Virtual Reality as a Tool to Sharpen Cognition

Detailed within a study published by the journal Nature Neuroscience, with research led by UCLA professor Mayank Mehta, virtual reality simulations have been observed to increase (in mice) the active brain phenomenon known as theta rhythms—which are, according to Fast Company, when “your brain thinks not just in frequencies but in syncopated beats.” This important, if not mysterious, rhythm is deeply important to cognition. Mehta is “arguing …

Attending Virgin Galactic’s Unity 22 Launch at Spaceport America

Mission specialist and astronaut Colin Bennett speaks with us in New Mexico after the inaugural flight

With temperatures hovering in the low 90s and a tarantula or two scuttling across the runway, Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity aircraft swept into the skies for its 22nd space flight, the first with a full crew, which included founder Sir Richard Branson in its cabin. As Unity soared to an altitude of 53.5 miles, leaving Spaceport America, New Mexico and the Chihuahuan Desert behind, the …

NASA Research Suggests Possible Life on Saturn’s Moon

NASA has found large amounts of methane wafting within plumes from Saturn’s sixth-largest moon, Enceladus, suggesting that life may exist within its “subsurface sea.” This evidence was discovered thanks to the Cassini spacecraft, which also discovered dihydrogen and carbon dioxide molecules there. Scientists believe the methane is produced biologically, rather than through a geochemical process. Thus, Régis Ferrière, an associate professor at the University of Arizona’s …