November 1, 2024: The ISS is leaking, ADHD carries on into adulthood, and flooding wreaks havoc in Spain. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Cars are piled in the street with other debris after flash floods hit the region on October 30, 2024 in the Sedaví area of Valencia, Spain. David Ramos/Getty Images | | | • Catastrophic flooding kills at least 95 people in Spain. It's the "dramatic reality" of climate change, says European Commission president. | 2 min read | | | • A heart attack unleashes immune cells that stimulate neurons in the brain to promote deep, healing sleep. | 3 min read | | | • The outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election could reshape policies from health care at home to nuclear proliferation abroad. This is the essential Science, Quickly rundown. | 20 min listen | | | If you're enjoying all the science we cover in this newsletter, dive deeper with a subscription to Scientific American. You'll have access to all our articles and will be supporting crucial science journalism. | | | The International Space Station is pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour on Nov. 8, 2021. NASA (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) | | | The International Space Station is leaking air. A pinhole-size hole (maybe two) continuously releases small amounts of air from inside. On a bad day last April the station was losing 3.7 pounds of atmosphere per day (the air above any given square inch of Earth's surface at sea level weighs, on average, just under 15 pounds). The leaking was discovered in 2019, and although it has been isolated to a tunnel that acts as a sort of "back porch," attempts to stem the air loss have been only partially successful.
How this happened: The leaks are a reminder of how long the ISS has spent in orbit. The oldest segments launched in 1998. Since then spacecraft have arrived and departed, and rockets have pushed the spacecraft higher above Earth to counteract its sink. Plus, materials degrade from exposure to cosmic radiation, and they expand and shrink with each of the 16 sunrises and sunsets the ISS experiences a day.
What the experts say: NASA hopes the spacecraft will not require expensive maintenance before it's due to be dismantled after 2030. Ideally, any future proposed space stations could learn from ISS's leak problems. "Once you've identified this as a potential concern, you can be smarter about future designs," says David Klaus, an aerospace engineering professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. "If you're clever, you don't have the same failures twice. It happens once; you fix it and move on. | | | Multiple studies have shown that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often continues from childhood into adulthood. The estimated prevalence in adults is around 2.5 to 3 percent (compared with 5 to 6 percent in children), though rates in adults could be as high as 9 percent, depending on how it is diagnosed. The first guidelines for diagnosing and treating ADHD in adults are now being developed by the American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders.
Why this matters: Because of the current lack of screening, many adults who might benefit from treatment aren't getting it. It's unlikely that the condition arises in adulthood, but it may worsen during stressful times.
What the experts say: "It appears to be a condition that waxes and wanes," says clinical psychologist Margaret H. Sibley of the University of Washington School of Medicine. "There is likely a role of environment in turning up or down the volume of somebody's difficulties." | | | • Oil and gas industry representatives and their supporters argue that fossil fuels aren't going away anytime soon, and those calling for decarbonization should be more "realistic" with their expectations for change. But "the truly realistic solution to climate change is 'deep decarbonization'—reorganizing our energy systems to rely on technologies that do not cause carbon pollution," writes Naomi Oreskes, a historian of science at Harvard University. "The fossil-fuel industry asserts that we cannot live without its products," she says. "It is not unreasonable to think we could, in the future, live in a less destructive manner than we do now. And if that aspiration appears to be unrealistic, then we need to find strategies to make it real." | 3 min read | | | Test your knowledge with today's science quiz (it's a tricky one!). Also, here's today's Spellements puzzle. Remember to send any science words that are missing from the puzzle to games@sciam.com. This week, both players D. Scott and Jim found liminal (in a boundary position). Great job, folks! | | | MOST POPULAR STORIES OF THE WEEK | | | • Sunken Temple of Ancient Arabian Civilization Found off Italy | 3 min read | • Plans to Trash the Space Station Preview a Bigger Problem | 8 min read | • Why Election Polling Has Become Less Reliable | 7 min read | | | • After decades of study, brain researchers finally discovered how the brain converts memories into long-term storage, called long-term potentiation. The key is the interaction of two molecules: a protein kinase called Mzeta, and another called KIBRA (kidney and brain expressed adaptor protein). The two molecules couple together and tag the specific neuronal synapses that lock in memories. | 6 min read | | | A synapse. Sebastian Kaulitzki/Science Photo Library/Getty Images | | | If you're looking to escape from a stressful news cycle or just enjoy snuggling up in cooler autumn weather with a good book, check out the science-fiction books recommended by the Scientific American staff. We love classics by Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan, and newer favorites by Pierce Brown and N. K. Jemisin. Check out the full list and let me know what you pick! | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
One New York Plaza, New York, NY, 10004 | | | | | | Support our mission, subscribe to Scientific American | | | | | | | | | |
