To test the capabilities of the spacesuit prototype, the MS1 Mars, scientists and explorers went inside a volcano, and then went out to “some remote stretches of Iceland”, which is one of the most Mars-like environments to be found here on Earth.

Led by the Iceland Space Agency (ISA), the team traveled into the Grímsvötn volcano and across the Vatnajökull ice cap to test the MS1 Mars analog suit. The suit, designed by Michael Lye, a senior critic and NASA coordinator at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), serves as a tool to test human capabilities on Mars. The suit is "not actually intended for use on Mars, but it's intended for use here on Earth where people are doing analog studies to see what it's like if you were to put people on the surface of Mars," Lye told Space.com.

"The idea is that anything you would do while exploring Mars ... any activity, whether it's science, or traveling or moving about, would be possible in this suit," he added. All seven members of the team got a chance to hop into the suit and test it out when they trekked out onto the frozen landscape for the mission, which lasted from July 26 to Aug. 5. 

More details over at the site.

(Image Credit: Dave Hodge/ Unexplored Media)

These are miniature brains created from stem cells. While they might be a million times smaller than human brains, these mini-brains are the first observed to create brain waves resembling those of preterm babies. This could greatly help scientists in understanding human brain development.

"The level of neural activity we are seeing is unprecedented in vitro," says Alysson Muotri, a biologist at the University of California, San Diego. "We are one step closer to have a model that can actually generate these early stages of a sophisticated neural network."

The pea-sized brains, called cerebral organoids, are derived from human pluripotent stem cells. By putting them in culture that mimics the environment of brain development, the stem cells differentiate into different types of brain cells and self-organize into a 3-D structure resembling the developing human brain.

More details of this study over at PHYS.org.

(Image Credit: Muotri Lab/ UCTV)

Apple has just sent invites for their next big event in press mailboxes. The invite has confirmed the rumored date, September 10. The event is set for Steve Jobs Theater, the auditorium on Apple’s corporate headquarters, Apple Park, which is found in Cupertino, California.

The invite features a swirling multi-color homage to the 80s Apple logo, albeit in a subtler pastel hue, which may point to colorful new hardware.

The centerpiece of the event will, of course, be the iPhone 11, which is rumored to arrive in three different flavors: The standard 11 (replacing the budget XR) and two 11 Pro models, set to replace the XS and XS Max, respectively. The scheme would mark a kind of new approach for the company, which has struggled to grapple with declining smartphone sales along with the rest of the industry.

[...]

A number of new features have been rumored for the new handsets, including a triple-camera array with an ultra-wide lens, a new A13 chip and wireless power sharing à la the Samsung Galaxy series, which would fit nicely alongside the latest AirPods. This being Apple’s last big hardware push before the holidays, there’s sure to be plenty more on the docket, as well.

Are you looking forward to iPhone 11? Why or why not?

(Image Credit: TechCrunch)

On August 26, a judge in Oklahoma handed down verdict in favor of the state, which had sued opioid-maker Johnson & Johnson for its role in the opioid crisis. The medical device company, therefore, has to pay $572 million to the state of Oklahoma to help offset the cost of the epidemic.

In the first such ruling to hold a pharmaceutical company responsible for the opioid crisis, the judge found that the company had falsely and dangerously marketed the powerful drugs, a deception that led to addiction and death for too many people…

The rise of opioids undoubtedly has helped people ease severe pain. But for many people, the drugs fueled a dangerous addiction. Public health officials have been scrambling to tally the destruction, particularly as the death toll has risen in recent years. Scientists have been scrambling, too, trying to mitigate the harm and search for drug alternatives that can ease pain without opioids’ ill effects.

Find out more about the effects of opioids over at ScienceNews.

(Image Credit: qimono/ Pixabay)

On May 15, 1918, William Henry Johnson was guarding a bridge in the Argonne Forest in Champagne, France. After midnight he started hearing some rustling, and he roused fellow soldier Needham Roberts. He then prepared himself just in case the rustling indicated trouble. The noise soon included a clipping sound, which he suspected was somebody cutting the perimeter fence. Johnson and Roberts began to lob grenades into the darkness. Suddenly, they saw dozens of German soldiers charging at them, bayonets to the fore.

What happened next inspired Theodore Roosevelt to declare Johnson was one of the bravest Americans who had gone to war. Sadly, Johnson's story is largely unknown today - perhaps because he was African-American.

Last year, The Simpsons featured an episode called "Lisa Gets the Blues," in which Homer eats his way through many of the signature dishes of New Orleans. Katrin von Niederhäusern and Janine Wiget from Switzerland went to the Big Easy and recreated the sequence shot-by-shot, with the exception of eating a king cake, which is seasonal. See their gastronomic adventure side-by-side with Homer and Lisa. You might want to watch this in full-screen mode or go to the YouTube page to see it bigger. There's a rundown of the restaurants featured in a list here. -via The Daily Dot

The abacus, called soroban, is still taught in Japanese schools, although not as intensively as it once was. Interestingly, the centuries-old tool is still popular, and national tournaments attract elite and trained competitors.

Just this month, a 16-year old high school student from Hiroshima was crowned champion in an All- Japan Abacus Championship held in Kyoto International Conference Center, Kyoto, Japan:

The caller read out the numbers at a speed evoking an auctioneer on fast-forward, each multidigit figure blurring into the next.

Within seconds, Daiki Kamino’s right arm shot up in the air, triumphant. Not only had he heard every number, he had tabulated them and arrived at the correct, 16-digit sum: 8,186,699,633,530,061.

As of now, there are more than 43,000 students taking advanced lessons at private schools. According to its advocates, little kids can easily visualize numbers on the soroban because unlike the computer or calculator, you have to watch the movement of the beads with your eyes, and then think with your brain and make a move with your fingers. This is believed as a very foundational learning process.

(Image: screenshot of clip by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)

Ann was an admitted snob who was once quoted as saying

"I love my clothes and I'm particular about who wears them. I am not interested in sewing for cafe society or social climbers. I do not cater to Mary and Sue. I sew for the families of the Social Register. pic.twitter.com/agF123PXuN

— KEYONCÉ (@thatssokeshaun) August 27, 2019

Fashion designer Ann Lowe came from a family of Alabama dressmakers stretching back three generations. In New York, she designed clothing for society's elite: Roosevelts, Rockefellers, and the Bouviers, among others. However, she rarely got credit for her work. In 1953, Lowe scored the task of making dresses for the wedding of the year between Jacqueline Bouvier and John F. Kennedy. Lowe and her salon team worked for months to construct dresses for the bride, bridesmaids, and the bride's mother. An unforeseen disaster meant they had to work around the clock to have the dresses ready in time, and Lowe ended up losing thousands of dollars on the project. Author Rosemary E. Reed Miller tells what happened afterward.  

Joe Kennedy invited the press to cover the “social event of the season,” and reporters breathlessly recounted every detail they could glean.

Except one.

“[Jackie] didn’t love the dress, and people asked her who did the dress. She said, ‘I wanted to go to France, but a colored dressmaker did it.’ And Ann Lowe was devastated,” Miller told NPR.

Lowe was essentially written out of what would have been a career-making gown for anyone else. According to Miller, only The Washington Post’s Nina Hyde reported who the designer was.

Read the story of Ann Lowe and her relationship with Jackie Kennedy at the Washington Post.

Learn more about Lowe in a roundup of links at Metafilter.

Style matters in publishing, whether in print or on the internet. How much it matters can be left to the reader, but to some readers, it matters a lot. Websites that I have written for have varying headline styles, but each tries to be internally consistent, at least. With that in mind, Publishers Weekly managing editor Dan Berchenko sketched out a handy flow chart that answers your questions about what to capitalize in a headline. They describe this as the "remixed and modified University of Chicago style that is PW’s own." In other words, your mileage may vary. Notice that Berchenko labeled his chart with an all-caps title, although he did make some letters larger than others.  -via Boing Boing

SmokyMountains.com is sharing a fall foliage prediction map which lets you find the peak times to see the leaves change across the country or to plan to be out of town when the city folk drive north to see the colors.

(Image credit: Valiphotos)

The Boston Market restaurant chain plans to give away a family-size portion of macaroni and cheese to one lucky customer. That winner will get the mac & cheese in either individual serving containers or one giant tub. The New York Post quotes CEO Frances Allen:

“If he or she would like a single, 2,000-pound serving of our golden mac and cheese, we’ll deliver via a 1-ton freight. Or if he or she wants to savor their prize for years to come or even donate it all to charity, we’ll provide a special dinning card loaded with the appropriate funds. We mean it when we say we’re not clucking around when it comes to customer loyalty.”

Thank you, but I can probably manage that in one sitting.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Willis Lam

While there have been several presidents in the White House without First Ladies, James Buchanan remains the only US president who remained a lifelong bachelor. That, coupled with his close relationship with William Rufus King, led to speculation that Buchanan was gay. The rumor was sometimes alluded to while Buchanan served in government, but was rarely mentioned in history books until relatively recently. Buchanan and King lived in the same boardinghouse for ten years while both served in Congress.

Each of these two middle-aged bachelor Democrats, Buchanan and King, had what the other lacked. King exuded social polish and congeniality. He was noted for being “brave and chivalrous” by contemporaries. His mannerisms could at times be bizarre, and some thought him effeminate. Buchanan, by contrast, was liked by almost everyone. He was witty and enjoyed tippling, especially glasses of fine Madeira, with fellow congressmen. Whereas King could be reserved, Buchanan was boisterous and outgoing. Together, they made for something of an odd couple out and about the capital.

While in Washington, they lived together in a communal boardinghouse, or mess. To start, their boardinghouse included other congressmen, most of whom were also unmarried, yielding a friendly moniker for their home: the “Bachelor’s Mess.” Over time, as other members of the group lost their seats in Congress, the mess dwindled in size from four to three to just two—Buchanan and King. Washington society began to take notice, too. “Mr. Buchanan and his Wife,” one tongue wagged. They were each called “Aunt Nancy” or “Aunt Fancy.” Years later, Julia Gardiner Tyler, the much younger wife of President John Tyler, remembered them as “the Siamese twins,” after the famous conjoined twins, Chang and Eng Bunker.

Thomas Balcerski, in his book Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King, looked deep into that relationship and cautions us not to assume that friendships from almost 200 years ago expressed themselves the way they do now. He runs down the evidence we have, and explains the evidence we don't have, at Smithsonian.

Long before the Romans invaded Britain and built spas in the town of Bath, the king was enjoying the area's warm mineral springs. Bladud, the ninth king of Briton, stumbled upon the springs around 863 BC, according to the earliest record of his reign, which was the 12th-century chronicle History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth. That's the same source for what we know about King Arthur, so you may take it with a grain of salt. Anyway, the legend of Bath tells how Bladud was cured of a disfiguring skin disease by the miraculous springs. That story is surpassed by the time Bladud, as king, built himself a pair of wings so that he could fly. Both tales are charmingly told by Margo Lestz at The Curious Rambler.

(Image credit: Smalljim)   

Scientists at the National University of Singapore have invented the ‘smart’ clothing they believe can boost signals and save battery life. The invention, called “metamaterial” allows radio waves (like Bluetooth) to glide across the material between the wireless devices instead of radiating in all directions. Assistant Professor John Ho explained more details on the new invention: 

“This T-shirt increases the wireless connectivity of devices around my body by 1,000 times,” said assistant professor John Ho, donning a sports shirt laced with comb-shaped strips of the metamaterial textile.

Ho, who oversaw a 10-member team that developed the technology over a year, said it could be used for measuring the vital signs of athletes or hospital patients.

It could also keep signals more secure by transmitting sensitive information close to the body and away from potential eavesdroppers on the radio waves, the scientists said.

image credit: screenshot via Reuters

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