currents

Many heart problems, including tachycardia and fibrillation, mainly originate from imperfections in the way electric currents propagate through the heart. Unfortunately, it is difficult for doctors to study these imperfections. This is because measuring these currents involves highly invasive procedures and exposure to X-ray radiation.Luckily, there are other options. For example, magnetocardiography (MCG) is a promising alternative approach to measuring heart currents indirectly. The technique involves sensing minute…

Pulsing electrical currents through the brain for 20 minutes can boost memory for older adults for at least a month, according to a new study. Around 8 percent of people in the US get diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia as they get older — significantly impairing their memory — and an even larger group of older adults has some degree of age-related memory loss. This new study is only a first look at a potential solution. But easy, quick treatments like this one could become even more important as the…

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) mission has passed on to the construction phase after a rigorous review for design cleared the project for further development. Under the EZIE mission, scientists will study electrical currents in the uppermost limits of Earth's atmosphere which will solve the mystery of electrojets' structure and evolution. The mission will see three identical CubeSats orbiting the Earth in a pearls-on-a-string formation, being launched no…

By Vanessa Thomas, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center July 11, 2022This illustration shows the three CubeSats of NASA’s EZIE mission flying in formation above Earth. The spacecraft will study electrical currents in Earth’s atmosphere that link changes in the magnetosphere to effects at the Earth’s surface during geomagnetic storms – the same storms that trigger the colorful auroral displays. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL<span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div…

CLIMATEWIRE | The next frontier for renewable energy may be found in underwater currents. The Department of Energy is looking to tap that resource through its funding of 11 projects designed to harness the power of moving water in rivers and ocean tidal currents. The long-term goal is to have sources of renewable energy that can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, said Mario Garcia-Sanz, the program’s director. “That puts this technology in a very good position with other renewables,” he said in an interview.…

There's an abundant source of power beneath the seas that's unlike any other. To tap into it and in an attempt to obtain endless renewable energy, Japan is dropping a gigantic 330-ton turbine power generator onto the ocean floor just off the country's coast. This beast is capable of withstanding the most powerful ocean currents and converting its flow into an unlimited supply of electricity. Kairyu is the name given to the 330-ton prototype, which roughly translates to “ocean current”. It had a 20-metre-long fuselage…

And the test went great.Deep OceanIn the wake of the devastating nuclear meltdown at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011, officials have been hunting for new sources of green energy — and they're leaving no stone unturned.A heavy machinery maker in Japan called IHI Corp has successfully tested a prototype of a massive, airplane-sized turbine that can generate electricity from powerful deep sea ocean currents, Bloomberg reports, laying the groundwork for a promising new source of renewable energy that doesn't rely on…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain The Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission will explore how the ocean absorbs atmospheric heat and carbon, moderating global temperatures and climate change. …

The view from a swamp on Rishiri Island near Hokkaidō, Japan, where scientists sampled peat cores for paleoclimate research. Credit: Masanobu Yamamoto The island prefecture of Hokkaidō, Japan's second-largest island, has a rich cultural history of hunter-gatherers both on land and at sea. Over thousands of years through the Holocene and into the 19th century, the prevalence of these cultures across the island waxed and waned.…