Simultaneously using mobile phones, laptops and other media devices could be changing the structure of our brains, according to new University of Sussex research. A study published in PLOS ONE reveals that people who frequently use several media devices at the same time have lower grey-matter density in one particular region of the brain compared to those who use just one device occasionally. The research supports earlier studies showing connections between high media-multitasking activity and poor attention in the face of distractions, along with emotional problems such as depression and anxiety....

Want to catch a glimpse of Mercury? Don’t look too close, but on November 11, our solar system’s smallest planet will appear as a small black dot gliding across the face of the Sun. During this rare astronomical event, called a transit, Mercury’s orbit passes directly between Earth and the Sun, similar to a solar eclipse. These events only occur about 13 times per century! In fact, the next transit won’t take place until 2032....

Patients with mesothelioma may gain similar benefits from immunotherapy as chemotherapy, and good responders may provide important clues to the novel treatment for the thousands of new cases each year. Data from the PROMISE-meso trial presented at the ESMO Congress 2019 highlight the need to understand the biological mechanisms whereby mesothelioma, which is incurable, adapts to immunotherapy in some patients but not in others, resulting in variations in treatment response....

Now, ASU researcher Ferran Garcia-Pichel, along with Christophe Thomazo, from the Laboratoire Biogéosciences in Dijon, France, and Estelle Couradeau, a former Marie Curie Postdoc in both labs, show that biological soil crusts–colonies of microorganisms that today colonize arid, desert environments–may have played a significant role in the Earth’s nitrogen cycle, helping to fertilize early oceans and create a nutrient link between atmosphere, continents, and oceans. Garcia-Pichel directs the Biodesign Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics and is a professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences....

In a small-scale clinical evaluation, researchers at Imperial College London have shown for the first time how microneedle biosensors can be used to monitor the changing concentration of antibiotics. Their findings, published today in The Lancet Digital Health, show the sensors enable real-time monitoring of changes in antibiotic concentration in the body, with similar results to those obtained from blood tests. The team believes the technology could change how patients with serious infections are treated by showing how quickly their bodies ‘use up’ medications they are given....

Georgia A. Malandraki, an associate professor of speech, language, and hearing sciences in Purdue University’s College of Health and Human Sciences, and Chi Hwan Lee, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering in Purdue’s College of Engineering, founded Curasis LLC and serve as an acting chief executive officer and chief technology officer, respectively. They started the company to commercialize their wearable technology and move it as quickly as possible to clinics and people with swallowing difficulties....

The minerals were identified in the first sample of Martian soil ingested recently by the rover. Curiosity used its Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin) to obtain the results, which are filling gaps and adding confidence to earlier estimates of the mineralogical makeup of the dust and fine soil widespread on the Red Planet. “We had many previous inferences and discussions about the mineralogy of Martian soil,” said David Blake of NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, who is the principal investigator for CheMin....

A new approach developed by researchers at MIT could provide a significant step forward in quantum error correction. The method involves fine-tuning the system to address the kinds of noise that are the most likely, rather than casting a broad net to try to catch all possible sources of disturbance. The analysis is described in the journal Physical Review Letters, in a paper by MIT graduate student David Layden, postdoc Mo Chen, and professor of nuclear science and engineering Paola Cappellaro....

But what if light particles could be made to interact, attracting and repelling each other like atoms in ordinary matter? One tantalizing, albeit sci-fi possibility: light sabers — beams of light that can pull and push on each other, making for dazzling, epic confrontations. Or, in a more likely scenario, two beams of light could meet and merge into one single, luminous stream. It may seem like such optical behavior would require bending the rules of physics, but in fact, scientists at MIT, Harvard University, and elsewhere have now demonstrated that photons can indeed be made to interact — an accomplishment that could open a path toward using photons in quantum computing, if not in lightsabers....

Certain treatments for patients suffering from chronic diseases, such as inflammatory bowel diseases, require multiple intravenous or subcutaneous injections of specific drugs. Because of the pain and anxiety associated with needles, some patients stop adhering to these treatments. MIT spinout Portal Instruments has now landed a commercialization deal for a smart, needle-free injection device that could reduce the pain and anxiety associated with needle injections, shorten administration time, and improve patient adherence....

Kaiser Permanente study shows Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is 87% effective in preventing COVID-19 infection, and more than 95% effective in preventing severe COVID-19. Kaiser Permanente research in Southern California published November 25, 2021, in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas confirmed high Moderna COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness up to 5 months after the second dose. Effectiveness was 87% against COVID-19 infection, 96% against COVID-19 hospitalization, and 98% against COVID-19 death. “This research provides reassuring evidence of the high effectiveness of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in preventing infection, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19,” said Katia Bruxvoort, PhD, an adjunct investigator with the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation....

Members of NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission proposed the name to the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The flat-topped mountain is adjacent to the western rim of the Nobile Crater, on which VIPER will land and explore during its approximately 100-day mission as part of NASA’s Artemis program. The IAU theme for naming mountains (mons) on the Moon focuses on “scientists who have made outstanding or fundamental contributions to their fields....

Scientists from around the world have published more than 87,000 papers about coronavirus between the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and October 2020, a new analysis shows. Even given the importance of the pandemic, researchers were surprised by the huge number of studies and other papers that scientists produced on the subject in such a short time. “It is an astonishing number of publications – it may be unprecedented in the history of science,” said Caroline Wagner, co-author of the study and associate professor in the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University....

Batteries are rapidly becoming less expensive and might soon offer a cheap short-term solution to store energy for daily energy needs. However, the long-term storage capabilities of batteries, for example, in a yearly cycle, will not be economically viable. Although pumped-hydro storage (PHS) technologies are an economically feasible choice for long-term energy storage with large capacities – higher than 50 megawatts (MW) – it becomes expensive for locations where the demand for energy storage is often smaller than 20 MW with monthly or seasonal requirements, such as small islands and remote locations....

In theory, we can make electronic data processing much more efficient by switching to spintronics. Instead of using electrical signals, this technology makes use of magnetic signals to transmit data. Unfortunately, magnetism tends to get incredibly complicated, especially at the tiny scale of our computer chips. You could view a magnetic wave as millions of compass needles performing a complex collective dance. Not only do the waves propagate extremely fast, causing them to vanish in mere nanoseconds, the tricky laws of quantum mechanics also allow them to travel in multiple directions at the same time....

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers are now able to peer deep within the world’s tiniest structures to create three-dimensional images of individual atoms and their positions. Their research, published March 22 in the journal Nature, presents a new method for directly measuring the atomic structure of nanomaterials. “This is the first experiment where we can directly see local structures in three dimensions at atomic-scale resolution — that’s never been done before,” said Jianwei (John) Miao, a professor of physics and astronomy and a researcher with the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA....

One of the major challenges of the energy transition is to supply energy even when the sun is not shining. Hydrogen production by splitting water with the help of sunlight could offer a solution. Hydrogen is a good energy storage medium and can be used in many ways. However, water does not simply split by itself. Catalysts are needed, for instance, Platinum, which is rare and expensive. Research teams the world over are looking for more economical alternatives....

For the past 8 years, NASA astronomers have been monitoring the Moon for signs of explosions caused by meteoroids hitting the lunar surface. “Lunar meteor showers” have turned out to be more common than anyone expected, with hundreds of detectable impacts occurring every year. They’ve just seen the biggest explosion in the history of the program. A new ScienceCast video describes the bright lunar explosion of March 17, 2013. “On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium,” says Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office....

With NASA’s Psyche mission now less than a year from launch, anticipation is building. By next spring, the fully assembled spacecraft will ship from the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a launch period that opens on August 1, 2022. In early 2026, the Psyche spacecraft will arrive at its target, an asteroid of the same name in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter....

On October 26, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) caught the Sun “smiling.” Seen in ultraviolet light, these dark patches on the Sun are known as coronal holes and are regions where fast solar wind gushes out into space. SDO has studied how the Sun creates solar activity and drives space weather since its launch in 2010. Its observations begin in the interior of the Sun with the solar dynamo — the churning of the Sun’s interior that creates its magnetic field and drives space weather....