Rainy day concept (stock image). Credit: © JenkoAtaman / Fotolia

Search for link between achy joints and rainy weather in a flood of data comes up dry. Rainy weather has long been blamed for achy joints. Unjustly so, according to new research from Harvard Medical School. The analysis, in BMJ, found no relationship between rainfall and joint or back pain.

The notion that certain symptoms and weather go hand in hand has persisted since antiquity. The newly published analysis led by Anupam Jena of Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy, used a “big data” approach, linking insurance claims from millions of doctor’s visits with daily rainfall totals from thousands of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather stations.

“No matter how we looked at the data, we di...

Illumination of a book (‘Paradise Lost,’ by John Milton) with the nanobionic light-emitting plants (two 3.5-week-old watercress plants). The book and the light-emitting watercress plants were placed in front of a reflective paper to increase the influence from the light emitting plants to the book pages. Credit: Seon-Yeong Kwak

Illumination from nanobionic plants might one day replace some electrical lighting. By embedding nanoparticles into the leaves of watercress, engineers have induced the plant to give off dim light for nearly 4 hours. They believe engineered plants will one day be bright enough to act as desk lamps or street lights. “The vision is to make a plant that will function as a desk lamp – a lamp that you don’t have to plug in...

The CubeSat just before it was brought into the launch facility. Credit: University of Colorado Boulder

Charged particles in Earth’s inner radiation belt created by cosmic rays born from supernova explosions. CubeSats, named for the roughly 4-inch-cubed dimensions of their basic building elements, are stacked with smartphone-like electronics and tiny scientific instruments. Built mainly by students and hitching rides into orbit on NASA and U.S. Department of Defense launch vehicles, the small, low-cost satellites have been making history.

Now, results from a new study using CubeSats indicate that energetic electrons in Earth’s inner radiation belt – primarily near its inner edge – are created by cosmic rays born from supernova explosions, said scientist Xinlin Li of the University of Color...

An artist’s rendition depicts a solar storm hitting Mars and stripping ions from the upper atmosphere.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

At the fall meeti...