Want to help design a moon robot? NASA needs you.

A NASA-sponsored competition asks participants to improve the design of a bucket drum for moon excavation.

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
  • NASA wants your help redesigning the bucket drum system for its RASSOR excavator.
  • The Moon's weaker gravity and the excavator's light weight pose unique design challenges.
  • RASSOR will one day excavate regolith so it can be processed into the resources necessary for sustainable lunar exploration.
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Yes. Stress does give you gray hairs. Here’s how.

It's not just an old superstition — it's your stressed-out brain.

Image source: LarsZ/Shutterstock
  • Your brain's fight-or-flight response system is behind the appearance of premature gray hairs.
  • The sympathetic nervous system essentially burns out melanin-producing hair follicles.
  • New research may lead to a greater understanding of the connection between stress and body changes.
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Ask Sophia the Robot: What can AI teach humans?

Through experiencing time in a nonlinear way, can artificial intelligence provide us more perspective?

  • Is Sophia the Robot, of Hanson Robotics, conscious? Not quite, she says. Instead, she reflects the consciousness of humans in the same way the moon reflects the light of the sun.
  • While we don't know if humans possess free will, she advises us to act as if we do. We can benefit from this.
  • So, what can humans learn from robots? Artificial intelligence can view the world in a way that's more objective, being present while still able to look toward the future and the past.
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ESO astronomers observe exoplanet where it rains molten iron

The ESO finds another exoplanet that's definitely not a place for us to go.

Image source: diversepixel/MrVander/Shutterstock/Big Think
  • WASP-76b is an extremely hot planet whose cooler side has a surface temperature of 1,500° C (2732° F).
  • Iron that evaporates in the heat of the planet's day side rains down in molten form on the night side.
  • ESO learned more about the planet's intense climate thanks to its new ESPRESSO (Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations) instrument.
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New evidence that teeth can fill their own cavities

A drug developed to combat Alzheimer’s Disease can trigger regeneration of tooth dentin.

Image source: Contrail/Shutterstock
  • New research into the drug Tideglusib clarifies what it can do for damaged teeth.
  • Tooth dentin can be regrown instead of needing to be replaced with man-made composite.
  • Only particular cavities need apply.
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