Lifeboat Foundation

The Marine Corps has seen hundreds of new recruits at boot camp test positive for the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, but their symptoms have been so mild that it hasn’t disrupted training, a two-star general said this week.

Fewer than 2% of the Marine recruits who’ve reported to boot camp since the start of the pandemic have tested positive for COVID-19, Maj. Gen. Bill Mullen, head of Training and Education Command, said Tuesday.

Read Next: Here’s How the Navy’s New PRT Plank Event Will Be Scored.

Yesterday, the official Twitter account of the International Space Station posted a short video interview in which NASA astronaut Doug Hurley explains what it’s like to try and capture the beauty of Earth from 250 miles above.

It’s a short video, but Col. Hurley tries to describe the feeling of looking down at the Earth from the edge of space, passing over recognizable landmarks and marveling at the beauty of it all—then trying your best to convey that feeling in every photo.

“Personally, it’s just trying to convey to as many people as we can … just what we see with our eyes when we look out the window up here. And how different it is to view the Earth from space than it is to be standing on the ground somewhere,” says Hurley. “[We’re] just trying to convey that it’s just an emotional response that you have when you look down at the planet.”

New ground-breaking research from the University of Surrey could change the way scientists understand and describe lasers—establishing a new relationship between classical and quantum physics.

In a comprehensive study published by the journal Progress in Quantum Electronics, a researcher from Surrey, in partnership with a colleague from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Fraunhofer IOSB in Germany, calls into question 60 years of orthodoxy surrounding the principles of lasers and the laser spectral linewidth—the foundation for controlling and measuring wavelengths of light.

In the new study, the researchers find that a fundamental principle of lasers, that the amplification of light compensates for the losses of the laser, is only an approximation. The team quantify and explain that a tiny excess loss, which is not balanced by the amplified light but by normal luminescence inside the laser, provides the answer to the spectral linewidth of the laser.

Chameleons are famous for their color-changing abilities. Depending on their body temperature or mood, their nervous system directs skin tissue that contains nanocrystals to expand or contract, changing how the nanocrystals reflect light and turning the reptile’s skin a rainbow of colors.

Inspired by this, scientists at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago have developed a way to stretch and strain liquid crystals to generate different colors.

By creating a thin film of polymer filled with liquid crystal droplets and then manipulating it, they have determined the fundamentals for a color-changing sensing system that could be used for smart coatings, sensors, and even wearable electronics.

Calculations predict that a light ‘hypernucleus’ containing a particle with two strange quarks will be stable

Adding an exotic particle known as a Xi hyperon to a helium nucleus with three nucleons could produce a nucleus that is temporarily stable, calculations by RIKEN nuclear physicists have predicted. This result will help experimentalists search for the nucleus and provide insights into both nuclear physics and the structure of neutron stars.

Normal atomic nuclei consist of protons and neutrons, which are collectively known as nucleons. Each proton and neutron in turn is made up of three quarks. Quarks come in six types: up, down, strange, charm, bottom and top. But protons and neutrons consist only of up and down quarks.

A few scant equations can explain a variety of phenomena in our universe, over vast gulfs of space and time. Here’s a taste of just how powerful modern physics can be.

The CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system is an extremely powerful tool, but there are still a few kinks to iron out. One of the main problems is off-target edits, which can have serious consequences. Now, researchers have found a particular mutation of the CRISPR enzyme that’s almost 100 times more precise than the most commonly used one.

CRISPR gene-editing is based on a bacterial defense system, in which the bugs use a particular enzyme to snip out a section of a pathogen’s DNA and store it for future reference. Next time that pathogen is encountered, the system will recognize it and be better equipped to fight it off.

Scientists managed to co-opt this system as a handy genetic engineering tool. CRISPR-Cas9 uses this mechanism to scour a target’s genome for a specific sequence of DNA – say one that could cause disease – then cut it out, sometimes replacing it with a more beneficial sequence.

Cells infected with the new coronavirus grow stringy, tentacle-like arms that allow the virus to invade other cells, according to a new study.

The novel coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2, has now infected more than 12.2 million people worldwide and killed more than 555,500, according to the Johns Hopkins dashboard. To defeat the virus, researchers around the world are taking part in an unprecedented effort to find new drugs and repurpose old ones.

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