Science!!!

Astronomer discovers Neptune's smallest moon ... on a whim - NBC News.com

An astronomer has discovered Neptune's smallest known moon, a mini-world that eluded detection until it was found almost by accident in years-old imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Neptune's 14th moon, currently known only as S/2004 N 1, is thought to measure no more than 12 miles (20 kilometers) across. It orbits about 65,400 miles (105,250 kilometers) from the ice giant, between the larger Neptunian moons Larissa and Proteus.
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Musk to Unveil Designs for ‘Hyperloop’ High-Speed Train -- NYTimes.com

Bloomberg Businessweek quoted Mr. Musk in September as saying that the Hyperloop would be able to take people to San Francisco from Los Angeles in 30 minutes. That’s a speed of almost 800 miles an hour.

Mr. Musk has described the Hyperloop as the “fifth mode of transportation” and says it is a hybrid between a train and a plane.

The proposed cost of the Hyperloop between Los Angeles and San Francisco is $6 billion. California is now working on plans to build a far slower train system between the two cities that is expected to cost $60 billion.
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Who Gets More Mosquito Bites - WSJ.com

It is peak mosquito season, and while some lucky outdoor venturers seem unperturbed by the tiny insects, others appear to be relentlessly assaulted. Scientists are trying to understand what makes certain humans more attractive to the bugs. One expert, molecular vector biologist L.J. Zwiebel, a professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, weighs in.
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'iKnife' device analyzes surgical smoke to ID cancers - latimes.com

Researchers at Imperial College London have invented an electric surgical knife that comes equipped with a built-in mass spectrometer. Electric knives cauterize wounds as they cut, which produces smoke. The iKnife will be able to analyze the chemistry of that smoke to determine, for instance, whether the tissue that was just cut was cancerous or not — allowing doctors to make decisions in the OR that would, today, require them to take samples, send those samples to a lab, and maybe schedule a second surgery.
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Just wanted to stop and say thanks for the articles everyday, keeps me occupied on slow work days. Keep up the good work guys!
 
NASA: Sun Getting Ready For A 'Field Flip' : The Two-Way : NPR

Our nearest star is about to pull a once-in-11-years move by swapping its north and south magnetic poles.

The sun's polarity switch is a natural part of "solar max" — the period of peak activity during what averages out to be roughly an 11-year cycle. According to NASA, this year will mark the fourth time since 1976 that scientists have observed the 180-degree pole flip.

"It looks like we're no more than 3 to 4 months away from a complete field reversal," solar physicist Todd Hoeksema of Stanford University says on . "This change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system."
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NIH gives Henrietta Lacks' immortal cells new protections - latimes.com

More than half a century ago, doctors took Henrietta Lacks' tissue and used it for research without her permission, creating the first immortal line of cells and making possible billions of dollars in medical research. Now, 62 years later, the National Institutes of Health has struck an agreement with the Lacks family that will allow for continued research while seeking to protect their medical privacy.
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The article says Oprah is making a movie about Henrietta Lacks. There is also an excellent book called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Rebecca Skloot: 9781400052189: Amazon.com: Books
 
RoyalSubject said:
Electrical signatures of consciousness in the dying brain | University of Michigan Health System
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Older, but tangentially related:

Magic Mushrooms Expand the Mind By Dampening Brain Activity, May Help Depression | TIME.com

Under the influence of mushrooms, overall brain activity drops, particularly in certain regions that are densely connected to sensory areas of the brain. When functioning normally, these connective “hubs” appear to help constrain the way we see, hear and experience the world, grounding us in reality. They are also the key nodes of a brain network linked to self-consciousness and depression. Psilocybin cuts activity in these nodes and severs their connection to other brain areas, allowing the senses to run free.

“The results seem to imply that a lot of brain activity is actually dedicated to keeping the world very stable and ordinary and familiar and unsurprising,” says Robin Carhart-Harris, a postdoctoral student at Imperial College London and lead author of the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Indeed, Huxley and Blake had predicted what turns out to be a key finding of modern neuroscience: many of the human brain’s highest achievements involve preventing actions instead of initiating them, and sifting out useless information rather than collecting and presenting it for conscious consideration.
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I'm reading a book right now that's a couple of years old (Thinking, Fast and Slow: Daniel Kahneman: 9780374533557: Amazon.com: Books). It's not about any of this directly, but it turns out to be also tangentially related; or, I suppose, the human mind is a little too adept at assuming potential connections.
 
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