How do the Wonders of Human Spaceflight Impact an Astronaut’s Psyche?

    Astronauts have the unique opportunity to explore space and peer down on the planet, home to the society they know and the abundance of necessary resources to keep them alive. As these astronauts look down on the plentiful space available on Earth, these astronauts reside in a compact spacecraft with little privacy from other crew members. The conditions that these astronauts endure, are known as Isolated and Confined Extreme (ICE) environments. Explicitly, ICE environments are ones in which an individual is removed from society and placed in a restricted space, often for long durations of time ¹. Astronauts have been exposed to these extreme environments since the 1960s with the beginning of the Mercury Space Program. Exposure to these environments is not a new phenomenon; however, with an increased drive for exploration and research in space, going farther and farther from Earth, the psychological impacts of exposure to ICEs has become a significant area to guide the research of scientists in multiple discipline areas. 

How are Modern Slavery and Deforestation Deepening the Climate Crisis in the Amazon?

The Climate Crisis has been an extremely relevant issue for the past 30 years. While climate change has been occurring for thousands of years, with the constant alterations of Earth's climate, climate change has only been considered an issue in the United States since 1988. Deforestation and the impacts of Modern Slavery have been major contributors to climate change and these issues cause concern for what can be done to fix or stop the damage being done to the environment.

What’s Being Done to Deal with “Forever Chemicals” in Our Water?

In all likelihood, you’ve been exposed to PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) for years without even knowing it. Whether through food packaging, non-stick cookware, waterproof clothing, or drinking water sources, you and most of the global population have probably been regularly exposed to a class of over 4000 substances that fall into the family of PFAS [1],[2]. Known as “forever chemicals”, PFAS is detectable in virtually the entire US population [3]. The harmful effects of PFAS are only recently coming to light. And undoubtedly, the list of health complications resulting from PFAS exposure will grow as we learn more about this class of chemicals. But efforts are underway to deal with these chemicals that have found their way into so many aspects of our life. Even though the complexity of the problem ensures no simple fixes, remediation techniques are being developed and refined to remove and reduce PFAS from drinking water supplies.

Is Reinforcement Learning the Key to Artificial Intelligence?

Imagine a future where you have an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant that can help you with all your daily tasks. Whether that might be in the form of responding to people that you don’t like or generating original content (such as art, movies, and video games) personalized for you. You wake up on a rainy day and your AI has a brand-new personalized movie made just for you. All you want to do is just relax, so you turn on auto-respond mode, which knows your vernacular and will respond to any notifications you get while watching your movie. 

Could this innovation in solar panel nanotechnology be the next big step for renewable energy?

A major factor to the accelerated effects of climate change is the large-scale release of carbon dioxide into the earth’s atmosphere. One of the main contributors is the burning of fossil fuels to meet the global demands for electrical power. Multiple sources of renewable energy have been created to provide a clean source of electrical power, and one of the leading methods is solar energy.