Io Over Jupiter From Voyager 1 

Staring at the sun does make you go blind. The lens in your eye concentrates the sun’s rays, which burn a permanent blind spot into your retina- just like ants under a magnifying glass. This effect is amplified during a solar eclipse.

It’s called solar retinopathy.

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Is the End of Daily Insulin Injections for Diabetes Sufferers in Sight?

A new study reportedly shows that boosting the immune system can safely restore insulin production for up to a year—which might make it possible for those who suffer with diabetes to not require daily injections. Notably, these are Phase 1 trials, which are designed to look at safety, not long term effectiveness. So much research is still needed.

Yet, if the technique proves viable and effective, this could change the lives of millions of people around the world. According to the Center for Diseases Control, in the United States alone, 29.1 million people (or 9.3% of the population) have diabetes. That’s one out of every 11 people. 371 million people worldwide have this condition.

To break down the research, those afflicted with Type 1 diabetes do not have enough T-regs or ‘peacekeeping’ cells, which is ultimately what causes the disease. Researchers from Yale and University of California have just showed that T-regs can be removed from the body, increased by 1,500 in a lab setting, and then placed back into the bloodstream as a way of potentially restoring the body’s insulin production back to normal.

Find out more at: http://futurism.com/links/end-daily-insulin-injections-diabetes-sufferers-sight/

Synthetic Muscles

Huntsville AL (SPX) Dec 31, 2015 Muscles are miracles of nature. They convert energy into motion more efficiently than any gasoline engine or electric motor. They’re extremely resilient and even heal themselves. Instead of degrading with use, our muscles become stronger the more we work them. Researchers have long sought a way to recreate that miracle in prosthetics. So far, no one has succeeded. But Lenore Rasmussen, Pri Full article

The Solar System

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: Tesla Model S recall, and more!

PSYCHOLOGY FACT #27

Seeing others positively reveals our positive traits, seeing others negatively reveals our negative traits.

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We’re With You When You Fly

Did you know that “We’re With You When You Fly”? Thanks to our advancements in aeronautics, today’s aviation industry is better equipped than ever to safely and efficiently transport millions of passengers and billions of dollars worth of freight to their destinations. In fact, every U.S. Aircraft flying today and every U.S. air traffic control tower uses NASA-developed technology in some way. Here are some of our objectives in aeronautics:

Making Flight Greener

From reducing fuel emissions to making more efficient flight routes, we’re working to make flight greener. We are dedicated to improving the design of airplanes so they are more Earth friendly by using less fuel, generating less pollution and reducing noise levels far below where they are today.

Getting you safely home faster

We work with the Federal Aviation Administration to provide air traffic controllers with new tools for safely managing the expected growth in air traffic across the nation. For example, testing continues on a tool that controllers and pilots can use to find a more efficient way around bad weather, saving thousands of pounds of fuel and an average of 27 minutes flying time per tested flight. These and other NASA-developed tools help get you home faster and support a safe, efficient airspace.

Seeing Aviation’s Future

Here at NASA, we’re committed to transforming aviation through cutting edge research and development. From potential airplanes that could be the first to fly on Mars, to testing a concept of a battery-powered plane, we’re always thinking of what the future of aviation will look like.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Report: A host of common chemicals endanger child brain development

In a new report, dozens of scientists, health practitioners and children’s health advocates are calling for renewed attention to the growing evidence that many common and widely available chemicals endanger neurodevelopment in fetuses and children of all ages.

The chemicals that are of most concern include lead and mercury; organophosphate pesticides used in agriculture and home gardens; phthalates, which are used in pharmaceuticals, plastics and personal care products; flame retardants known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers; and air pollutants produced by the combustion of wood and fossil fuels, said University of Illinois comparative biosciences professor Susan Schantz, one of dozens of individual signatories to the consensus statement.

Polychlorinated biphenyls, once used as coolants and lubricants in transformers and other electrical equipment, also are of concern. PCBs were banned in the U.S. in 1977, but can persist in the environment for decades, she said.

The new report, “Project TENDR: Targeting Environmental NeuroDevelopment Risks,” appears in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The group also has a website with information about each of the chemicals of concern.

“These chemicals are pervasive, not only in air and water, but in everyday consumer products that we use on our bodies and in our homes,” Schantz said. “Reducing exposures to toxic chemicals can be done, and is urgently needed to protect today’s and tomorrow’s children.”

Schantz is a faculty member in the College of Veterinary Medicine and in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the U. of I.

“The human brain develops over a very long period of time, starting in gestation and continuing during childhood and even into early adulthood,” Schantz said. “But the biggest amount of growth occurs during prenatal development. The neurons are forming and migrating and maturing and differentiating. And if you disrupt this process, you’re likely to have permanent effects.”

Some of the chemicals of concern, such as phthalates and PBDEs, are known to interfere with normal hormone activity. For example, most pregnant women in the U.S. will test positive for exposure to phthalates and PBDEs, both of which disrupt thyroid hormone function.  

“Thyroid hormone is involved in almost every aspect of brain development, from formation of the neurons to cell division, to the proper migration of cells and myelination of the axons after the cells are differentiated,” said Schantz. “It regulates many of the genes involved in nervous system development.”

Schantz and her colleagues at Illinois are studying infants and their mothers to determine whether prenatal exposure to phthalates and other endocrine disruptors leads to changes in the brain or behavior. This research, along with parallel studies in older children and animals, is a primary focus of the Children’s Environmental Health Research Center at Illinois, which Schantz directs.

Phthalates also interfere with steroid hormone activity. Studies link exposure to certain phthalates with attention deficits, lower IQ and conduct disorders in children.

“Phthalates are everywhere; they’re in all kinds of different products. We’re exposed to them every day,” Schantz said.

The report criticizes current regulatory lapses that allow chemicals to be introduced into people’s lives with little or no review of their effects on fetal and child health.

“For most chemicals, we have no idea what they’re doing to children’s neurodevelopment,” Schantz said. “They just haven’t been studied.

“And if it looks like something is a risk, we feel policymakers should be willing to make a decision that this or that chemical could be a bad actor and we need to stop its production or limit its use,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to wait 10 or 15 years – allowing countless children to be exposed to it in the meantime – until we’re positive it’s a bad actor.”