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A single strand of fiber developed at Washington State University has the flexibility of cotton and the electric conductivity of a polymer, called polyaniline.

The newly developed material showed good potential for wearable e-textiles. The WSU researchers tested the fibers with a system that powered an LED light and another that sensed ammonia gas, detailing their findings in the journal Carbohydrate Polymers.

“We have one fiber in two sections: one section is the conventional cotton: flexible and strong enough for everyday use, and the other side is the ,” said Hang Liu, WSU textile researcher and the study’s corresponding author. “The cotton can support the conductive material which can provide the needed function.”

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MIT researchers have used 3D printing to produce self-heating microfluidic devices, demonstrating a technique which could someday be used to rapidly create cheap, yet accurate, tools to detect a host of diseases.

Microfluidics, miniaturized machines that manipulate fluids and facilitate , can be used to detect disease in tiny samples of blood or fluids. At-home test kits for COVID-19, for example, incorporate a simple type of microfluidic.

But many microfluidic applications require chemical reactions that must be performed at specific temperatures. These more complex , which are typically manufactured in a , are outfitted with heating elements made from gold or platinum using a complicated and expensive fabrication process that is difficult to scale up.

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This week at Starbase a new sign is installed at the launch site, Booster 10 appears nearly complete, and construction continues at the build site, Massey’s Test Site, Sanchez and the launch site, while over at Cape Canaveral, SpaceX continues Starlink launch and recovery operations while getting ready for the next Falcon Heavy launch, and we review the latest batch of flyover photos courtesy of Greg Scott and Farielle Mohan.

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SpaceX’s newly leaked version of the lunar Starship has been significantly updated to overcome the unique challenges of lunar exploration, demonstrating their commitment to developing technology essential for future missions to the moon and Mars.

Questions to inspire discussion.

What updates have been made to SpaceX’s lunar Starship?
—The newly leaked version of the lunar Starship has been significantly updated to overcome the unique challenges of lunar exploration.

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The impact of nature and technical challenges on space missions highlights the complexities and challenges inherent in space launch vehicle development.

Questions to inspire discussion.

What is the significance of the upcoming X-37B space plane launch?
—The upcoming launch of the X-37B space plane on SpaceX Falcon Heavy marks a significant milestone in space launch vehicle development, with potential new mission aims and the need for enhanced lifting prowess.

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In 2001, Gina Arata was in her final semester of college, planning to apply to law school, when she suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident. The injury so compromised her ability to focus she struggled in a job sorting mail.

“I couldn’t remember anything,” said Arata, who lives in Modesto with her parents. “My dropped, so I’d trip over things all the time. I was always in car accidents. And I had no filter—I’d get pissed off really easily.”

Her parents learned about research being conducted at Stanford Medicine and reached out; Arata was accepted as a participant. In 2018, physicians surgically implanted a device deep inside her brain, then carefully calibrated the device’s electrical activity to stimulate the networks the had subdued. The results of the clinical trial were published Dec. 4 in Nature Medicine.

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For the first time, scientists have begun to figure out why the disfiguring skin lesions caused by cutaneous leishmaniasis don’t hurt.

Researchers analyzed leishmaniasis lesions on mouse skin to detect metabolic signaling pathways that differed from uninfected mice. Results suggested the parasites that cause the disease change pain perception—presumably as a way to delay treatment and promote their own survival.

“No one knows why these lesions are painless—but it has been thought that the parasite somehow manipulates the host physiological system,” said Abhay Satoskar, senior author of the study and professor of pathology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

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