Earth's Innermost Core & is Marijuana Bad for You? (Patreon)

A Nanosatellite From RNA

It doesn’t fly, but researchers from Aarhus University and Berkeley Laboratory have found a way to coax RNA molecules into custom shapes, and created a tiny satellite just to prove their point. Much of the advances in this technology come from improved imaging methods, such as Cryo-Electron Microscopy and X-ray scattering, and ways to quickly implement the feedback these imaging methods deliver. The researchers hope that their achievement will be useful for drug design. Press release here, paper here.

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New Measurements Confirm that Earth Has An Innermost Inner Core

Few of you will remember but about 20 years ago, a group of geophysicists suggested that earth’s inner core has an even more innermost core. Researchers from the Australian National University have recently published a new data analysis that supports this hypothesis. Earth’s inner core is solid, and probably made from iron and nickel. It seems to have a core that has a markedly higher density, probably a different crystal structure. Paper here, press release here.

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Hypnosis Better Than Prayer for Pain Management

A study at the University of Lisbon on more than 200 adults found that hypnosis and mindfulness meditation work better for pain management than Christian prayer. The new study was published in the Journal of Pain Research, not to be confused with the Journal of Pain, which in 2011 published the results of a seminal study showing that swearing helps against pain.