Roland Griffiths (left) and Matthew Johnson (right) (Credit: Johns Hopkins Medicine)
The launch of a new privately-funded research center dedicated to investigating the therapeutic benefits of psychedelic drugs was announced today at Johns Hopkins University.
The Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research will be dedicated to understanding how psychedelics alter consciousness, behavior and brain function. The bulk of the research will focus on psilocybin, the active ingredient in ...read more
This star-forming region is one of many in M33 that's birthing new stars from massive clouds of dust and gas. (Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA)
Astronomers have witnessed a rare event: the birth of massive stars 2.73 million light-years away in the Triangulum Galaxy (Messier 33). At the center of two giant colliding gas clouds are some 10 young stars with masses tens of times that of the Sun. Their discovery indicates that such cloud-cloud collisions are a main pathway to creating giant stars in ...read more
The Mars 2020 rover will be equipped with a helicopter, as seen in this artist's concept, that will fly above the Red Planet's surface like no craft before it. (NASA/JPL)
Just under a year before launch, NASA’s unnamed Mars 2020 rover is getting ready for its big mission with the new addition of the Mars Helicopter Scout.
The Helicopter Scout will be the first rotorcraft to fly on another planet. And though the mission is considered high-risk, it could also come with a high reward. I ...read more
The Astro suit designed by ILC Dover. (Credit: ILC Dover)
Fifty years after Neil Armstrong stepped on
the moon wearing an ILC Dover-made spacesuit, the Delaware-based aerospace
manufacturing company is coming out with two brand-new designs.
The company announced two new spacesuits on Aug. 28 called Astro and Sol. Unlike other suits the company has produced, like the extravehicular mobility unity (EMU) and the Apollo suit, these new spacesuits are built with adaptability in mind.
A ...read more
Charles II, the last of the Spanish Hapsburgs. Generations of inbreeding left him infertile, in addition to numerous additional health problems. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Inbreeding, or mating between two closely-related people, is a strong taboo across the world. There's good reason for this, of course. The potential for sexual abuse and lasting trauma is high, and the odds of inheriting rare genetic diseases goes up exponentially among children who are the result of inbreeding.
But in ...read more
(Credit: l i g h t p o e t/Shutterstock)
Prominent scientists can be guiding beacons for an entire field. Their work can define research for years to come, and sets a precedent for successive generations.
The life of an eminent researcher is obviously a boon to science. But, says a new study, their death might be important as well.
Now researchers discover the death of a science superstar also has a major impact on research. Reporting in the August issue of the American Economic R ...read more
The crescent of Neptune and Triton, captured by Voyager 2 on August 25, 1989, as the spacecraft was fleeing from the planet toward interstellar space. (Credit: NASA-JPL)
Thirty years ago this week, the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew past Neptune, providing the first up-close look at the last planet in the solar system*. The anniversary tugged generously at my heart. You see, I fell in love with Neptune as a kid, back when I was in the second grade.
We all had to read about a planet and tell a ...read more
Having an MRI scan can be a noisy, unusual, and sometimes stressful experience. But can it also be a social one?
In a new paper, neuroscientists Benjamin O. Turner and colleagues ask whether telling people that their MRI scan will be a "mind reading" procedure is enough to alter brain activity through 'implied social presence'. As the authors put it:
If people believe that a technology can ‘see’ their internal thoughts, will people alter what they think about?
In an ele ...read more
