Water scarcity is an issue that impacts people all around the world. Thankfully, engineers at the University of Texas have created a device to combat it. They created a bio-based nanofiber hydrogel filter (BNHF) that is cheap, accessible, and has the potential to bring clean water to people all over the world.
View More UT Austin Engineers Tackle Water Scarcity
After three successful years, the Mars helicopter Ingenuity has just taken its last flight. During a landing, a brief loss of communication with the chopper occurred, only for the vehicle to resume communications the next day with a damaged rotor blade. Being the first helicopter to operate on another planet, Ingenuity is a trailblazer in more ways than one. However, budgetary constraints leave the future of additional Marscopter missions up in the air.
View More The Legacy of NASA’s Ingenuity
For anyone who has been thinking about quitting vaping, here is some inspiration. Vapes are not just bad for those who use them, they are incredibly harmful to those who have to make them. Vapes require a lithium-ion battery which is made with cobalt. The demand for cobalt has created treacherous and inhumane conditions for miners in Congo where the mineral is present in great abundance.
View More Vapes Harm More Than Just Their Users
The annual United Nations Climate Change Conference has started with a bang. Comments made before the summit by the event president, Sultan Ahmed al Jaber, were met with scathing criticism. Al Jaber, who went on the record claiming the phase-out of fossil fuels is an alarmist idea not rooted in science, has since been slammed by other attendees for being biased toward fossil fuel and oil companies. Despite the president’s reluctance, a call for the complete removal of the fossil fuel industry continues to be a major focus point of the conference.
View More Controversy at the COP28 Summit
The FTC recently challenged over 100 patents in the FDA’s Orange Book, a guide that lists drug products, patents, and viable generics. A patent in the Orange Book for pharmaceutical companies delays competitors from entering the market because of infringement risks. However, the FTC found several instances of medical device patents listed in the Orange Book that overstep the Book’s purpose. These improper patents are artificially extending monopolies to pharmaceutical companies. This adds to the rising costs of inhalers and EpiPens, which come at the consumer’s expense.
View More FTC Dispute Helps to Explain Rising Medical Device Costs
This “Asteroid Autumn,” NASA has made significant steps forward in three of their asteroid-focused space missions. On September 24, 2023, OSIRIS-REx successfully returned an estimated half-pound sample of asteroid rock. Psyche, launched on October 13, will travel out to examine the metal-rich asteroid 16-Psyche. Finally, on November 1, Lucy flew by her first asteroid out of the twelve along her planned trajectory. These missions highlight the growing interest in identifying and collecting the resources found in space. The economic and political advantages gained from access to space resources will shape the future of the space industry.
View More NASA’s “Asteroid Autumn” Reveals the Future of the Space Industry
People in Silicon Valley tend to be very strict about their children’s screen time because they have insider knowledge of just how addictive and harmful the algorithms they create are. Fed up with these algorithms, 33 general attorneys from 42 different states have come together to sue Meta for endangering children. Excessive screen use perpetuated by such algorithms has serious implications for the children who fall victim to them.
View More iPad Kids: A Generation in Danger
Timothy Nash recently brought a two-million-year-old fossil on a commercial voyage aboard Virgin Galactic’s V.S.S. Unity. The purpose was to symbolize how far humanity has come, though many scientists disagree with this stunt, stating the venture to be “unethical” and “reckless”. However, the resulting controversy has led to a great deal of public interest in the Cradle of Humankind, benefitting future research ventures through additional economic support.
View More The Benefits of Scientific Controversy
This week, the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Medicine were recognized for their contributions to mRNA vaccine technology. However, their research was historically brushed off by colleagues, publications, and grant institutions before the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, Dr. Katalin Karikó was demoted from a tenure-track position and eventually forced to retire from her university. Her struggle for recognition reflects the roadblocks to innovation in academia that are amplified by limited funding and biases.
View More Nobel Prize in Medicine Winner Demonstrates the Roadblocks of Academic Innovation
Members of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) union have been striking for nearly 3 weeks. As 25,000 Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis (formally Chrysler) employees walk the picket lines, the UAW is busy negotiating wages, job security, and pensions. While automakers feel that workers are asking for too much amidst the companies’ pricey transitions to EV production, EV production is what the UAW believes justifies some of their demands.
View More Electric Vehicles May Be Stalling a UAW Deal