browncoat_girl t1_jd5c9if wrote on March 21, 2023 at 11:03 PM

Reply to comment by Brain_Hawk in A crucial building block of life exists on the asteroid Ryugu. Uracil, a component of RNA, was found in a sample collected by Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft. by Science_News

That's a pretty big leap. Water is a "crucial building block of life", but nobody acts amazed that water exists in space.

browncoat_girl t1_ixcts62 wrote on November 22, 2022 at 2:09 PM

Reply to Why do neutrons tend to interact more readily with light nuclei rather than heavy ones (i.e., why is water a better neutron shield than lead)? by Calgaris_Rex

Your question is based off a false premise. Neutron interactions have nothing to do with isotopic mass. The isotope with the highest neutron interactions cross section is Xe-135. Lead just happens to not be that good. Other elements than interact strongly with neutrons are beryllium, carbon, hafnium, cadmium. On the other hand deuterium and helium have fairly low interaction cross section. Water is good because it's very cheap and has lots of protons which are good at shielding neutrons. Same reason concrete is used. Cheap and abundant. Also doesn't because significantly radioactive when interacting which is another plus for shielding.

browncoat_girl t1_itc0hcd wrote on October 22, 2022 at 2:13 PM

Reply to comment by dontkry4me in Using a gel-like, radioactive implant, engineers have demonstrated the most effective treatment for pancreatic cancer ever recorded in mouse models, the new treatment completely eliminated tumors in 80 percent of mice across several model types, including those considered the most difficult to treat by giuliomagnifico

There's a lot for research into targeted anti-cancer drugs for pancreatic cancer. Lutathera for example treats pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.