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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.

How an off-road rally for women keeps EVs rolling using clean energy

Sustainably charging electric vehicles and providing power to over 250 people for eight days in the middle of the desert is no easy task. Renewable Innovations has the answer.

The incredible shrinking heat pump

Can New York make heat pumps work for renters? It’ll try with public housing first.

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Google developed a more accurate model for weather forecasts.

Called GraphCast, Google’s new AI model was able to make 10-day weather forecasts faster and with greater precision than a traditional model. It outperformed the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in 90 percent of test cases. How? Google’s model was trained on historical data and leverages deep-learning hardware to make forecasts more efficiently.


Oh no.

Americans have a worse opinion of science now than they did before the covid-19 pandemic. It doesn’t come as a surprise after all the disinformation that’s been swirling around since then. Now we can see how much trust in science has eroded in the latest survey by the Pew Research Center. The number of participants who say science “has had a mostly positive impact on society” fell from 73 percent in 2019 to 57 percent today.


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Image: Pew Research Center

How to electrify your life when you rent

Homeowners who want to reduce their carbon footprint by getting rid of polluting appliances have the US government’s full support. Not so with apartment dwellers.

We only get one planet

Sustainability often gets glossed over in the tech world. But true environmental stewardship demands we think deeper about the lifecycle of our devices — and the energy that powers them.

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NASA’s Mars robots are in conjunction junction.

NASA has stopped talking to the Mars robots for two weeks. Engadget pointed to NASA’s blog about solar conjunction, a biennial occurrence where the Sun sits between Mars and Earth.

NASA says coronal gasses can corrupt signals NASA sends to its automated explorers, so the agency is playing it safe. In the meantime, the two rovers and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter will continue collecting data while parked on the surface.


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SpaceX hypes up its next Starship flight test while ignoring a report about workplace injuries.

The FAA still hasn’t cleared SpaceX to attempt another Starship orbital launch from its Boca Chica, TX, site after the first one caused significant damage to the pad and surrounding environment. SpaceX’s website and this teaser trailer indicate it’s ready to try again as soon as November 17th.

Those are also popping up on the same day as a report from Reuters documenting 600 injuries to SpaceX workers since 2014.

The records included reports of more than 100 workers suffering cuts or lacerations, 29 with broken bones or dislocations, 17 whose hands or fingers were “crushed,” and nine with head injuries, including one skull fracture, four concussions and one traumatic brain injury.

Musk himself at times appeared cavalier about safety on visits to SpaceX sites: Four employees said he sometimes played with a novelty flamethrower and discouraged workers from wearing safety yellow because he dislikes bright colors.


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Apple’s Space Black aluminum took ‘a lot of R&D for the sake of aesthetics.’

iFixit did some digging on the new MacBook Pro and found that Apple’s anodization and dying process must have taken “a huge amount of effort, and trial and error,” according to metallurgist David Niebuhr.

Under a microscope, Space Black had higher peaks and lower valleys from an etching process than Space Gray. It still shows light fingerprints, but iFixit gives Apple an “A-for-effort.”


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NASA Plus is live now.

NASA’s free, ad-free, and subscription-free streaming service has officially launched. I’m personally a fan of the “Space Out” series tagged under “NASA & Chill,” which are 30-minute shows featuring incredible shots of planets and space stuff all backed by chill music.


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Three Texas counties asked to shelter in place after a massive chemical plant explosion.

Pictures and videos of the smoke and chemical fire caused by an explosion at Sound Resource Solutions in Shepherd, Texas, look like something out of a movie but are, in fact, real. The explosion took place at about 8:13AM local time in the area northeast of Houston.

KHOU11 reports that nearby Rockland, Chester, and Colmesneil counties are in the path of the smoke plume, and residents have been asked to stay inside and turn off all HVAC systems.

According to local news station ABC 13, one employee at the plant was injured in a “freak forklift accident.”


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Euclid mission releases its first color images.

The five images mark an important step in the Euclid telescope’s six-year mission to create the largest cosmic 3D map ever made.

Unlike NASA’s James Webb telescope, which produces high-resolution images by focusing on smaller areas, Euclid can observe large sections of the sky much faster, and in higher resolution than previous survey missions. “We have never seen astronomical images like this before, containing so much detail,” said the ESA’s René Laureijs.


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NASA Plus starts streaming tomorrow.

If you’re eager for NASA-produced documentaries and original series or even some good old-fashioned live launch coverage, NASA Plus, which was announced in July, goes live tomorrow, as Space reminds us.

Since it’s NASA, it’s like free ad-supported TV, aka FAST TV, but instead of ads, it’s paid for by your taxes.

...FTST TV? Anyway, here’s a trailer.


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Starlink space internet is no longer losing money.

This time last year Musk said that Starlink was losing about $20 million a month. Now he says it’s breakeven, which is good news for a service that keeps people connected in remote locations, in times of disaster and war, or while tooling around in a van or boat. Unimpeded growth could be bad for astronomers trying to see past those roughly 5,000 satellites currently operating in low-Earth orbit, with plans for up to 37,000 more.


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Want to watch a live spacewalk right now?

NASA is streaming it live on YouTube. It started at around 8AM ET today and was scheduled to last “about six-and-a-half hours,” so it should have about an hour or so left.

This spacewalk is a first for Astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara, who are removing a box from a communications antenna and repairing one of the solar arrays.


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Apple’s abandoned plan to make the Apple Watch Android compatible.

Bloomberg has a sprawling piece chronicling the history of Apple’s efforts to expand into health care. One revelation is this: 

“The work was nearly complete when Project Fennel was canceled, in part because the Apple Watch is a driver of iPhone sales. ‘If you gave up the watch to Android, you would dilute the value of the watch to the iPhone,’ said someone with knowledge of the decision.”

Same old story.


What do you do for Halloween when you’re already an astronaut?

NASA has a bunch of pictures, going back to 2007, to answer just that. Here’s a gallery of my favorites.


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‘What happened with Otis was just plain nuts’

That’s how University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy describes how explosive Hurricane Otis’ growth was right before it slammed into Acapulco, Mexico. It strengthened into a devastating Category 5 hurricane in record time, catching residents and forecasters off guard. The storm killed at least 27 people when it hit Wednesday, and residents are still reeling from what is likely to be one of the costliest storms to hit Mexico. Tropical storms draw strength from heat energy, allowing them to intensify more rapidly with climate change.


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SpaceX reportedly signed a satellite-launching deal with the European Space Agency.

The Elon Musk-owned company could launch up to four of the ESA’s Galileo navigation satellites into space next year, according to The Wall Street Journal. The deal reportedly involves two US-based launches, each with two Galileo satellites aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets.

This comes as Europe’s Ariane rocket program faces its own setbacks. The European Commission and EU member states will still need to approve the deal with SpaceX, the WSJ notes, which could happen by the end of this year.


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SpaceX keeps picking up the launch pace.

The company reportedly told ArsTechnica it’s shooting for 144 launches next year. That’s 12 launches a month, or about every two-and-a-half days.

The goal, writes Ars, is to put many more Starlink satellites aloft to support its satellite-based cell phone service, which is due to launch next year as a texting-only service, with voice and data coming later. That’s not necessarily great news to everyone.


World’s most expensive pooper scooper just dropped.

I kid, I kid: it’s the Apollo 16 lunar soil scoop, an awesome vari-angle shovel with spring-loaded buttons, which just sold at auction for $874,998. One of those buttons attached it to an extension pole that’s reportedly still sitting on the Moon.

The Smithsonian has one like this too, though it’s apparently not on display.


This prop was definitely screen used.
This prop was definitely screen used.
Image: RR Auctions