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1KTech Insider / by Dave Mosher, Gene Kim and Jessica Orwig / 13h

Cosmic rays are a powerful type of radiation that pose a risk to astronauts. Beyond Earth's protective magnetic shield, they increase the risk of cancer and other health effects. The first Mars explorers may face a two-fold higher risk than previously thought, according to a recent study in mice. However, researchers may soon develop better radiation shielding. NASA is dead-set on sending astrona

The best US cities to live in to escape the worst effects of climate change

1KTech Insider / by Erin Brodwin / 10h

A safe haven sounds like a good idea right about now. Somewhere warm, but not too warm; free from roof-toppling hurricanes and ground-rumbling earthquakes; close to a river or ocean, but far enough to avoid the threats of flooding and sea level rise. Which places does that leave? According to climate scientists and urban planners, not a lot. "The bottom line is it’s going to be bad everywhere," B

The science of why you should add water to your whiskey

1KTech Insider / by Nathaniel Lee, Jessica Orwig and Cheng Cheng / 15h

The secret to enjoying a good whiskey? A dash of water. Whiskey drinkers have been doing this for centuries to heighten certain flavors and reduce burn. Science has two competing theories for why this works. One explanation suggests water traps bad flavors. Whiskey contains a compound called "fatty acid esters". These compounds interact with water in an interesting way. One end repels water molec

YESTERDAY

The real lesson of Facebook's Russian ads is scarier than we realize — and we're still blind to it (FB)

300+Tech Insider / by Alexei Oreskovic / 8h

There's a mad scramble underway to figure out how we lost control of our social networks. How did the innocent place where we reconnect with old classmates and share cute baby photos become ground zero in a plot to interfere with an election? How did the fun feeds we mindlessly flick through to kill time on the bus become dangerous weapons wielded by foreign powers? The unfortunate answer is that

What it's like to have the best job in America right now

500+Tech Insider / by Áine Cain / 10h

Data scientists have the best job in America , according to Glassdoor . The field may be relatively new and occasionally vaguely defined, but one thing's for sure — it's also growing. That's becaues, in the digital age, the amount of data available is only going to continue to grow exponentially . And we'll need data scientists to set up the systems required to glean insight from all that informa

14 insider facts most airline workers know — and you probably don't

100+Tech Insider / by Rachel Gillett / 10h

No one has more insider knowledge about flying than airline workers. To unearth 14 lesser-known facts about flying, Business Insider surveyed more than 80 airline workers including flight attendants, gate agents, ticket agents, and other airport customer service reps and scoured the web including Reddit and Quora for more. Whether you want more attentive service or to avoid getting kicked off you

Your iPhone might cost less than your expensive coffee habit

200+Tech Insider / by Lauren Lyons Cole / 11h

Compared to your daily cup of coffee, your iPhone might seem like a big investment. Buying a cappuccino at Starbucks , for example, will run you about $3. That seems like nothing compared to the $699 starting price for the iPhone 8, or the iPhone X's $999 price tag. Unless, that is, you break the cost of your iPhone down by day. In the US, the average smartphone owner keeps their phone for 22.7 m

The next hottest housing market in America is this San Francisco micro-hood that's so obscure, most residents have never heard of it

100+Tech Insider / by Melia Robinson / 11h

Golden Gate Heights, a little-known enclave in San Francisco, has been named one of the hottest neighborhoods of 2017 by real-estate site Redfin. Located on the outskirts of the Sunset District, the charming micro-neighborhood has no shops or restaurants. But it draws homebuyers with its affordability, suburban feel, and great views. A whopping 86% of homes in Golden Gate Heights sell above askin

Why Netflix's 'thumbs up, thumbs down' ratings system is fundamentally flawed (NFLX)

80Tech Insider / by Dave Smith / 12h

For years, Netflix would let you rate movies and TV shows anywhere from one to five stars. That changed in April, when Netflix removed the star system in favor of a new system that simply asked users: “Thumbs up, or thumbs down?” Netflix’s explanation at the time was that the previous star-rating system was confusing to customers. In that old system, if a movie on Netflix had four stars, people a

Facebook and Amazon are so big they’re creating their own company towns — here’s the 200-year history

100+Tech Insider / by Leanna Garfield / 12h

Mega-corporations — from Facebook to Amazon — are creating modern-day company towns. In Menlo Park, California, Facebook plans to build a new campus with 1,500 residences, a walkable retail district, a grocery store, and a hotel for its employees. Meanwhile, Amazon recently announced that it will build a second headquarters that could effectively turn the chosen city into a company town — much li

One of the best parts of 'Destiny' is now a punishing experience in 'Destiny 2'

400+Tech Insider / by Dave Smith / 13h

For all of the improvements Bungie made between the first "Destiny" game from 2014 and "Destiny 2," which just launched earlier this month, one of the biggest changes to the game is also one of the most disappointing. In "Destiny 2," Bungie took shaders — one of the most fun, crowd-pleasing aspects of the first game — and made them into a punishing experience. It's perhaps one of the only aspects

Amazon is making huge physical bets in defiance of the retail apocalypse

100+Tech Insider / by Dennis Green / 13h

Amazon has become synonymous with online shopping. But the online giant is increasingly moving into the physical world, opening spaces in malls, shopping districts, and even local strip malls. It's a move that signals the company's ambitions are larger than ecommerce. One reason that may be, an anonymous source told CNBC , is that Amazon is seeing online sales go up in areas that have physical st

Why airlines pay to fly over other countries

300+Tech Insider / by Alyssa Pagano / 14h

Airlines pay a fee to fly over other countries. They're called overflight fees. Just as countries have rights to their land, they have rights to the air above them. Most countries "rent" that airspace to foreign airlines, allowing them to fly through it. Some countries also provide air traffic control services. Part of the fee goes towards these services. There's no standard fee. Countries use di

The MINI Countryman hybrid is the funkiest SUV you can buy — here's what it's like to drive

95Tech Insider / by Danielle Muoio / 14h

One thing is perfectly clear with the MINI Countryman: this is not an ordinary SUV. It has bug-eye headlights and way too many embellishments for a traditional ride in New Jersey's suburbs. But you don't buy the Countryman for a normal SUV experience, you purchase it to have some fun. As my colleague Matt DeBord notes , the Countryman arrived in 2011 to offer some extra space in a legacy brand kn

This $200 ring is the first activity tracker I actually want to wear all day, every day

86Tech Insider / by Avery Hartmans / 14h

Early on Monday morning — 6 a.m. early — I went for a run and left my phone at home. When I got back, I checked my phone to find out my distance, calories burned, minutes active, and heart rate. "You ran 23 active minutes," my phone displayed across the screen. "Only 20 active minutes left today." This was possible thanks to the Motiv ring , a small metal band that fits on the third finger of my

There's a new kind of computer coming — and the mouse, keyboard, and touchscreen won't be enough to use it (MSFT)

200+Tech Insider / by Matt Weinberger / 15h

It's the dawn of a new kind of computer . And a new kind of computer requires a new way to get stuff done. Each new era of computing has brought with it a big change to how we interact with our devices. PCs ditched the punch card and gave us the mouse and keyboard. Smartphones got rid of the mouse and physical keyboard in favor of multitouch screens. Get ready for touchscreens to fall out of favo

The 'Save Your Uber in London' petition has got over 634,000 signatures

12Tech Insider / by Sam Shead / 16h

Over 634,000 people have signed a petition in support of Uber in London. The petition — launched by Uber on Friday after it had its licence stripped by Transport for London (TfL) — was started by Tom Elvidge, Uber's general manager in London, and will be delivered to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. "To defend the livelihoods of 40,000 drivers - and the consumer choice of millions of Londoners — sign

Deliveroo is now valued at over $2 billion after investors pumped in another $385 million

17Tech Insider / by Sam Shead / 17h

Deliveroo has raised $385 million (£285 million) from investors in a huge funding round that values it at over $2 billion (£1.48 billion) and makes it one of the most valuable tech companies in the UK. News of the funding round was reported by Sky News on Saturday and confirmed by Deliveroo on Sunday. Total investment in the London-based startup, which employs over 1,000 people worldwide, now sta

The London ban shows how much of Uber's business is based on regulatory arbitrage

20Tech Insider / by Jim Edwards / 20h

Uber has lost regulatory battles in dozens of cities. Even if it had not been banned in London, Uber faced a licence fee increase up to £2.9 million. The company lost a lobbying battle against a powerful union and its law firm. It was also hurt by a change in control of the mayor's office. That's a lot of political risk riding on the $12 billion that investors have ploughed into Uber so far. LOND

SEP 23

The 15 best states for job seekers in 2017

100+Tech Insider / by Áine Cain and Anaele Pelisson / 1d

Everyone knows location is a big deal in the real estate world. But it's also a crucial factor in the job search, too. Personal finance site WalletHub found that landing a gig is far easier in some states than in others. WalletHub assigned each US state a score based on numerous factors , including median annual income adjusted for the cost of living, share of employees with private health insura

Scientists have discovered a potentially suicidal problem with going to Mars

1K Tech Insider by Dave Mosher, Gene Kim and Jessica Orwig / 13h // keep unread // hide

first humans mars astronaut glove shutterstock_341700152

Cosmic rays are a powerful type of radiation that pose a risk to astronauts.
Beyond Earth's protective magnetic shield, they increase the risk of cancer and other health effects.
The first Mars explorers may face a two-fold higher risk than previously thought, according to a recent study in mice.
However, researchers may soon develop better radiation shielding.

NASA is dead-set on sending astronauts to Mars within the next 15 to 20 years. China has said it hopes to send people there between 2020 and 2030, and even Russia is floating plans to put boots on the red planet.

Meanwhile, SpaceX founder Elon Musk is trying to cut the cost of spaceflight enough to start establishing a permanent Martian colony of 1 million people as soon as possible.

But if a study of radiation exposure in mice has any bearing on humans, going to Mars may be much more dangerous than anyone expected.

The root problem is cosmic rays, as detailed in a May 2017 Nature study and highlighted by a recent Business Insider video.

The danger of cosmic rays

Cosmic rays are high-energy atomic and subatomic particles that get blasted out from exploding stars, black holes, and other powerful sources in space. The rays can damage DNA, increase the risk of cancer, lead to vision-impairing cataracts, cause nervous system damage, and give rise to blood circulation issues, among other health effects in astronauts.

Researchers know that astronauts receive much higher radiation exposure than those of us who remain on Earth, since the planet's atmosphere absorbs a lot of that harmful energy.

Earth's magnetic field also diverts and deflects a lot of space radiation, which helps protect astronauts on the International Space Station — which orbits just 250 miles above the planet.

On a trip to Mars, however, it's open season for cosmic rays. In addition, the planet lost its magnetic field billions of years ago, which will expose the first Mars explorers to extra radiation.

Health scientist Frank Cucinotta and his colleague Eliedonna Cacao at the University of Nevada Las Vegas researched this problem by reexamining the results of four previous studies of tumors in mice.

In addition of looking for the effects of a cosmic ray's direct hit to cells, which could coax them to develop into cancer, the researchers also looked at how secondary or "non-targeted effects" might play a role.

What they found is a risk of cancer in deep space (at least for mice) that's about two times higher than previous estimates.

Why deep-space travel may be more dangerous than expected

The researchers think this elevated cancer risk comes down to how damaged DNA spreads throughout the body.

When a cell is struck by a cosmic ray, it doesn't simply keep the change to itself. It can give off chemical signals to other cells, which might trigger nearby healthy cells to also mutate into cancer.

Previous models hadn't really accounted for this domino effect. Even more worrisome, the type of radiation responsible for causing the effect was "only modestly decreased by radiation shielding," Cucinotta and Cacao wrote in their study.

Human exploration of Mars need not stop before it starts, though.

astrorad mars radiation shield suit reuters RTS119FE

Space agencies and private companies are actively working to mitigate space radiation. An Israeli startup is developing a body vest designed to more fully absorb radiation, for example, and one NASA scientist recently pitched the idea of deploying a satellite that'd serve as an artificial magnetic shield to divert harmful radiation around Mars.

And as the researchers noted in their study, "significant differences" exist between mouse-model cancer rates and those actually seen in people. "These differences could limit the applicability of the predictions described in this paper," they wrote.

But the scientists add that this knowledge gap is precisely why future deep-space explorers and their respective agencies should exercise caution.

"[S]tudies ... are urgently needed prior to long-term space missions outside the protection of the Earth’s geomagnetic sphere," they said.

SEE ALSO: 12 amazing facts you probably didn't know about Mars

DON'T MISS: Elon Musk has published an outline of his ambitious plan to colonize Mars with 1 million people

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NOW WATCH: Scientists overlooked a major problem with going to Mars — and they fear it could be a suicide mission

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