Science Saturday

I’m gonna try my hand at keeping up a new series. Every Saturday I’ll collect some interesting science news articles and link them here. I think it’ll be a good way to remind myself what’s real, and what’s sci-fi. I’ll give some opinions as well, just for good measure.

I present: Science Saturday

 

ScienceNews: Hurricane Michael

This week, Hurricane Michael dealt a destructive blow to the florida panhandle. Making landfall as a category 4 hurricane, it was one of the strongest storms on record to make landfall on the mainland United States. This article discusses the formation of hurricanes, and how global climate change may be affecting that process.

 

Mother Jones: Save the Bees With Mushrooms

Since 2006, colony collapse disorder has had a huge detrimental effect on bee colonies in North America and abroad. The problem is concerning because of the vital role bees play as pollinators.  Though no singular cause has been associated with colony collapse, many experts attribute it to viruses infecting the worker bees. Now for the first time, researchers have developed a “vaccine” for bees, derived from a mushroom extract that may help protect the bees against viruses. Hopefully the queen bees aren’t anti-vaxxers

 

Space.com: Super-Fast Stars in the Milky Way

Astronomers looking through the latest data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia telescope have identified a number of stars moving through the Milky Way galaxy at tremendous speeds. Several of these stars  are moving fast enough that experts believe they may eventually be able to escape the Milky Way into intergalactic space. The direction at which some of these stars are moving may indicate that they originated in another galaxy.

 

The Washington Post: “Insect Allies”

The Pentagon is studying the possibility of using insects to carry genetically engineered viruses, for the purpose of protecting vital crops in the event of a large-scale threat. Critics of this program have been quick to point out that this technology could be easily applied as a biological weapon. Given that I’ve read at least one sci-fi novel that centered around a similar technology, I’m inclined to agree.

 

CNN: Hubble Telescope in Protective Shutdown.

One of the three gyroscopes that NASA’s Hubble telescope uses to aim has failed, causing NASA engineers to place the telescope into a protective shutdown while they work on a solution. This is not the first time a failure like this has occurred, and NASA does not anticipate the telescope being offline for much longer.

Stop by next Saturday for more science news.