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Science

Featuring the latest in daily science news, Verge Science is all you need to keep track of what’s going on in health, the environment, and your whole world. Through our articles, we keep a close eye on the overlap between science and technology news — so you’re more informed.

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Heat and drought are sucking US hydropower dry

Hydropower in the Western US last year was the lowest it’s been in decades, and 2024 isn’t looking much better.

Joe Biden wants to make mac and cheese with clean energy

The Department of Energy is funding a slew of projects to slash greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing mac and cheese, ice cream, whiskey, steel, cement, and more.

Scientists reveal the magnetic structure of black holes with new images.

Scientists for the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration say the magnetic structure of the Milky Way’s central Sagittarius A* black hole is “strikingly similar” to the bigger singularity in the middle of the galaxy M87, writes Phys.org.

They discovered this by comparing polarized images of the two. One researcher told Phys.org that this discovery could mean “this structure is common to all black holes.”


Comparison of the two black holes, each showing a magnetic pattern resembling that of water going down a drain.
“Strikingly similar” magnetic structures.
Image: Event Horizon Telescope
Melting ice, missing seconds.

University of California geologist Duncan Agnew published research in Nature saying the melting of ice in Greenland and Antarctica has contributed to slowing Earth’s rotation, reports Space.com.

While timekeepers have already agreed to stop adding leap seconds by 2035, Agnew claims a negative one will be necessary by 2029 and would’ve been required sooner if not for the effects of climate change. If that’s true — and not everyone agrees that it is — international timekeeping guidelines and the world’s computers will need updates.


Graph showing the time differences including or excluding melting accelerated by climate changes.
An adapted graph based on Agnew’s research.
Image: Nature.com
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What do soaring Bitcoin prices mean for the power grid and the environment?

Soundside, a daily broadcast program from Seattle’s NPR news station KUOW, breaks it down in this episode. Catch my interview about the energy and environmental costs of Bitcoin mining in the US, and the legal battle that killed the Department of Energy’s survey of miners’ electricity consumption.


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England’s... redwoods?

“At the moment they’re some of the tallest trees in the UK and they are starting to poke above the forest canopy,” says an expert. But they’re still just babies by redwood standards. The Victorians brought back a bunch of redwoods from California and they’re starting to do what redwoods do: get real big.


Northern lights may be visible across the US and UK tonight.

Weather services are reporting that people in northern Britain and as far south as the midwest in the US may see the aurora borealis on Monday night, as geomagnetic storms on the sun’s surface send particle streams toward Earth.

The best viewing time is between 10PM and 2AM (locally) according to the NOAA, in dark, north-facing locations away from city lights.


Forcast map of potential Northern Lights viewings provided by the Space Weather Prediction Center
Here’s a map showing the locations where the Northern Lights are most likley to be visible tonight.
Image: The Space Weather Prediction Center
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The first Boeing Starliner astronaut flight test is planned for May.

The mission will launch “hopefully the first of May,” according to Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore, who was joined by fellow astronaut Suni Williams during a NASA press conference yesterday.

NASA postponed the first crewed Starliner flight test last summer over safety concerns. When the mission launches, Wilmore and Williams will dock with the International Space Station for up to two weeks before returning to Earth.


NASA’s tiny BurstCube satellite is en route to the International Space Station.

BurstCube is aboard SpaceX’s Dragon resupply spacecraft, which launched on the Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on Thursday. After it arrives and is unpacked, the shoebox-sized CubeSat will be released into orbit, where it will locate and study gamma-ray bursts linked to the gravitational waves that were first detected in 2016.

You can see NASA’s simulation of the BurstCube below.


CG rendering of the BurstCube satellite in space.
BurstCube rendering.
Image: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab burstcube-nasa.gif 
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SpaceX is facing another NLRB complaint.

SpaceX already filed one lawsuit claiming the agency’s actions o (on a complaint about workers who say they were fired illegally for criticizing Elon Musk) are unconstitutional and now there’s this complaint issued Wednesday night.

SpaceX is accused of using severance agreements with ”unlawful confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses, and an unlawful limit on participation in other claims against SpaceX,” among other issues. The parties can either settle (seems unlikely), or there will be a hearing on October 29th.


Vernor Vinge, science fiction writer and creator of the concept of the technological singularity, has died at the age of 79.

According to Ars Technica, Vinge, a professor and computer scientist who was well-known for his hard science fiction novels such as A Fire Upon the Deep and Rainbow’s End, passed away yesterday. A truly excellent author, he postulated that AI will one day surpass the understanding of its human creators; he described this singularity theory in a 1993 essay. But it is probably for his far-reaching and absorbing fiction that Vinge will be best known.


Image: Tor Science Fiction
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The EU and US reportedly reached a security deal so SpaceX can launch Galileo satellites.

Two diplomats (presumably Jim Jones, Juelz Santana, and Freekey Zekey were not all available) tell Politico that with the Ariane 6 delayed and Russia’s Soyuz unavailable, the European Space Agency (ESA) is using SpaceX to launch satellites for its Galileo global navigation system and have set up a special security deal to make it happen.

Separately, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said it will start selling the lasers Starlink satellites use for in-space communication to other companies.


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Are science journals prepared to deal with AI-generated glurge?

So far, the obvious giveaway phrases (“As of my last knowledge update in September 2021,” and “Certainly, here is a possible introduction for your topic”) are appearing primarily in low-tier journals. But after Penis Rat, I am somewhat concerned about the quality of peer review.


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SpaceX can reportedly block employees from selling shares over “dishonesty.”

Leaked documents viewed by TechCrunch say SpaceX can prevent former or current employees from selling shares during a tender offer if they engaged in “an act of dishonesty against the company” or violated policies.

Since SpaceX is a private company, this could prevent employees from selling their shares until SpaceX goes public — which may not even happen. SpaceX also reserves the right to buy back vested shares six months after an employee leaves the company, TechCrunch reports.


So, where exactly is that lead in your Stanley Quencher?

The 3D X-ray startup Lumafield did a CT scan of a Stanley Quencher water bottle to show you without destroying one (but if your viral insulated cup does happen to break, you should return it).

You can see where an airhole in the stainless steel outer layer is vacuum-sealed with a small lead pellet, which appears red in the image below. That way, it never comes in contact with your beverage in the inner flask or with you on the outside.


A diagram of a CT-scanned Stanley Quench separated into sections.
Lumafield
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The first major offshore wind farm in the US just started powering homes in New York.

This is BIG in more ways than one. With blades longer than the Statue of Liberty is tall, these are 12 massive next-generation turbines towering over the Atlantic. Together they should be able to generate 130 megawatts of clean energy for some 70,000 homes. For comparison, the US only had the capacity to generate 42 megawatts from offshore wind until now. More big offshore projects are on the way (and just a reminder, there’s no evidence to show they’re harming whales).


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Is anyone surprised Shell is walking back its commitments to pollute less?

We are talking about the the same industry profiting by creating the climate crisis. Shell previously promised to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which is impossible unless the company pivots away from dirty energy. Shell’s blaming consumers for its own lack of follow through, saying “investment in oil and gas will be needed” to meet demand.


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Fossil fuel companies are using AI to drill faster.

They’ve used AI for years to find new oil and gas reserves. Now, more advanced AI is helping them drill oil wells more efficiently. Within a few years, a significant chunk of wells could be drilled autonomously, Bloomberg reports. That brings costs down and helps dirty energy compete with renewables like solar and wind, which have become cheaper alternatives to fossil fuel power plants that wreck air quality and cause climate change.


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All of the angles on the launch of SpaceX’s third Starship flight test.

The Starship was reported “lost” before it could splash down after reentry as planned. but for a better look at the takeoff, the folks at NASASpaceflight put together a few different camera angles from this morning’s events.


SpaceX successfully launched its Starship, but the vehicle was ‘lost’ after reentry

Two prior attempts exploded soon after launch, but this Starship prototype’s trip to space and back lasted 49 minutes.

Starship reentry views.

As Starship reenters Earth’s atmosphere, the external cameras are capturing the heat and plasma field generated.


Starship reentry
Image:SpaceX
The Starship won’t attempt an in-flight engine relight this time.

We’ve skipped over one planned element of this test flight, as the Starship 28 prototype continues on its way toward a planned splashdown.


View of Earth from an external camera on the Starship prototype
Image: SpaceX
Propellant transfer demo completed.

SpaceX finished another test for this Starship flight and ended internal views from the flight. As the live broadcast continues, it has gone in and out as the vehicle continues to barrel roll in space on its way to a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean.


View of Earth from Starship vehicle in space.
Image: SpaceX
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Now Starship is in a “coast phase.”

The next milestone for this flight test is a planned in-space relight of the Raptor engines, which is scheduled for 40:46 into the flight, or a about 18 minutes from now.


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SpaceX says the Super Heavy booster “fell a little short” of its planned relight control.

On the stream, we watched the return of the Super Heavy booster rocket after separation, which seemed to have partial success on some of its planned maneuvers as it came back to Earth. The commentators noted it “feel a little short,” of the plan, but didn’t go into detail.


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Starship flight test three is under way.

The vehicle took off successfully and is now heading toward the “Hot-staging (Starship Raptor ignition and stage separation).”


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SpaceX’s Starship reentry plans.

As we wait to see if the Starship will launch, SpaceX posted this clip showing what the splashdown could be like.


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Chilling effects.

The countdown just crossed T-10 minutes and counting.