing, starry, starry night—but they reveal these two gas giants to be stormy, turbulent places. The turbulence produces energy cascades, a non-linear transfer of energy between different scales of motion. These are as fundamental to understanding planetary dynamics as the cardiovascular system is to understanding the…
Why It’s a Big Deal If the First COVID-19 Vaccine Is ‘Genetic’
An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from Wired: On Monday morning, when representatives from the drug company Pfizer said that its Covid-19 vaccine appears to be more than 90 percent effective, stocks soared, White House officials rushed to (falsely) claim credit, and sighs of relief went up all around the internet. […] The arrival of an effective vaccine to fight SARS-CoV-2…
Scientists 3D Print Microscopic Star Trek Spaceship That Moves On Its Own
fahrbot-bot shares a report from CNN: A team of physicists at a university in the Netherlands have 3D-printed a microscopic version of the USS Voyager, an Intrepid-class starship from Star Trek. The miniature Voyager, which measures 15 micrometers (0.015 millimeters) long, is part of a project researchers at Leiden University conducted to understand how shape affects the motion and interactions of…
The International Space Station is 20 and going strong
20 years ago, three astronauts stepped aboard the ISS. It’s since hosted residents from many countries, creating humanity’s first history of living in space. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/20-years-iss-what-its-future-holds-nov-2-2020…
How many organs are in the human body?
There isn’t an official “organ count” for the human body, but is there a ballpark estimate? Source: https://www.livescience.com/how-many-organs-in-human-body.html
What’s in wildfire smoke and why it’s so bad for your lungs
The health impact of wildfire exposure depends in part on the fire itself and how much smoke a person breathes in, how often and for how long. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/what-is-in-wildfire-smoke…
Can This Company Build Self-Charging Batteries From Radioactive Nuclear Waste?
Heart44 writes:
There is a lot of C-14 radioactive waste from graphite rods that is expensive to store. This graphite can be converted to C-14 diamonds covered in C-12 diamonds. C-14 has a half-life of 5,700 years, so such batteries would last a long time and are supposedly safe. Sounds like an April fool but… New Atlas considers the possibilities: …what you…
Army of a million microscopic robots created to explore on tiny scale
Roboticists have produced a million microscopic walking robots on a silicon wafer – in future, similar robot armies could roam inside the human body Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2253052-army-of-a-million-microscopic-robots-created-to-explore-on-tiny-scale/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…