Lifeboat Foundation

EVANSVILLE, Ind., April 17 (UPI) — As produce sales at grocery stores surge during the coronavirus pandemic, one item is selling particularly well — mushrooms.

During the last week of March, fresh mushroom sales were up 18 percent over the same time last year, compared to an 8 percent rise in overall fresh produce sales, according to the Chicago-based data and analytics firm IRI.

“We take heart in those numbers,” said Eric Davis, a spokesman for the Mushroom Council, an industry group based in Redwood Shores, Calif. “We take heart that we’re in that group of staple items. You look for bright spots during this time, and that is one for us.”

Could a sea creature with unusual regenerative powers show humans how to do the same? Tracey Logan reports.

A new scheme for cooling ${}^{87}$Rb to Bose-Einstein condensation uses only lasers, unlike the usual method combining laser and evaporation cooling.

“The main purpose of the stock market is to make fools of as many men as possible.”–Bernard Baruch.

Food from electricity, NASA’s attempt to create food from rocket fuel, and other brilliant and bizarre innovations in synthetic foods.

These solar sails could herald a new era of spaceflight in which spacecraft forgo the rocket motors they’ve relied on for decades.

Artist’s concept of LightSail 2 above Earth. Josh Spradling / The Planetary Society.

The production halt means that Tesla is not making any cars worldwide because its other electric vehicle assembly plant – in Fremont, California – has been idled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the use of chemical weapons in the Syria conflict have provided a stark reminder of the plethora of chemical and biological threats that soldiers, medical personnel and first responders face during routine and emergency operations.

Personnel safety relies on protective equipment which, unfortunately, still leaves much to be desired. For example, high breathability (i.e., the transfer of water vapor from the wearer’s body to the outside world) is critical in protective military uniforms to prevent heat-stress and exhaustion when soldiers are engaged in missions in contaminated environments. The same materials (adsorbents or barrier layers) that provide protection in current garments also detrimentally inhibit breathability.

To tackle these challenges, a multi-institutional team of researchers led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientist Francesco Fornasiero has developed a smart, breathable fabric designed to protect the wearer against biological and chemical warfare agents. Material of this type could be used in clinical and medical settings as well. The work was recently published online in Advanced Functional Materials and represents the successful completion of Phase I of the project, which is funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency through the Dynamic Multifunctional Materials for a Second Skin “D[MS]²” program.

A real astronaut leads the tour of a fictional moon base packed with references to real-life space history in a newly-released video by Apple.

Former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, who logged more than 90 of his 107 days in space on board the International Space Station, hosts the virtual tour of Jamestown moon base, or rather the set for such, that was featured in the first season of the alternate Apollo history drama “For All Mankind.” Reisman, who also worked for and now serves as a senior advisor to SpaceX, was a technical consultant for the Apple TV+ series, which was created and written by Ronald D. Moore (“Star Trek,” “Battlestar Galactica”).

“Mankind has always been fascinated by the moon and traveling there was one of humanity’s greatest achievements. But what if landing on the moon was just a beginning?” says Reisman as the four-and-a-half-minute video begins. “Welcome to Jamestown, 1974.”