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showed a small but significant decrease in fear

If it can be extended to pre-existing fear, the bigger picture is that, perhaps, the treatment of phobias can be enhanced during sleep."

Previous projects have shown that spatial learning and motor sequence learning can be enhanced during sleep

wasn't previously known that emotions could be manipulated during sleep

15 healthy human subjects received mild electric shocks while seeing two different faces

also smelled a specific odorant while viewing each face and being shocked

the face and the odorant both were associated with fear

Subjects received different odorants to smell with each face such as woody, clove, new sneaker, lemon or mint

when a subject was asleep, one of the two odorants was re-presented, but in the absence of the associated faces and shocks.

occurred during slow wave sleep when memory consolidation is thought to occur

Sleep is very important for strengthening new memories

particular odorant was being presented during sleep, it was reactivating the memory of that face over and over again

similar to the process of fear extinction during exposure therapy

When the subjects woke up, they were exposed to both faces

When they saw the face linked to the smell they had been exposed to during sleep, their fear reactions were lower than their fear reactions to the other face

Fear was measured in two ways

through small amounts of sweat in the skin, similar to a lie detector test

through neuroimaging with fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging).

fMRI results showed changes in regions associated with memory

and changes in patterns of brain activity in regions associated with emotion

These brain changes reflected a decrease in reactivity that was specific to the targeted face image associated with the odorant presented during sleep

leading theory of how the moon formed 

it was created when a mysterious planet — one the size of Mars or larger — slammed into Earth

about 4.56 billion years ago, just after the solar system came together

new analyses of lunar rocks suggest that the moon, which likely coalesced from the debris blasted into space by this monster impact, is actually between 4.4 billion and 4.45 billion years old

make the moon 100 million years younger than previously thought, could reshape scientists' understanding of the early Earth

several important implications of this late moon formation that have not yet been worked out

, if the Earth was already differentiated prior to the giant impact, would the impact have blown off the primordial atmosphere that formed from this earlier epoch of Earth history

Scientists know the solar system's age (4.568 billion years) quite well

they can pin down the formation times of relatively small bodies such as asteroids precisely

by noting when these objects underwent extensive melting

a consequence,

of the heat generated by the collision and fusion of these objects' building-block "planetesimals."

analysis of meteorites that came from the asteroid Vesta and eventually rained down on Earth reveals that the 330-mile-wide (530 kilometers) space rock is 4.565 billion years old

Vesta cooled relatively quickly and is too small to have retained enough internal heat to drive further melting or volcanism

tougher to nail down the age of larger solar-system bodies

Earth likely took longer to grow to full size compared to a small asteroid like Vesta

every step in its growth tends to erase, or at least cloud, the memory of earlier events

Scientists keep getting better and better estimates

as they refine their techniques and technology improves. And those estimates are pushing the moon's formation date farther forward in time.

The moon is thought to have harbored a global ocean of molten rock shortly after its dramatic formation

Currently, the most precisely determined age for the lunar rocks that arose from that ocean is 4.360 billion years

here on Earth, scientists have found signs in several locations of a major melting event that occurred around 4.45 billion years ago

evidence is building that the catastrophic collision that formed the moon and reshaped Earth occurred around that time, rather than 100 million years or so before

New Horizons Message Initiative

asking NASA officials to upload a yet-to-be-determined crowdsourced message from humanity onto the New Horizons craft after its encounter with the Pluto system

This website is an opportunity for anyone who is interested to sign a petition that asks NASA to approve the future use of the spacecraft

need formal permission from the agency and sub-support to make this happen

using some of the spacecraft's memory to store messages from earthlings beamed up to the probe

it might be possible to just reprogram about 100 megabytes of its memory and upload a new sights and sounds of Earth

When New Horizons gets past Pluto, [and] has done all its data

Before New Horizons launched, NASA officials discussed including an onboard message, but decided against it

small team on a tight budget

didn't want to see us being distracted from the project

NASA funds will not be used for the project, but initiative officials are asking for support from private individuals.

Prolonged hypoglycemia risks neurological injury.

Low blood glucose shows up in 5 to 15 percent of otherwise healthy newborns as measured by blood tests

Doctors typically don’t run the analysis on every newborn

If they spot low blood sugar symptoms such as poor color, seizures, irritability, lethargy, jittery behavior and a lack of interest in feeding, doctors are more likely to call for the blood test

many infants with low blood glucose don’t have such symptoms

report designates at-risk infants as those who are born preterm, have diabetic mothers, or are either large or small for their gestational age

new study, the researchers identified 237 apparently healthy newborns who had one of those risk factors or who were feeding poorly

Half of the babies were randomly assigned to get a gel made of dextrose, a form of glucose, rubbed on the inner cheeks up to six times over 48 hours; the rest received a placebo gel

During the following week, 30 babies getting the placebo gel were placed in intensive care for hypoglycemia while only 16 of those getting the dextrose gel needed such care for the condition

Dextrose had been tried in the 1990s as an oral rub for infants but wasn’t fully tested or put into widespread use

very first solid sample ingested by Curiosity is the high percentage of water in the soil

About 2 percent of the soil on the surface of Mars is made up of water

The sample also released significant carbon dioxide, oxygen, and sulfur compounds when heated

organics are not likely preserved in surface soils, which are exposed to harsh radiation and oxidants

layer of surface soil that has been mixed and distributed by frequent dust storms. So a scoop of this stuff is basically a microscopic Mars rock collection

The discovery at Darwin is significant because it significantly broadens the area here that was altered by flowing liquid water

The robot pulled into ‘Waypoint 1’ on Sept. 12 (Sol 392).

Did the water flow that deposited the pebbly sandstone at Waypoint 1 occur at about the same time as the water flow at Yellowknife Bay?

If the same fluid flow produced the veins here and the veins at Yellowknife Bay, you would expect the veins to have the same composition.’

the veins are different, so we know the history is complicated. We use these observations to piece together the long-term history

Darwin comes from a list of 100 names the team put together to designate rocks in the Mawson Quadrangle

on Sept. 22, the rover departed Darwin and Waypoint 1 on a westward heading to resume the many months long journey to Mount Sharp

researchers fired a couple of photons into a cloud of rubidium – a chemical element belonging to the metal group – in a vacuum chamber cooled to just a few degrees above absolute zero.

When the photons exited the other side of the cloud of atoms

were surprised to see the pair emerge as a single molecule.

special type of medium in which photons interact with each other

so strongly that they begin to act as though they have mass, and they bind together to form molecules

Rydberg blockade

states that when an atom has energy imparted to it, nearby atoms cannot be excited to the same degree

the pair of photons moved through the cloud of atoms, the first photon excited atoms, but had to move forward before the second photon could do the same.

the pair of photons pushed and pulled each other through the cloud

atomic interaction

makes these two photons behave like a molecule

team is hoping to use their newly discovered state of matter in the advancement of quantum computing