Here are today’s most important updates from the realm of Science and Space.
There have been numerous theories on how human beings might terraform Mars and render the Red Planet habitable. Some scientists have proposed the use of plants such as Antarctic desert moss or even lichen that can tolerate conditions on Mars. But one Polish scientist claims that these are too hard to accomplish and instead suggests a more radical method to make Mars habitable. Dr. Leszek Czechowski, a researcher at the Polish Academy of Sciences, advises that frozen asteroids in the Kuiper Belt or the outer, hypothetical Oort Cloud might offer a means to build an atmosphere on Mars. Meanwhile, Mars' atmosphere is thin and made primarily of carbon dioxide, which does not support life. By hitting the planet with these frozen asteroids, it could be possible to release gases that would assist in creating a breathing atmosphere.
Popular diabetes and weight loss drugs may do more than curb appetites — they may also help reduce the risk of dementia, according to new research. Of course, it's not yet clinically proven, but there was a hint that newer medications, like Ozempic, like Mounjaro, may reduce the risk of dementia in people who are on those drugs. Diabetes may be a risk factor for dementia, so it has been suggested that just controlling blood sugar levels produces this protective effect. Although the exact mechanism is unclear, these drugs have been linked to reduced inflammation, with neuroinflammation increasingly being recognised as a cause of dementia. By reducing chronic inflammation, they may slow cell death in the brain.
Physicists have replicated the famous Schrödinger's cat experiment at hotter temperatures than ever before. In Schrödinger's thought experiment, the weird rules of the quantum world are envisioned by imagining a cat placed inside an opaque box with a poison vial whose release mechanism is controlled by radioactive decay — a completely random quantum process. Until the box is opened and the cat is observed, Schrödinger said, the rules of quantum mechanics mean that the unfortunate feline should exist in a superposition of states, simultaneously dead and alive. Yet to achieve these states, quantum objects usually have to be cooled to their ground states, which exist just a few fractions above absolute zero (minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius). The breakthrough is a small but significant step toward quantum computers that can work at normal temperatures.
There’s a mysterious connection between our skin and our guts, specifically when it comes to food allergies.For reasons scientists don’t fully understand, chronic skin conditions such as eczema are linked to food allergies. Researchers have discovered that in some cases, eczema can precede food allergies. The research team hypothesized that some form of immune cell is responsible for coordinating signals between the skin and gut to trigger the allergy and are currently working to pin down the identity of those go-between cells. Meanwhile, inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis have also been linked to eczema, and the skin condition psoriasis increases the risk of heart disease. Although new findings may not have direct relevance for treating human food allergies, they do remind us not to ignore any skin damage.
