Inverse Daily: Why Monday is so critical for NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity
Plus: Due to popular demand — OK, NASA schedules — Ingenuity Week has been extended!
Before I go down the rabbit hole of reading about the new Kenobi Star Wars series on Disney+, let’s get you caught up on four essential science and innovation stories from the reporters at Inverse. We’ve got brain hacks, Mars helicopters, the discovery of antidepressants in fighting Covid-19, and more.
I’m Nick Lucchesi, editor-in-chief at Inverse. For those of you who have been following along with Ingenuity Week, you might think that today is the day for the test flight of the Mars helicopter. It is actually now very early Monday after NASA announced the new test flight day this week. Keep scrolling down to get all the specifics.
This is an adapted version of the Inverse Daily newsletter for April 8, 2021. Subscribe for free and earn rewards for reading every day in your inbox.
NASA has released this schedule of events surrounding the test flight of the Mars helicopter Ingenuity.
Ingenuity’s first Mars flight — NASA's Ingenuity helicopter is scheduled to fly this coming Sunday, April 11, a few days after the test window opened on April 8. John Wenz has all the details:
The helicopter Ingenuity unfurled from under the Perseverance rover last week, and now NASA is ready to see the chopper lift off. If they manage it, it will mark the first human-controlled flight to take place on another planet.
Read the full article for more specifics on the historic mission.
More like this:
- Watch the Mars helicopter unpack its tiny legs
- There's now a helicopter on Mars (February 18)
- Perseverance is getting ready to hunt for ancient aliens on Mars
An unlikely combination of drugs may fight Covid-19 — A new study confirms Prozac may help treat Covid-19 in concert with remdesivir — and brings a surprising new candidate to the table, reports Katie MacBride.
That more variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, will emerge is not a possibility; it is inevitable. And that is why scientists also need new treatments to prevent severe disease and suppress this virus. New research suggests we’re on the brink of a breakthrough. Recently, scientists discovered some antidepressants appear to inhibit virus replication and prevent severe Covid-19.
More like this:
- CBD: Why the future of Covid-19 may intersect with the much-hyped compound
- Read what the Covid-19 vaccine does for pregnant women
- The evolutionary reason all your friends made babies during the pandemic
An illustration of one type of solar geoengineering stratospheric aerosol intervention (SAI), from a March 2021 study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Can solar geoengineering actually work? — Inverse contributor Tara Yarlagadda analyzes the pros and cons of the latest scientific fix to the climate crisis: solar geoengineering, also known as solar radiation modification.
Geoengineering is a radical concept that might sound like the premise of a natural disaster movie but is actually something scientists are considering as a way to combat climate change.
Solar geoengineering, also known as solar radiation modification, is currently a point of debate among scientists. Would this level of human interference help the planet or harm it?
More like this:
- A quarantine brain hack could also help fight climate change
- Changes to Earth’s “twilight zone” could harm the ocean’s future
- Picky predators are letting “zombie urchins” drive climate change chaos
The researchers asked study participants to stabilize the structure so that it would support the brick above the figurine and analyzed the ways in which participants solved the problem.
Start using this psychology-based productivity hack — A strange part of human psychology holds us back from solving problems, writes Katie MacBride, reporting on a new study.
When we try to solve a problem or improve a design, we typically think something needs to be added to the existing model. It’s much harder for us to think about subtracting something to solve a problem.
This flaw in thinking ultimately makes us worse at fixing an issue, scientists report in a study published Wednesday in Nature.
More like this:
- Viral stories like “Cocaine Bear” reveal a dark side of human nature
- Morning depression: Causes, treatments, and who can benefit the most
- Weed withdrawal: Scientists reveal the physical and psychological risks
That wraps up this edition of Inverse Daily. I would like to thank you for reading so loyally! You can follow me on Twitter at @nicklucchesi, where I share some of my favorite stories from Inverse, Input, and Mic every day.
