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In the science-fiction series Dune, the desert-dwelling Fremen of the arid planet Arrakis recycle their body’s moisture using specially designed outfits called stillsuits. Inspired by such imaginings, a new prototype spacesuit converts astronauts’ urine into drinkable water, researchers report July 12 in Frontiers in Space Technology. “I’ve been a fan of the Dune series for … Read more
In real life, laws are broken all the time. Besides your everyday criminals, there are scammers and fraudsters, politicians and mobsters, corporations and nations that regard laws as suggestions rather than restrictions. It’s not that way in physics. For centuries, physicists have been identifying laws of nature that are invariably unbreakable. Those laws govern matter, … Read more
People with advanced cancers often feel like their bodies are wasting away. That’s because of cachexia, a condition in which impaired metabolism leads to muscle wasting and drastic weight loss (SN: 4/15/15). A new study in mice hints at a way to reverse the condition. Blocking the activity in the brain of an immune protein … Read more
A chemical element that’s not even in H2O — sulfur — is the reason Earth first got its water, a new study finds, bolstering a similar claim made a year ago. The discovery means our planet was born with all it needed to create its own water and so did not have to receive it … Read more
Forever chemicals are everywhere. They’re in school uniforms, food packaging, cosmetics and personal care products (SNE: 11/18/22; SN: 6/4/19; SN: 6/15/21). They seep into our food and drinking water. And now new research suggests that some can move through the skin, posing yet another avenue through which humans are intimately exposed to these chemicals, which … Read more
Nuclear power of the future is going to need fuel. That has governments, energy companies and nuclear engineers clamoring to get their hands on HALEU: high-assay low-enriched uranium. HALEU (pronounced like “Hey, Lou”) was previously a niche material, used mainly in nuclear reactors conducting scientific research. But now, multiple companies in the United States have … Read more
Slimy heralds of hope are hopping around Yosemite National Park. Being a frog hasn’t been easy in the High Sierra or in many other places ever since a fungal parasite began exterminating frogs in the United States, Australia and Central America 30 or so years ago. But now some impacted species are beginning to recover … Read more
Sometimes science fiction does inspire science research. À la Jurassic Park’s entombed mosquito, scientists have developed a method to store DNA in an amberlike material and still extract it easily hours later. This storage method is cheaper and faster than existing options, the researchers report in the June Journal of the American Chemical Society. If … Read more
NASA’s Perseverance rover has bagged its first hint of ancient microbes on Mars. “We’re not able to say that this is a sign of life,” says Perseverance deputy project scientist Katie Stack Morgan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif. “But this is the most compelling sample we’ve found yet.” The rover drilled up … Read more
Waterpower may have given a big lift to builders of Egypt’s oldest known pyramid, the nearly 4,700-year-old Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. Ancient architects built a hydraulic system for hoisting stone blocks that were used to assemble King Djoser’s six-tiered, roughly 62-meter-tall pyramid, scientists propose August 5 in PLOS ONE. Controlled flows of water … Read more