Lithium was created in the Big Bang. Now, this light metal has become crucial for modern technology. The recent discovery of a massive amount of lithium in southern California could change everything. But at what cost? It’s “Lithium Valley” on Big Picture Science.
Listen: https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/lithium-valley
From tracking a rare interstellar visitor to revealing hidden star systems, the SETI Institute is at the forefront of space science. Explore four recent stories showcasing our role in groundbreaking discoveries and global scientific collaboration.
Read the full stories: https://www.seti.org/news/seti-institute-in-the-news-2025-july-roundup/
PRESS RELEASE: https://www.seti.org/news/skymapper-and-seti-institute-team-up-to-map-the-entire-sky-all-the-time/
Today, the SETI Institute announced a strategic collaboration with SkyMapper, the world’s leading decentralized global astronomy and space science network. Together, they plan to deliver continuous, real-time astronomical data to scientists, educators, and enthusiasts worldwide.
Remarkable advance in basic chemistry: Researchers have created hexanitrogen, composed of six bound nitrogen atoms. It's the most energetic molecule ever made!
If it can be made & stored in bulk (big if) it could be a powerful rocket fuel or energy storage material.
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/most-energetic-molecule-ever-made-is-stable-in-liquid-nitrogen/4021662.article
#science #tech #chemistry
You don't see toys like this around anymore. The Atomic Energy Lab set was available from 1951 to 1952 and sold for a whopping $50.
"The set came with four types of uranium ore, a beta-alpha source, a pure beta source, a gamma source, a spinthariscope, a cloud chamber, an electroscope, a geiger counter, and a manual."
More here 🤯:
https://interestingengineering.com/culture/radioactive-toy-deemed-world-most-dangerous
A resident of northern #Arizona has died from Pneumonic Plague.
#Plague is rare to humans, w/ on avg ~7 cases reported annually in the #US, most of them in the western states, acc/to federal #health ofcls.
The death in #CoconinoCounty, which includes #Flagstaff, was the first recorded death from pneumonic plague since 2007, local ofcls said. Further details including the identify of the victim were not released.
#PublicHealth #Science #Medicine #HHS #RFKJr #Trump
https://apnews.com/article/pneumonic-plague-death-arizona-2c32ed6bd4a86be3d38828fe69aeb68b
Interstellar clouds are brewing rich organic chemistry. Astronomers just detected a complex molecule called cyanocoronene (C₂₄H₁₁CN) floating between the stars in Taurus.
We don't know if life is common in the universe. But prebiotic chemistry sure is.
https://public.nrao.edu/news/cosmic-chemistry-breakthrough-largest-aromatic-molecule-found-in-deep-space/ #science #space #technology
Humans have wanted to live longer for centuries. A drug discovered decades ago might show promise. Read more from @ScienceAlert:
From ATP to MRI: Mildred Cohn's Pioneering Work in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
By Dale DeBakcsy
Exhumed and Exhaled
Charles Babbage breathes in the past.
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/memory/exhumed-and-exhaled
Charles Babbage at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/556
The FDA allowed into the United States at least 150 drugs or their ingredients made at banned factories that were found to have mold, foul water, dirty labs or fraudulent testing protocols.
Key takeaways of our investigation:
https://www.propublica.org/article/fda-drug-safety-foreign-manufacturers-takeaways?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #FDA #Drugs #Safety #Health #Medicine #Pharma #Science #Lab
You'll be hearing a lot about the amazing new Vera Rubin Observatory today. Here's a peek at its most important feature: an unusual optical design that gives it a HUGE field of view, allowing it to scan the entire visible universe, over and over.
https://www.lsst.org/about/tel-site/optical_design #science #technology #astrodon
BREAKING NEWS
Orcas seen grooming each other with kelp, in a first for marine tool use
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/23/killer-whales-kelp-grooming-tool-use
Could a “great act of moral imagination” save our imperiled watersheds and their rivers? Writer Robert Macfarlane presents the case for why rivers are alive, on this week's Big Picture Science.
Listen here: https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/the-rights-of-rivers
The invention of the screw was over 2300 years ago. Yet this simple object remains the fastener in nearly every modern-day invention. This week, Big Picture Science unwinds the history and importance of ingenious and deceptively simple devices in “Nuts and Bolts”. Listen: https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/nuts-and-bolts #podcast #science
#PPOD: This video, made from images taken by Parker Solar Probe’s WISPR instrument during its record-breaking flyby of the Sun on Dec. 25, 2024, shows the solar wind racing out from the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Lab
Next #SETILive: A Vaporizing Planet
TODAY, Jul 17, 2025 | 3:30 PM PDT / 6:30 PM EDT
Join communications specialist Beth Johnson for a live interview with astrophysicist Marc Hon (MIT), lead author of a new study revealing one of the most extreme exoplanets ever discovered — a small, rocky world that's literally disintegrating as it orbits its star.
WATCH LIVE: https://www.youtube.com/live/kcMRyGUYR_g?si=NAl-ASSBYvkBlXOZ
#PPOD: HOPS-315 is a baby star where astronomers have observed early planet formation. The image from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and JWST data shows hot minerals starting to solidify.
In orange, we see the distribution of carbon monoxide, blowing away from the star in a butterfly-shaped wind. In blue, we see a narrow jet of silicon monoxide, also beaming away from the star.
Credit: ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/M. McClure et al.
My latest cartoon for @newscientist.com 🧪 #science
Pure idiocy
#EPA Says It Will Eliminate Its #Scientific #Research Arm
The decision comes after a #SCOTUS ruling allowing the #Trump admin to slash the federal work force & dismantle agencies.
#science #Climate #ClimateCrisis #idiocracy #law #UnitedStates #BrainDrain
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/climate/epa-firings-scientific-research.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Xk8.l81V.O4DgmQBqHXzk&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
No new #SETILive #podcast this week, so let's go back to April 1 and an interesting exoplanet called HD 20794 d with an eccentric orbit. The temperature differences make it a great place to study a planet's potential habitability! Listen to the whole show: https://sites.libsyn.com/462636/super-earth-laboratory-using-hd-20794-d-to-understand-habitability
Exclusive: US #CDC #vaccine presentation cites study that does not exist, author says
A review on the use of the preservative thimerosal in vaccines slated to be presented on Thursday to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's outside vaccine committee cites a study that does not exist, the scientist listed as the study's author said.
#Trump #RFKJr #AI #HHS #science #medicine #idiocracy #kakistocracy
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-cdc-report-shows-no-evidence-linking-thimerosal-containing-vaccines-autism-2025-06-24/
🚨 Astronomers have witnessed the dawn of a new solar system!
Using ALMA and JWST they observed the first specks of planet-forming material — hot minerals beginning to solidify around HOPS-315, a baby star 1300 light-years away.
This marks the first time a planetary system has been identified at such an early stage in its formation – a window to the past of our own Solar System.
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2512a/
#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science
📷 ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/M. McClure et al
