When you get out of bed in the morning, gravity causes some fluid in your head to drain away. This is important because the pressure associated with this excess fluid can change the shape of the back of the eyeball. This is a problem for astronauts in low gravity environments and is a major health barrier to extended periods of space travel.

Now, researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have created a sleeping bag for the lower half of the body that seems to solve the problem. The device forms a seal at the waist and reduces the air pressure surrounding the lower body. This is enough to suck some fluid out of the brain, doing the job of gravity.

You can read more in JAMA Ophthalmology.

Today is the 125th anniversary of the death of the Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel. It is also the day that the latest Nobel laureates receive their prizes. Unfortunately, this year’s event will again be a low-key affair because of the ongoing pandemic, but that hasn’t dampened the spirits of the Chalmers Choir of Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology, who are singing for science on Nobel day.

In the above video they perform a song that is set to the tune of “Så lunkar vi så småningom” (“So we gradually amble”) by the 18th century Swedish musician Carl Michael Bellman. The song is a tribute to scientific innovation.

Every BBC series about the universe. pic.twitter.com/pByfozoTpS

— Seán Burke (@SeanBurkeShow) December 10, 2021

Here on Physics World we love a good spoof of the particle physicist and television personality Brian Cox. Indeed, we even published one of our own – which claimed that the famous Mancunian had joined the cast of Coronation Street.  Now, the Irish comedian Seán Burke has done a fantastic send-up of Cox complete with dulcet tones, dewy eyes and shaggy hair. Well, it made me laugh.