A new nanotechnology lubricant will be suitable for extreme conditions.

Shuttles and equipment used in space consist of numerous elements that have several friction-prone components so the surfaces must be greased to ensure smooth operation. Conventional oils and greases cannot be used in space due to extreme temperature, pressure and radiation conditions so solid substances such as molybdenum disulfide and graphite are preferred for space usage.


PhD student Triinu Taaber working in the laboratory of physics of nanostructures. Credit: Andres Tennus

Psychology papers often make make sweeping generalizations based on weak observational studies and that has led to an alarming overuse of the term 'narcissist'. 

Some people are self-centered, to be sure, but colloquial over-diagnosis of narcissism has led to poor distinction between actual narcissism and people who like to talk about themselves. All cows are animals but not all animals are cows, etc. but ever since a small paper came out of U.C. Berkeley in 1988, the psychology field has been over-using the diagnosis. An examination of 48 participants found that excessive use of first-person singular pronouns such as "I" and "me" indicated a narcissistic tendency.

The suicide rate among active duty U.S. military members has increased in the last decade and one party of politicians has contended that their opponents were pushing soldiers to suicide. 

Is there any truth to it?

Deployment dates for all services members (October 2001 through December 2007) and suicide data (October 2001 through December 2009) to estimate rates of suicide death to compare deployed service members with those who did not deploy, including suicides that occurred after separation from the military.

Scientists have achieved an unprecedented level of control over defects in liquid crystals that can be engineered for applications in liquid matter photonics. They can lasso an intangible ring created out of liquid crystal defects - attaching a microsphere to a long thin fiber using optical tweezers. 

Liquid crystals are familiar to us from their application in LCD screens. What makes them so interesting is that they are rich in defects. Thanks to advances in manipulation tools such as optical tweezers, the authors were able to create an arbitrary number of defect pairs on a long thin fibre plunged into a nematic liquid crystal - an ordered fluid with long organic molecules all pointing in the same direction like sardines in a tin.

Crocus and daffodil blossoms mean spring has arrived on land and a similar "greening" event, a massive phytoplankton bloom, unfolds each spring in the Atlantic Ocean.

But, what happens to all that organic material produced in the surface ocean? 

Patients with chronic kidney disease may be treated with a class of medications called Renin Angiotensin Aldosterone System inhibitors (RAASI's) but though they protect the heart and kidney, a significant percentage of patients develop a dangerous side effect; high potassium levels in the blood, a condition known as hyperkalemia. 

Elevated potassium puts patients at risk of death from cardiac arrhythmias. Lacking a drug to treat the problem, doctors either stop these beneficial drugs or may use kidney dialysis to quickly lower the potassium.