Today in Science: Cheers to earth-friendly cocktails!

Science, insight, inspiration June 30, 2023: A cold, hard look at what's in your summer cocktail, the stunning human impact on other animals and AI predicts pop hits (or claims to). Enjoy and happy Friday! —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor TOP STORIES Essential Icing Ice–that indispensable component of modern life–has a downside: it takes a lot of energy (and water) to make it and keep it. Cocktail culture is particularly centered around ice. Some energy-conscious cocktail experts are innovating how they make drinks in an effort to go easy on the ice–pre-diluting drinks or creating drink recipes that use minimal ice, or by replacing crushed ice with liquid nitrogen in some drinks. Others are getting ice blocks delivered to their bars instead of installing energy-gobbling ice machines. Why this matters: A single bar might use 200-300 pounds per night. Less efficient ice machines can require up to 100 gallons of water to produce 100 pounds of ice. What the experts say: It's hard to find a decent ice replacement though. For example, "whiskey stones are so stupid," says Jennifer Colliau, a mixologist in California. "You can make the stones cold, and you can put them in your whiskey, but [because they don't melt] there is so little thermal transfer of energy that your whiskey won't get cold." Ultimate Predators Humans capture more terrestrial vertebrate species for medicine, the exotic pet trade and other uses than we do for food, according to a new study of how humans affect species' extinction risk. Humans target some 15,000 vertebrate species, amounting to one third of all such species on Earth.  Why this matters: Our ecological impact, the researchers found, is 1,300 times larger than that of comparable predators (wolves, bears). When they assessed species by habitat type, they found that humans have the greatest impact on the ocean. What the experts say: The findings are clear evidence that humans are novel predators. If anything the study's conclusions are conservative, says Kaitlyn Gaynor an ecologist at the University of British Columbia. "We of course don't have perfect information on every single species that people are using," she says. Credit: Amanda Montañez; Source: "Humanity's Diverse Predatory Niche and Its Ecological Consequences," by Chris T. Darimont et al., in Communications Biology. Published online June 29, 2023 (data) TODAY'S NEWS • On July 1, the European Space Agency's Euclid telescope is set to launch from Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission will be probing dark energy and dark matter in the universe. | 6 min read • President Joe Biden has been using a CPAP machine to treat his sleep apnea, according to White House officials. Here's how it works and why more people should consider using one. | 6 min read • A new study suggests AI can analyze cardiac activity to predict whether a song will be a hit before it's released. | 8 min read • The Inflation Reduction Act passed into law last year could drive down U.S. emissions by as much as 48 percent by 2035, according to a new analysis. | 3 min read • For the first time, scientists have seen neutrinos originating from the central disk of the Milky Way. | 6 min read The IceCube Lab in Antartica detected neutrinos from the center of the Milky Way. Credit: Martin Wolf, IceCube/NSF More News EXPERT PERSPECTIVES • Yes, the new director of the CDC Mandy Cohen needs to improve communication and efficiency of the agency. But mostly she needs to focus her leadership around the people she'll be serving in order to rebuild public trust, writes Dave A. Chokshi, a physician and professor of medicine who previously served as the 43rd health commissioner of New York City. | 6 min read More Opinion ICYMI (Our most-read stories of the week) • A "Captured" Alien Planet May Be Hiding at the Edge of Our Solar System | 2 min read • A 25-Year-Old Bet about Consciousness Has Finally Been Settled | 7 min read • We're Building Things Based on a Climate We No Longer Live In | 5 min read Yes, they may be energetically costly, but I still wish you an icy-cold beverage this holiday weekend. Thanks for reading Today in Science this week! We'll be off for two days for the 4th of July, so I'll see you back here on Wednesday, the 5th.  You can email me in the meantime with any feedback on this newsletter: newsletters@sciam.com. Enjoy a restful weekend! —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters here. Scientific American One New York Plaza, New York, NY, 10004   Support our mission, subscribe to Scientific American here   Unsubscribe Email Preferences