640 light-years away in the constellation of Pisces is a planet where the day side temperature exceeds 4,300 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough enough to vaporize metal.

And it does. Then, on planet tidally locked planet WASP-76b, winds carry the vapor to the cooler permanent night side, where the iron turns into rain. 

 Like our Moon on its orbit around Earth, WASP-76b is tidally locked. It takes as long to rotate around its axis as it does to go around its star so the day side receives thousands of times more radiation from its parent star than the Earth does from the Sun. It's so hot that molecules separate into atoms, and metals like iron evaporate into the atmosphere. The cooler night side is only around 3,000 degrees.

A new paper tries to "suggest" that a silent killer may be among us - particulate matter so tiny you need an electron microscope to detect it, left behind on furniture by smokers who sat there at some point in the past. Even movie theater seats. And then vapers may be doing the same thing, with nicotine.

This particulate matter, inference goes, jumps from their bodies onto seats, where it waits for you to perch, then leaps onto your body, worms its way through your skin, enters your organs, bioaccumulates, and causes cancer.

A new paper has identified the risk factors for death from COVID-19, also called coronavirus and Wuhan flu, and they are much like any other flu; being older and having pre-existing conditions are the biggest concerns. 

The results are observational from 191 patients and only from two hospitals in Wuhan, China, so caution is warranted when interpreting them even more than with other epidemiological correlation, but along with age showing signs of sepsis, chronic respiratory illness, and having blood clotting issues when admitted to hospital are unsurprisingly the key risk factors associated with the higher risk of death.

There could be a lot more COVID-19 cases than the 164 instances CDC lists, even up to 9,000 in the U.S., but even that would not be reason for alarm.

Once coronavirus made its way into the news cycle, it was only a matter of time before aromatherapy, supplements, miracle food sellers, or some business with "holistic" in its name claimed to treat, prevent, or cure it.

The WHO continue to say that the coronavirus can be controlled, and is being brought under control. The evidence from China is clear - not only from their statistics but also the report of the international team that spend nine days studying the worst hit areas of China in person.

South Korea has the fewest cases today for two weeks at a total of over 7000 cases which proves that it is not just China that is able to contain and stop the virus at thousands of cases. By using the same measures of fast case finding, contact tracing, quarantine and isolation, combined with public awareness and hand hygiene, we can all slow and even reverse and stop this virus.

Letting kids use a cell phone at dinner seems to be the height of rudeness, symbolic of participation trophy culture and a desire to be best friends with a child rather than a parent, but a new study argues it may be better for health. If it reduces calorie intake.

It's no secret the developed world has an obesity problem, and it is no secret that cell phones are now ubiquitous, but while some try to create a causal link between them, the new paper say phones can be preventative.

A new paper reports again about the successful cultivation of red romaine lettuce, Lactuca sativa cv ‘Outredgeous’ plants from surface-sterilized seeds grown in Vegetable Production Systems growth chambers on the International Space Station during the years 2014 to 2016.

Unlike what you'll get in Chipotle, this lettuce is free of disease-causing microbes and safe to eat. 

While 2020 looked to be another year when corporate media journalists would provide the same old Product X "linked to" Disease Y "a new study finds" articles as they have for the entire century, the latest coronavirus, COV-19, has saved us from all that.

While in the past people were willing to pretend concern about what diseases the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences was willing to correlate to useful products on a spreadsheet, those days are gone. Chemophobia is a luxury for the idle rich, much like organic food or the anti-vaccine movement.

When people do have something to be concerned over, data dredging goes by the wayside. Reality sets in. Science is back to being a force for good.

March is the time of year when even people who aren't college basketball fans get involved - because of March Madness pools, online or in the office. 

Most, even experts will fail, because they do one thing wrong - they start in the beginning, which this year is March 17th, with dozens and dozens of teams, and work their way toward the NCAA Final. Yet that is the wrong way to go, according to a new study. Most people will be lured by the prospect of an upset along the way and are out of it by the Final Four.