Nanohealing

A substance that has been experimented with since the early 90's has now found a new function. Researchers have recently discovered the usefulness of this synthetic peptide. The liquid can be poured over a wound and stop bleeding almost instantaneously. The peptide works by forming long stands in the presence of a salty enviroment such as that found in the human body.

The advantages of this new material over current stop bleeding fast products are numerous. The peptide stops bleeding faster, doesn't damage surrounding tissue and does not need to be removed from the wound as the body can break down the material easily. The peptide is currently undergoing FDA trial and certification. The peptide has the ability to shorten surgeries which in turn can lead to less risk of infection, less risk of a follow up surgery being needed to stop bleeding, as well a many other advantages. The furture could also see this heading onto the battlefield saving soldiers lives.

Head over to Technology Review and check out the full story,


Godspeed

Saturn Storms!

NASA's Cassini spacecraft is tracking a storm on Saturn that is producing massive electrical discharges that are upwards of 10,000 times stronger than lightning found on Earth. The spacecraft tracked the discharges as the storm started, now in its fifth month of existence. The spacecraft has seen a few storms in the last few years that have lasted about a month, but this storm has obviously lasted much longer than the previously observed storms!

Want to check out more about this? Head on over to Nasa.gov

Godspeed

Brian Cox for CERN

Many of you may know the TED convention, if you don't definitely head over to the TED website and check out all of the amazing talks at the convention. TED is a convention made to share new and innovative ideas. Watch the video below done by Brian Cox about the Large Hadron Collider at CERN!




Godspeed

R2-D2 Projector

This has to be one of the single coolest Star Wars products ever created, and it'll only set you back about $3000.





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EWOKS!!!!

Who doesn't love those little EWOKs!?



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Lunar GPS

With development and testing of the shuttle replacement well underway, the next milestone beyond first flight of the rocket, is a lunar base. In order for the lunar base to be successful, they will need to communicate with Earth. This could pose a challenge for when astronauts are on the backside of the moon.

The current proposal is to launch a number of satellites to act as communication relay for the astronauts, and they could also double as a Lunar GPS system. A few proposals currently exist for where to place the satellites. One is the most obvious of orbiting the moon, but the moon has a very irregular gravitational field due to irregular mass within the moon. So they would have to follow a very specific path. The second idea is to place the satellites in the Lagrangian points where they would be able to see the reverse side of the moon and would remain fixed relative to the Earth-Moon system.

Swing on over to Space.com to check out the full article.

Godspeed