December 11, 2024: Today we're covering tiny energy grids, NASA's Artemis program and the back condition spondylolisthesis. —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | | Cats and dogs likely experience dreams in a similar way as humans. chendongshan/Getty Images | | | • Luigi Mangione said he had the back condition spondylolisthesis. What is it? | 2 min read | | | Solar panels on the roof of businesses contribute to the microgrid local power network in Castaner, Puerto Rico. Alejandro Granadillo/Bloomberg via Getty Images | | | To improve local climate resilience, more U.S. communities and towns in the past several years have invested in self-contained power generation, storage and distribution systems, known as microgrids. Typically, these hyperlocal grids serve as short-term solutions that maintain power until a region's wider grid returns to service, reports Scientific American contributor Lauren Leffer. Some of the nation's centralized power plants are sited at elevations that flood nowadays. And parts of our wider grid lack redundancy or have not been well maintained. Meanwhile, the rise in extreme weather events is resulting in a growing number of power outages. In the past decade or so, the number of weather-related power outages in the U.S. doubled compared with 2000 to 2009, according to the non-profit Climate Central.
How it works: Whereas Hurricane Helene left tens of thousands of people in North Carolina without power more than a week later, the small mountain town of Hot Springs, N.C., restored power to its local gas station, grocery store, diner and fire station within five days, thanks to its renewables-sourced microgrid.
What the experts say: "Energy isn't just about keeping the lights on. It's about being able to power medical equipment. It's about being able to keep people healthy and safe," says Jenny Brennan, at the Southern Environmental Law Center. | | | Crewed Moon-Mission Delay | The planned launch of Artemis II, a NASA mission set to return humans to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, will be delayed from September 2025 to April 2026, the agency announced. The mission's four-person crew is meant to fly around the moon and back to Earth in an Orion capsule. But NASA is currently investigating an issue that arose during the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022, which was related to the primary material in Orion's heat shield. Post-flight inspections revealed pits in the epoxy resin material at more than 100 spots on the heat shield, reports freelance science journalist Michael Greshko.
What happened: The pitting resulted partly from the mission's reentry flight plan, during which Orion dipped in and out of Earth's atmosphere to slow the craft's descent. The flight pattern allowed gas-generating thermal energy to build up in the heat shield, which led to cracks in the resin material. In the future, the resin's permeability will be improved, and flight plans will be adjusted to reduce heating.
What the experts say: "We do not fly until we are ready. We do not fly until we are confident that we have made the flight as safe as possible for the humans onboard. We need to do this next test flight, and we need to do it right—and that's how the Artemis campaign proceeds," said NASA administrator Bill Nelson. | | | • Large language models that are starting to serve personalized memes, articles and podcasts as we spend time online are not doing us any favors, write Carl T. Bergstrom, of the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington, and C. Brandon Ogbunu, of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University. These bespoke AI experiences threaten to wall us off from reality and facts. Even in a best-case scenario, "we will no longer inhabit one of several competing filter bubbles; each of us will be in our own private filter bubble," Bergstrom and Ogbunu write. | 4 min read | | | • What the fight between big insurer Anthem and anesthesiologists was really about. | Vox | | | Having lived several years in the Bronx, I am nearly fluent in the local patois. For example, in a diner, one might be asked, "Youse want coffee?" For more about "youse" and its relationship to "y'all" and "yinz," read this Texas Monthly essay, "In defense of 'y'all,' a perfect word." | —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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