Here are few interesting scientific articles from the last week:
Astronauts to Mars Face Significant Radiation Risk. Astronauts who travel to Mars could face radiation risks equal to two-thirds of the safe lifetime limit for astronauts according to NASA. NASA says that despite the risks, the will to explore will prevail.
A Wrinkle in Time?. According to Science News, light may break up to cloak gaps in time: “A device that manipulates light to open up small gaps in time has crept toward implementation outside the lab. Detailed in the June 6 Nature, it could soon improve security over fiber-optic lines or improve data streaming rates.”
Fossils Shed Light on Early Primates. From Science News: an international team led by paleontologist Xijun Ni of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing analyzed this animal’s 55-million-year-old remains, the oldest known primate skeleton. Discovered 10 years ago along an ancient lake bed in central China, the fossil comes from a previously unknown genus and species, Archicebus achilles, the scientists report June 6 in Nature.
Are There Are as Many Neurons in the Human Brain as There are Stars in the Milky Way? Close, but not quite according to Scitable: Approximately 86 billion neurons in the human brain. The latest estimates for the number of stars in the Milky Way is somewhere between 200 and 400 billion.
Scientists Map the Wiring of the Biological Clock. From Science Daily: In the June 5 issue of Neuron, Erik Herzog, PhD and his colleagues report the discovery of a crucial part of the biological clock: the wiring that sets its accuracy to within a few minutes out of the 1440 minutes per day.