Tech Tuesday: July 14
This week: Our closest look ever at distant Pluto, fighting cancer with diabetes drugs, networking multiple animal brains, new building blocks of the universe found, and the elimination of needles from medicine.
Hello Pluto!
After three billion miles and a decade-long journey through our solar system, NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft has finally reached Pluto. New Horizons made its closest approach at a distance of roughly 7,750 miles above the surface, making it the first-ever space mission to explore a world so far from Earth.
Using Diabetes Drugs to Fight Cancer
Researchers from UCLA have identified a new mechanism that delivers glucose to cancer cells, providing evidence that drugs used to treat diabetes could be used to reduce tumor growth in pancreatic and prostate cancers.
Creating a Neural Network
Two heads are better than one, and three monkey brains can control an avatar better than any single monkey. For the first time, a team has networked the brains of multiple animals to form a living computer that can perform tasks and solve problems.
Large Hadron Collider Discovers New Particles
A new kind of subatomic particle called the pentaquark has been detected for the first time, the European Organization for Nuclear Research said Tuesday.
The lab, known by its French acronym CERN, said the findings were made by a team of scientists working on one of the four experiments at its Large Hadron Collider. Their results have been submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters.
Needle Free Future of Medicine
If you’re afraid of needles, here’s some good news: you may not always be stuck with getting shots.
At present, injections are the best way to deliver certain kinds of drugs. For example, vaccines and drugs like insulin are made of large molecules that you can’t take orally because they would break down in your digestive tract. Some antibiotic and antiviral medications are also given as injections for this reason.
Know any interesting stories we missed?Let us know in the comments!#LHC #NeuralNetwork #SpaceExploration #NewHorizons #Cancer #Biotech #CERN #Needles #Quarks #Space #LargeHadronCollider #Pluto #Healthcare #Medicine #Future #Technology #Science #Tech