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Researchers find body's natural pain killers can be enhanced, while reducing side effects of opioids


Yahoo! News
Sun, 25 Apr 2021 18:56 UTC
back pain
© National Pain Report
A study in cells and mice finds an opioid-receptor modifying compound that works to relieve pain using the body's own pain-killers, with fewer side effects than opioids.

Fentanyl, oxycodone, morphine -- these substances are familiar to many as a source of both pain relief and the cause of a painful epidemic of addiction and death.

Scientists have attempted for years to balance the potent pain-relieving properties of opioids with their numerous negative side effects -- with mostly mixed results.
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Satellite

Hubble captures giant star AG Carinae on the edge of destruction


Space Daily
Sat, 24 Apr 2021 18:01 UTC
giant star hubble AG Carinae
© Hubble/NASA/ESA
AG Carinae, a Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) star located 20,000 light-years from Earth.
In celebration of the 31st anniversary of the launching of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers aimed the renowned observatory at a brilliant "celebrity star," one of the brightest stars seen in our galaxy, surrounded by a glowing halo of gas and dust.

In celebration of the 31st anniversary of the launching of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers aimed the renowned observatory at a brilliant "celebrity star," one of the brightest stars seen in our galaxy, surrounded by a glowing halo of gas and dust.

The price for the monster star's opulence is "living on the edge." The star, called AG Carinae, is waging a tug-of-war between gravity and radiation to avoid self-destruction.

Comment: Star's mysterious disappearance hints at new type of stellar death

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Radar

New radar can 'scan' Earth's surface through any obstacle, created by Russia's MIET


Sputnik
Sat, 24 Apr 2021 15:21 UTC
drone radar

Scientists at the National Research University of Electronic Technology “MIET” (Moscow, Russia) have created a new radar remote sensing device for aircraft and spacecraft.
The researchers note that it can capture images of the Earth's surface, comparable in quality to optical images, regardless of lighting, weather, the presence of clouds, or tree crowns, the university's press service told Sputnik.

"It is known that the lower the frequency range, the greater the penetrating power of the wave, so our radar can survey not only through clouds and fog but also under foliage. Accordingly, if the optical method can capture the forest under ideal conditions, our radar can see through foliage and detect, for example, an unauthorised landfill in the forest", Ilya Kuzmin, an engineer at the Institute of Microdevices and Control Systems at MIET, said.

Comment: See also:

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Hearts

Dolphins learn the 'names' of their friends to form teams - first time recorded in animal kingdom

Virginia Morell
Science Mag
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 05:00 UTC
Dolphins
© Simon Allen
Dolphin allies form teams to help their pals fight rivals who might try to take away a fertile female. Here, two males assist their pals in guarding a lone female.
Like members of a street gang, male dolphins summon their buddies when it comes time to raid and pillage — or, in their case, to capture and defend females in heat. A new study reveals they do this by learning the "names," or signature whistles, of their closest allies — sometimes more than a dozen animals — and remembering who consistently cooperated with them in the past. The findings indicate dolphins have a concept of team membership — previously seen only in humans — and may help reveal how they maintain such intricate and tight-knit societies.

"It is a ground-breaking study," says Luke Rendell, a behavioral ecologist at the University of St. Andrews who was not involved with the research. The work adds evidence to the idea that dolphins evolved large brains to navigate their complex social environments.

Comment: See also: Enigmatic circling behavior observed in numerous marine animals

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Fireball 2

China eyes asteroid defence system, comet mission


Reuters
Sat, 24 Apr 2021 09:54 UTC
Asteroid/Kejan
© The Frontier Post/Reuters
Depiction of asteroid defense system • Head of China National Space Admin. Zhang Kejian
China will hold discussions on building a defence system against near-Earth asteroids, a senior space agency official said on Saturday, as the country steps up its longer term space ambitions.

Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration, did not provide further detail in his opening remarks at a ceremony for China's space day in the eastern city of Nanjing.

China has made space exploration a top priority in recent years, aiming to establish a programme operating thousands of space flights a year and carrying tens of thousands of tonnes of cargo and passengers by 2045.

The European Space Agency last year signed a deal worth 129 million euros ($156 million) to build a spacecraft for a joint project with NASA examining how to deflect an asteroid heading for Earth.

China is pushing forward a mission where one space probe will land on a near-Earth asteroid to collect samples, fly back toward Earth to release a capsule containing the samples, and then orbit another comet, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing Ye Peijian, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The mission could take about a decade to complete, Ye said.
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Better Earth

Climate shifted axis of the Earth in 1990s, new study suggests

American Geophysical Union
Phys.org
Fri, 23 Apr 2021 12:00 UTC
earth axis
© Deng et al (2021) Geophysical Research Letters/AGU
Melting of glaciers in Alaska, Greenland, the Southern Andes, Antarctica, the Caucasus and the Middle East accelerated in the mid-90s, becoming the main driver pushing Earth's poles into a sudden and rapid drift toward 26°E at a rate of 3.28 millimeters (0.129 inches) per year.Color intensity on the map shows where changes in water stored on land (mostly as ice) had the strongest effect on the movement of the poles from April 2004 to June 2020. Inset graphs plot the change in glacier mass (black) and the calculated change in water on land (blue) in the regions of largest influence.
Glacial melting due to global warming is likely the cause of a shift in the movement of the poles that occurred in the 1990s.

The locations of the North and South poles aren't static, unchanging spots on our planet. The axis Earth spins around — or more specifically the surface that invisible line emerges from — is always moving due to processes scientists don't completely understand. The way water is distributed on Earth's surface is one factor that drives the drift.

Melting glaciers redistributed enough water to cause the direction of polar wander to turn and accelerate eastward during the mid-1990s, according to a new study in Geophysical Research Letters, short-format reports with immediate implications spanning all Earth and space sciences.

Comment: For an idea of the other drivers of the changes we're seeing on our planet, and throughout our solar system, and beyond, see:

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Galaxy

The effects of solar flares on Earth's magnetosphere

Ingrid Fadelli
Phys.org
Fri, 23 Apr 2021 12:00 UTC
solar flare
© Jing Liu
An illustration of solar flare impacts on the whole geospace.
Planet Earth is surrounded by a system of magnetic fields known as the magnetosphere. This vast, comet-shaped system deflects charged particles coming from the sun, shielding our planet from harmful particle radiation and preventing solar wind (i.e., a stream of charged particles released from the sun's upper atmosphere) from eroding the atmosphere.

While past studies have gathered substantial evidence of the effects that solar wind can have on Earth's magnetosphere, the impact of solar flares (i.e., sudden eruptions of electromagnetic radiation on the sun) is poorly understood. Solar flares are highly explosive events that can last from a few minutes to hours and can be detected using X-rays or optical devices.

Comment: As we enter a 'grand' solar minimum, that results in a significant reduction of solar flares, one wonders what impact this will have on the dynamics of our own planet; although it's possible we are already seeing some of the effects: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Telescope

Tiny newfound 'Unicorn' is closest known black hole to Earth

Mike Wall
Space.com
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 07:21 UTC
Artist's illustration of the tiny black hole candidate known as
© Ohio State illustration by Lauren Fanfer)
Artist's illustration of the tiny black hole candidate known as "The Unicorn" tugging on its companion, a red giant star.
Astronomers have apparently found the closest known black hole to Earth, a weirdly tiny object dubbed "The Unicorn" that lurks just 1,500 light-years from us.

The nickname has a double meaning. Not only does the black hole candidate reside in the constellation Monoceros ("the unicorn"), its incredibly low mass — about three times that of the sun — makes it nearly one of a kind.

"Because the system is so unique and so weird, you know, it definitely warranted the nickname of 'The Unicorn,'" discovery team leader Tharindu Jayasinghe, an astronomy Ph.D. student at The Ohio State University, said in a new video the school made to explain the find.

"The Unicorn" has a companion — a bloated red giant star that's nearing the end of its life. (Our sun will swell up as a red giant in about five billion years.) That companion has been observed by a variety of instruments over the years, including the All Sky Automated Survey and NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.
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Nebula

Chernobyl's liquidators didn't pass on radiation damage to their children

Stephanie Pappas
Live Science
Fri, 23 Apr 2021 19:11 UTC
Chernobyl
© Shutterstock
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
Radiation exposure from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster — the world's deadliest nuclear accident — raised the risk of certain mutations linked to thyroid cancer, but it didn't cause new mutations in DNA that parents who cleaned up after the nuclear accident passed along to their children, two new studies find.

The new research is a step forward in understanding the mechanisms that drive human thyroid cancer, said Stephen Chanock, the director of the division of cancer epidemiology and genetics at the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the senior author on both research papers. It's also reassuring for those exposed to radiation in events such as the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster and who plan to start families, Chanock told Live Science.

"People who had very high-dose radiation didn't have more mutations in the next generation," he said. "That's telling us that if there's any effect it's very, very subtle and very rare."

Comment: Our understanding of the impact of radiation, as well as nature's resilience, and abilities of adaptation, is changing:

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Rocket

Russian military reportedly creates 'dead zones' for enemy drones and cruise missiles

Ilya Tsukanov
Sputnik
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:02 UTC
Field 21-M
© Russian Defense Ministry
Russian Field 21-M (Polye-21M) electronic warfare system
The significance of cruise missiles and drone warfare has become all too apparent in the 21st century, with the United States and its allies in the Middle East regularly using state of the art weapons to launch attacks across Africa, the Middle East and West Asia over the past two decades, mostly against nations without developed air defences.

The Russian military is training to create 'dead zones' completely inaccessible to enemy drones, cruise missiles and other precision weapons, Russian media reports, citing military sources. Sources indicate that the dead zone concept has already been worked out and adopted, and that Electronic Warfare Troops units in several military districts have been practising the concept's employment through drills. Large-scale exercises at the national level are expected to begin next year.

The military reportedly expects to use the 'dead zone' concept to create 'practically impenetrable defences' against enemy drones, cruise missiles and other precision fires, and to defend not only army facilities, but social and industrial infrastructure as well.
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