There once was a time when pilots had to do everything with a plane - they had to be able to repair it and fly it and that meant knowing everything about it.

Today, much of flying is automated, freeing pilots' attention from mundane flight tasks and allowing them to focus on the big picture. Many regard humans as something of a safety net for machines, there in case something goes wrong - but a paper in Human Factors says it doesn't really work that way. 

Orlando, Fla. — Scientists have developed the first reversible glue that could be used on the battlefield to treat eye injuries, potentially saving soldiers' vision. The research is being presented at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) this week in Orlando, Fla.

When applied to a wounded eye, the adhesive warms up and becomes sticky, sealing the wound and minimizing further damage while the soldier is transported for treatment. Upon arriving at a hospital, doctors can simply apply cool saline solution to the glue, causing it to revert to its non-adhesive form and be removed with minimal discomfort.

Astronomers have made a measurement of a distant neutron star that is one million times more precise than the previous world's best - and they did it by using...nothing.

The interstellar medium is the 'empty' space between stars and galaxies. It's not really empty, it is made up of sparsely spread charged particles and those can be used as a giant lens. The astronomers did just that, to magnify and look closely at the radio wave emission from a small rotating neutron star.

Result: the highest resolution measurement ever achieved, equivalent to being able to see the double-helix structure of our genes from the Moon.

New cancer therapies, particularly agents that block vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling, have been successful and are now used as a first line therapy for some tumors, but almost 100% of patients who take VEGF inhibitors (VEGFIs) develop high blood pressure, and a subset develops severe hypertension.

The mechanisms underlying VEGF inhibitor-induced hypertension need to be better understood and there is a need for clear guidelines and improved management, say investigators behind the review in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

A new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council has found that changes EPA has proposed and implemented into its Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) process are "substantial improvements"  over its old system.

IRIS is used to assess the hazards posed by environmental contaminants but has been rather sporadically followed in the past. A court had to order the EPA to stop blaming fracking for problems without doing a study and the agency has had to defend itself against charges of 'secret' science in determining greenhouse gas policy.

While acknowledging the progress made to date, the report offers further guidance and recommendations to improve the overall scientific and technical validity of the program.

ITHACA, N.Y. – Coffee drinkers, rejoice! Aside from java's energy jolt, food scientists say you may reap another health benefit from a daily cup of joe: prevention of deteriorating eyesight and possible blindness from retinal degeneration due to glaucoma, aging and diabetes.

Raw coffee is, on average, just 1 percent caffeine, but it contains 7 to 9 percent chlorogenic acid, a strong antioxidant that prevents retinal degeneration in mice, according to a Cornell study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.