February 22, 2024: Art history on the moon, marijuana's pros and cons, and see the striking latest images of the Crab Nebula. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Today, a NASA-funded spacecraft named Odysseus (Odie for short) is scheduled to attempt a soft landing on the moon. If successful it will be the first private lunar landing (Odie was built by the company Intuitive Machines). It carries six NASA instruments and lots of commercial ones for photographing the Milky Way, testing thermal insulation material and more. AND it will carry 125 miniature sculptures of the moon created by artist Jeff Koons. Each one-inch moon intended for the lunar surface has two counterparts that remain on Earth: a larger statue and a digital version in the form of a nonfungible token, or NFT.
Art history: Koons's moons may not be the first art on the lunar surface. A stamp-sized tile featuring drawings by six leading artists of the time, including Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, was allegedly snuck onto Apollo 12. And 1971's Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott placed a small aluminum statue by artist Paul van Hoeydonck on the surface.
What the experts say: "Humankind has always expressed itself through art, and the moon has served as an inspiration from the beginning of time," says Carolyn Russo, art curator at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. "Why wouldn't artists look to the moon as a new place to offer a new cultural understanding of who we are as a civilization?" | | | Close-up of a memorial plaque and astronaut figurine on the moon at Hadley-Apennine site, installed during Apollo 15's lunar surface activity. Credit: NASA | | | Twenty-four U.S. states have legalized marijuana for recreational use, and dozens more permit its use for medical purposes or have decriminalized it. As pot's acceptance grows, so does the scientific research on its effects. Preliminary studies are revealing the good and bad of bud.
The good: Pot can decrease chemotherapy-induced nausea, calm epileptic seizures, ease the symptoms of multiple sclerosis and serve as a sleep aid. Plus, there's effectively zero risk of overdose.
The bad: Marijuana consumption seems to increase the risk of clogged arteries and heart failure, and it may impact male fertility. Cannabis plants hyperaccumulate metal pollutants, such as lead, which can enter users' bloodstreams. The substance can cross the placental barrier, and several studies have linked it to low birth weights. Young people should steer clear of the substance, as it seems heavy use can exacerbate, or trigger, depression, schizophrenia and psychosis in that population.
What the experts say: Much research remains in "early stages." For example, relatively few human studies support the idea that the drug helps to alleviate anxiety (a common reason people use it). But research rates are finally increasing, says Tiffany Sanchez, an environmental health scientist at Columbia University. | | | • Nonhuman primates have surprisingly different parenting styles: Chimpanzee "helicopter moms" often protect their offspring from bullies, but bonobo moms take a more hands-off approach. | 4 min read | | | • A team of electrical engineers and fabrics scientists has invented a hat that tells its wearer when it's safe to cross the road. The technology could lead to computers being weaved into clothing. | 4 min read | | | • Compared with other patient populations, people who struggle with addiction are at the highest risk for leaving the hospital prematurely. When asked why they leave the hospital, patients say their withdrawal is untreated, they're in pain, have experienced discrimination about their addiction, or encountered harsh hospital restrictions, such as not being able to leave the hospital floor for a walk or smoke break. Hospitals need to take patient experiences like these seriously, writes Zoe Adams, a resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. "Hospital administrators should see premature discharges among people with substance use disorder as an urgent problem," she says. | 4 min read | | | Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/T. Temim/Princeton University (CC by 4.0) | | | The James Webb Space Telescope recently aimed its infrared cameras at the Crab Nebula, some 6,500 light-years from Earth. The nebula is made up of the dust and gas remnants of an ancient supernova. JWST's images show tiny grains of silicates (rocky material) in the nebula's outer tendrils. It also captured the nebula's "synchrotron radiation"--the eerie glow emitted by trapped electrons spiraling at nearly the speed of light around the center pulsar's intense magnetic field lines. (Fun side note: This is yet another example of Peach Fuzz, Pantone's color of the year.) | | | I believe humanity's shared language is art (science is a close second). In 1977, on the optimistic chance that alien life might encounter our Voyager spacecrafts, scientists included onboard a "Golden Record," which contains images of Earth, messages from its people and leaders in various languages, and (my favorite part) 90 minutes of music, ranging from Chuck Berry and Mozart to panpipes from the Solomon Islands and a Peruvian wedding song. The hope is that any life we encounter in the universe will understand our physiology and planet, yes. But our creativity--our art--is the symbol of what it means to be human. | Thank you for reading Today in Science. This newsletter is for you! Please feel free to send in any suggestions or feedback: newsletters@sciam.com. Until tomorrow. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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