Environmental News

Intuitive Machines commercial lander is softly on moon. Its uplink signals are very weak so far. High-gain antenna may be pointed wrong, or something that would interfere with mission goals. 'They' are working the problem.

 

Starship (the big methane stove in Texas) may do as many as 9 test flights in 2024. With first in 2 weeks or so.

SpaceX seeks a waiver to launch Starship “at least” nine times this year | Ars Technica

 

"why Starship technologies were not used in next generation Falcon 9. Methox fuel and hot staging come to mind"

Motivations to change technology do not seem compelling. From way out here in the countryside. Falcon works well enough as it is. They have had about 300 launches with that, correct?

 

I have been compiling global and regional open databases of climates, soils, soil microbiology, chemical fluxes, tree distributions and biodiversity. I believe I got most, or at least enough. It is amazing in scope. It includes most everything except global forest litterfall and wood turnover. Those are what we would add to list of open databases. Those have been studied in >5000 places (we're still counting) and represent most of what forests 'do'.

Adding these are massive projects. Many peoples' help will be required, and errors in data extraction from publications must be caught and corrected. Somehow. When these databases are developed, they can be use explore questions WRT those other databases already existing. And worker bees get first shot at writing high-impact manuscripts therefrom. This is our incentive, lacking any other.

I and the gang are standing at an interesting precipice

 

Intuitive Machines turned out to be sideways and has sent a few selfies back, but that may be its total work done on moon. Japan's SLIM is also sideways and woke up after the long cold night. Dun no what it may be capable of.

 

I post few obits here but this was a heckuva guy:

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2321318121

He made it to 103 yrs which is notable for anyone. But during those he advanced the field of statistics quite a lot. Selfless, hypercompetent and elegant. He stood in absolute contrast to those who, knowing so little, malign the field of statistics as if it mirrored their sad world views.

 

Math in statistics is complicated and hard and much of it is beyond me. Now there exist tools to ease our way, but they do not require users to understand what they do. For my part, I find that journal reviewers with deeper understanding than mine have held the line and I appreciate that. I might generalize to say that lines of statistical inference are being pretty well held. But I cannot in all cases be sure of it.

I would if I could have a Rao - like person looking over my shoulder at every step. But those are in short supply.

 

Genetically engineered pigs for disease resistance:

Gene-Edited Pork Could Be Coming Soon to Your Dinner Plate | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine

The gene editing does not introduce genomic elements from another species, so it is not a chimera, so there may be no legal barriers. The argument presented against is that pig farms are super crowded. That it would be better to spread them out for lower disease transmission. I have thought on that having seen piggeries. These are social animals, unless they are physically separated they will sleep in piles. A matter of preference. So yes, they can be spread out, but might not enjoy it.

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Not enough helium:

Are we really running out of helium?

Point is well made that Earth's core continuously generates helium. If existing mined geological traps are big enough, or could be enlarged, then there would be no helium shortage. Fair enough. But unless or until such adjustments are made, there could be years with inadequate supplies and therefore higher costs. No short term cure is presented.

Serious requirements are biomedical (MRI scanners from which word 'nuclear' has been edited as a scary word). Basic research with nuclear magnetic resonance (visited those as well, you don't go in that room when the magnet is on). Rocketry to keep fuel tanks pressurized as they drain out, and mag lev trains. A few blimps with more in future. Smallest is recreational use I think.

Didja know that one of the Goodyear blimps flies around China? I have never seen it. I live out in the sticks.

 

Environmental DNA from citizen scientists:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00520-y

This will be interesting. Sorry to see Lake Baikal getting missed it's a heckuva place. Fella in photo has his gloves on which is good unless he touched their exteriors. Ball cap is not good enough to keep human DNA out of sample. Not that citizen scientists are a bad choice, but this is the most persnickety work you can imagine. Project will collect a lot of human DNA, which needs to be dealt with in workflow.

Bunny suits (polyethylene) are cheap and were high fashion earlier in COVID. That's the way to dress for environmental DNA.

 

Stirring the pot, sorry:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00577-9

Benefits far outweigh risks in my opinion. But tribes gon na tribe.

 

Good. Welding may beat party (and surveillance balloons ) as beneficial.

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Just as helium low density makes amusing high voices, argon's high density goes the opposite way. NOT SAFE DO NOT DO. But if you must, give some brisk coughs after because Ar needs expulsion from yer lung bottoms.

 

Unhappy news of the day (not including all of it )

Small scale, activists tree up to prevent Tesla expansion:

Activists occupy German forest to block Tesla expansion

Background. Germany is a very forested country locally loved for that. There may be ways for Tesla to soften this with watershed analyses and compensatory planting elsewhere. But they'd need to hire some Loraxes

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Large scale, Canada Alberta puts the squeeze on renewable energy projects:

Canada's oil-rich Alberta curbs new wind, solar projects

Background. Alberta still does a lot of this. Bribes/inducements/considerations are not getting into the correct hands Or B/I/C are flowing better from the fossileers.

 

Yellowstone fungus making both meat-like and dairy-like proteins with good balance of amino acids:

How a Microbe From Yellowstone's Hot Springs Could Help Feed the World | Innovation| Smithsonian Magazine

 

Musk Starship may fly again on March 14, awaiting final FAA approval (see at Arstechnica or similar). I wonder if our Bob or others are planning to go see the show?

They have not yet static fired first stage this time, which seems to be a thing people expect to happen.