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Digital Trends
2 hours ago
- Digital Trends
This NASA astronaut manages to make vacuuming look kinda cool
Vacuuming is a bit of a chore at the best of times, which is why many people have a robot to do it for them, or even pay someone else to take care of it. But on the International Space Station (ISS), there are no robots or cleaners that can step in, which means the astronauts have to do it themselves. But heck, it looks like a whole lot of fun. NASA astronaut Jonny Kim has just shared a video showing how they use a vacuum cleaner in space. How do we clean in space? Similar to how we clean on Earth, but weightlessness has some extra challenges. — Jonny Kim (@JonnyKimUSA) July 11, 2025 Thanks to microgravity, there's no lifting or pulling (or possibly pushing) a machine. Instead, as Kim demonstrates in his video, you just clip the cleaner to your pants before floating off around the station to perform the task in hand. But that same microgravity means that the dust doesn't settle anywhere, so what then? Kim explains the process. Recommended Videos The American astronaut, who arrived at the station in April on his first orbital mission, says they clean the station using a 'pretty standard vacuum cleaner that you'd find on Earth,' but notes that the particles just float around in the weightless conditions. 'Luckily, we have an environmental control system that's got fans and diffusers and HEPA filters and so most of the dust tends to collect in these areas,' Kim explains. It means that instead of looking like a goof and vacuuming the air, all you do is run the vacuum over the filters and other devices to suck up the trapped dust. Responding to a comment to his post asking why he's using a mains-connected vacuum and not a battery-powered one, Kim says that while cordless vacuums are available on the ISS, the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries don't last long enough to clean the entire facility. 'The International Space Station is not just a place where we conduct research on behalf of institutions across the world, but it's also our home for long periods of time,' Kim says. 'And like any home, you have to keep it clean and tidy, so we distribute these chores across crew members and one of these chores is vacuuming.' Interested in watching other videos showing daily life aboard the ISS, including how to use the bathroom? Then check out these videos made by the astronauts themselves over the years.
CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
As nicotine pouches' popularity soars, they're also responsible for more poisonings in young kids, study finds
Nicotine pouches are a fast-growing source of nicotine poisoning in young children, according to a new study. Researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio analyzed more than a decade's worth of data, examining over 134,000 cases of children under 6 who accidentally ingested nicotine through products like vapes, gums, and lozenges. Most types of exposures fell after 2016. But one delivery method — nicotine pouches — shot up, rising more than 760% between 2020 and 2023. 'It's a high-concentration nicotine product, and it tastes good,' said Dr. Natalie Rine, director of the Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital and co-author of the study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. 'There's nothing telling the kid, 'this is bad, you should spit it out' … and that's where you get into trouble.' The miniature white packets that users tuck between their lip and gum hit US shelves in 2014. They don't contain tobacco but are instead filled with nicotine, either synthetically or naturally derived, along with flavorings and sweeteners. The discreet, sweet and smokeless nature of nicotine pouches has raised concerns among public health advocates, who are closely watching their rising popularity among teens and young adults. They've become the second most-used nicotine product among young people, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The National Youth Tobacco Survey found that nicotine pouch use among teens doubled between 2021 and 2024. Still, the overall user base remains small. Just 0.5% of Americans use nicotine pouches, compared with 9% who smoke cigarettes and 3% who vape or use e-cigarettes, according to US Census Bureau data. Levels of nicotine in pouches can vary from 3 to 12 milligrams per pouch. At their lowest doses, they deliver more of the stimulant than a cigarette, and even small amounts of nicotine can be dangerous for small children. Ingesting just 1 to 2 milligrams — less than what's inside a single regular-strength pouch — can cause nausea, vomiting and tremors, among other serious symptoms, according to the National Library of Medicine. The study found that nicotine pouches were associated with a 150% greater risk of serious medical effects and were twice as likely to lead to hospitalization than other smokeless nicotine products swallowed by children, like gums, lozenges, e-liquids, tablets and powders. Although the vast majority of pediatric nicotine ingestions resulted in little to no harm, more than 1,600 children had serious medical outcomes, the study found. Two children died after ingesting liquid nicotine. Rine recommends that parents avoid using nicotine pouches in front of children to keep them from imitating potentially risky adult behaviors. She also suggests keeping nicotine products physically out of kids' reach and to have conversations with other caretakers, like babysitters and extended family, about doing the same. If a child may have ingested a nicotine pouch, Rine says, the best first step is to call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222. Trained staff can guide caregivers based on a child's symptoms and help them decide if emergency care is needed.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Cyborg jellyfish could help uncover the depths and mysteries of the Pacific Ocean
For years, science fiction has promised a future filled with robots that can swim, crawl and fly like animals. In one research lab at Caltech, what once felt like distant imagination is becoming reality. At first glance, they look like any other moon jellyfish — soft-bodied, translucent and ghostlike, as their bell-shaped bodies pulse gently through the water. But look closer, and you'll spot a tangle of wires, a flash of orange plastic, and a sudden intentional movement. These are no ordinary jellies. These are cyborgs. At the Dabiri Lab at Caltech, which focuses on the study of fluid dynamics and bio-inspired engineering, researchers are embedding microelectric controllers into jellyfish, creating 'biohybrid' devices. The plan: Dispatch these remotely controlled jellyfish robots to collect environmental data at a fraction of the cost of conventional underwater robots — and potentially redefine how we monitor the ocean. 'It fills the niche between high-tech underwater robots and just attaching sensors to animals, which you have little control over where they go,' said Noa Yoder, a graduate student in the Dabiri Lab. 'These devices are very low cost and it would be easy to scale them to a whole swarm of jellyfish, which already exist in nature.' Jellyfish are perfect for the job in other ways: Unlike most marine animals, jellyfish have no central nervous system and no pain receptors, making them ideal candidates for cybernetic augmentation. They also exhibit remarkable regenerative abilities, capable of regrowing lost body parts and reverting to earlier life stages in response to injury or stress — they can heal in as quickly as 24 hours after the removal of a device. The project began nearly a decade ago with Nicole Xu, a former graduate student in the Dabiri Lab who is now a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research has demonstrated that electrodes embedded into jellyfish can reliably trigger muscle contractions, setting the stage for field tests and early demonstrations of the device. Later, another Caltech graduate student, Simon Anuszczyk, showed that adding robotic attachments to jellyfish — sometimes even larger than the jellyfish themselves — did not necessarily impair the animals' swimming. And in fact, if designed correctly, the attachments can even improve their speed and mobility. There have been several iterations of the robotic component, but the general concept of each is the same: a central unit which houses the sensors used to collect information, and two electrodes attached via wires. 'We attach [the device] and send electric signals to electrodes embedded in the jellyfish,' Yoder explained. 'When that signal is sent, the muscle contracts and the jellyfish swims.' By triggering these contractions in a controlled pattern, researchers are able to influence how and when the jellyfish move — allowing them to navigate through the water and collect data in specific locations. The team hopes this project will make ocean research more accessible — not just for elite institutions with multimillion-dollar submersibles, but for smaller labs and conservation groups as well. Because the devices are relatively low-cost and scalable, they could open the door for more frequent, distributed data collection across the globe. The latest version of the device includes a microcontroller, which sends the signal to stimulate swimming, along with a pressure sensor, a temperature sensor and an SD card to log data. All of which fits inside a watertight 3D-printed structure about the size of a half dollar. A magnet and external ballast keep it neutrally buoyant, allowing the jellyfish to swim freely, and properly oriented. One limitation of the latest iteration is that the jellyfish can only be controlled to move up and down, as the device is weighted to maintain a fixed vertical orientation, and the system lacks any mechanism to steer horizontally. One of Yoder's current projects seeks to address this challenge by implementing an internal servo arm, a small motorized lever that shifts the internal weight of the device, enabling directional movement and mid-swim rotations. But perhaps the biggest limitation is the integrity of the device itself. 'Jellyfish exist in pretty much every ocean already, at every depth, in every environment," said Yoder. To take full advantage of that natural range, however, the technology needs to catch up. While jellyfish can swim under crushing deep-sea pressures of up to 400 bar — approximately the same as having 15 African elephants sit in the palm of your hand — the 3D-printed structures warp at such depths, which can compromise their performance. So, Yoder is working on a deep-sea version using pressurized glass spheres, the same kind used for deep-sea cabling and robotics. Other current projects include studying the fluid dynamics of the jellyfish itself. 'Jellyfish are very efficient swimmers,' Yoder said. 'We wanted to see how having these biohybrid attachments affects that.' That could lead to augmentations that make future cyborg jellyfish even more useful for research. The research team has also begun working with a wider range of jellyfish species, including upside-down Cassiopeia jellies found in the Florida Keys and box jellies native to Kona, Hawaii. The goal is to find native species that can be tapped for regional projects — using local animals minimizes ecological risk. 'This research approaches underwater robotics from a completely different angle,' Yoder said. 'I've always been interested in biomechanics and robotics, and trying to have robots that imitate wildlife. This project just takes it a step further. Why build a robot that can't quite capture the natural mechanisms when you can use the animal itself?' This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
