This Week in Science: Snowquakes, Warp Speed, and What It Would Look Like to Fall into a Black Hole

It’s time for “Nerd News”, covering the most important news for your brain.

Here’s a quick rundown of this week in science . . .

1.  A NASA supercomputer made a video of what it would look like to fall into a black hole.  Pack some Dramamine, because you might get a little sea sick.  (Hot take:  The scene from “Interstellar” is a lot cooler.)

2.  In other space news:  A nuclear-powered “plasma rocket” is in the works that could get us to Mars in two months instead of nine . . . a study found warp speed might actually be possible . . . a billionaire is heading to space for the second time this summer

. . . and Boeing’s manned Starliner mission got delayed for safety reasons until at least next Friday.  One NASA contractor thinks it should be delayed indefinitely, or there could be a catastrophic failure.

3.  In seismology:  A study found heavy snowfall might trigger earthquakes.  The weight of the snow has been linked to some quakes in Japan.

4.  In brain news:  Harvard teamed up with Google and released the most detailed map of human brain matter ever created.  The single cubic millimeter of tissue they mapped had 57,000 cells and 150 million neural connections.

5.  And in health news:  A first-of-its-kind gene therapy restored the hearing of a little girl who was born deaf.  The whole procedure only took 16 minutes.

And a study found taking zinc supplements might not really shorten the length of a cold.  Even if it does, they say it might not be worth the side effects, like nausea and stomach issues.