For years, scientists at the University of Florida have been on a quest to get the FDA to restrict the sale of cold medicines that they say are ineffective. Studies have shown that the ingredient phenylephrine is no better than a placebo.
But seven years after the researchers filed a petition with the agency, the FDA is still dragging its heels, and the drugs are still on the shelves.
Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft sprung a leak last night, with coolant spraying into space just before two astronauts were scheduled to head outside on a spacewalk. The spacewalk got cancelled, but there was never any danger to anyone on the station.
As for the leak itself, the likely culprit was a micrometeoroid strike.
The Department of Energy is making a big fusion announcement at 10AM ET. Watch along with us!
Mauna Loa is home to one of the most important climate observatories in the world. It’s also an active volcano. This week, an eruption cut power to the observatory, disrupting one of the best records of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, called the Keeling Curve. Now, researchers are scrambling to get it up and running again.
Remember the REALLY BIG volcanic eruption in Tonga earlier this year? The one that cut the country off from the internet? It also carved out a crater in its underwater volcano that is now 850 meters deep. That’s more than 2700 feet. Even geologists are calling the changes to the seafloor “mind-blowing.”
Not even a healthy dose of capsaicin is enough to stop dolphins from swiping the catch of the day right out of fishers’ nets.
[Hakai Magazine]
Naming the United States’ flagship space after James Webb, a former Administrator of NASA was a controversial choice. Webb was: a.) not a scientist, and b.) presided over NASA during a time in which people identifying as LGBTQ+ were discriminated against. NASA investigated Webb’s involvement in those practices last year, and released the full report today.
Based on the available evidence, the agency does not plan to change the name of the James Webb Space Telescope. However, the report illuminates that this period in federal policy – and in American history more broadly – was a dark chapter that does not reflect the agency’s values today.
