05 Sci-Tech

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Asteroid 2024 YR4:NASA James Webb Space Telescope recent observations reveal the potential that asteroid 2024 YR4 could be a small yet growing risk of collision, despite being no threat to the Moon. The new data reveals the potential danger to the lunar surface, prompting increased scientific interest in the asteroid’s trajectory. The Moon remains under the potential threat of asteroid YR4 while Earth can breathe easy. This underscores the need for continued investment in space observation technologies and planetary defence strategies. According to Space.com reports, as the asteroid reappears in 2028, astronomers will once again study its orbit, ensuring that if a threat ever does emerge, humanity will be prepared.

Asteroid 2024 YR4 poses growing lunar threat, reveals NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope

In May 2025, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured a detailed observation of asteroid 2024 YR4. The space rock, large enough to destroy a city, was last spotted before it disappeared behind the Sun, making this observation humanity’s final view until 2028. According to the reports, the new data has refined predictions about YR4’s path and revealed a 4.3% chance of it colliding with the Moon in 2032. This may seem like a low probability, but it’s worth noting that such figures previously caused concern for Earth when the asteroid was first discovered.

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Is the Defense Department still preparing to fight biological warfare as if it’s 1970?

When preparing for biological warfare, most nations picture scenarios in which an enemy openly sprays traditional agents over wide areas to kill their adversaries.  However, revolutionary capabilities in the life sciences and biotechnology have transformed the threat. China’s approach to warfare, combined with these emerging technologies, reveals new vulnerabilities among Western forces that, to date, have not been fully acknowledged. In no small measure, this is due to the U.S. government’s continued reliance on a 20th-century strategy for countering weapons of mass destruction. In particular, as China is a major nuclear power, it cannot be threatened after it uses biological weapons as easily as a non-nuclear state. Given these points, can China be deterred from using such advanced biological weapons during a regional crisis in the Indo-Pacific, especially an invasion of Taiwan? And if not, is it possible to mitigate the damage from such a scenario?

Although Western attention has focused on the rapid expansion of China’s nuclear and conventional warfighting capabilities, one ought to expect equal analysis of China’s biological warfare potential. By examining China’s most recent efforts at biological research, we put forward that it has bypassed 20th-century Western concepts of biological warfare and has new capabilities that could be effective across the entire conflict spectrum. Given China’s new capabilities and nuclear arsenal, we assess that standard strategies of deterrence and protection likely will not work in the future. New approaches and new concepts will be necessary if the United States is to prepare itself for potentially new forms of biological warfare in the 21st century.

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Asteroid 2024 YR4, once considered the highest impact risk to Earth ever recorded, is back in the spotlight — this time due to a slight increase in the chance that it could impact the moon in 2032.

Although now too distant to observe from Earth, the asteroid briefly came into view in May for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Using data from the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera, a team led by Andy Rivkin of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory refined predictions of where 2024 YR4 will be on Dec. 22, 2032 by nearly 20%. That revised trajectory nudged the odds of a lunar impact from 3.8% to 4.3%, according to a NASA update.

“As data comes in, it is normal for the impact probability to evolve,” the statement read. Even if a collision occurs, “it would not alter the moon’s orbit.”

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A new study from Hebrew University reveals that acetaminophen doesn’t just work in the brain — it also blocks pain at its source by acting on nerve endings in the body. The researchers found that its active metabolite, AM404, shuts down specific sodium channels in pain-sensing neurons, stopping pain signals before they reach the brain. This discovery not only reshapes our understanding of how one of the world’s most common painkillers works, but also opens the door to developing safer, more targeted pain treatments.

A breakthrough study from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, published this week in the prestigious journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA), reveals a previously unknown peripheral mechanism by which acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol, Tylenol®, or Panadol®) relieves pain.

The study was led by Prof. Alexander Binshtok from the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Medicine and Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC) and Prof. Avi Priel from its School of Pharmacy. Together, they uncovered a surprising new way that acetaminophen — one of the world’s most common painkillers — actually works.

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Addiction medicine specialist Dr Drew Pinsky broke down Elon Musk’s abnormal behavior that prompted an exchange of salvos with President Donald Trump. Appearing on Newsmax to discuss on Elon Musk’s Asperger’s syndrome that Musk himself admitted in 2021 on Saturday Night Live, Dr Pinsky said there’s more than just Asperger’s.
Dr Pinsky said he respect Elon Musk, read his biography and thinks he is a great guy, a very successful man but there is a flip side of that success that Musk probably has hypomania. Dr Pinsky said he got to know from Musk’s biography that Musk had has phases of hypomanic binges where he worked for hours without sleeping.
Musk probably suffers from hypomania that many successful people have. Hypomania has the risk of turning into mania which makes one irritable with a lack of risk assessment which means they can’t grasp the significance or the repercussion of what they are doing. “Is he bipolar, I don’t know,” Dr Pinsky said adding to what Donald Trump called as Trump Derangement System.

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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved several antipsychotic drugs as an augmentation strategy for “treatment-resistant depression,” including aripiprazole (Abilify), quetiapine (Seroquel), and olanzapine (Zyprexa).

But in a new study, researchers found that these drugs were no better than trying another antidepressant—and that they come with increased risk of death.

The researchers investigated whether a third trial of antidepressants or an antipsychotic was the better strategy to reduce suicide attempts and suicide death. There was no difference between the drugs on suicide-related outcomes.

“Because antipsychotic augmentation did not reduce the risk of suicide-related outcomes, we do not suggest the use of antipsychotic augmentation for those with treatment-resistant depression,” the researchers write.

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Astronomers have found a cluster of giant asteroids co-orbiting the Sun with Venus—space rocks that might become a long-term hazard for Earth. These are not ordinary asteroids. Sometimes referred to as city killers because of their size, many are bigger than 140 meters; they are big enough to wipe out a whole urban centre upon impact. More concerning is that they can be hidden from our telescopes by the Sun’s intense glare.These so-called co-orbital asteroids don’t move in orbit around Venus but follow similar orbits around the Sun. Out of the 20 discovered to date, there are “Trojan” asteroids, which stay either in front of or behind Venus in its orbit, and a quasi-moon called Zoozve. They are said to have originated from the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and were later drawn into Venus’s vicinity by gravitational forces.

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Elon Musk’s escalating feud with President Donald Trump has put SpaceX’s massive $22 billion in government contracts on the line, raising concerns about the future of America’s space program. SpaceX, a key player in NASA and Pentagon missions, faces potential funding cuts amid political tensions, threatening crucial projects like lunar exploration and national security launches. This conflict highlights the risks of heavy reliance on a single private company for space access. After Elon Musk tweeted regarding the decommissioning of SpaceX within a few hours, Musk re-tweeted by saying “Ok. Good Advice…”. However, according to Bloomberg, it remains unclear. But if the dispute unfolds, the US space industry may face delays, higher costs, and increased geopolitical vulnerability, putting America’s leadership in space at stake.

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Elon Musk is no longer seeing eye-to-eye with his former bestie in the White House.

The SpaceX founder and CEO recently wrapped up his 130-day appointment as a “special government employee,” during which he led the cost- and regulation-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk and President Donald Trump seemingly parted on a positive note, sharing kind words about each other during an Oval Office press conference on May 30. “Today, it’s about a man named Elon,” Trump said to reporters last week, calling Musk “one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced.”