Incredible journey: Can we reach the stars without breaking the bank? Voyager 1, our civilization's furthest and fastest emissary into space.
Traveling at 17 kilometers per second, Voyager 1 still would take some 73,000 years to reach the nearest star. Yesterday, we talked about which stars might be the most important ones for the near future of the search for habitable and inhabited planets. All the stars I mentioned are relatively close by and pretty bright, and some of them are already known to have planets. If and when potentially Earth-like worlds are found around these or other nearby stars, astronomers will begin lavishing them with attention in a process of discovery that will span generations. In all likelihood, entire careers and even subdisciplines of astronomy and planetary science will emerge from studying all the data we can remotely gather from a handful of promising worlds scattered among the nearest stars.
Consider the problem from the simple viewpoint of velocity. Space and Ships Flying High Additional obstacles abound. Castration Led to Longer Life in Historical Study of Korean Eunuchs. Again and again in the animal world, males have shorter lifespans than females, an effect scientists attribute in part to the deleterious effects of testosterone.
Now researchers who looked at historical records of Korean eunuchs castrated during boyhood found that the eunuchs lived considerably longer than ordinary, testicled men. “Our study supports the idea that male sex hormones decrease the lifespan of men,” wrote researchers led by biologist Kyung-Jin Min of Korea University in a study published Sept. 24 in Current Biology. 'Our study supports the idea that male sex hormones decrease the lifespan of men.' Animal studies have led scientists to propose that evolution may have favored males who invest their energies into youthful reproduction, leaving them less fit later in life. This “live fast, die young” effect could be mediated by testosterone, a hormone involved in testes growth, muscle development and aggression, but that also seems to have an immune system-weakening effect.
Spacy. Science History. Biology. Theoretical Science. The Slowest Slo-Mo Ever Recorded. Science and Technology News, Science Articles. A Scientist's 20-Year Quest To Defeat Dengue Fever. Hide captionScott O'Neill wants to rid the world of dengue fever by infecting mosquitoes with bacteria so they can't carry the virus that causes the disease.
Benjamin Arthur for NPR First of a two-part series This summer, my big idea is to explore the big ideas of science. Instead of just reporting science as results — the stuff that's published in scientific journals and covered as news — I want to take you inside the world of science. I hope I'll make it easier to understand how science works, and just how cool the process of discovery and innovation really is.
A lot of science involves failure, but there are also the brilliant successes, successes that can lead to new inventions, new tools, new drugs — things that can change the world That got me thinking that I wanted to dive deeper into the story of an Australian scientist named Scott O'Neill. Dengue is a terrible disease. Colyn Huber But last summer, when I read about O'Neill's work, it really knocked me out. The stakes are high. Tgribben.