Today in Science: How cats land on their feet

Science, insight, inspiration July 24, 2023: Undersea freshwater aquifers, the "Man in the Moon" is older than we thought and the physics of how cats always land on their feet. Enjoy! —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor TOP STORIES Under the Sea One million cubic kilometers of freshwater may be stored underground below the sea floor within 150 kilometers of seashores worldwide (for reference, New York City consumes about 1.4 cubic kilometers a year). Researchers pinged the ocean floor off the coast of New Jersey with electromagnetic fields. The return signal differs between salt and freshwater in the rocks, giving the researchers an indication of where freshwater might be.  Why this matters: Only 2.5 percent of all the surface water on Earth is freshwater. Such undersea reservoirs could be a valuable resource in the coming years as water scarcity intensifies.   What the experts say: We need to learn more about these marine aquifers. Pumping freshwater from these sources could disrupt essential land aquifers or cause cave-ins or sinking of the seafloor.  Older Man in the Moon The dark area of dried lava that looks like a face smiling from the lunar surface may be as much as 200 million years older than scientists once thought. Scientists have firm ages only for moon rock samples gathered from moon missions in the 1960s and 70's, and from the recent Chinese sampling mission. In new work, the researchers used orbital data, which can indicate how a rock responds to different types of light, to check whether these sample rocks actually formed where they were collected, correcting scientists' sense of lunar time. Why this matters: Scientists extrapolate from the moon's craters to determine surface ages on planets, moons and asteroids throughout the solar system. For example, the recalibration might mean habitable conditions on Mars didn't last as long as scientists think. What the experts say: "It's like changing the clock for all solar system objects," says Stephanie Werner, a planetary scientist at the University of Oslo in Norway and co-author of the latest study. TODAY'S NEWS • Evidence of 1,800-year-old spices found in southern Vietnam push back the date of the earliest arrival of these flavors in Southeast Asia. | 5 min read • Astrophysicist Aomawa Shields--one of only 26 black women to become an astrophysicist in American history--recounts her alternative career path in a new memoir about life, space and motherhood. | 5 min read • Here's how we can adapt to extreme heat. | 6 min read • Cats always land on their feet by exploiting the physical laws of classical mechanics, and they can survive falls from extreme heights. | 9 min read Photographs taken in 1894. Credit: The Picture Art Collection/Alamy Stock Photo More News EXPERT PERSPECTIVES • Many city office buildings have stood mostly vacant since the pandemic. Converting an office building to a multi-family residential occupancy is possible, though not cheap, write Jenny Baker and Leah Mo, both building engineers at Iowa State University. | 5 min read More Opinion Welcome to a new week. Did you get to the movies? If you saw "Oppenheimer" and have questions about the science, here's a great explainer on the Manhattan Project. Let me know what you thought of the film. Any other questions or suggestions, please send them to: newsletters@sciam.com. See you tomorrow! —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor P.S. One of the links I included in Friday's newsletter may not have worked for you. It led to our story about how the government stormed our printing offices and burned 3,000 copies of Scientific American in 1950. It's a wild story if you get a chance to read it!  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