Short Takes – 1-15-24 – Geek Edition

The teen brain is especially susceptible to the harms of THC. ScienceNews.org article.  Pull quote: “Cannabis addiction is also tied to the development of the psychiatric disorder schizophrenia. A study of nearly 7 million Danish people ages 16 to 49 found an association between cannabis use disorder and schizophrenia, researchers reported in May in Psychological Medicine. The association was stronger for males overall and especially at the ages of 16 to 25 years old. The researchers estimate that in 2021, without cannabis use disorder, around 15 percent of cases of schizophrenia in males and 4 percent in females would not have occurred.” Sounds like ‘Reefer Madness’ with science.

When it comes to physical activity, every bit counts. ScienceNews.org article. Pull quote: “Walk uphill, carry a heavy grocery basket, “get a little bit out of breath,” Stamatakis says. Any burst of exertion that briefly boosts your heart rate a few times per day could have long term health benefits, he says. That’s something many people don’t understand. In interviews with middle-aged people, Stamatakis has heard a common misconception. “The majority of them still think that you need to go to the gym, otherwise there’s no point.”” My day job as a grocery stocker is my exercise regime, 10,000 steps, plus heavy lifting, 4 times 8 hours a week.

This Distant Planet Has a 350,000-Mile-Long Comet-Like Tail. NYTimes.com article. Pull quote: “Although its cosmic caboose makes WASP-69b notable among its exoplanetary peers, “we have found other planets with tails,” said Jessie Christiansen, the project scientist at NASA’s Exoplanet Archive, who was not involved with the new study. Several other Hot Jupiters are known to have vaporous capes, and Kepler-10b, a rocky realm, is so close to its star that its surface is being evaporated into an iron and silicate streak.”

Bladder tumours reduced by 90% using nanorobots. NewsWise.com article. Pull quote: “Thus, the scientists concluded that the nanorobots collide with the urothelium as if it were a wall, but in the tumour, which is spongier, they penetrate the tumour and accumulate inside. A key factor is the mobility of the nanobots, which increases the likelihood of reaching the tumour.”

SpaceX inspires NASA to prep for small mishaps in moonshot plan. Phys.org article. Pull quote: “Astrobotic's Peregrine lander was created in partnership with NASA's CLPS (pronounced "Clips") program, which stands for Commercial Lunar Payload Services. The idea of the program is to help foster development of privately made lunar landers that can carry NASA payloads, while accepting that some partners get further than others.”

Which animals will be the first to live on the moon and Mars? LiveScience.com article. Pull quote: “Since 2019, the Lunar Hatch program has been investigating the feasibility of shipping fish eggs to space for programmed hatching. If they can survive the launch and spaceflight, fish stand to be a more efficient, high-protein, low-waste food source than land livestock, according to the 2021 review [link added].”

Potential solvents identified for building on moon and Mars. SpaceDaily.com article. Pull quote: “Working with researchers at the University of Colorado in a separate study , the researchers tested a few ionic liquids in the lab for their ability to dissolve compounds. They hope to eventually build a lab-scale or pilot-scale reactor and test good candidate solvents with lunar regolith-type materials.” Lots of interesting work to be done.

Shipping container buildings may be cool — but they're not always green. NPR.org article. Includes some photos of creative installations. Pull quote: “"The pitch of these containers is, 'Well, we're saving them.' But it doesn't make any sense," said San Francisco-based architect Mark Hogan of OpenScope Studio, who has publicly shared his concerns about shipping container housing. "You'd be much better off recycling the container into steel and then build out of steel studs — like the normal way you'd build a building."”