EverythingScience

To build a sustained human presence on the Moon, we are building NASA Moon Base, prioritizing surface operations and scalable infrastructure. - Frequent robotic landings and mobility testing including MoonFall drones - Starting in 2027 nearly monthly cadence of equipment and rovers with scientific payloads landing on the Moon. - Investments in power, communications, and surface mobility - Scalable infrastructure to support long-term human presence The objective is clear: build the foundation for an enduring lunar base and take the next step toward Mars. Source: @NASAAdmin Jared Isaacman @EverythingScience

An end to the battle between touchscreens and long fingernails is on the horizon Anybody who has tried to use a smartphone or tablet with long nails knows that there's a learning curve. Rather than effortlessly tapping with a fingertip, you must awkwardly lay the pads of your fingers onto the screen. Wouldn't it be easier if you could just type with your fingernails instead? To try and make this idea a reality, a group of researchers is formulating a clear nail polish that could turn long fingernails into touchscreen-compatible styluses. To find the perfect combination of clarity and conductivity, Desai turned to good, old-fashioned trial and error. Using 13 commercially available clear-coat polishes and more than 50 different additives, she slowly worked her way through the combinations to find which ones resulted in a conductive topcoat for nails. The molecules that performed the best were forms of taurine, an organic compound commonly sold as a dietary supplement, and ethanolamine, another simple, organic molecule. These initial results are promising, but the team still has a long way to go before the polish will be available on store shelves. Even the best-performing ethanolamine-taurine formula is finicky and doesn't yet work consistently when painted on a nail. Plus, ethanolamine evaporates quickly, so the polish only works on a touchscreen for a few hours once outside the bottle, and researchers would prefer a truly nontoxic compound. Despite these setbacks, the researchers now have an idea of how the successful formula works, and they are continuing to screen compounds and test new formulas to find the best-performing combination. Source:Phys.org @EverythingScience

Human-driven climate change is slowing Earth's rotation at a rate not seen in 3.6 million years Human-driven climate change is slowing Earth's rotation at a rate not seen in 3.6 million years, with sea level rise increasing the length of days by 1.33 milliseconds per century, according to a new study. Earth spins faster when its mass is more concentrated, just as twirling figure skaters pull in their arms to speed up and spread out their arms to slow down. Rising sea levels have long been known to redistribute that mass and change the planet's spin, but the newly identified rate is unprecedented, scientists say. Many factors influence Earth's spin speed. The moon's pull on the planet is the most significant over the long term. Its gravitational pull creates a bulge in the planet that slows Earth's rotation rate, Michael Mann, a climatologist at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved with the new study, told Live Science. The moon's influence increases Earth's day length by about 2.4 milliseconds per century. Although the impact would likely not be perceptible to humans, the findings have other real-world implications. For example, Mann said, instruments that require precise knowledge of Earth's rotation rate, such as those on spacecraft, may need to be recalibrated. Other precise timekeeping applications, such as in computing, could be affected, Shahvandi said. The findings also underscore the rapidity of modern warming. "It tells us about the rapid climate change," Shahvandi said, "[the] melting of snow and ice in polar ice sheets and mountains glaciers, and increase in the sea levels." Source:Live Science @EverythingScience

Self-cleaning fabric could eliminate the need for detergent Detergents may begin their journey by cleaning our clothes, but they end up contaminating the environment, flowing into rivers, ponds, and oceans, where they severely disrupt aquatic animal life. Even after wastewater treatment, some chemicals remain and pass through filtration systems, continuing to pollute natural water bodies. A team of researchers from China explored the question: What if our clothes could be washed without detergent? In a study published in Communications Chemistry, researchers introduced a versatile self-cleaning fabric coating that could eliminate the need for detergents in everyday laundry. By alternately spraying the fabrics with two polymers—poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) and poly(vinylsulfonic acid) (PVS)—they created a dense hydration layer that allows dirt and microbes to be washed away using only water. The coating remained effective for over 100 wash cycles. It made laundry quicker and reduced water and electricity consumption by ~82%. Source:Phys.org @EverythingScience

Are Strings Still Our Best Hope for a Theory of Everything? Fifty-eight years after it first appeared, string theory remains the most popular candidate for the “theory of everything,” the unified mathematical framework for all matter and forces in the universe. This is much to the chagrin of its rather vocal critics. “String theory is not dead; it’s undead and now walks around like a zombie eating people’s brains,” the former physicist Sabine Hossenfelder said on her popular YouTube channel in 2024. String theory is a “failure,” the mathematical physicist and blogger Peter Woit often says. His complaint is not that string theory is wrong — it’s that it’s “not even wrong,” as he titled a 2006 book. The theory says that, on scales of billionths of trillionths of trillionths of a centimeter, extra curled-up spatial dimensions reveal themselves and particles resolve into extended objects — strands and loops of energy — rather than points. But this alleged substructure is too small to detect, probably ever. The prediction is untestable. A further problem is that uncountably many different configurations of dimensions and strings are permitted at those tiny scales; the theory can give rise to a limitless variety of universes. Amid this vast landscape of solutions, no one can hope to find a precise microscopic configuration that undergirds our particular macroscopic world. These issues are profound indeed. Yet in my experience, the typical high-energy theorist in a prestigious university physics department still thinks string theory has a good chance of being correct, at least in part. The field has become siloed between those who deem it worth studying and those who don’t. Recently, a new angle of attack has opened up. An approach called bootstrapping has allowed physicists to calculate that, under various starting assumptions about the universe, a key equation from string theory naturally follows. For some experts, these findings support the notion of “string uniqueness,” the idea that it is the only mathematically consistent quantum description of gravity and everything else. Source:Quanta Magazine @EverythingScience

Can Fungi Control the Weather? Scientists Say It’s Possible An international team of researchers, including Virginia Tech scientists Xiaofeng Wang and Boris A. Vinatzer, has identified fungal proteins that can trigger ice formation at relatively warm subzero temperatures. Their findings were published in Science Advances. This discovery could open the door to new ways of influencing the weather. Cloud seeding works by releasing particles known as ice nucleators into clouds. These particles cause water droplets to freeze into ice crystals. As more water attaches, the crystals grow larger and heavier. Eventually, they fall, melt as they pass through warmer air, and reach the ground as rain. Silver iodide is the most commonly used ice-nucleating material, but it is highly toxic. The researchers suggest that fungal proteins could provide a safer alternative. “If we learn how to cheaply produce enough of this fungal protein, then we could put that into clouds and make cloud seeding much safer,” said Vinatzer, professor in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences. Source:SciTechDaily @EverythingScience

PPOD: Titan and Dione 🪐 Saturn's fourth-largest moon, Dione, can be seen through the haze of the planet's largest moon, Titan, in this view of the two, taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on December 22, 2011, with the planet and its rings in the background. The north polar hood is visible on Titan here, appearing as a detached layer at the top of the moon. This view looks toward the sides of Titan (5,150 kilometers across) and Dione (1,123 kilometers across), which are facing away from Saturn. North is up on the moons. This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from just above the ring plane. Credit: NASANASAJPLCaltechspacescienceins Source: @SETIInstitute @EverythingScience

A gene carried by 99% of humanity raises Alzheimer's risk dramatically. Could gene therapy correct it? Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, has beaten back potential treatments for decades. Past research suggested it was a complicated, multifactorial disease in which a patchwork of biological and lifestyle factors combined to increase or decrease risk. But a new study published in January in the journal Nature suggests the risk of developing the disease is determined largely by one key gene, called apolipoprotein E (APOE). Lifestyle and environmental factors can dial the risk up or down modestly in people with susceptible gene variants, but those who have protective versions of the APOE gene are extremely unlikely to develop Alzheimer's. And a staggering 99% of the population carries at least one disease-fueling version of the gene. The findings raise the possibility that gene therapy targeting APOE could dramatically reduce the risk of Alzheimer's for a large swath of people who are at risk of developing the disease, thus paving the way for one of the first widely used gene therapies, experts told Live Science. Source:Live Science @EverythingScience

This Spinning Device Could Turn Ocean Waves Into Endless Clean Energy Ocean waves are among the most plentiful and reliable sources of renewable energy on Earth. However, turning that constant motion into usable electricity has proven difficult. Most existing wave energy systems work efficiently only under specific conditions, which limits their usefulness in the ever changing ocean environment. This has created a need for more flexible and effective technologies. New Gyroscopic Wave Energy Converter Design A researcher from the University of Osaka has investigated a new type of system designed to overcome these limitations. The device, known as a gyroscopic wave energy converter (GWEC), was evaluated for its ability to support large-scale power generation. The results of this work were published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics. The GWEC produces electricity using a spinning flywheel housed within a floating structure. As the platform moves with the waves, the flywheel converts that motion into energy. Because the system relies on gyroscopic behavior, it can be adjusted to capture energy efficiently across a wide range of wave frequencies instead of just a narrow band. Source:SciTechDaily @EverythingScience

Mars Was Once Warm and Wet. NASA’s ESCAPADE Is About to Learn What Went Wrong Mars is a very different world today than it once was. Scientists believe the planet used to have a thicker atmosphere, liquid water on its surface, and a warmer environment. Now it is cold, dry, and surrounded by only a thin layer of gas. The main force behind this dramatic change is the solar wind, a constant stream of charged particles flowing from the Sun. Over billions of years, this flow has steadily stripped away much of Mars’ atmosphere. As the atmosphere thinned, temperatures dropped and surface water gradually disappeared. NASA’s ESCAPADE Mission Investigates Mars To better understand this transformation, NASA launched the ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission on November 13, 2025. Its scientific instruments were activated and fully operational as of February 25. These tools will study how Mars lost its atmosphere and how solar activity continues to affect the planet today. The mission will also collect new data on space weather near Earth and during the journey to Mars. Once at Mars, the mission’s results could help NASA prepare for future human exploration by improving understanding of the planet’s harsh environment. “The pioneering ESCAPADE duo will not only investigate the Sun’s role in transforming Mars into an uninhabitable planet, but also will help inform the development of space weather protocols for solar events directed at Mars during future human missions to the Red Planet,” said Joe Westlake, heliophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “By joining the heliophysics fleet of missions across the solar system, ESCAPADE will be another weather station making humans and technology in space safer and more successful.” Source:SciTechDaily @EverythingScience

'Miracle': Europe reconnects with lost spacecraft The European Space Agency announced Thursday it has re-established communication with a spacecraft that is part of its Proba-3 mission, after losing contact with the satellite a month ago. Proba-3, which launched on a two-year mission in 2024, uses two spacecraft flying in precise formation to simulate a solar eclipse more than 60,000 kilometers (37,000 miles) above Earth. Scientists have used this delicate dance to get a rare glimpse of the sun's little-known outer atmosphere, which is called the corona. One satellite has a 1.4-meter (five-foot) shield that plays the role of the moon in blocking the sun's light, while the other observes the corona from the shadow. However, something happened to the second spacecraft, which has the crucial coronagraph instrument, on February 14. A chain reaction led to the spacecraft losing its orientation, causing its solar panel to face away from the sun, draining the batteries. The spacecraft then entered survival mode—it has been silently floating through space since. However, overnight "some miracle happened because we reconnected with the spacecraft," ESA director Josef Aschbacher said on Thursday. The other spacecraft—the one with the shield—had been "following and observing" its lost twin, he told a press conference held after an ESA Council meeting. The lost spacecraft had been "tumbling" when an ESA team in Spain "saw that some sunlight is actually hitting the solar panels," Aschbacher explained. They seized the chance, using this small amount of power to re-establish a connection. The spacecraft's solar panel is now facing the sun, allowing it to charge its batteries. Next ESA experts will switch the instruments back on and carry out tests to find out how much damage has been done. Source:Phys.org @EverythingScience

Global insect rescue plan requires new technology to ensure success Cameras that photograph insects overnight and AI that identifies them are among a new generation of tools that could finally allow scientists to track whether the world's plan to save nature is working for its most overlooked creatures. A global team of scientists has found that 23 biodiversity targets agreed by world governments to protect and restore nature by 2030 are well-designed and could—if met—help reverse falling insect numbers. However, the researchers highlight that dragonflies and damselflies are the only insect group to have been fully assessed for extinction risk globally, illustrating that very few measurements used to track progress are sensitive enough to detect changes in insect populations. The study, published in Conservation Letters, recommends the United Nations establish a dedicated working group to develop insect-focused measurements, and outlines several practical tools that could be used to create a worldwide picture of insect health. Dr. Andrew Bladon, lead author from the University of Reading, said, "Insects are the foundations of life on Earth, and we are only just beginning to understand how fast we are losing them. "Technology is opening up possibilities that simply did not exist a decade ago. We can now monitor insects at a scale and speed that was unimaginable to previous generations of scientists. The big question is whether governments are willing to use new technology to hold themselves to account. A plan to save nature that cannot measure whether nature is actually recovering is not good enough." Source:Phys.org @EverythingScience