Science – Page 16

When does your brain think something is worth the wait?

Science / Mike M. / December 30, 2024

Whether it’s braving the long line at a trendy new restaurant or hanging on just a few minutes longer to see if there’s a post-credits scene after a movie, the decision to persevere or ditch it depends on specific regions of our brains.

Waiting is not always about self-control. Deciding to wait (or not to wait) also involves gauging the value of the potential reward. In an experiment that investigated wait times among people with lesions in the frontal cortex of the brain, University of Pennsylvania psychologist Joe Kable and his research team found that subjects with damage to certain regions of the prefrontal cortex were less likely to wait things out.

“[Our] findings suggest that regions of the frontal cortex make computationally distinct contributions to adaptive persistence,” he and his team said in a study recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Wait for it

Kable looked for subjects with damage to three parts of the prefrontal cortex: the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and anterior insula. Their behavior was compared to both healthy controls and controls with lesions in the other parts of the frontal cortex.

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is involved with action control, memory, and making decisions. The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex is even more important when it comes to decision-making; it also has an integral role in regulating cognition, emotion, and action. The anterior insula regulates how subjective feelings are processed. The performance of subjects with lesions in these areas was compared not just to healthy controls, but controls with lesions in other regions of the frontal cortex.

Participants sitting in front of a computer screen were told that a coin would appear on the screen. That coin was supposed to increase in value over time and change color when its value matured. It could then be sold for a 10 cent reward by pressing the space bar. Even if the coin hadn’t matured yet, the space bar could still be pressed to stop the waiting period and make a new coin appear, though they missed out on the 10 cents.

What nobody participating in this experiment knew was that the coins’ maturation followed one of two patterns. In the high-persistence pattern, the coin could mature any time during a period of 20 seconds, so waiting was the best strategy. Conversely, in the limited-persistence alternative, it was optimal to stop waiting a little after two seconds if the coin didn’t mature by then, because if it didn’t, it would go without maturing for the full 40 seconds The purpose of this test was to make as much money as possible in 12 minutes.

When does your brain think something is worth the wait? Read More »

After 60 years of spaceflight patches, here are some of our favorites

mission patches, Science, Space / Shannon Garcia / December 29, 2024

A picture’s worth 1,000 words

It turns out the US spy satellite agency is the best of the best at patch design.

NROL-61 is the iconic “Spike” patch. Credit: NRO

The art of space mission patches is now more than six decades old, dating to the Vostok 6 mission in 1963 that carried Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova into low-Earth orbit for nearly three days. The patch for the first female human spaceflight showcased a dove flying above the letters designating the Soviet Union, CCCP.

That patch was not publicly revealed at the time, and the use of specially designed patches was employed only infrequently by subsequent Soviet missions. NASA’s first mission patch would not follow for two years, but the practice would prove more sticky for missions in the United States and become a time-honored tradition.

The first NASA flight to produce a mission-specific patch worn by crew members was Gemini 5. It flew in August 1965, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Pete Conrad on an eight-day mission inside a small Gemini spacecraft. At the time, it was the longest spaceflight conducted by anyone.

Robert Pearlman has the story behind the patch at Collect Space, which came about because of the wishes of the crew. During the initial Mercury missions, the pilots were able to name their spacecraft—Freedom 7, Liberty Bell 7, and so on. Cooper had named his Mercury spacecraft ‘Faith 7.’ But an increasingly buttoned-up NASA ended this practice for the Gemini missions, and when Cooper and Conrad were assigned to the third Gemini flight they considered alternatives.

Gemini 5 mission patch. Note the “8 days or bust” messaging on the wagon was covered up until after the mission was completed. Credit: NASA

“Several months before mission, I mentioned to Pete that I’d never been in a military organization that didn’t have its own patch,” Cooper recounted in Leap of Faith, his memoir. “We decided right then and there that we were at least going to have a patch for our flight.”

They chose a covered wagon design to indicate the pioneering nature of the mission and came up with the “8 days or bust” slogan to highlight the extended duration of the flight. Since then, virtually every NASA mission has included a patch design, typically with names of the crew members. The tradition has extended to non-human missions and has generally been adopted by space agencies around the world.

As such, there is a rich tradition of space mission patches to draw on, and we thought it would be fun to share some of our favorites over the decades.

Apollo 11 mission patch. NASA

Apollo 11

The first human mission to land on the Moon is one of the only NASA mission patches that does not include the names of the crew members, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. This was a deliberate choice by the crew, who wanted the world to understand they were traveling to the Moon for all of humanity.

Another NASA astronaut, Jim Lovell, suggested the bald eagle could be the focus of the patch. Collins traced the eagle from a National Geographic children’s magazine, and an olive branch was added as a symbol of the mission’s peaceful intent.

The result is a clear symbol of the United States leading humanity to another world. It is simple and powerful.

Skylab rescue mission

Skylab was NASA’s first space station, and it was launched into orbit after the final Apollo lunar landing in 1972. From May 1973 to February 1974, three different crews occupied the space station, which had been placed in orbit by a modified Saturn V rocket.

Due to some problems with leaky thrusters on the Apollo spacecraft that carried the second crew to Skylab in 1973, NASA scrambled to put together a ‘rescue’ mission as a contingency. In this rescue scenario, astronauts Vance Brand and Don Lind would have flown to the station and brought Alan Bean, Jack Lousma, and Owen Garriott back inside an Apollo capsule especially configured for five people.

Ultimately, NASA decided that the crew could return to Earth in the faulty Apollo spacecraft, with the use of just half of the vehicle’s thrusters. So Brand and Lind never flew the rescue mission. But we got a pretty awesome patch out of the deal.

Space shuttle program

With the space shuttle, astronauts and patch artists had to get more creative because the vehicle flew so frequently—eventually launching 135 times. Some of my favorite patches from these flights came fairly early on in the program.

As it turns out, designing shuttle mission patches was a bonding exercise for crews after their assignments. Often one of the less experienced crew members would be given leadership of the project.

“During the Shuttle era, designing a mission emblem was one of the first tasks assigned to a newly formed crew of astronauts,” Flag Research Quarterly reports. “Within NASA, creation of the patch design was considered to be an important team-building exercise. The crew understood that they were not just designing a patch to wear on their flight suits, but that they were also creating a symbol for everyone who was working on the flight.”

In some cases the crews commissioned a well-known graphic designer or space artist to help them with their patch designs. More typically they worked with a graphic designer on staff at the Johnson Space Center to finalize the design.

NROL-61 is the iconic “Spike” patch. NRO

National Reconnaissance Office

The activities of the US National Reconnaissance Office, which is responsible for the design and launching of spy satellites, are very often shrouded in secret.

However, the spy satellite agency cleverly uses its mission patches as an effective communications tool. The patches for the launch of its satellites never give away key details, but they are often humorous, ominous, and suggestive all at the same time. The immediate response I often have to these patches is one of appreciation for the design, followed by a nervous chuckle. I suspect that’s intended by the spy agency.

In any case, these are my choices for the best space patches ever, perhaps because they are developed with such abandon.

The Soyuz TM-24 mission to Mir in 1996 carried ESA astronaut Reinhold Ewald.

European Space Agency

The space agency that consists of a couple of dozen European nations has also created some banger patches over the years that both recognize the continent’s long history of scientific discovery—with Newton, Kepler, Galileo, and Curie to name but a few—and the potential for future discovery in space.

Attached are some of my personal favorites, which highlight the launch of European astronauts on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to three different Russian space stations across three decades.

What I like about the European mission designs is that they are unique and not afraid to break from the traditional mold of patch design. They’re also beautiful!

The Demo-2 mission patch is iconic in every way.

SpaceX mission patches

In recent years, some of the most creative patch designs have come from SpaceX and its crewed spaceflights aboard the Dragon vehicle. Because of the spacecraft’s name, the missions have often played off the Dragon motif, making for some striking designs.

There is a dedicated community of patch collectors out there, and some of them were disappointed that SpaceX stopped designing patches for each individual Starlink mission a few years ago. However, I would say that buying two or three patches a week would have gotten pretty expensive, pretty fast—not to mention the challenge designers would face in making unique patches for each flight.

If you read this far and want to know my preference, I am not much of a patch collector, as much as I admire the effort and artistry that goes into each design. I have only ever bought one patch, the one designed for the Falcon 1 rocket’s fourth flight. The patch isn’t beautiful, but it’s got some nice touches, including lights for both Kwajalein and Omelek islands, where the company launched its first rockets. Also, it was the first time the company included a shamrock on the patch, and that proved fortuitous, as the successful launch in 2008 saved the company. It has become a trademark of SpaceX patches ever since.

Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to NASA policy, and author of two books: Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX; and Reentry, on the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston.

After 60 years of spaceflight patches, here are some of our favorites Read More »

The physics of ugly Christmas sweaters

knitting, materials science, Physics, Science, ugly Christmas sweaters / Shannon Garcia / December 27, 2024

In 2018, a team of French physicists developed a rudimentary mathematical model to describe the deformation of a common type of knit. Their work was inspired when co-author Frédéric Lechenault watched his pregnant wife knitting baby booties and blankets, and he noted how the items would return to their original shape even after being stretched. With a few colleagues, he was able to boil the mechanics down to a few simple equations, adaptable to different stitch patterns. It all comes down to three factors: the “bendiness” of the yarn, the length of the yarn, and how many crossing points are in each stitch.

A simpler stitch

A simplified model of how yarns interact Credit: J. Crassous/University of Rennes

One of the co-authors of that 2018 paper, Samuel Poincloux of Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan, also co-authored this latest study with two other colleagues, Jérôme Crassous (University of Rennes in France) and Audrey Steinberger (University of Lyon). This time around, Poincloux was interested in the knotty problem of predicting the rest shape of a knitted fabric, given the yarn’s length by stitch—an open question dating back at least to a 1959 paper.

It’s the complex geometry of all the friction-producing contact zones between the slender elastic fibers that makes such a system too difficult to model precisely, because the contact zones can rotate or change shape as the fabric moves. Poincloux and his cohorts came up with their own more simplified model.

The team performed experiments with a Jersey stitch knit (aka a stockinette), a widely used and simple knit consisting of a single yarn (in this case, a nylon thread) forming interlocked loops. They also ran numerical simulations modeled on discrete elastic rods coupled with dry contacts with a specific friction coefficient to form meshes.

The results: Even when there were no external stresses applied to the fabric, the friction between the threads served as a stabilizing factor. And there was no single form of equilibrium for a knitted sweater’s resting shape; rather, there were multiple metastable states that were dependent on the fabric’s history—the different ways it had been folded, stretched, or rumpled. In short, “Knitted fabrics do not have a unique shape when no forces are applied, contrary to the relatively common belief in textile literature,” said Crassous.

DOI: Physical Review Letters, 2024. 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.248201 (About DOIs).

The physics of ugly Christmas sweaters Read More »

Could microwaved grapes be used for quantum sensing?

applied physics, microwaving grapes, Physics, quantum sensing, Science / 9u50fv / December 27, 2024

The microwaved grape trick also shows their promise as alternative microwave resonators for quantum sensing applications, according to the authors of this latest paper. Those applications include satellite technology, masers, microwave photon detection, hunting for axions (a dark matter candidate), and various quantum systems, and driving spin in superconducting qubits for quantum computing, among others.

Prior research had specifically investigated the electrical fields behind the plasma effect. “We showed that grape pairs can also enhance magnetic fields which are crucial for quantum sensing applications,” said co-author Ali Fawaz, a graduate student at Macquarie University.

Fawaz and co-authors used specially fabricated nanodiamonds for their experiments. Unlike pure diamonds, which are colorless, some of the carbon atoms in the nanodiamonds were replaced, creating tiny defect centers that act like tiny magnets, making them ideal for quantum sensing. Sapphires are typically used for this purpose, but Fawaz et al. realized that water conducts microwave energy better than sapphires—and grapes are mostly water.

So the team placed a nanodiamond atop a thin glass fiber and placed it between two grapes. Then they shone green laser light through the fiber, making the defect centers glow red. Measuring the brightness told them the strength of the magnetic field around the grapes, which turned out to be twice as strong with grapes than without.

The size and shape of the grapes used in the experiments proved crucial; they must be about 27 millimeters long to get concentrated microwave energy at just the right frequency for the quantum sensor. The biggest catch is that using the grapes proved to be less stable with more energy loss. Future research may identify more reliable potential materials to achieve a similar effect.

DOI: Physical Review Applied, 2024. 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.22.064078 (About DOIs).

Could microwaved grapes be used for quantum sensing? Read More »

Magnetic shape-shifting surface can move stuff without grasping it

Science / Beth Washington / December 27, 2024

A kirigami design where the cuts’ length-to-width ratio was six was way more responsive to magnets, and that, in turn, enhanced an effect known as magnetically induced stiffening. With no magnets around, the kirigami disk was way more compliant than one without cuts. But when a magnetic field was applied, it became more than 1.8 times stiffer.

Overall, the kirigami dome could lift an object weighing 43.1 grams (28 times its own weight) to a height of 2.5 millimeters and hold it there. To test what this technology could do, Yin’s team built a 5×5 array of domes actuated by movable permanent magnetic pillars placed underneath that could move left or right, or spin. The array could precisely move droplets, potato chips, a leaf, and even a small wooden plank. It could also rotate a petri dish.

Next-gen haptics

The team thinks one possible application for this technology is precise transport and mixing of very tiny amounts of fluids in research laboratories. But there is another, arguably more exciting option. Chi’s shape-shifting surface is very fast; it reacts to changes in the magnetic field in under 2 milliseconds, which is a response time rivaling gaming monitors.

This, according to the team, makes it possible to use in haptic feedback controllers. Super-fast, magnetically actuated shape-shifting surfaces could emulate the sense of touch, texture, and feel of the objects you interact with wearing your VR goggles. “I’m new to haptics, but considering you can change the stiffness of our surfaces by modulating the magnetic field, this should enable us to recreate different haptic perceptions,” Yin says.

Before that becomes a reality, there is one more limitation the team must overcome.

If you compared Yin’s shape-shifting surface to a display where each dome stands for a single pixel, the resolution of this display would be very low. “So, there is the question how small can you make those domes,” Yin says. He suggested that, with advanced manufacturing techniques, it is possible to miniaturize the domes down to around 10 microns in diameter. “The challenge is how we do the actuation at such scales—that is something we focus on today. We try to pave the way but there is much more to do,” Chi adds.

Science Advances, 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adr8421

Magnetic shape-shifting surface can move stuff without grasping it Read More »

Craving carbs? Blame an ancient gene.

Science / Beth Washington / December 27, 2024

“This observation is concordant with the recent evidence of Neanderthal starch consumption, and perhaps the availability of cooked starch in archaic hominins made possible through the domestication of fire,” the researchers said in a study recently published in Science.

Out of eight genomes examined, multiple copies of AMY1 were found in two Eastern Neanderthal genomes, one from a Western Neanderthal, and one from a Denisovan. So why did these extra copies evolve? While the exact reason is still unknown, the team thinks that the gene itself was copy number variable, meaning the number of copies within a population can vary between individuals. This variation likely developed before humans diverged from Neanderthals and Denisovans.

With the grain

To the research team, it was inevitable that copies of AMY1 in individual genomes would increase as former hunter-gatherers established agricultural societies. Farming meant grains and other starch-rich foods, and the ability to adjust those meant carbs.

And the data here is consistent with that. The team “found a general trend where the AMY1 gene copy number is significantly higher among samples excavated from archaeologically agricultural contexts compared to those from hunter-gatherer contexts,” as they said in the same study.

In genomes from pre-agricultural individuals, there were already anywhere from four to eight copies of the gene. The variation is thought to have come from groups experimenting with food-processing techniques such as grinding wild grains into flour. AMY1 copy numbers grew pretty consistently from the pre-agricultural to post-agricultural period. Individuals from populations that were in the process of transitioning to agriculture (around 16,100 to 8,500 years ago) were found to have about similar numbers of AMY1 copies as hunter-gatherers at the time.

Individuals from after 8,500 years ago who lived in more established agricultural societies showed the most copies and therefore the most evidence of adaptation to eating diets high in carbs. Agriculture continued to advance, and the last 4,000 years have seen the most significant surge of AMY1 copy increases. Modern humans have anywhere from two to 15 copies.

Further research could help with understanding how genetic variation of AMY1 copy numbers influences starch metabolism, including conditions such as gluten allergy and celiac disease, and overall metabolic health.

Can we really blame AMY1 and amylase on our carb cravings? Partly. The number of AMY1 copies in a human genome determine not only the ability to metabolize starches, but will also influence how they taste to us, and may have given us a preference for them. Maybe we can finally ease up on demonizing bread.

Science, 2024. DOI: 10.1126/science.adn060

Craving carbs? Blame an ancient gene. Read More »

Flu surges in Louisiana as health department barred from promoting flu shots

CDC, Covid, flu, health, Louisiana, Science, vaccination / 9u50fv / December 23, 2024

The statement seemed to offer an assurance that other vaccines were not subject to the new restrictions. “Changes regarding seasonal vaccines like COVID and influenza do not change the Department’s policy or messaging regarding childhood immunizations,” it read.

This flu season, the health department has reportedly canceled standard vaccination events and clinics. On social media, the department has avoided mentioning flu shots in posts about the flu, instead advising people to wash their hands and cover their coughs.

While Louisiana is seeing an early surge in influenza, the rest of the country is on an upward trend in what appears to be a normal-looking season so far. Nationally, the percentage of doctor visits that were for ILIs is 3.8 percent, with the upswing in ILI activity similar to what was seen in the 2019–2020 flu season at this point in the year. At the peak of flu seasons, the percentage of visits for ILIs usually tops out around 7 percent to 8 percent.

US ILI activity charted by week across several flu seasons Credit: CDC

Two children died last week of flu, bringing the season’s total pediatric deaths to four. In the 2023–2024 season, 206 children died with influenza-associated disease. Most of the deaths occurred in early 2024.

COVID-19 is also ramping up a winter wave. While standard disease burden indicators—hospitalization and deaths—are low, they’re trending positive. Wastewater surveillance, meanwhile, is showing a steep incline, with levels of the virus being detected at “moderate” levels.

Flu surges in Louisiana as health department barred from promoting flu shots Read More »

Green sea turtle gets relief from “bubble butt” syndrome thanks to 3D printing

3D printing, green sea turtle, Science, Tech, wildlife / Shannon Garcia / December 21, 2024

Two main reasons those gas pockets appear in turtles are plastics and boat strikes.

When a turtle consumes something it can’t digest—like parts of fishing nets, plastic bottles, or even rubber gloves (yes, there was a sea turtle found with a rubber glove in its intestines)—it sometimes gets stuck somewhere along its gastrointestinal tract. This, in turn, causes gases to gather there, which throws the turtle’s buoyancy out of balance.

Those gases usually gather in the parts of the gastrointestinal tract located near the rear of the turtle, so the animal is left floating bum-up at an unnatural angle. Conditions like that are sometimes curable with dietary modifications, assisted feeding, fluid therapy, and other non-invasive means to the point where afflicted animals can be safely released back into the wild. Boat strikes, on the other hand, often lead to permanent damage.

Sea turtles’ shells are tough but not tough enough to withstand a boat impact, especially when the shell gets hit by a propeller blade. This often leaves a shell deformed, with air bubbles trapped underneath it. In more severe cases, the spinal cord under the shell also gets damaged, which leads to complete or partial paralysis.“

The most popular approach to rehabilitating these injuries relies on gluing Velcro patches to the shell at carefully chosen spots and attaching weights to those patches to counteract the buoyancy caused by the air bubbles. This is a pretty labor-intensive task that has to be done repeatedly every few months for the rest of the turtle’s life. And green sea turtles can live as long as 80 years.

Charlotte swimming with the harness on. Credit: Laura Shubel

Harnessing advanced manufacturing

Charlotte, as a boat strike victim with air bubbles trapped under its deformed shell, was considered non-releasable and completely dependent on human care. Since full recovery was not an option, Mystic Aquarium wanted to make everyday functioning more bearable for both the turtle and its caretakers. It got in touch with Adia, which in turn got New Balance and Formlabs onboard. Their idea was to get rid of the Velcro and replace them with a harness fitted with slots for weights.

Green sea turtle gets relief from “bubble butt” syndrome thanks to 3D printing Read More »

Exploring an undersea terrain sculpted by glaciers and volcanoes

Science / Kelly Newman / December 21, 2024

Perhaps counterintuitively, sediment layers are more likely to remain intact on the seafloor than on land, so they can provide a better record of the region’s history. The seafloor is a more stable, oxygen-poor environment, reducing erosion and decomposition (two reasons scientists find far more fossils of marine creatures than land dwellers) and preserving finer details.

A close-up view of a core sample taken by a vibracorer. Scientists mark places they plan to inspect more closely with little flags. Credit: Alex Ingle / Schmidt Ocean Institute

Samples from different areas vary dramatically in time coverage, going back only to 2008 for some and back potentially more than 15,000 years for others due to wildly different sedimentation rates. Scientists will use techniques like radiocarbon dating to determine the ages of sediment layers in the core samples.

ROV SuBastian spotted a helmet jellyfish during the expedition. These photophobic (light avoidant) creatures glow via bioluminescence. Credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute

Microscopic analysis of the sediment cores will also help the team analyze the way the eruption affected marine creatures and the chemistry of the seafloor.

“There’s a wide variety of life and sediment types found at the different sites we surveyed,” said Alastair Hodgetts, a physical volcanologist and geologist at the University of Edinburgh, who participated in the expedition. “The oldest place we visited—an area scarred by ancient glacier movement—is a fossilized seascape that was completely unexpected.”

In a region beyond the dunes, ocean currents have kept the seafloor clear of sediment. That preserves seabed features left by the retreat of ice sheets at the end of the last glaciation. Credit: Rodrigo Fernández / CODEX Project

This feature, too, tells scientists about the way the water moves. Currents flowing over an area that was eroded long ago by a glacier sweep sediment away, keeping the ancient terrain visible.

“I’m very interested in analyzing seismic data and correlating it with the layers of sediment in the core samples to create a timeline of geological events in the area,” said Giulia Matilde Ferrante, a geophysicist at Italy’s National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics, who co-led the expedition. “Reconstructing the past in this way will help us better understand the sediment history and landscape changes in the region.”

In this post-apocalyptic scene, captured June 20, 2008, a thick layer of ash covers the town of Chaitén as the volcano continues to erupt in the background. Around 5,000 people evacuated, and resettlement efforts didn’t begin until the following year. Credit: Javier Rubilar

The team has already gathered measurements of the amount of sediment the eruption delivered to the sea. Now they’ll work to determine whether older layers of sediment record earlier, unknown events similar to the 2008 eruption.

“Better understanding past volcanic events, revealing things like how far away an eruption reached, and how common, severe, and predictable eruptions are, will help to plan for future events and reduce the impacts they have on local communities,” Watt said.

Ashley writes about space for a contractor for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center by day and freelances as an environmental writer. She holds master’s degrees in space studies from The University of North Dakota and science writing from The Johns Hopkins University. She writes most of her articles with a baby on her lap.

Exploring an undersea terrain sculpted by glaciers and volcanoes Read More »

Louisiana bars health dept. from promoting flu, COVID, mpox vaccines: Report

anti-vaccine, COVID-19, flu, health, health department, KFF Health News, Louisiana, mpox, NPR, public health, Science, vaccines / 9u50fv / December 21, 2024

Louisiana’s health department has been barred from advertising or promoting vaccines for flu, COVID-19, and mpox, according to reporting by NPR, KFF Health News, and New Orleans Public Radio WWNO.

Their investigative report—based on interviews with multiple health department employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation—revealed that employees were told of the startling policy change in meetings in October and November and that the policy would be implemented quietly and not put into writing.

Ars Technica has contacted the health department for comment and will update this post with any new information.

The health department provided a statement to NPR saying that it has been “reevaluating both the state’s public health priorities as well as our messaging around vaccine promotion, especially for COVID-19 and influenza.” The statement described the change as a move “away from one-size-fits-all paternalistic guidance” to a stance in which “immunization for any vaccine, along with practices like mask wearing and social distancing, are an individual’s personal choice.”

According to employees, the new policy cancelled standard fall flu vaccination events this year and affects every other aspect of the health department’s work, as NPR explained:

“Employees could not send out press releases, give interviews, hold vaccine events, give presentations or create social media posts encouraging the public to get the vaccines. They also could not put up signs at the department’s clinics that COVID, flu or mpox vaccines were available on site.”

“We’re really talking about deaths”

The change comes amid a dangerous swell of anti-vaccine sentiment and misinformation in Louisiana and across the country. President-elect Trump has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—a high-profile anti-vaccine advocate and one of the most prolific spreaders of vaccine misinformation—to head the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Louisiana bars health dept. from promoting flu, COVID, mpox vaccines: Report Read More »

Rocket Report: ULA has a wild idea; Starliner crew will stay in orbit even longer

rocket report, Science, Space / Beth Washington / December 20, 2024

ULA’s Vulcan rocket is at least several months away from flying again, and Stoke names its engine.

Stoke Space’s Zenith booster engine fires on a test stand at Moses Lake, Washington. Credit: Stoke Space

Welcome to Edition 7.24 of the Rocket Report! This is the last Rocket Report of the year, and what a year it’s been. So far, there have been 244 rocket launches to successfully reach orbit this year, a record for annual launch activity. And there are still a couple of weeks to go before the calendar turns to 2025. Time is running out for Blue Origin to launch its first heavy-lift New Glenn rocket this year, but if it flies before January 1, it will certainly be one of the top space stories of 2024.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Corkscrew in the sky. A Japanese space startup said its second attempt to launch a rocket carrying small satellites into orbit had been terminated minutes after liftoff Wednesday and destroyed itself again, nine months after the company’s first launch attempt in an explosion, the Associated Press reports. The startup that developed the rocket, named Space One, launched the Kairos rocket from a privately owned coastal spaceport in Japan’s Kansai region. Company executive and space engineer Mamoru Endo said an abnormality in the first stage engine nozzle or its control system is likely to have caused an unstable flight of the rocket, which started spiraling in mid-flight and eventually destroyed itself about three minutes after liftoff, using its autonomous safety mechanism.

0-for-2 … The launch failure this week followed the first attempt to launch the Kairos rocket in March, when the launcher exploded just five seconds after liftoff. An investigation into the failed launch in March concluded the rocket’s autonomous destruct system activated after detecting its solid-fueled first stage wasn’t generating as much thrust as expected. The Kairos rocket is Japan’s first privately funded orbital-class rocket, capable of placing payloads up to 550 pounds (250 kilograms) into low-Earth orbit. (submitted by Jay500001, Ken the Bin, and EllPeaTea)

A fit check for Themis. ArianeGroup has brought the main elements of the Themis reusable booster demonstrator together for the first time in France during a “full-fit check,” European Spaceflight reports. This milestone paves the way for the demonstrator’s inaugural test, which is expected to take place in 2025. Themis, which is funded by the European Space Agency, is designed to test vertical launch and landing capabilities with a new methane-fueled rocket engine. According to ESA, the full-fit check is one of the final steps in the development phase of Themis.

Slow progress … ESA signed the contract with ArianeGroup for the Themis program in 2020, and at that time, the program’s schedule called for initial low-altitude hop tests in 2022. It’s now taken more than double the time officials originally projected to get the Themis rocket airborne. The first up-and-down hops will be based at the Esrange Space Center in Sweden, and will use the vehicle ArianeGroup is assembling now in France. A second Themis rocket will be built for medium-altitude tests from Esrange, and finally, a three-engine version of Themis will fly on high-altitude tests from the Guiana Space Center in South America. At the rate this program is proceeding, it’s fair to ask if Themis will complete a full-envelope launch and landing demonstration before the end of the decade, if it ever does. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

The easiest way to keep up with Eric Berger’s and Stephen Clark’s reporting on all things space is to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll collect their stories and deliver them straight to your inbox.

Sign Me Up!

Baguette One is going critical. French launch startup HyPrSpace has announced that it has completed preliminary design reviews for its Baguette One and Orbital Baguette One (OB-1) rockets, European Spaceflight reports. Baguette One will be a suborbital demonstrator for the OB-1 rocket, designed to use a hybrid propulsion system that combines liquid and solid propellants and doesn’t require a turbopump. With the preliminary design complete, HyPrSpace said it is moving on to the critical design phase for both rockets, a stage of development where detailed engineering plans are finalized and components are prepared for manufacturing.

Heating the oven … HyPrSpace has previously stated the Orbital Baguette One rocket will be capable of delivering a payload of up to 550 pounds (250 kilograms) to low-Earth orbit. Last year, the startup announced it raised 35 million euros in funding, primarily from the French government, to complete the critical design phase of the OB-1 rocket and launch the Baguette One on a suborbital test flight. HyPrSpace has not provided an updated schedule for the first flight of either rocket. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

A new player on the scene. RTX weapons arm Raytheon and defense startup Ursa Major Technologies have completed two successful test flights of a missile propelled by a new solid rocket motor, Breaking Defense reports. The two test flights, held at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California, involved a Raytheon-made missile propelled by an Ursa Major solid rocket motor measuring less than 10 inches in diameter, according to Dan Jablonsky, Ursa Major’s CEO. Details about the missile are shrouded in mystery, and Raytheon officials referred questions on the matter to the Army.

Joining the club … The US military is interested in fostering the development of a third supplier of solid rocket propulsion for weapons systems. Right now, only Northrop Grumman and L3Harris’s Aerojet Rocketdyne are available as solid rocket vendors, and they have struggled to keep up with the demand for weapons systems, especially to support the war in Ukraine. Ursa Major is one of several US-based startups entering the solid rocket propulsion market. “There is a new player on the scene in the solid rocket motor industry,” Jablonsky said. “This is an Army program that we’ve been working on with Raytheon. In this particular program, we went from concept and design to firing and flight on the range in just under four months, which is lightning fast.” (submitted by Ken the Bin)

SpaceX’s rapid response. In a mission veiled in secrecy, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, sending a military Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite to a medium orbit about 12,000 miles above Earth, Space News reports. Named Rapid Response Trailblazer-1 (RRT-1), this mission was a US national security space launch and was also intended to demonstrate military capabilities to condense a typical two-year mission planning cycle to less than six months. The payload, GPS III SV-07, is the seventh satellite of the GPS III constellation, built by Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft was in storage awaiting a launch on United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket.

Tightening the timeline … “We decided to pull SV-07 out of storage and try to get it to the launch pad as quickly as possible,” Col. James Horne, senior material leader for launch execution at the US Space Force’s Space Systems Command, told Space News. “It’s our way of demonstrating that we can be responsive to operator needs.” Rather than the typical mission cycle of two years, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, and the Space Force worked together to prep this GPS satellite for launch in a handful of months. Military officials decided to launch SV-07 with SpaceX as ULA’s Vulcan rocket faced delays in becoming certified to launch national security payloads. According to Space News, Horne emphasized that this move was less about Vulcan delays and more about testing the boundaries of the NSSL program’s flexibility. “This is a way for us to demonstrate to adversaries that we can be responsive,” he said. Because SV-07 was switched to SpaceX, ULA will get to launch GPS III SV-10, originally assigned to SpaceX. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

An update on Butch and Suni. NASA has announced that it is delaying the SpaceX Crew-10 launch, a move that will keep astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams—who already had their stay aboard the International Space Station unexpectedly extended—in orbit even longer, CNN reports. Williams and Wilmore launched to space in June, piloting the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Their trip, expected to last about a week, ballooned into a months-long assignment after their vehicle experienced technical issues en route to the space station and NASA determined it would be too risky to bring them home aboard the Starliner.

Nearly 10 months in orbit … The astronauts stayed aboard the space station as the Starliner spacecraft safely returned to Earth in September, and NASA shuffled the station’s schedule of visiting vehicles to allow Wilmore and Williams to come home on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with two crewmates to end the Crew-9 mission in February, soon after the arrival of Crew-10. Now, Crew-10 will get off the ground at least a month later than expected because NASA and SpaceX teams need “time to complete processing on a new Dragon spacecraft for the mission,” the space agency said. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Stoke Space names its engine. Stoke Space, the only other company besides SpaceX developing a fully reusable orbital rocket, has revealed the name of the methane-fueled engine that will power the vehicle’s booster stage. “Say hello to Zenith, our full-flow staged-combustion booster engine, built to power Nova to orbit,” Stoke Space wrote in a post on X. The naming announcement came a few days after Stoke Space said it hot-fired the “Block 2” or “flight layout” version of the main engine on a test stand in Moses Lake, Washington.

Stoked by the progress … “As we build towards the future of space mobility, we’re building on top of the pinnacle–the zenith–of rocket engine cycles: full-flow staged combustion,” Stoke Space said. Only a handful of rocket engines have been designed to use the full-flow staged combustion cycle, and only one has actually flown on a rocket: SpaceX’s Raptor. Seven Zenith engines will power the first stage of the Nova rocket when it takes off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A hydrogen-fueled propulsion system will power the second stage of Nova, which is designed to launch up to 5 metric tons (11,000 pounds) of payload to low-Earth orbit.

Upgrades coming for Vega. The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed 350 million euros in contracts with Avio to further evolve the Vega launcher family,” Aviation Week & Space Technology reports. The contracts cover the development of the Vega-E and upgrades to the current Vega-C’s ground infrastructure to increase the launch cadence. Vega-E, scheduled to debut in 2027, will replace the Vega-C rocket’s third and fourth stages with a single methane-fueled upper stage under development by Avio. It will also offer a 30 percent increase in Vega’s payload lift capability, and will launch from a new complex to be built on the former Ariane 5 launch pad at the European-run Guiana Space Center in South America.

Adaptations … The fresh tranche of funding from ESA will also pay for Avio’s work to “adapt” the former Ariane 5 integration building at the spaceport in French Guiana, according to ESA. “This will allow technicians to work on two rockets being assembled simultaneously–one on the launch pad and one in the new assembly building–and run two launch campaigns in parallel,” ESA said. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

New Glenn coming alive. In a widely anticipated test, Blue Origin will soon ignite the seven main engines on its New Glenn rocket at Launch Complex-36 in Florida, Ars reports. Sources indicated this hot-fire test might occur as soon as Thursday, but it didn’t happen. Instead, Blue Origin’s launch team loaded cryogenic propellants into the New Glenn rocket on the launch pad, but stopped short of igniting the main engines.

Racing the clock … The hot-fire is the final test the company must complete before verifying the massive rocket is ready for its debut flight, and it is the most dynamic. This will be the first time Blue Origin has ever test-fired the BE-7 engines altogether. Theoretically, at least, it remains possible that Blue Origin could launch New Glenn this year—and the company’s urgency certainly speaks to this. On social media this week, some Blue Origin employees noted that they were being asked to work on Christmas Day this year in Florida.

China begins building a new megaconstellation. The first batch of Internet satellites for China’s Guowang megaconstellation launched Monday on the country’s heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket, Ars reports. The satellites are the first of up to 13,000 spacecraft a consortium of Chinese companies plans to build and launch over the next decade. The Guowang fleet will beam low-latency high-speed Internet signals in an architecture similar to SpaceX’s Starlink network, although Chinese officials haven’t laid out any specifics, such as target markets, service specifications, or user terminals.

No falling debris, this time … China used its most powerful operational rocket, the Long March 5B, for the job of launching the first 10 Guowang satellites this week. The Long March 5B’s large core stage, which entered orbit on the rocket’s previous missions and triggered concerns about falling space debris, fell into a predetermined location in the sea downrange from the launch site. The difference for this mission was the addition of the Yuanzheng 2 upper stage, which gave the rocket’s payloads the extra oomph they needed to reach their targeted low-Earth orbit. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

Elon Musk’s security clearance under review. A new investigation from The New York Times suggests that SpaceX founder Elon Musk has not been reporting his travel activities and other information to the Department of Defense as required by his top-secret clearance, Ars reports. According to the newspaper, concerns about Musk’s reporting practices have led to reviews by three different bodies within the military: the Air Force, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, and the Defense Department Office of Inspector General. However, none of the federal agencies cited in the Times article has accused Musk of disclosing classified material.

It won’t matter … Since 2021, Musk has failed to self-report details of his life, including travel activities, people he has met, and drug use, according to the Times. The government is also concerned that SpaceX did not ensure Musk’s compliance with the reporting rules. Musk’s national security profile has risen following his deep-pocketed and full-throated support of Donald Trump, who won the US presidential campaign in November and will be sworn into office next month. After this inauguration, Trump will have the power to grant security clearance to whomever he wishes.

ULA’s CEO has a pretty wild idea. Ars published a feature story last week examining the US Space Force’s new embrace of offensive weapons in space. In the story, Ars discusses concepts for different types of space weapons, including placing roving “defender” satellites into orbit, with the sole purpose of guarding high-value US satellites against an attack. Tory Bruno, CEO of United Launch Alliance, wrote about the defender concept in a Medium post earlier this month. He added more detail in a recent conversation with reporters, describing the defender concept as “a lightning-fast, long-range, lethal, if necessary, vehicle to defend our assets on orbit.” And guess what? The Centaur upper stage for ULA’s own Vulcan rocket could do the job just fine, according to Bruno.

Death throes or a smart pivot? … A space tug or upper stage like the Centaur could be left in orbit after a launch to respond to threats against US or allied satellites, Bruno said. These wouldn’t be able to effectively defend a spacecraft against a ground-based anti-satellite missile, which can launch without warning. But a space-based attack might involve an enemy satellite taking days or weeks to move close to a US satellite due to limitations in maneuverability and the tyranny of orbital mechanics. Several launch companies have recently pitched their rockets as solutions for weapons testing, including Rocket Lab and ABL. But the concept proposed by Bruno would take ULA far from its core business, where its efforts to compete with SpaceX have often fallen short. However, the competition is still alive, as shown by a comment from SpaceX’s vice president of Falcon launch vehicles, Jon Edwards. In response to Ars’s story, Edwards wrote on X: “The pivot to ‘interceptor’ or ‘target vehicle’ is a common final act of a launch vehicle in its death throes.” (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Vulcan is months away from flying again. Speaking of ULA, here’s an update on the next flight of the company’s Vulcan rocket. The first national security mission on Vulcan might not launch until April 2025 at the earliest, Spaceflight Now reports. This will be the third flight of a Vulcan rocket, following two test flights this year to gather data for the US Space Force to certify the rocket for national security missions. On the second flight, the nozzle fell off one of Vulcan’s solid rocket boosters shortly after liftoff, but the rocket successfully continued its climb into orbit. The anomaly prompted an investigation, and ULA says it is close to determining the root cause.

Stretching the timeline … The Space Force’s certification review of Vulcan is taking longer than anticipated. “The government team has not completed its technical evaluation of the certification criteria and is working closely with ULA on additional data required to complete this evaluation,” a Space Force spokesperson told Spaceflight Now. “The government anticipates completion of its evaluation and certification in the first quarter of calendar year 2025.” The spokesperson said this means the launch of a US military navigation test satellite on the third Vulcan rocket is now slated for the second quarter of next year. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

Next three launches

Dec. 21: Falcon 9 | “Astranis: From One to Many” | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 03: 39 UTC

Dec. 21: Falcon 9 | Bandwagon 2 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | 11: 34 UTC

Dec. 21: Electron | “Owl The Way Up” | Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand | 13: 00 UTC

Stephen Clark is a space reporter at Ars Technica, covering private space companies and the world’s space agencies. Stephen writes about the nexus of technology, science, policy, and business on and off the planet.

Rocket Report: ULA has a wild idea; Starliner crew will stay in orbit even longer Read More »

Louisiana resident in critical condition with H5N1 bird flu

bird flu, CDC, H5N1, health, Infectious disease, Louisiana, Science / 9u50fv / December 18, 2024

The Louisiana resident infected with H5N1 bird flu is hospitalized in critical condition and suffering from severe respiratory symptoms, the Louisiana health department revealed Wednesday.

The health department had reported the presumptive positive case on Friday and noted the person was hospitalized, as Ars reported. But a spokesperson had, at the time, declined to provide Ars with the patient’s condition or further details, citing patient confidentiality and an ongoing public health investigation.

This morning, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it had confirmed the state’s H5N1 testing and determined that the case “marks the first instance of severe illness linked to the virus in the United States.”

In a follow-up, the health department spokesperson Emma Herrock was able to release more information about the case. In addition to being in critical condition with severe respiratory symptoms, the person is reported to be over the age of 65 and has underlying health conditions.

Further, the CDC collected partial genetic data of the H5N1 strain infecting the patient, finding it to be of D1.1. genotype, which has been detected in wild birds and some poultry in the US. Notably, it is the same genotype seen in a Canadian teenager who was also hospitalized in critical condition from the virus last month. The D1.1. genotype is not the same as the one circulating in US dairy cows, which is the B3.13 genotype.

Louisiana resident in critical condition with H5N1 bird flu Read More »