Wayne State University’s Arash Javanbakht is an associate professor of psychiatry. This essay was first published in The Conversation. MDMA paired with psychotherapy can better treat post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, including one that will be published in Nature Medicine soon. The news sparked widespread hope and enthusiasm in the newspapers, as well as among…
In April, Vice President Joe Biden revealed plans to slash greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. It is a required undertaking if we are to avoid catastrophic and irreversible climate change. However, increasing renewable energy does not come without its challenges. One issue is where to store all of these renewables. According to Bloomberg…
The discovery that truth is essentially a permanent phenomenon is one of quantum mechanics’ most annoying consequences. Quantum mechanics is not just a microscopic theory: all matter is essentially quantum—just it’s that strange quantum phenomenon is difficult to find in something more significant than a few atoms. The life of macroscopic, so-called “classical” objects is…
Since crawling out of its nest on a moonlit night and making its way to the sea, a green baby turtle disappears at sea for years before returning to shore. Until recently, scientists assumed that the turtles swam in the open ocean’s main currents. However, recent evidence indicates that the centre of such spinning waters…
For a good reason, people have turned to the previous experience of influenza pandemics to try to make sense of COVID-19. Influenza and coronavirus have a lot in common regarding how spread by respiratory droplets and the surfaces they land. The respiratory failure of COVID-19 patients echoed in descriptions of H1N1 influenza patients from 1918-19.…
We’ve also experienced the pain of our circadian rhythm pounding to a different drum than usual—perhaps after a particularly late night or a flight that landed us in a different time zone. And we all know that being back on board with our resting, dining, and even peeing schedules takes some time. The Plants, like…
It’s springtime, and the city is magnificent; this year’s snow looked like it was on top of winter. However, as we consider what gave us joy during this challenging period, birds were at the top of many people’s happy lists. Those we saw from our windows—or on the street in New York City—in particular. House…
Associate professor at Australian Catholic University, Sam BaronThe warp drive, a futuristic way to sneak around the universe’s absolute speed limit by twisting the structure of space, was suggested by physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994 as a radical invention that enables faster than light travel. It was an exciting concept — NASA’s Eagleworks laboratory has…
Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays have captivated scientists since their observation in the 1960s, who are curious about where they originate from. Like all cosmic rays, they are arguably misnamed: they are subatomic particles zipping through space, not “rays” of radiation. These ultrahigh energies are the product of ultrafast speeds that exceed the speed of light. A…
Not only lepidopterists but also chemists have long been enthralled by the bright blue hues of morpho butterfly wings. The complicated nanoscale protein structures layered inside the wings pique the latter’s curiosity: their shapes behave as prisms, representing a beautiful cerulean colour. Materials scientists plan to use the properties of these structures to create things…