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Scientists may have caught a glimpse of what sadness looks like in the brain.

A study of 21 people found that for most, feeling down was associated with greater communication between brain areas involved in emotion and memory, a team from the University of California, San Francisco reported Thursday in the journal Cell.

“There was one network that over and over would tell us whether they were feeling happy or sad,” says Vikaas Sohal, an associate professor of psychiatry at UCSF.

The finding could lead to a better understanding of mood disorders, and perhaps new ways of treating them.

Previous research had established that sadness and other emotions involve the amygdala, an almond-shaped mass found in each side of the brain. And there was also evidence that the hippocampus, which is associated with memory, can play a role in emotion.

But Sohal and the other researchers were curious about precisely what these and other brain areas are doing when someone’s mood shifts.

“We really wanted to get at, you know, when you’re feeling down or feeling happy, what exactly is happening in the brain at those moments,” Sohal says.

Researchers Uncover A Circuit For Sadness In The Human Brain

In a media environment saturated with fake news, “synthetic media” technology has disturbing implications. 

Last fall, an anonymous Redditor with the username Deepfakes released a software tool kit that allows anyone to make synthetic videos in which a neural network substitutes one person’s face for another’s, while keeping their expressions consistent. Around the same time, “Synthesizing Obama,” a paper published by a research group at the University of Washington, showed that a neural network could create believable videos in which the former President appeared to be saying words that were really spoken by someone else. In a video voiced by Jordan Peele, Obama seems to say that “President Trump is a total and complete dipshit,” and warns that “how we move forward in the age of information” will determine “whether we become some kind of fucked-up dystopia.”

Matt Turek, a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, predicts that, when it comes to images and video, we will arrive at a new, lower “trust point.” “I’ve heard people talk about how we might land at a ‘zero trust’ model, where by default you believe nothing. That could be a difficult thing to recover from,” he says. 

On Saturday, October 20, NASA will host the ninth annual International Observe the Moon Night. One day each year, everyone on Earth is invited to observe and learn about the Moon together, and to celebrate the cultural and personal connections we all have with our nearest celestial neighbor.

There are a number of ways to celebrate. You can attend an event, host your own, or just look up! Here are 10 of our favorite ways to observe the Moon:

1. Look up

Image credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio/Ernie Wright

The simplest way to observe the Moon is simply to look up. The Moon is the brightest object in our night sky, the second brightest in our daytime sky and can be seen from all around the world — from the remote and dark Atacama Desert in Chile to the brightly lit streets of Tokyo. On October 20, the near side of the Moon, or the side facing Earth, will be about 80 percent illuminated, rising in the early evening.

See the Moon phase on October 20 or any other day of the year!

2. Peer through a telescope or binoculars

The Moon and Venus are great targets for binoculars. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Dunford

With some magnification help, you will be able to focus in on specific features on the Moon, like the Sea of Tranquility or the bright Copernicus Crater. Download our Moon maps for some guided observing on Saturday.

3. Photograph the Moon

Image credit: NASA/GSFC/ASU

Our Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has taken more than 20 million images of the Moon, mapping it in stunning detail. You can see featured, captioned images on LRO’s camera website, like the one of Montes Carpatus seen here. And, of course, you can take your own photos from Earth. Check out our tips on photographing the Moon!

4. Take a virtual field trip

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Plan a lunar hike with Moontrek. Moontrek is an interactive Moon map made using NASA data from our lunar spacecraft. Fly anywhere you’d like on the Moon, calculate the distance or the elevation of a mountain to plan your lunar hike, or layer attributes of the lunar surface and temperature. If you have a virtual reality headset, you can experience Moontrek in 3D.

5. Touch the topography

Image credit: NASA GSFC/Jacob Richardson

Observe the Moon through touch! If you have access to a 3D printer, you can peruse our library of 3D models and lunar landscapes. This model of the Apollo 11 landing site created by NASA scientist Jacob Richardson, is derived from LRO’s topographic data. Near the center, you can actually feel a tiny dot where astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left the Lunar Descent Module.

6. Make Moon art

Image credit: LPI/Andy Shaner

Enjoy artwork of the Moon and create your own! For messy fun, lunar crater paintings demonstrate how the lunar surface changes due to consistent meteorite impacts.

7. Relax on your couch

Image credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio/Ernie Wright

There are many movies that feature our nearest neighbor, from A Voyage to the Moon by George Melies, to Apollo 13, to the newly released First Man. You can also spend your evening with our lunar playlist on YouTube or this video gallery, learning about the Moon’s role in eclipses, looking at the Moon phases from the far side, and seeing the latest science portrayed in super high resolution. You’ll impress all of your friends with your knowledge of supermoons.

8. Listen to the Moon

Video credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio/Ernie Wright

Make a playlist of Moon songs. For inspiration, check out this list of lunar tunes. We also recommend LRO’s official music video, The Moon and More, featuring Javier Colon, season 1 winner of NBC’s “The Voice.” Or you can just watch this video featuring “Clair de Lune,” by French composer Claude Debussy, over and over.

9. See the Moon through the eyes of a spacecraft

Image credit: NASA/GSFC/MIT

Visible light is just one tool that we use to explore our universe. Our spacecraft contain many different types of instruments to analyze the Moon’s composition and environment. Review the Moon’s gravity field with data from the GRAIL spacecraft or decipher the maze of this slope map from the laser altimeter onboard LRO. This collection from LRO features images of the Moon’s temperature and topography. You can learn more about our different missions to explore the Moon here.

10. Continue your observations throughout the year

Image credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio/Ernie Wright

An important part of observing the Moon is to see how it changes over time. International Observe the Moon Night is the perfect time to start a Moon journal. See how the shape of the Moon changes over the course of a month, and keep track of where and what time it rises and sets. Observe the Moon all year long with these tools and techniques!

However you choose to celebrate International Observe the Moon Night, we want to hear about it! Register your participation and share your experiences on social media with #ObserveTheMoon or on our Facebook page. Happy observing!

Art director Romain Laurent made headlines this year for his truly remarkable GIFs. Sure, Tumblr and internet in general are full of the animated medium, but Laurent’s are cut above the rest.

We sat down with Laurent for quick interview where he told us some his secrets for creating his fascinating looped animations.

The historic front page of The New York Times, from Newseum’s gallery of newspaper front pages around the world. 

Embrace your freckles.

ART: The Human-Sized Kaleidoscope

Japanese artists and designers Masakazu Shirane and Saya Miyazaki have created an award winning, modular installation made from mirrors that formed a giant kaleidoscopic for the Kobe Biennial art container contest.

Ever wondered how your complex DSLR lens is made? It’s a craft that requires an enormous level of precision. 

Sigma debuted this amazing video at Photokina last year that takes you on a behind the scenes tour of their lens factory in Aizu, Japan. 

This is How Your DSLR Lens is Made