Scientists running a series of tests on drugs aboard the International Space Station (ISS) say they are no problems with the effectiveness of drugs exposed to long periods in space.

A report on upi.com, says that scientists evaluated a number of medications, including sleeping aids, pain relievers, antihistamines, an anti-diarrheal medicine, and an alertness drug,and the medicines showed no accelerated degradation due to being in space.

The drugs in the test spent 550 days aboard the ISS, because scientists were worried the increased radiation or micro-gravity, or both, may have caused the medicines to degrade more rapidly.  All drugs lose their effectiveness over time, but those tested did not deteriorate any more quickly than had they been on Earth.

The temperature and humidity of the ISS is similar to that on Earth, but the researchers wanted to evaluate the additional factors that are involved with space travel.

The scientists who evaluated the drugs were from Baylor College of Medicine in Texas,which is home to the Center for Space Medicine and Department of Pharmacology.  The object of the study was to determine what medicines would be safe to send along with astronauts on a deep-space mission.

The researchers caution that much more work is needed before any pronouncements can be made.  They also warned against using this new information to make judgements about other types of medications that may be taken along with the space travelers.

Medications are just one of the many factors that must be investigated before any attempts to send humans to Mars or other deep-space locations.  It would be assumed the body would have to face many of the same illnesses that humans face on Earth, even if communicable diseases would be unlikely.  Astronauts would still face sore muscles and aches and pains, just as most people do.

Findings from the research were published in The AAPS Journal.

 

Phobos, one of Mars’ two natural moons, could be doomed.

NASA researchers have determined that Phobos has at most 50 million years of existence left, and perhaps as little as 30 million years, according to an AOL report.

Scientists have spotted indentations that stretch across the moon’s surface, indicating that it could suffer from structural failure. They initially thought they came about as a result of a collision, but they later determined the indentations were unrelated to any sort of collision. Instead, tidal forces are the more likely cause.

Scientists had actually considered this possibility decades ago, but they didn’t think that the pull was strong enough for the moon to fracture in this way. Now, scientists have grown much more accepting of this explanation. It’s indicative that the interior of the moon isn’t stable and solid, but rather filled with rubble that moves around. And Phobos is so close to Mars that gravitational forces on the moon have to be extreme.

As NASA explained in a statement: “An interior like this can distort easily because it has very little strength and forces the outer layer to readjust. The researchers think the outer layer of Phobos behaves elastically and builds stress, but it’s weak enough that these stresses can cause it to fail. All of this means the tidal forces acting on Phobos can produce more than enough stress to fracture the surface. Stress fractures predicted by this model line up very well with the grooves seen in images of Phobos. This explanation also fits with the observation that some grooves are younger than others, which would be the case if the process that creates them is ongoing.”

Phobos is tiny — a radius of just 11 kilometers — and it is irregularly shaped, resembling a meteor more than it does a moon. It is however seven times the size of Deimos, Mars’ other moon.

A new study indicates that we may have greatly overestimated just how much sea levels are rising.

The paper, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, finds that two major factors that had been overlooked are slowing down the melting of the massive West Antarctic Ice Sheet, according to a Phys.org report.

These findings indicate the sea level rise will be more gradual than had been though, despite recent studies that warned the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could be witnessing “runaway retreat” soon, leading to a sudden rise of as much as three meters in global sea levels.

But two geophysical elements hadn’t been considered in the doomsday research. These factors were the ice sheet’s gravitational pull on the water that surrounds it, as well as the mantle beneath the bedrock that is surprisingly fluid.

Lead author Natalya Gomez, who is an assistant professor at McGill University in Montreal, said that while scientists are rightfully concerned about melting and limiting CO2 emissions to prevent it, computer models have overestimated the sea level rise by not taking these factors into account.

Gravity plays an important role in this situation, because the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is so massive that a reduction in its mass would lower its gravitational pull, which would actually cause sea levels near the ice to lower and thus slow the retreat of the ice sheet itself.

Also, the mantle beneath the ice sheet flows fairly freely, causing the land underneath the ice sheet to pop up, which would further slow this retreat.

Still, if CO2 emissions aren’t slowed down significantly, the study warns, it could overwhelm these factors anyway, underscoring the importance of still tackling the CO2 problem despite these findings.

Long ago, our solar system may have hosted five giant planets, instead of just four — and we have Jupiter to thank for that, claims a new study.

Astrophysicists at the University of Toronto have published a study in the Astronomical Journal claiming that Jupiter was responsible for ejecting an ice giant planet some 4 billion years ago, according to a Huffington Post report.

Scientists believed that the ice giant collided with Jupiter in such a way as to completely disrupt its orbit with the sun, sending it hurtling off into space.

Scientists have long suspected that there was one this fifth giant planet in addition to gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and ice giants Uranus and Neptune. But the question was, who was the culprit responsible for ejecting this planet from the solar system? The scientists used computer simulations of the four giant planets in addition to their moons, and was able to figure out how moons would act if a fifth giant had come into contact with the system billions of years ago, and Jupiter was the only planet that seemed to match that description as its moon, Callisto, would have retained its orbit despite an ejection, whereas if it had happened to Saturn it would have thrown off course the moon Iapetus.

And the ice giant probably had a bumpy ride out, with scientists believing it may have collided with Neptune as well before departing the solar system for good.

It’s an important finding that could help scientists better understand the evolution of our solar system, as well as whether or not we are unique or if this is how solar systems evolve across the universe.

Scientists discovered a new world record holder for the smallest species of snail after combing through the soil on the island of Borneo in the South Pacific.

It broke a record that had only been set about a month ago in China, coming in at about a tenth of a millimeter smaller. The snail, Acmella nana — nana referencing the Latin word “nanus” for dwarf” — comes in at just 0.027 inches, or 0.07 millimeters, according to a Live Science report.

This knocks the Chinese snail, Angustopila dominikae, off its pedestal. It took a microscope to see Acmella nana.

Scientists were poking around on the jungle island of Borneo, which is famous for its species diversity — scientists think there are about 500 species of snail alone there. The island includes the nation of Brunei and a portion of the nations of Indonesia and Malaysia.

So how did scientists hunt down a microscopic snail? They knew that the snail’s shell would be made of calcium carbonate, which is a prime component of limestone, and therefore they knew to head to the island’s limestone hills to seek out new species. They collected some soil from underneath the cliffs and sifted through it with a special process. Just a few kilograms of soil would sometimes contain tens of thousands of shells.

The Acmella nana hasn’t been observed eating, but scientists surmise it probably subsists off of bacteria and fungi, as a similar species, Acmella polita, has been observed consuming those things.

A new study throws cold water on anyone who thinks their diamond is incredibly rare gemstone — they’re actually really, really common.

Johns Hopkins University researchers have just published a new study that indicates diamonds are created rather easily with a new chemical model, adding to the growing crescendo of articles and studies that indicate the entire diamond industry is a sham pushing a gemstone that really isn’t that rare and shouldn’t be worth nearly as much as it is.

The scientists examined the chemical model of a diamond and determined it could be created with a natural chemical reaction that could be replicated fairly easily, as opposed to two main processes that happen deep underground and use lots of pressure to turn carbon into a diamond over a long period of time, according to a University Herald report.

Many have written in recent years slamming the diamond industry for exaggerating the preciousness of diamonds and inflating the market, and this study may provide them with more backing. This new study shows that diamonds may actually be fairly easy to create compared to other gemstones that sell for far less.

So far this new model has not been tested with actual materials, but the early returns are good. The model would simply involve causing water and react in a manner that has increasing acidity. Diamonds are generally understood to form deep in the Earth’s crust under incredible pressure over eons, on the other hand, due to oxidation of methane or a chemical reaction of carbon dioxide. But this new research suggests a natural reduction in pH levels could cause this, which would make these gems pretty common.

So although your diamond may sparkle like no other, and others may value it as an incredibly rare gemstone — the reality is that it probably isn’t.

The press release is below:

Diamonds may not be as rare as once believed, but this finding in a new Johns Hopkins University research report won’t mean deep discounts at local jewelry stores.

“Diamond formation in the deep Earth, the very deep Earth, may be a more common process than we thought,” said Johns Hopkins geochemist Dimitri A. Sverjensky, whose article co-written with doctoral student Fang Huang appears today in the online journal Nature Communications. The report says the results ‘constitute a new quantitative theory of diamond formation,’ but that does not mean it will be easier to find gem-quality diamonds and bring them to market.

For one thing, the prevalence of diamonds near the Earth’s surface — where they can be mined — still depends on relatively rare volcanic magma eruptions that raise them from the depths where they form. For another, the diamonds being considered in these studies are not necessarily the stuff of engagement rings, unless the recipient is equipped with a microscope. Most are only a few microns across and are not visible to the unaided eye.

Using a chemical model, Sverjensky and Huang found that these precious stones could be born in a natural chemical reaction that is simpler than the two main processes that up to now have been understood to produce diamonds. Specifically, their model — yet to be tested with actual materials — shows that diamonds can form with an increase in acidity during interaction between water and rock.

The common understanding up to now has been that diamonds are formed in the movement of fluid by the oxidation of methane or the chemical reduction of carbon dioxide. Oxidation results in a higher oxidation state, or a gain of electrons. Reduction means a lower oxidation state, and collectively the two are known as ‘redox’ reactions.

“It was always hard to explain why the redox reactions took place,” said Sverjensky, a professor in the Morton K. Blaustein Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in the university’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. The reactions require different types of fluids to be moving through the rocks encountering environments with different oxidation states.

The new research showed that water could produce diamonds as its pH falls naturally – that is, as it becomes more acidic — while moving from one type of rock to another, Sverjensky said.

The finding is one of many in about the last 25 years that expands scientists’ understanding of how pervasive diamonds may be, Sverjensky said.

“The more people look, the more they’re finding diamonds in different rock types now,” Sverjensky said. “I think everybody would agree there’s more and more environments of diamond formation being discovered.”

Nobody has yet put a number on the greater abundance of diamonds, but Sverjensky said scientists are working on that with chemical models. It’s impossible to physically explore the great depths at which diamonds are created: roughly 90 to 120 miles below the Earth’s surface at intense pressure and at temperatures about 1,650 to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The deepest drilling exploration ever made was about 8 or 9 miles below the surface, he said.

If the study doesn’t shake the diamond markets, it promises to help shed light on fluid movement in the deep Earth, which helps account for the carbon cycle on which all life on the planet depends.

“Fluids are the key link between the shallow and the deep Earth,” Sverjensky said. “That’s why it’s important.”

Scientists on both sides of the pond have found something they disagree with mightily: whether chimpanzees have accents or not.

It all started with a study out of the UK that argued that chimps adjust their grunts to communicate with new neighbors, which they claim to have observed after chimps were moved from a Dutch safari park to the Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland and began making different noises for the same thing, according to a BBC report.

However, these findings have been contradicted by a new study in the journal Current Biology led by Dr. James Higham of New York University. He says that the original study has problems both when it comes to their methodology and a misinterpretation of the data.

But Dr. Simon Townsend of Warwick University, who led a team that included researchers at York and St. Andrews in penning the original study, shot back that he stands by the findings. He did note, however, that he welcomes critiques and that these disagreements are good for science, according to the report.

The original study claimed that by examining the chimps’ behavior and vocalizations, they were able to determine that once they had moved from the Netherlands to the new Edinburgh location, they changed their call for apples from an excited, high-pitched tone to a less excited, lower-pitched tone that more matched their neighbors.

But the skeptics examined the data themselves and said not so fast: the calls are actually quite similar to begin with an not nearly as significant as had been claimed. It all apparently comes down to how you interpret the data, meaning that this debate could go on for a while.

A team of scientists has unlocked the genetic secrets of the pineapple in a bid to understand how this exceptional fruit works — and it could lead to some important discoveries.

More specifically, the research team was looking for insight into how the plant is able to deal with droughts using a special form of photosynthesis, according to a Reuters report.

With this information, it’s possible to genetically modify the pineapple to have improved resistance to disease, insects, and droughts, all while having a longer shelf life, meaning in the future we could depend on the fruit more than ever before thanks to global warming.

Ever since the pineapple was first domesticated thousands of years ago in Brazil, it has exploded in use worldwide, and is now made in 80 countries and generates $8 billion in sales annually, placing it only behind the banana for tropical fruits.

It’s a very important fruit, and it could become even more important as the effects of global warming sets in. The pineapple has a special form of photosynthesis so that it uses up to 80 percent less water than most plants, allowing it to live in arid conditions that other crops couldn’t survive in.

This photosynthesis process is called crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), and understanding this could give scientists a leg up.

The findings were published in Nature Genetics.

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin have just made a breakthrough: they’ve create the fastest flexible silicon phototransistor ever, and it could massively change the digital camera industry.

They found a way to outperform all current phototransistors, beating them in sensitivity and response time, and creating a new piece of technology that could not only vastly improve digital cameras, but could also result in innovations for satellites, night vision goggles, and a host of other technologies, according to a UPI report.

What does this mean for photographers? This phototransistor could result in the most high definition images yet seen, achieving clarity in photos like nothing that has been produced by phototransistors currently on the market.

How does it work? It’s not easy for the layperson to understand, but essentially this phototransistor uses an innovative new technique that Zhenqiang Ma, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Wisconsin, called “flip-transfer” fabrication in a statement. It uses an ultrathin silicone layer and attaches it to a metal layer, allowing it to absorb more light.

“In this structure — unlike other photodetectors — light absorption in an ultrathin silicon layer can be much more efficient because light is not blocked by any metal layers or other materials,” he said.

Phototransistors are important because they basically are the “eyes” of the camera. Much like our eyes, they collect light and turn it into an electrical pulse. In human bodies, this pulse would go to the brain, producing an image. In photography, it would be turned into code and then converted into an image.

The University of Wisconsin published the findings in Advanced Optic Materials.