Those who have tried their hand at quitting an addiction as compulsory as tobacco can attest that cessation is rarely a manageable goal. You may try once, you may try twice, but ultimately it is tobacco that wins the war, as typically less than 35% of smokers or tobacco users manage to quit the addiction. But what if something, like the magic mushrooms in Alice in Wonderland, were able to make you suddenly kick the cravings? Well it turns out you’re in for a psychedelic surprise.
With a giant solar storm erupting just last week, causing cosmic disturbances emanating from the center of the sun, the northern skies have welcomed the arrival of aurora lights. Reaching as far south as New York, the record-breaking Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) of early last week’s solar storm brought with a gust of solar wind, an illuminating spectacle of lights across the sky.
Ever wonder what you’d need to build the world’s largest spacecraft? The world’s largest tools, of course. Looking to usher in a new era of space exploration, late last August NASA approved the next generation of American rockets, known as the Space Launch System (SLS). Built for deep-space missions the core stage of the rocket is more than 200 feet tall and 27.6 feet in diameter, allowing enough space to fuel four RS-25 engines.
Developed at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, a new form of wearable robotics known as “the Soft Exosuit” is changing misconceptions of where robotic engineering meets biological form. Intended to be worn comfortably under traditional clothing, the Soft Exosuit is a form of technology designed with the wearer in mind with the goal of minimizing the energy required for physical movement--an important concept for soldiers in tough terrain and even those with limited mobility in the domestic domain.
Even long before the Darwinian notions of “Survival of the Fittest”, one question has plagued mankind—what is needed to stay alive? With the uniquity of each species, and every individual within them, it has been a question that has long gone unanswered for the diversity and complexity shrouding a unified explanation. But as technology has advanced, making movement and energy consumption easily calculated tangible data, researchers have come closer and closer to an answer.
As vital organs for the removal of waste in the body, the kidneys are two necessities of life that are often underappreciated until they’re in danger of being lost. And as more and more research in oncology leads physicians to believe that cancer is caused by outside factors, more than ones’ complex genetic makeup, individuals are left to look for other treatments that go beyond the realm of chemotherapy.
With the progression of modern genomic studies and technological advancements in biomedical engineering, a future wherein genetic disorders are cured after birth is not far off. However, for those lucky mice born in today’s labs, scientists can cure them of such illnesses even before birth.
Currently spreading unabated in the western regions of Africa, infecting five countries over the short summer as bodies line the streets, the epidemic of the Ebola virus has itself sparked decades worth of research into immunological challenges we face against deadly pathogens. Defenseless against few, and always at a disadvantage to the ever-evolving, ever-changing pathogens we face in our day-to-day lives, researchers have run the gamut in recent months searching for inoculations, cures and even preventative treatments.
