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Flu sufferers now have a new option for relieving symptoms. Xofluza (baloxavir marboxil), a single-dose, oral prescription drug, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday. The antiviral is the first new flu treatment approved by the FDA in nearly 20 years, FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a statement.

“With thousands of people getting the flu every year, and many people becoming seriously ill, having safe and effective treatment alternatives is critical,” said Gottlieb.

The pill is intended for patients who are 12 or older and who have had symptoms for no more than 48 hours. When patients with the flu, a respiratory illness, are treated within 48 hours of becoming sick, antiviral drugs can reduce symptoms and duration of illness, according to the FDA.

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Large meteorite impact structures on the terrestrial bodies of the Solar System contain pronounced topographic rings, which emerged from uplifted target (crustal) rocks within minutes of impact. To flow rapidly over large distances, these target rocks must have weakened drastically, but they subsequently regained sufficient strength to build and sustain topographic rings. The mechanisms of rock deformation that accomplish such extreme change in mechanical behaviour during cratering are largely unknown and have been debated for decades. Recent drilling of the approximately 200-km-diameter Chicxulub impact structure in Mexico has produced a record of brittle and viscous deformation within its peak-ring rocks. Here we show how catastrophic rock weakening upon impact is followed by an increase in rock strength that culminated in the formation of the peak ring during cratering. The observations point to quasi-continuous rock flow and hence acoustic fluidization as the dominant physical process controlling initial cratering, followed by increasingly localized faulting.

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Robots are getting smaller and smaller, from the size of bugs down to tiny bead-shaped robots that could one day swim through the body to monitor health or deliver medication. MIT engineers recently managed to create cell-sized robots that could collect data about their environment, but were a little tricky to manufacture. Now, the team has found a way to mass produce these synthetic cells (syncells) through controlled fracturing of graphene.

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