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Adam Frank Takes a Deep Dive into the Possibilities of Water on Uranus, Neptune

Dec 3, 2024

1 min

Adam Frank


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Adam Frank recently interviewed with national media about the potential for water to exist on the farthest planets in our solar system, Uranus and Neptune. Is it true that where there's water, the possibility for life often follows? Does this study mean that humans or other developed life forms could some day inhabit these neighboring planets? What about microbes? What do these vast oceans look like and how deep are they?

“We’ve been asking the question about life in the universe for more than 2,000 years and we’re finally on the cusp of getting data that will tell us one way or the other."


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Adam Frank

Adam Frank

Professor of astrophysics, science commentator, and popular author

Adam Frank is a self-described “evangelist of science,” who writes about intelligent life forms, space exploration, climate change and more.

NASASpace and AstrophysicsAliensScienceMeteoroids

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A “brain-on-a-chip” technology might sound like science fiction, but it’s real-world hope. James McGrath, a biomedical engineer at the University of Rochester, leads a team that develops micro-scale tissue chips to study diseases in lieu of conducting animal experiments. The team’s “brain-on-a-chip” model replicates the blood-brain barrier — the critical membrane separating the brain from the bloodstream — to mimic how the barrier functions under healthy conditions and the duress of infections, toxins, and immune responses that can weaken it. Recent findings from McGrath’s team show how systemic inflammation, such as that caused by sepsis, can compromise the barrier and harm brain cells. The researchers also demonstrated how pericytes — supportive vascular cells — can help repair barrier damage, an insight that could guide new therapies for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The research culminated in a pair of recent studies published in Advanced Science and Materials Today Bio. “We hope that by building these tissue models in chip format, we can arrange many brain models in a high-density array to screen candidates for neuroprotective drugs and develop brain models with diverse genetic backgrounds,” McGrath says. McGrath aims to transform how scientists test drugs and predict neurological side effects before they occur — helping rewrite how we study, and one day safeguard, the brain. Contact McGrath by clicking on his profile

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