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SPONSORED BY  | | January 29, 2025: We must clean up space junk, a pristine ancient forest is discovered in the Rockies, and welcome to the Year of the Snake. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Long-frozen whitebark pines emerge from a melting ice patch in the Yellowstone region. Daniel Stahle, Montana State University | | | • Two Senate committees will question Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week about his qualifications to be secretary of Health and Human Services. Here's what you need to know about the hearings. | 5 min read | | | • On the Chinese zodiac's 12-year lunar cycle, 2025 is the Year of the Snake. Here are seven cool science facts about snakes, including the physics of how they climb without limbs, and the evolution of venomous snakes' fangs (shudder). | 5 min read | | | If humans want to keep launching spacecraft, we need to address our space junk problem and adopt a "circular space economy," writes Moriba Jah, professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. The first step is to design spacecraft that minimize pollution and can be re-used; the second step is to repair broken satellites in orbit to extend their lifetimes; the third step is to recycle defunct satellites; and lastly, to retrieve and reprocess space debris.
Why this matters: Currently more than 10,000 active spacecraft and 25,000 pieces of trackable human-made junk larger than 10 centimeters orbit Earth. SpaceX, Amazon and other organizations plan to launch tens of thousands more satellites in the coming years. If we keep up this pace of junking up all the orbital regions, we may lose services we've come to rely on, says Jah: continuous communications, GPS mapping, Internet, Earth monitoring, and more. Not to mention we might lose the ability to launch new space missions.
What can be done: SpaceX is developing reusable rocket technology (like the boosters on the Falcon 9 rockets that can return to Earth after being detached after launch). But no industry-wide regulation requires more sustainable design. Private companies, on their own or in partnership with government agencies, have launched missions to remove debris by taking it out of orbit. "The establishment of a circular space economy is not just an option but a necessity for the sustainable future of space exploration," writes Jha. | | | Jen Christiansen; Source: "Satellite Statistics: Satellite and Debris Population," Jonathan's Space Report (data) | | | SPONSORED CONTENT BY NMDP | The Future of Blood Stem Cell Transplants Is Here | Blood stem cell transplants using cells from a donor offer a promising cure for people with blood cancers or disorders. Before, not everyone had a suitable donor, leaving many without options for a cure. Now science is changing what's possible. Learn more. | | | | • In the short time that large language models (LLMs) have been on the scene, they've had moments of behaving very badly—replying to queries with death threats and insults. AI developers who claim that they're programming chatbots whose behavior is "aligned" with human morality are ignoring the infinite response options that LLMs may learn in the future (and which may cause them to veer off into bad behavior), writes Marcus Arvan, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Tampa. "'Adequately aligned' LLM behavior can only be achieved in the same ways we do this with human beings: through police, military and social practices that incentivize 'aligned' behavior, deter 'misaligned' behavior and realign those who misbehave," he says. | 4 min read | | | • Three young scientists set traps to snap photos of the only mammal never before captured on film: the Mount Lyell shrew. | The Guardian | • A powerful new AI tool called GeoSpy is trained on millions of images that can find the location a photo was taken based on soil, architecture, and more. | 404 Media | | | • Archeologists in Sicily found a mask from the second or first century B.C.E. that may depict Medusa. | Gizmodo | | | One of the first concepts taught in an environmental science class is called the "tragedy of the commons." Under this principle, individuals act in their own self interest to exploit a public resource, like a pasture or lake, spoiling it for everyone else (along with the resource's own intrinsic value). Why is this a ( not uncontroversial) foundational principle of environmental science? Because so many issues facing Earth (and now low-Earth orbit) result from human actions that do not take into account the long-term goals of humanity. I'm assuming one of those goals is for more than a few of us to stay alive AND thrive. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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