NASA Mission Sheds New Light On the Sun

Bale SD et al. “Highly structured slow solar wind emerging from an equatorial coronal hole.”

Howard RA et al. “Near-Sun observations of an F-corona decrease and K-corona fine structure.”

Kasper JC et al. “Alfvénic velocity spikes and rotational flows in the near-Sun solar wind.”

McComas DJ et al. “Probing the energetic particle environment near the Sun.”

Nature, December 2019.

Although the sun sits at the center of our solar system, its most basic behaviors still remain a big mystery. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, launched in 2018, aimed to address some of the fundamental questions about the sun: Why is the sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, so hot? Where does solar wind come from, and what causes it to be shot out of the corona? What makes the sun flare up sometimes, shooting even more excited particles out into space? These are some of the questions that scientists hope Parker can answer before its mission ends in 2025. Meanwhile, Parker got very close to the Sun for several days last November and in April 2019. Parker Solar Probe during its two encounters traveled within 15 million miles of the Sun’s surface, far surpassing the 25-million-mile record first set by NASA’s Helios 2 mission in 1976. Parker has also claimed the title of the fastest human-made object in history from Helios 2, as it surfed near the Sun at over 153,000 miles per hour. Its first batch of released results came from measurements of the corona, which is, remarkably, hotter than the surface itself. The corona extends millions of miles from the surface into space. The region is only visible to the naked eye during a solar eclipse as a golden ring hanging in a darkened sky. The corona emits powerful streams of high-energy particles, known as solar wind, which can be felt all across the solar system. Parker’s data shows that solar winds are far more turbulent near the sun than in our own vicinity. The wind drags the sun’s magnetic field out into space, and even bends the field enough for magnetic forces to completely flip around for a few minutes at a time, pointing back at the sun itself instead of into space. The strength of this effect was completely surprising and puzzling. Scientists also found that shifts in the sun’s magnetic field speed up the particles flowing away from the sun much faster than any of their models had previously predicted.

This really highlights the idea that proximity is everything for studying the sun. Parker continues to edge closer to the sun. As its orbit shrinks, it will eventually reach a perihelion distance of just 6.16 million km in 2025, where it will experience temperatures of nearly 1400°C. Thanks to the protection provided by its specially-designed, carbon-composite heat shield, the probe won’t melt and the spacecraft and its instruments will be kept at a temperature of about 29°C.

Science Stands Behind Bilingual Children

Nicoladis et al. “How to use a wide variety of words in telling a story with a small vocabulary: cognitive predictors of lexical selection for simultaneous bilingual children.” Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, October 2019.

A new study shows that bilingual children use just as many words while telling a story in either language as do children who only speak one language. Past research showed that bilingual children score lower than monolingual children on traditional vocabulary tests. However, these new findings may change the understanding of multiple languages and cognition in children. Learning a word is directly related to how much time is spent in each language. For bilingual children, time is split between languages. As expected, they tend to have lower vocabularies in each of their languages. However, this new research shows that as a function of storytelling, bilingual children are equally strong as monolingual children. Researchers examined a group of French-English bilingual children who had been taught two languages since birth, rather than learning a second language later in life. They used a new, highly sensitive measure for examining cognitive flexibility, a participant’s ability to switch between games with different rules, while maintaining accuracy and reaction time. Their study builds on previous research examining vocabulary in bilingual children who have learned English as a second language. Overall, the bilingual children used just as many words to tell a story in English as monolingual children. The children also used just as many words in French as they did in English when telling a story. Their analysis suggests that the number of words that bilingual children use in their stories is strongly correlated with their high levels of cognitive flexibility—the ability to switch between thinking about different concepts. Researchers emphasize that parents of bilingual children do not need to be concerned about long-term school achievement. Vocabulary is a strong predictor of success in education, and so is storytelling. In a storytelling context, bilingual kids are able to use this flexibility to convey stories in creative ways.

New Tomatoes Engineered for Urban Gardens and Outer Space

Kwon CT et al. “Rapid customization of Solanaceae fruit crops for urban agriculture.” Nature Biotechnology, December 2019.

Humanity have a massive problem: feeding our future selves. As a result of rising population, continued destruction due to climate change, and the fact that sustainable land use is becoming ever-more challenging, learning how to grow enough food for everyone is a burning question to address in the agriculture field. In an effort to grow more crops in smaller and less-than-ideal locations, scientists developed new genetically-modified “urban” tomatoes that ripen in compact bunches similar to grapes. These tomatoes resemble a bouquet whose roses have been replaced by ripe cherry tomatoes. They also mature quickly, producing ripe fruit that’s ready for harvest in less than 40 days. Scientist utilized the CRISPR gene-editing technology and produced the new tomatoes by fine-tuning three genes that control the switch to reproductive growth and plant size: 1) the SELF-PRUNING (SP), 2) SP5G, and 3) SIER genes. While the first two genes have the duty prevent growth, flowering and fruiting of the plant sooner, the SIER gene is in charge of controlling the length of the plant’s stems. Altering the first two genes resulted in tomato plants that didn’t produce a lot of fruit and tasted poorly. It was not until the scientists identified the third gene that they were able to produce the desired plant. This study demonstrates that we can produce crops in new ways, without having to tear up our land as much or add excessive fertilizer that runs off into rivers and streams. This could also be a complementary approach to help feed people locally and with a reduced carbon footprint. Climate change is expected to change growing conditions on Earth, worsening conditions for many crops.

Farmers could soon be growing tomatoes bunched like grapes in a storage unit, in a shipping container, on the roof of a skyscraper, and – as humanity stretches out past low Earth orbit toward the moon – eventually, in Mars.

Cooperstone JL et al. Tomatoes protect against development of UV-induced keratinocyte carcinoma via metabolomic alterations. Scientific Reports, July 2017

Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. A new study suggests that nutrient rich tomatoes may be an effective tool in the fight against skin cancer. Tomatoes are already known to be a good remedy for sunburn. Dietary carotenoids are pigmenting compounds that give tomatoes their color. Lycopene, the primary carotenoid in tomatoes, has been shown to be the most effective antioxidant of these pigments. In the study, the researchers fed a group of mice a daily diet made up of 10% tomato powder for 35 weeks. They then exposed these mice to ultraviolet light. In comparison to those mice not given tomato powder, the male mice given tomato powder showed a 50% decrease in skin cancer tumors. Interestingly, there was no significant reduction in tumors for the female mice.

This study emphasizes once more the importance of sex when designing preventive strategies for cancer. In addition, lycopene administered from a whole tomato appears more effective in preventing redness after UV exposure than the synthesized supplement, suggesting other unknown compounds in tomatoes may also play a role. Finally, researchers underline the simple fact that foods are not drugs, but they can possibly, over a lifetime of consumption, impact the development of certain diseases.

New wearable sensor worn like a second skin

Miyamoto A et al. Inflammation-free, gas-permeable, lightweight, stretchable on-skin electronics with nanomeshes. Nature Nanotechnology, July 2017.

Wearable electronics are smart electronic devices that are designed to provide humans with digital assistance about everyday tasks. These devices are rapidly increasing, and it is estimated that within five years there could be half a billion devices strapped onto, or even embedded in, human bodies. Today, the most popular devices are health/fitness trackers and smart watches, which monitor health and provide ready access to online health services. These technologies promise to transform medicine, as these wearables can manage care and ultimately treat symptoms of various diseases.

The current technology is pushing hard to replace bulky health sensors with super-thin wearables that can record data through skin. The first generation of devices for skin monitoring have been bulky and impractical, restricting natural movement. Now a group of researchers have developed an innovative solution, one that seems almost out of a science-fiction movie. They demonstrated that a flexible, mesh-like structure of metallic nanofilaments successfully integrates with the skin on human fingers without irritation or interruption. Each nanofilament is about 300-500 nm in diameter and coated in a thin layer of gold. The mesh-like film sticks to the skin thanks to an ultra-thin layer of polyvinyl alchohol (PVA), a reagent commonly used in contact lenses and artificial cartilage. PVA showed exceptional performance in hypoallergenic tests when compared to conventional plastic and elastomer films. 

This newly designed device allows for very precise, long-term monitoring with minimal disruption to the carrier, facilitating active, body-worn sensors sensitive to touch, temperature, and pressure. These next-generation wearables greatly exceed those of traditional wristband-mounted devices and the technology could even have potential applications on internal organs.  In the near future, there will be devices that alert people with epilepsy to incipient seizures, help prevent anxiety attacks, and enable blind people to navigate.

Generosity sparks happiness in the brain

Park SQ et al. A neural link between generosity and happiness. Nature Communications, July 2017.

Philosophers, psychologists, and economists have spent hundreds of years contemplating what drives or inspires humans to perform acts of generosity.
In attempts to answer this question, some have speculated that giving satisfies a desire to boost one’s social standing in a group. Others have suggested it promotes tribal cooperation and cohesion, a key element in human survival. Another group of researchers claimed that we give only because we expect to receive something in return. The real answer, a new study suggests, may be much simpler: Giving makes us happy. To explore the connection between generosity and happiness, researchers divided 50 participants into two groups – experimental and control – who were each told they would be given 25 Swiss francs ($26)  per week for four weeks.

While the experimental group were asked to commit to spending their money on other people by buying gifts or taking them to dinner, the control group were told to spend the money to spoil themselves. After committing to spending, the participants were asked to answer a questionnaire while their brains were being scanned with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Participants in the experimental group were found to make more generous choices in an independent decision-making task and showed greater increases in self-reported happiness when compared to the control group. In addition, brain scans revealed that generous decisions engaged the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) in the experimental group, and the TPJ subsequently activated neurons in the ventral striatum, which is associated with happiness.

This study provides behavioral and neural evidence that supports the link between generosity and happiness, and it has implications for education, politics, economics, and public health. But many interesting questions remain to be explored: Can communication between these brain regions be trained and strengthened? Does the effect last when it is used deliberately – that is, if a person only behaves generously in order to feel happier? Can a lack of generosity have the opposite effect, stimulating negative brain processes?