US in real danger of losing the moon race to China, experts tell Senate

The US Senate convened a hearing about the space program which they titled "Bad Moon on the Rise."  Because, you know, there are no other pressing needs for the senate to tackle right now.  <sarcasm=high>

The central theme was that without Artemis (the planned moon mission that is waaaaay behind schedule), and the Lunar Gateway Space Station (that is intended to replace the ISS, and which just started construction and should be ready for a 2030 space deployment) adhering to the planned schedules,  China will reach the moon before the US.

The important takeaway is: 

Witnesses underscored that delays, budget uncertainty, or wavering commitments could undermine both U.S. industry and international alliances, warning that uncertainty could drive partners and suppliers toward China's accelerating lunar mission technologies.

And that right there. That's exactly what this administration set out to do with budget cuts, installing stupid people at the head of the agency, and generally not having a clue what they are doing.

Having a Senate committee look into it is nice, but doesn't change the facts.  China will win this battle and get to the moon before we return.  But hey, maybe we can be first to Mars.

https://www.space.com/astronomy/moon/us-in-real-danger-of-losing-the-moon-race-to-china-experts-tell-senate

Make the plague great again!

Flori-duh is doing what it does best: leading the world in stupidity. 

Yep, Florida announced an end to any and all vaccine mandates for any public type things. Which includes schools. 

Adults get sick and die, that's on them. But kids dying as a result of poor decisions by parents? That's just sad. 

Funny how the gop is all about being pro-life before birth, but afterwards not so much. 

Woman loses thousands of dollars to romance scammer posing as astronaut in distress, police in Japan say

While I do feel bad for this poor lady, the story is actually kind of hilarious. 

In short: the guy said he was an astronaut *in space* and needed money to buy oxygen. 

Ummmm. From where, exactly? The convenience store around the corner? Another space station? 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/woman-romance-scam-fake-astronaut-distress-japan/

Rare ancient gold discovery made by Florida student at archaeological site

The student archaeologists went into the field and were given some parameters on what to do. And one student managed to make a find from 1,500 years ago almost right away. 

Quite a lucky find. And definitely worth sharing. 

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/archaeology-student-finds-rare-ninth-century-gold-within-the-first-90-minutes-of-her-first-excavation

100-year-old chemistry rule proven false, textbook updates needed

I love the fact that scientists understand that what we know and observe is sometimes subject to change based on new information. 

It's what mouth breathers use to try and undermine scientific endeavor, because they really do not understand what makes it great. 

Here's a case where a chemist wrote rules around chemical bonds. And that rule held up to scrutiny for about 100 years and thus chemistry always taught it to us. 

But now, we've discovered that this rule is *not always* true and it upends some of what we know. 

I appreciate that the article notes this:

Next time someone says something is impossible, ask whether anyone has actually tried it recently. You might be surprised by what is possible when you stop assuming and start experimenting.

Yes! Experiment and learn! 

https://www.earth.com/news/100-year-old-chemistry-rule-bredts-rule-double-bonds-bridge-ring-system-proven-false/

Ancient Greek skull rewrites human evolutionary timeline | The Jerusalem Post

Setting aside for a moment that this article was at least partially written by AI and its sourcing is a little hard to track down, the notion that a skull was found in Greece that doesn't (appear to) conform with what we know about early humans and their migratory patterns, is interesting. 

And finding a skull of a humanoid that old is always intriguing. 

But some things I noticed while researching the article sources: 1. scientists are apparently a little split on what humanoid this skull descends from and how it got into this cave. So there may be more to this story than we are seeing here. 2. People called out the misleading nature of the headline and the story supporting it. And 3. People in The US, unlike other places that simply want to know more, also reacted to finding a skull from a humanoid that is many tens of thousands of years old because "there is no such thing as evolution," "the earth is only 3,000 years old so the method to date it must be wrong," and "god created man. Full stop"

Why can't we simply accept some science and seek to understand more?!

https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-866012

Scientists Engineer Yeast to Create Honey Bee Superfood – Colonies Grew 15-Fold

What an interesting way to help prevent - and likely reverse - the problem of bee colony collapse. 

If we can engineer food that helps them grow, then maybe we can save the plant life that ultimately depend on the bees. 

That's cool. 

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/scientists-engineer-yeast-to-create-honey-bee-superfood-colonies-grew-15-fold/