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For the past 30 years, NASA’s Great Observatories—the Hubble, Spitzer, Compton, and Chandra space telescopes—have revealed some amazing things about the universe. In addition to some of the deepest views of the universe provided by the Hubble Deep Fields campaign, these telescopes have provided insight into the unseen parts of the cosmos—i.e., in the infrared, gamma-ray, and ultraviolet spectrums.

With the success of these observatories and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), NASA is contemplating future missions that would reveal even more of the “unseen universe.”

This includes the UltraViolet Explorer (UVEX), a space telescope NASA plans to launch in 2030 as its next Astrophysics Medium-Class Explorer mission. In a recent study, a team led by researchers from the University of Michigan proposed another concept known as the Mission to Analyze the UltraViolet universE (MAUVE). This telescope and its sophisticated instruments were conceived during the inaugural NASA Astrophysics Mission Design School. According to the team’s paper, this mission would hypothetically be ready for launch by 2031.

The glymphatic system becomes more active during sleep, especially during deep sleep, allowing for more effective waste clearance, said psychiatrist Dr. Jingduan Yang, founder of the Yang Institute of Integrative Medicine in Pennsylvania.

In a mouse study published in Science, researchers used tracers to monitor changes in cerebrospinal fluid flow. They found that during sleep, the interstitial, or intervening, space expanded by more than 60 percent, and the tracer influx increased. The brain’s clearance rate of beta-amyloid doubled during sleep (or under anesthesia) compared to the awake state.

Summary: This article explores how humanity has advanced its knowledge of biodiversity over time, from folk wisdom to modern databases. It highlights how technology has made information about life on Earth accessible to everyone and argues we should be optimistic about the future of taxonomy and conservation.

Alone in the forest, the modern person might find it difficult to identify a beech tree. Compared to indigenous shamans who forage thousands of medicinal plants, we are deeply disconnected from nature. But even if our personal understanding of nature is in decline, as a species, we’ve never known more about the natural world.

The fact is, while it is valuable, indigenous knowledge is often limited to the local area, difficult to distinguish from myth and ritual, and, if passed on orally, easy to lose. Literate naturalists faced similar problems. Aristotle recorded many species in writing, but much of his work was lost. Most traditional written research that survived to modern times is narrow in scope, disorganized, and spread throughout obscure tomes.

The vast gulfs between stars may take decades or even centuries to travel, requiring enormous generation ships carrying families and whole ecosystems with them. What will life be like on board such arks?

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At the end of a year when Texas employees were among those targeted by hackers, the state has awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to a company that works with entities to increase technological efficiency and offer cybersecurity protection. Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) announced Dec. 18 that it was awarded a $170.9 million contract from the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) to provide cybersecurity services in protection of state networks.

SAIC, which is headquartered in Reston, Va., and has been providing security services to California, Colorado and Virginia for years, also has worked with the Air Force in deploying “a cloud-based command and control capability” to air defense sectors with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), according to information technology news website StateScoop. It employs about 24,000 people.