Welcome to NU Sci’s new weekly newsletter! Every Sunday, we’ll brief you on the biggest stories in science — from every discipline, from Northeastern and around the world.
Cosmic Courier: OSIRIS-REx’s Special Delivery
Photo by Muhammad Elarbi, Computer Science, 2022
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully returned to Earth last Sunday carrying valuable regolith from the asteroid Bennu. The spacecraft launched seven years ago to study Bennu, retrieve a 60-gram sample, map its surface, and investigate its properties.
The mission offers insights into the early solar system, as well as the Yarkovsky effect, a phenomenon where an asteroid’s trajectory is altered over time due to uneven heating from the sun. OSIRIS-REx is part of a series of missions aimed at understanding the origin of Earth’s water, which NU Sci writer Brianna Soufa covered back in 2019. Earth’s unique abundance of organic molecules and liquid water raises questions about asteroid collisions as the source.
In the coming months, a team of over 200 scientists from 38 institutions will study the sample. Most will be preserved at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, with small amounts allocated to the Canadian Space Agency and the Japanese space agency, JAXA.
The OSIRIS-REx mission’s journey continues as it extends to approach Apophis, a 1,200-foot-wide asteroid that will come within about twelve times the Moon’s average distance from Earth in 2029.
In The Fields
Tidbits
Hate needles? Painless microneedle patches might be the solution to ease your fears.
Dissolvable skin patches are just as effective as traditional vaccinations — but without the pain. Made up of a hundred microscopic cones, microneedles in drug-delivering patches allow a steady release of the vaccine components into the dermal layer within the skin. While more research is needed before patches become available to the public, they are a promising innovation that can benefit low-income countries since they do not need to be refrigerated or administered by a clinician.
Tummy trouble on flights: Stomach discomfort linked to air pressure differences.
Have you ever felt your stomach act up when you’re on a flight? You’re not alone: It’s completely normal. With the decrease in atmospheric pressure and temperature, gas in your digestive system expands, causing flatulence. Consuming more water during a flight can increase digestion and make you feel better.
Move over folks! Share your space with the lizards of Fenway Victory Gardens.
A Mediterranean species of lizards, Podarcis siculus, have made their way into the Fenway Victory Gardens. The forest green lizards were thought to have made their way to Boston from New York City. A postdoc at Harvard studied the critters and found they’re a fan of the park’s bugs — they host a diverse array of invertebrates in their stomachs. If you happen to be in the park during the winter, you might find them in the garden’s massive compost piles!
At NU Sci
Join us Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on campus in East Village 024 for all things science journalism and media. Here are our upcoming events:
- Oct. 4: Speed friending social with NU Sci members
- Oct. 11: NU Sci Issue 58 pitch meeting, with a guest talk from Northeastern professor and former WIRED writer Jeff Howe on Northeastern’s science communication programs
- Oct. 18: Guest talk from philosopher and Northeastern instructor Sammy Hirshland on science communication and fake news
Interested in joining our operations? Head to nuscimag.com/join
Interested in writing for us? Head to nuscimag.com/pitch
Contributors
Sofia Odeh, Mechanical Engineering, 2026
Heidi Ho, Public Health & Journalism, 2027
Mikayla Tsai, Behavioral Neuroscience, 2026
Noah Haggerty, Applied Physics, 2024