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...

Frequency of a diagnosis of glaucoma in individuals who consume coffee, tea and/or soft drinks, British Journal of Ophthalmology (2017). DOI: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2017-310924

But hot coffee, iced tea, and soft drinks don’t seem to make any difference, say researchers. But drinking decaffeinated and caffeinated coffee, decaffeinated tea, iced tea and soft drinks doesn’t seem to make any difference to glaucoma risk, the findings show. Glaucoma causes fluid pressure to build up inside the eye (intraocular pressure), damaging the optic nerve. It is one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide, and currently affects 57.5 million people, and is expected to increase to 65.5 million by 2020.

Previous research suggests that caffeine can alter intraocular pressure, but no study so far has compar...