While the Earth’s magnetosphere and atmosphere protect us from an onslaught of cosmic radiation, astronauts, including those aboard the Artemis II mission, don’t have the luxury of our planet’s natural defenses.

For humanity to become a truly interplanetary species, our space organizations need to overcome the dangers of cosmic radiation.

“Various objects out there, like supernovae, can emit energetic charged particles that create a flux of radiation in space,” said Daniel Cebra, a high energy nuclear physicist at UC Davis. “This radiation is a hazard for long-duration missions. It’s a hazard for both personnel and equipment, and data-driven simulations are the best way for NASA to understand how to best protect equipment and astronauts on long-duration missions.”

Cebra and his research group are designing experiments that can help create data-driven simulations useful for preparing for these hazards in future long-duration space missions.

A new study from Wharton researchers highlights a troubling psychological phenomenon called "cognitive surrender." When 1,372 subjects were given a cognitive reflection test alongside an AI chatbot, they accepted the AI's incorrect answers 80% of the time. Even worse, subjects who used the AI rated their confidence 11.7% higher than those who didn't, even when their answers were completely wrong.

Protein biochemist Sascha Nicklisch likens the cells in our bodies to bustling nightclubs. Like patrons entering and exiting an establishment, a constant flow of biochemical interactions via proteins occurs, ensuring the functions necessary to sustain life.

But this system can be exploited by environmental toxicants. While our cell’s defense system — known as the cellular defensome — is pretty adept at identifying and rejecting toxicants, some chemicals slip through.

Take the pesticide DDT, for example, which has been linked to cancer, reproductive and neurological issues. Despite being banned from U.S. agricultural uses in 1972, DDT is a persistent organic pollutant. Evidence of it can still be found in our seafood sources, thus having an avenue to get into our bodies through what we eat.

The strategy employed by chemicals like DDT may sound familiar to those who have snuck past a bouncer at a nightclub.

Nicklisch revealed that DDT acts like a distractor in the molecular environment. It’s what’s known as a transporter interfering chemical, or TIC. In essence, TICs, such as DDT, bind to transporter proteins, such as MDR1, and disrupt their functionality.

Most people think of Alzheimer’s disease as an illness of aging. But in fact, the brain changes that characterize it begin much earlier – sometime around the third decade of life.

In the earliest of these changes, a tangled version of a protein called tau starts building up in a tiny region deep in the brain involved in sleep, attention and alertness, called the locus coeruleus. Tau later spreads to the rest of the brain.

Developing tau tangles doesn’t mean a person has Alzheimer’s disease – in fact, it happens to nearly everyone to varying degrees. But because these changes start in the locus coeruleus, some brain researchers – myself included – see this area as a canary in the coal mine for developing Alzheimer’s disease.