A Northwestern University-led team of researchers has developed a small, soft, flexible implant that relieves pain on demand and without the use of drugs. The first-of-its-kind device could provide a much-needed alternative to opioids and other highly addictive medications.

The biocompatible, water-soluble device works by softly wrapping around nerves to deliver precise, targeted cooling, which numbs nerves and blocks pain signals to the brain. An external pump enables the user to remotely activate the device and then increase or decrease its intensity. After the device is no longer needed, it naturally absorbs into the body — bypassing the need for surgical extraction.

The researchers believe the device will be most valuable for patients who undergo routine surgeries or even amputations that commonly require post-operative medications. Surgeons could implant the device during the procedure to help manage the patient's post-operative pain.

"Although opioids are extremely effective, they also are extremely addictive," said Northwestern's John A. Rogers, who led the device's development. "As engineers, we are motivated by the idea of treating pain without drugs — in ways that can be turned on and off instantly, with user control over the intensity of relief. The technology reported here exploits mechanisms that have some similarities to those that cause your fingers to feel numb when cold. Our implant allows that effect to be produced in a programmable way, directly and locally to targeted nerves, even those deep within surrounding soft tissues."

A bioelectronics pioneer, Rogers is the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery in the McCormick School of Engineering and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He also is the founding director of the Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics. Jonathan Reeder, a former postdoctoral fellow in Rogers' laboratory, is the paper's first author.

Camero-Tech, a member of Samy Katsav Group - SK Group which engage in developing, producing and marketing of pulse-based UWB micro-power radar 'Through Wall Imaging' systems, is launching the Xaver™ 1000 - the new generation of the Camero Xaver™ product line that offers operational capabilities to military forces, law enforcement agencies, Intelligence units, and first responders. The system will be unveiled for the first time at the Eurosatury 2022 Exhibition that will open tomorrow (Monday) in Paris.

According to Camero, the Xaver™ 1000 has an AI-based tracking algorithm of live targets and its own 3D 'Sense-Through-The-Wall' capability, enabling it to detect and 'see' people or static objects behind walls and obstacles. Live objects can be seen in high resolution down to the level of specific body parts. This includes whether an object is sitting, standing or lying down, even after they have been stationary for a long period of time.

The system also enables users to measure the height of objects and decide whether they are adults, children, or animals, resulting in a clear operational advantage and the ability to 'step into the known'.

Deep within the Sahara Desert lies one of the best-preserved craters on Earth. On Asteroid Day, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the almost-perfectly circular Tenoumer Crater in Mauritania.

Tenoumer Crater, visible in the centre of the image, is 1.9 km wide. The rims of the crater rise some 110 m high above the base, but the bottom of the crater is covered with approximately 200 to 300 m thick layer of sediments.

It was long debated whether the crater was formed by a volcano or meteorite. Scattered rocks around the crater, similar to basalt, created the impression of an ancient volcano. Yet a closer exanimation of the structure revealed the crater's hardened 'lava' was actually rock that had melted by a meteorite impact.

The crater sits in a vast plain of rocks that are so ancient they were deposited hundreds of millions of years before the first dinosaurs walked Earth. Even though it resides in ancient rock, Tenoumer is much younger, ranging in age between 10 000 and 30 000 years old.

Theoretical predictions move closer to experimental results, but questions remain about possible gaps in the standard model of particle physics.

The muon's mysteries continue to leave physicists spellbound. Last year, an experiment suggested that the elementary particle had inexplicably strong magnetism, possibly breaking a decades-long streak of victories for the leading theory of particle physics, known as the standard model. Now, revised calculations by several groups suggest that the theory's prediction of muon magnetism might not be too far away from the experimental measurements after all.

The new predictions are preliminary, and do not completely vindicate the standard model. But by narrowing the gap between theory and experiment, they might make it easier to resolve the discrepancy — while potentially creating another one.

The muon is almost identical to the electron, except that it's 200 times heavier and short-lived, decaying millionths of a second after being created in particle collisions. Like the electron, the muon has a magnetic field that makes it act like a tiny bar magnet. As muons travel, they generate various particles that briefly pop in and out of existence. These ephemeral particles slightly increase the muon's magnetism, known as its magnetic moment. The big question is: by how much?

If the standard model already includes all of the universe's elementary particles, it should be able to precisely quantify this extra magnetic contribution. But if experiments prove that nature deviates from that prediction, it would point to the existence of hitherto unknown particles, whose fleeting appearances can skew the muon's magnetic moment more than expected. Researchers have already seen hints of such a discrepancy, and have spent decades trying to improve the accuracy of both theory and experiments to confirm whether they do give different results.

CBET 5121 & MPEC 2022-J88 , issued on 2022, May 11, announce the discovery of a comet (magnitude ~18) by A. Maury and G. Attard on images obtained with a 0.28-m f/2.2 Schmidt reflector at San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, on May 5. The new comet has been designated C/2022 J1 (Maury-Attard).

Stacking of 15 luminance-filtered exposures, 60 seconds each, obtained remotely (in poor conditions, high clouds) on 2022, May 6.4 from X02 (Telescope Live, Chile) through a 0.61-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a diffuse coma of size about 12" and magnitude of 18.3-18.9 in an aperture radius of 5".5 (Observers E. Bryssinck, M. Rocchetto, E. Guido, M. Fulle, G. Milani, G. Savini, A. Valvasori).

Our confirmation image (click on the images for a bigger version)
CBET 5121 assigns the following parabolic orbital elements to comet C/2022 J1 (Maury-Attard): T 2022 Feb. 21.59; e= 1.0; Peri. = 307.65; q =1.63; Incl.= 106.45 (It is possible that the comet has a periodic orbit on the order of 120 years or so).

So far, no space exploring nations have claimed responsibility for the rocket.

NASA has discovered the crash site of a "mystery rocket body" that collided with the Moon's surface earlier this year. The impact left behind a widespread "double crater," meaning it wasn't the average rocket.

However, since its crash landing, none of Earth's space-exploring nations have claimed responsibility for the mysterious projectile, leaving NASA scientists baffled as to who was behind its launch. New images shared on June 24 by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show the unusual impact site.

It was nothing of this earth, but a piece of the great outside; and as such dowered with outside properties and obedient to outside laws. -The Colour Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft

At 7:15 on the morning of June 30, 1908, something happened in the sky above the Stony Tunguska (Podkamennaya Tunguska) river in Siberia. Many thousand people in a radius of 900 miles observed the Tunguska event and more than 700 accounts were collected later. The reports describe a fireball in the sky, larger or similar to the size of the sun, a series of explosions "with a frightful sound", followed by shaking of the ground as "the earth seemed to get opened wide and everything would fall in the abyss. Terrible strokes were heard from somewhere, which shook the air []." The indigenous Evenks and Yakuts believed a god or shaman had sent the fireball to destroy the world. Various meteorological stations in Europe recorded both seismic and atmospheric waves. Days later strange phenomena were observed in the sky of Russia and Europe, such as glowing clouds, colorful sunsets and a strange luminescence in the night.

Russian newspapers reported a supposed meteorite impact. International newspapers speculated about a possible volcanic explosion, as similar strange luminous effects were observed also after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. Unfortunately, the inaccessibility of the region and Russia's unstable political situation at the time prevented any further scientific investigations.

Experts were initially unsure what caused the freak geomagnetic event.

Scientists were recently left scratching their heads after a "potentially disruptive" solar storm smashed into Earth without warning.

The surprise solar storm hit Earth just before midnight UTC June 25 and continued throughout most of June 26, according to Spaceweather.com. Scientists classified it as a G1-class storm, which means it was strong enough to create weak power grid fluctuations, cause minor impacts to satellite operation, disrupt the navigational abilities of some migrating animals, and cause unusually strong auroras.

The unexpected solar storm coincided with the peak of an extremely rare five-planet alignment, where Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn lined up in the sky in order of their proximity to the sun (which hasn't happened since 1864). Amateur astronomers in the northern hemisphere were able to capture images of the surprise auroras as they photobombed the neatly aligned planets.

Photographer Harlan Thomas captured an image of bright auroras in Calgary, Canada, which flashed across the dawn sky in front of the planetary alignment on June 26.

"Wow, talk about surprises," Thomas told Spaceweather.com. "The aurora became [visible to the] naked eye with beautiful pillars," and lasted for around 5 minutes, Thomas said.

Tianwen-1 probe has circled the planet more than 1,300 times - and has looked in detail at a promising region

China has revealed stunning images taken of the surface of Mars, using an unscrewed spacecraft.

The Tianwen-1 probe has successfully taken imagery data covering the whole of the planet, including its south pole, state media reported.

The south pole is of particular interest to scientists because the icy region could ply a key role in discovering whether the planet could be home to alien life.

Fossils found at the Sterkfontein Caves in South Africa reveal nearly four million years of hominin and environmental evolution.


Since research began at the site in 1936 with the discovery, by Robert Broom, of the first adult hominin of the genus Australopithecus, it has become famous for the hundreds of Australopithecus fossils yielded from excavations of ancient cave infills, including iconic specimens such as the cranium known as Mrs. Ples and the Little Foot skeleton.

The majority of Sterkfontein's wealth of Australopithecus fossils has been excavated from an ancient cave infill called 'Member 4' - the richest deposit of Australopithecus fossils in the world. Over the last 56 years of Wits-led research at Sterkfontein, the age of Member 4 at Sterkfontein have remained contested, with age estimates ranging from as young as about 2 million years ago, younger than the appearance of our genus Homo, back to about 3 million years.