Enlarge / Nuclear physicists used micro-XRF scanning to produce elemental maps for Roman denarii coins and their color overlays. (credit: K.V. Manukyan et al., 2019) Most people associate nuclear physics with the atomic bomb or nuclear power plants, and those associations are often negative. Michael Wiescher, a nuclear physicist at the University of Notre Dame, […]
Enlarge / A demo version of the new thruster in operation. (credit: ThrustMe) Most people are probably familiar with iodine through its role as a disinfectant. But if you stayed awake through high school chemistry, then you may have seen a demonstration where powdered iodine was heated. Because its melting and boiling points are very […]
A young mother in a small Argentina town has possibly become the second documented person in history to have their own immune system cure HIV. Scientists researching the disease published a new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine on Monday, explaining their remarkable findings in the cells of a 30-year-old formerly-HIV-positive woman from the […]
Image showing the Russian Cosmos 1408 satellite before impact on Monday morning. [credit: Slingshot Aerospace ] Although it will likely require weeks of careful observations before scientists have enough tracking data to fully map the debris cloud from the destruction of the Cosmos 1408 satellite, the early returns are distressing. An array of government entities […]
A snapping finger produces the highest rotational accelerations observed in humans, according to a new study. A snapping finger produces the highest rotational accelerations observed in humans, according to a new study. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was dramatically altered at the end of Avengers: Infinity War with an infamous snap of Thanos’ fingers. But could […]
Enlarge / A box and container of ivermectin. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg) More doctors across the country are pushing back against fringe members of the medical community for spreading COVID-19 misinformation and touting unproven treatments. Over the weekend, nearly 100 physicians in Alaska signed onto a letter urging the state medical board to investigate doctors […]
Enlarge (credit: IBM) IBM has announced it has cleared a major hurdle in its effort to make quantum computing useful: it now has a quantum processor, called Eagle, with 127 functional qubits. This makes it the first company to clear the 100-qubit mark, a milestone that’s interesting because the interactions of that many qubits can’t […]
Humans have lived aboard the International Space Station for more than two decades. (credit: NASA) A day after it launched a missile and blasted a large satellite into hundreds of thousands of pieces of debris, the Russian Defense Ministry has acknowledged the test but said it posed no danger to humans living in space. “On […]
The space station is being threatened by an unexpected cloud of debris. (credit: NASA) The seven astronauts and cosmonauts onboard the International Space Station sheltered inside their respective spacecraft, a Crew Dragon and Soyuz, on Monday morning as the orbiting laboratory passed through an unexpected debris field. This was not a pre-planned collision avoidance maneuver […]
Enlarge / Biogen Inc. headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Biogen Inc. shares soared after its controversial Alzheimer’s disease therapy was approved by US regulators. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg ) Seniors throughout the US will see a hefty increase to their health care premiums next year thanks in large part to Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm, which is […]