The rising rates of myopia (nearsightedness) may be caused by more children growing up in relatively atypical environments. In this case, spending less time outdoors seems to be the culprit. In a study of Chinese children in Singapore and Sydney, those in Singapore had worse eyesight; in Singapore, the children spent an average of three hours a week outside, compared to the 14 hours children in Sydney spent. Staying indoors is speculated to affect eyesight as children are not exposed to the outdoor stimuli normally responsible for eye development. Read full article here
Science
‘Ghostly’ neutrinos provide new path to study protons
In groundbreaking research, an international collaboration of scientists from the University of Rochester have used a beam of neutrinos to measure the size and shape of the protons that make up the nuclei of atoms. This feat, once thought impossible, provides scientists with a new way of looking at the small components of an atom’s nucleus and opens up a wealth of new information about the structure of an atom’s nucleus and the dynamics of the forces that affect neutrino interactions. The researchers solved the challenge of harnessing neutrinos in large numbers by using a neutrino detector containing a target of both hydrogen and carbon atoms, and over nine years of data collection at Fermilab’s accelerator. Read full article here
Merv
March 25, 2023
