Lifeboat Foundation

The potential to disseminate disinformation on a large scale and undermine scientifically established facts represents an existential risk to humanity. While vigorously defending the right to freedom of expression everywhere, higher education institutions must also develop the capacity to reach a shared, empirically backed consensus based on facts, science and established knowledge.

Scientists tracked a neutrino back to a violent black hole — and it could help explain where elusive cosmic rays originate.

New research provides evidence that high intensity interval training improves metabolism in a brain structure responsible for memory formation and retention. The study, published in Psychophysiology, found increased metabolism in the left hippocampus following a 6-month physical activity intervention for adolescents.

“The primary focus of my research is the design, evaluation, and dissemination of school-based physical activity interventions,” said David Lubans, a professor at the University of Newcastle and the corresponding author of the study.

“My secondary area of interest is studying the effects and mechanisms of physical activity on young people’s mental health and cognition. I have found that providing evidence for the benefits of physical activity for academic outcomes, including test performance, cognitive function and on-task behavior in the classroom provides a strong impetus for schools to provide additional activity for young people.”

The James Webb Space Telescope has made headlines this week with its ability to look deeper into the universe than ever before, but it will also be used to look at some targets closer to home. As well as distant galaxies and far-off exoplanets, Webb will also be used to investigate objects right here in our solar system — and one of the first research projects it will be used for will study Jupiter and its rings and moons.

Now, NASA and its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, have demonstrated how capable Webb is of studying Jupiter by releasing the first images it has taken of targets in our solar system. The images show the iconic stripes of Jupiter as seen in the infrared, and also show up some of the moons of Jupiter like Europa which is clearly visible below:

“Combined with the deep field images released the other day, these images of Jupiter demonstrate the full grasp of what Webb can observe, from the faintest, most distant observable galaxies to planets in our own cosmic backyard that you can see with the naked eye from your actual backyard,” said one of the researchers who worked on the images, Bryan Holler of the Space Telescope Science Institute, in a statement.

😳!

“My team has spotted something unexpected: It’s a piece of a thermal blanket that they think may have come from my descent stage, the rocket-powered jet pack that set me down on landing day back in 2021,” Perseverance team members wrote on Twitter at the time.

An interesting piece of debris that could come from the rover.

Continue reading “NASA’s Perseverance rover has spotted a noodle-like object on Mars” »