Super cool Rocket Report: A good week for Blue Origin; Italy wants its own launch capability Blue Origin is getting ready to test-fire its first fully integrated New Glenn rocket in Florida. Stephen Clark Nov 28, 2024 7:00 am | 33 Blue Origin's first fully integrated New Glenn rocket rolls out to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Credit: Blue Origin Blue Origin's first fully integrated New Glenn rocket rolls out to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Credit: Blue Origin Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreWelcome to Edition 7.21 of the Rocket Report! We're publishing the Rocket Report a little early this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. We don't expect any Thanksgiving rocket launches this year, but still, there's a lot to cover from the last six days. It seems like we've seen the last flight of the year by SpaceX's Starship rocket. A NASA filing with the Federal Aviation Administration requests approval to fly an aircraft near the reentry corridor over the Indian Ocean for the next Starship test flight. The application suggests the target launch date is January 11, 2025.As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.Another grim first in Ukraine.For the first time in warfare, Russia launched an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile against a target in Ukraine, Ars reports. This attack on November 21 followed an announcement from Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier the same week that the country would change its policy for employing nuclear weapons in conflict. The IRBM, named Oreshnik, is the longest-range weapon ever used in combat in Europe, and could be refitted to carry nuclear warheads on future strikes.Putin's rationale ... Putin says his ballistic missile attack on Ukraine is a warning to the West after the US and UK governments approved Ukraine's use of Western-supplied ATACMS and Storm Shadow tactical ballistic missiles against targets on Russian territory. The Russian leader said his forces could attack facilities in Western countries that supply weapons for Ukraine to use on Russian territory, continuing a troubling escalatory ladder in the bloody war in Eastern Europe. Interestingly, this attack has another rocket connection. The target was apparently a factory in Dnipro that, not long ago, produced booster stages for Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket.Blue Origin hops again.Blue Origin launched its ninth suborbital human spaceflight over West Texas on November 22, CollectSpace reports. Six passengers rode the company's suborbital New Shepard booster to the edge of space, reaching an altitude of 347,661 feet (65.8 miles or 106 kilometers), flying 3 miles (4.8 km) above the Krmn line that serves as the internationally-accepted border between Earth's atmosphere and outer space. The pressurized capsule carrying the six passengers separated from the booster, giving them a taste of microgravity before parachuting back to Earth.Dreams fulfilled ... These suborbital flights are getting to be more routine, and may seem insignificant compared to Blue Origin's grander ambitions of flying a heavy-lift rocket and building a human-rated Moon lander. However, we'll likely have to wait many years before truly routine access to orbital flights becomes available for anyone other than professional astronauts or multimillionaires. This means tickets to ride on suborbital spaceships from Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic are currently the only ways to get to space, however briefly, for something on the order of $1 million or less. That puts the cost of one of these seats within reach for hundreds of thousands of people, and within the budgets of research institutions and non-profits to fund a flight for a scientist, student, or a member of the general public. The passengers on the November 22 flight included Emily Calandrelli, known online as "The Space Gal," an engineer, Netflix host, and STEM education advocate who became the 100th woman to fly to space. (submitted by Ken the Bin) The Ars Technica Rocket Report The easiest way to keep up with Eric Berger's and Stephen Clark's reporting on all things space is to sign up for our newsletter. We'll collect their stories and deliver them straight to your inbox.Sign Me Up!Rocket Lab flies twice in one day. Two Electron rockets took flight Sunday, one from New Zealands Mahia Peninsula and the other from Wallops Island, Virginia, making Rocket Lab the first commercial space company to launch from two different hemispheres in a 24-hour period, Payload reports. One of the missions was the third of five launches for the French Internet of Things company Kinis, which is building a satellite constellation. The other launch was an Electron modified to act as a suborbital technology demonstrator for hypersonic research. Rocket Lab did not disclose the customer, but speculation is focused on the defense contractor Leidos, which signed a four-launch deal with Rocket Lab last year.Building cadence ... SpaceX first launched two Falcon 9 rockets in 24 hours in 2021. This year, the company launched three Falcon 9s in a single day from pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, and Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Rocket Lab has now launched 14 Electron rockets this year, more than any other Western company other than SpaceX. "Two successful launches less than 24 hours apart from pads in different hemispheres. Thats unprecedented capability in the small launch market and one were immensely proud to deliver at Rocket Lab," said Peter Beck, the company's founder and CEO. (submitted by Ken the Bin)Italy to reopen offshore launch site. An Italian-run space center located in Kenya will once again host rocket launches from an offshore launch platform, European Spaceflight reports. The Italian minister for enterprises, Adolfo Urso, recently announced that the country decided to move ahead with plans to again launch rockets from the Luigi Broglio Space Center near Malindi, Kenya. "The idea is to give a new, more ambitious mission to this base and use it for the launch of low-orbit microsatellites," Urso said.Decades of dormancy ... Between 1967 and 1988, the Italian government and NASA partnered to launch nine US-made Scout rockets from the Broglio Space Center to place small satellites into orbit. The rockets lifted off from the San Marco platform, a converted oil platform in equatorial waters off the Kenyan coast. Italian officials have not said what rocket might be used once the San Marco platform is reactivated, but Italy is the leading contributor on the Vega C rocket, a solid-fueled launcher somewhat larger than the Scout. Italy will manage the reactivation of the space center, which has remained in service as a satellite tracking station, under the country's Mattei Plan, an initiative aimed at fostering stronger economic partnerships with African nations. (submitted by Ken the Bin)SpaceX flies same rocket twice in two weeks.Less than 14 days after its previous flight, a Falcon 9 booster took off again from Florida's Space Coast early Monday to haul 23 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit, Spaceflight Now reports. The booster, numbered B1080 in SpaceX's fleet of reusable rockets, made its 13th trip to space before landing on SpaceX's floating drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. The launch marked a turnaround of 13 days, 12 hours, and 44 minutes from this booster's previous launch November 11, also with a batch of Starlink satellites. The previous record turnaround time between flights of the same Falcon 9 booster was 21 days.400 and still going ... SpaceX's launch prior to this one was on Saturday night, when a Falcon 9 carried a set of Starlinks aloft from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The flight Saturday night was the 400th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010, and SpaceX's 100th launch from the West Coast. (submitted by Ken the Bin)Chinese firm launches upgraded rocket. Chinese launch startup LandSpace put two satellites into orbit late Tuesday with the first launch of an improved version of the Zhuque-2 rocket, Space News reports. The enhanced rocket, named the Zhuque-2E, replaces vernier steering thrusters with a thrust vector control system on the second stage engine, saving roughly 880 pounds (400 kilograms) in mass. The Zhuque-2E rocket is capable of placing a payload of up to 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms) into a polar Sun-synchronous orbit, according to LandSpace.LandSpace in the lead ... Founded in 2015, LandSpace is a leader among China's crop of quasi-commercial launch startups. The company hasn't launched as often as some of its competitors, but it became the first launch operator in the world to successfully reach orbit with a methane/liquid oxygen (methalox) rocket last year. Now, LandSpace has improved on its design to create the Zhuque-2E rocket, which also has a large niobium allow nozzle extension on the second stage engine for reduced weight. LandSpace also claims the Zhuque-2E is China's first rocket to use fully supercooled propellant loading, similar to the way SpaceX loads densified propellants into its rockets to achieve higher performance. (submitted by Ken the Bin)NASA taps Falcon Heavy for another big launch. A little more than a month after SpaceX launched NASA's flagship Europa Clipper mission on a Falcon Heavy rocket, the space agency announced its next big interplanetary probe will also launch on a Falcon Heavy, Ars reports. What's more, the Dragonfly mission the Falcon Heavy will launch in 2028 is powered by a plutonium power source. This will be the first time SpaceX launches a rocket with nuclear materials onboard, requiring an additional layer of safety certification by NASA. The agency's most recent nuclear-powered spacecraft have all launched on United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets, which are nearing retirement.The details Dragonfly is one of the most exciting robotic missions NASA has ever developed. The mission is to send an automated rotorcraft to explore Saturn's largest moon, Titan, where Dragonfly will soar through a soupy atmosphere in search of organic molecules, the building blocks of life. It's a hefty vehicle, about the size of a compact car, and much larger than NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter. The launch period opens July 5, 2028, to allow Dragonfly to reach Titan in 2034. NASA is paying SpaceX $256.6 million to launch the mission on a Falcon Heavy.(submitted by Ken the Bin)New Glenn is back on the pad. Blue Origin has raised its fully stacked New Glenn rocket on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ahead of pre-launch testing, Florida Today reports. The last time this new 322-foot-tall (98-meter) rocket was visible to the public eye was in March. Since then, Blue Origin has been preparing the rocket for its inaugural launch, which could yet happen before the end of the year. Blue Origin has not announced a target launch date.But first, more tests Blue Origin erected the New Glenn rocket vertical on the launch pad earlier this year for ground tests, but this is the first time a flight-ready (or close to it) New Glenn has been spotted on the pad. This time, the first stage booster has its full complement of seven methane-fueled BE-4 engines. Before the first flight, Blue Origin plans to test-fire the seven BE-4 engines on the pad and conduct one or more propellant loading tests to exercise the launch team, the rocket, and ground systems before launch day.Second Ariane 6 incoming. ArianeGroup has confirmed that the first and second stages for the second Ariane 6 flight have begun the transatlantic voyage from Europe to French Guiana aboard the sail-assisted transport ship Canope, European Spaceflight reports. The second Ariane 6 launch, previously targeted before the end of this year, has now been delayed to no earlier than February 2025, according to Arianespace, the rocket's commercial operator. This follows a mostly successful debut launch in July.An important passenger While the first Ariane 6 launch carried a cluster of small experimental satellites, the second Ariane 6 rocket will carry a critical spy satellite into orbit for the French armed forces. Shipping the core elements of the second Ariane 6 to the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, is a significant step in the launch campaign. Once in Kourou, the stages will be connected together and rolled out to the launch pad, where technicians will install two strap-on solid rocket boosters and the payload fairing containing France's CSO-3 military satellite.Next three launchesNov. 29: Soyuz-2.1a | Kondor-FKA 2 | Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia | 21:50 UTCNov. 30: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-65 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 05:00 UTCNov. 30: Falcon 9 | NROL-126 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | 08:08 UTCStephen ClarkSpace ReporterStephen ClarkSpace Reporter Stephen Clark is a space reporter at Ars Technica, covering private space companies and the worlds space agencies. Stephen writes about the nexus of technology, science, policy, and business on and off the planet. 33 Comments

E-mails and pop-up messages encouraging the use of multi-factor authentication or complex passwords made users throughout the world aware that last month was cybersecurity awareness month. Many are also still being reminded of -- and becoming numb to -- the personal stakes of cybersecurity breaches, thanks to free credit monitoring offers in the aftermath of far-too-regular personal data theft from the financial, healthcare, and human resources institutions that we trust to keep our information safe. But just as we didnt address the automotive safety threats addressed in Unsafe at Any Speed through either blind trust in existing safety features or a defeatism around the hazards of automotive accidents, we shouldnt allow the mounting stakes of cybersecurity to go unchecked.Given the pervasiveness of personal data theft as a cybercrime, its easy to believe that the consequences of a cyberattack would be limited to individual harm that can be detected and remedied through free credit monitoring and a messy-but-doable identity recovery process following a breach. Its equally easy to believe that the nation-state hackers who use sophisticated attacks that can cause not only individual financial and corporate reputational damage, but also massive societal impact, have limited their hacking to high-level government-controlled systems. However, recent events have proven that this is not the case.Related:Americans got their first taste of the potential physical and economic impact of a cyberattack in May 2021, when Eastern European cyber criminals caused the shutdown of Colonial Pipelines operations due to ransomware in its IT systems -- a breach that did not even directly impact the critical operational technology (OT) systems that control the pipeline itself. The criminal actors responsible were able to extract a multimillion-dollar ransom, most of which was recovered thanks to law enforcement collaboration. Criminal attacks against utilities remain ongoing, as evidenced by the August cyberattack against Halliburton; moreover, utilities and even the government wont always be able to pay their way out of a cyberattack.The next time America, or one of its close allies, experiences a major infrastructure attack, our credibility on the world stage and the sovereignty of our partners abroad may be at stake. A China-affiliated cyber actor, codenamed Volt Typhoon, was conducting low-profile hacks to be able to orchestrate a massive everything, everywhere, all at once cyberattack that could impact the availability of power and water across the United States. Such an attack would be used to weaken American resolve to support Taiwan in the event of an invasion or other hostile action, warned US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly in January 2025.Related:CISA, in partnership with US law enforcement and intelligence agencies, has built unprecedented intelligence sharing and cybersecurity collaboration mechanisms with critical infrastructure providers to mitigate this capability, but the drumbeat of attacks has not stopped. In the midst of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, an unattributed attack on American Water and a China-linked attack against US telecom providers that may have targeted lawful intercept capabilities were potent reminders that hackers arent just after our money --theyre also trying to jeopardize access to basic necessities and invade our privacy, even if theyre holding their full capabilities in reserve to strike at the moment thats most advantageous for them.As strong as the collaboration between government and critical infrastructure in the cybersecurity space has made us, its not enough to overcome the threat of highly sophisticated attackers using AI to target industrial systems, but also personal accounts and devices to gain a foothold in corporate networks. Software companies must incorporate more secure coding practices as CISA is encouraging with its Secure by Design and Default initiatives. Cybersecurity companies must keep innovating to create technologies that can defuse new types of attacks, like a browser-based attack developed in mid-2024 that could compromise a computer if a user so much as viewed a compromised image file.Related:But at the end of the day, its not enough that the US Government and corporations -- both those that deploy enterprise software and those who develop it -- emphasize cybersecurity. Each of us must realize that cybersecurity is a fundamental safety concern that merits due diligence in our day-to-day lives. In the automotive world, more than 60 years of life-threatening accidents occurred between the production of the Model T and the requirements for safety belts; it took 20 more years for laws requiring drivers and passengers to use them. Its been 30 years since the introduction of the World Wide Web to the public, and its evident that we dont have 80 years to only create, but also embrace, technology to enforce internet security and safety. The threats are accelerating, and neither the US Government nor free credit monitoring alone can save us.

Managing a network of region-specific cloud environments comes with its own set of challenges.

A robot inspired by Cheerios releasing alcohol fuel with a fluorescent dyeJackson K. Wilt et al. 2024The same phenomena that let beetles float across ponds and cause Cheerios to clusterOne of these, the Marangoni effect, arises when a fluid with a lower surface tension rapidly spreads out across the surface of a fluid with higher surface tension. This effect is exploited by Stenus beetles, which have evolved to zip across ponds by secreting a substance called stenusin, as well as soap-powered toy boats.To investigate how this could be used by engineers,Jackson Wilt at Harvard University and his colleagues 3D-printed round, plastic pucks around a centimetre in diameter. Inside each was an air chamber for buoyancy and a tiny fuel tank containing alcohol, which has a lower surface tension than water, in concentrations from 10 to 50 per cent. The alcohol gradually leaks out from the puck, propelling it across the surface of the water.AdvertisementThe team used alcohol as a fuel because it evaporates, unlike soap which eventually contaminates the water and spoils the Marangoni effect. It turned out that the stronger the alcohol, the better the result. Beer would be quite bad, says Wilt. Vodka is probably the best thing you could use. Absinthe youd have a lot of propulsion. At peak speeds, the robots moved at 6 centimetres per second, and some experiments saw the pucks propelled for as long as 500 seconds.By printing pucks with more than one fuel outlet and by sticking them together the researchers could also create larger devices that traced out wide curves or spun on the spot. Using multiple pucks also let the researchers investigate the Cheerios effect, which is when the cereal or other similar floating objects cluster. This occurs because they form a meniscus, or curved surface, in fluid, and these surfaces are attracted towards each other. The latest science news delivered to your inbox, every day.Sign up to newsletterWilt says that the 3D-printed devices could be useful in education to help students intuitively grasp concepts related to surface tension, but could also see applications in environmental or industrial processes if carefully designed to create more complex and elegant behaviour.For instance, if there was a substance that needs to be dispersed throughout an environment that could also serve as a suitable fuel, the robots could spread it around automatically. Lets say you have a body of water where you need to release some chemical, and you want to distribute it more evenly, or you have some chemical process in which you need to deposit the material over time, says Wilt. I feel like theres some really interesting behaviour here.ReferencearXiv DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2411.16011Topics:3D printing

A trackway of footprints thought to have been left by a Paranthropus boisei individualNeil T. RoachPreserved footprints in Kenya appear to record two different species of ancient humans walking over the same muddy lakeshore, probably within days of each other. It is one of the most dramatic demonstrations ever found that the world was once home to multiple hominin species living side by side.Its really exceptional that we find this evidence for two different species walking across that surface, says Kevin Hatala at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.The footprints were found in 2021 in Koobi Fora, Kenya, near the eastern shore of Lake Turkana. They were first spotted by team member Richard Loki at the Turkana Basin Institute, says Hatala: It was a team of Kenyans who were working there originally.AdvertisementPreserved in a dried-out layer of sand and silt, the team found a trackway consisting of 12 footprints (see image, above), evidently left by one individual walking in a straight line. There were also three isolated prints near the main group, seemingly made by three different individuals. The lack of signs of mud cracking or overprinting of tracks with others indicate that the prints were all made at about the same time. These sites probably capture a window of time anywhere from minutes to a few days or so, says Hatala.The sediment has been dated to about 1.52 million years ago. The isolated tracks resemble those left by modern humans: the heel struck the ground first, then the foot rolled forwards before pushing off with the sole. Hatala and his colleagues suggest that these were made by Homo erectus, which are known to have lived in the area. Keep up with advances in archaeology and evolution with our monthly newsletter.Sign up to newsletterIn contrast, the continuous trackway was made by a more flat-footed hominin. Hatala and his colleagues suggest this could have been Paranthropus boisei, another kind of hominin that lived in the region.The fossil footprint on the left with a deeper heel imprint is thought to have been made by a Homo erectus, the more flat-footed one on the right by a Paranthropus boiseiKevin Hatala/ChathamWith footprints, you can never be 100 per cent sure who made them, says Ashleigh Wiseman at University College London, who wasnt involved in the study. However, H. erectus and P. boisei are the only hominins whose remains have been found preserved in the area, so we can make an informed guess that it is those two.If the trackway really was made by a P. boisei individual, it shows that they walked bipedally, says Wiseman. While skulls, arm and leg bones have been attributed to Paranthropus, she says, we have never found a skull in association with the rest of the skeleton. That means we know little about their bodies apart from their heads, and their walking style has been a mystery. The trackway changes that: Its unequivocal evidence of walking on two legs.These two species were very different. H. erectus was one of the earliest members of our genus, Homo. They had larger brains than earlier hominins and became the first of the clade to travel outside Africa. In contrast, P. boisei were small-brained with large teeth and jaws, apparently adapted to eating chewy foods like grasses and sedges.Hatala and his team then looked at other known footprints discovered in the same region and time period and found that they seemed to match either one species or the other. We see a similar pattern at multiple other sites, and they might span more than 100,000 years, he says. It seems like these two species were coexisting on this same immediate landscape with one another for a very prolonged period of time.Were guessing that there was maybe low to neutral levels of competition between them, if they were able to coexist for more than 100,000 years, says Hatala. Previous research has suggested the two ate different foods. Unlike P. boisei, H. erectus is thought to have eaten a varied diet that included hunting large animals.Both of them could carve out their own existence in this shared landscape, says Hatala. Later, environmental shifts may have driven P. boisei to extinction, while the more adaptable H. erectus survived.Journal referenceScience DOI: 10.1126/science.adt8033Topics:

Nature, Published online: 28 November 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-03534-8Four researchers who left Serbia to pursue their careers rely on this group to keep in touch and to navigate life in science.

Nature, Published online: 28 November 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-03426-xAn immunologist and his illustrator friend reveal tips and tricks to help scientists to reach peak performance and creativity.

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. Whats next for NASAs giant moon rocket? NASAs huge lunar rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), might be in trouble. As rival launchers like SpaceXs Starship gather pace, some are questioning the need for the US national space agency to have its own mega rocket at allsomething that could become a focus of the incoming Trump administration, in which SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is set to play a key role. SLS has been in development for more than a decade. The rocket is huge, and about 15% more powerful than the Saturn V rocket that took the Apollo astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 70s. It is also expensive, costing an estimated $4.1 billion per launch. It was designed with a clear purposereturning astronauts to the moons surface. And while it seems likely the rocket will at least launch Artemis II next September, beyond that its future is less certain. Read the full story. Jonathan O'Callaghan This piece is part of MIT Technology Reviews Whats Next series, looking across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of them here. This startup is getting closer to bringing next-generation nuclear to the grid This is a busy time of year for all of us, and thats certainly true in the advanced nuclear industry. MIT Technology Review released our list of 15 Climate Tech Companies to Watch less than two months ago. Since then, awardee Kairos Power has had three big announcements about its progress toward building next-generation nuclear reactors. Each of these bits of news represents an interesting aspect of the process. So lets dig into the announcements and what they mean for where nuclear technology is going. Read the full story. Casey Crownhart This story is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things climate and energy. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday. The must-reads Ive combed the internet to find you todays most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 A Chinese ship may have sabotaged critical data cables By dragging its huge anchor along the Baltic seabed for over 100 miles. (WSJ $)+ Swedish authorities are investigating the bulk carrier. (FT $) 2 The FTC is probing Microsoft Its a wide-ranging antitrust investigation into its cloud computing, AI and security arms. (NYT $)+ The FTC has been preparing for this for a full year. (WP $)+ Its notable its been signed off in the Biden administrations dying days. (The Information $)+ Meanwhile, Google is hoping to have its recent antitrust ruling thrown out. (Bloomberg $)3 RFKs Make America Healthy Again movement is in trouble Just days into the project, cracks are already beginning to show. (FT $)+ The MAGA policy agenda is extremely skeptical of actual scientific evidence. (NYT $)+ Americas opioid crisis probably played a role in Trumps reelection. (New Yorker $)4 TikTok is blocking beauty filters for teenagers But the restrictions arent exactly difficult to circumvent. (The Guardian)+ Filters will be required to specify the nature of the tweaks they make, too. (The Verge)+ The fight for Instagram face. (MIT Technology Review)5 Who is applying to join Elon Musks DOGE?Everyone from students to tech CEOs, apparently. (Forbes $) + The division is highly likely to clash with the US governments budget office. (WSJ $)6 Interpol has arrested 1,000 potential cyber criminals across Africa Theyre suspected of extorting victims using ransomware, phishing schemes and scams. (WP $)7 Heres all the tariffs Chinas tech industry is facingIts not just the US thats increasing its restrictions. (Rest of World)+ Buckle up: China is likely to face even greater chip restrictions from next week. (Wired $) + How Trumps tariffs could drive up the cost of batteries, EVs, and more. (MIT Technology Review)8 Mark Zuckerberg has been hobnobbing with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago Which is interesting considering that Trump has threatened him with life imprisonment. (The Information $)+ Zuckerberg has been on a charm offensive to repair their relationship for almost two years. (NYT $)+ But the President-elect has a history of holding grudges. (NY Mag $)9 Distributed computing is the next big thing We can achieve more when we work together, after all. (Quanta Magazine) 10 How those massive Macys Thanksgiving parade balloons stay afloat The greater the mass, the greater the weight. (Wired $)Quote of the day The main advice I have to give is stay true to yourself and hit post. TikToker Leah Halton dispenses some sage advice after winning an award for video of the year at Australias TikTok awards, the Guardian reports. The big story A day in the life of a Chinese robotaxi driver July 2022 When Liu Yang started his current job, he found it hard to go back to driving his own car: I instinctively went for the passenger seat. Or when I was driving, I would expect the car to brake by itself, says the 33-year-old Beijing native, who joined the Chinese tech giant Baidu in January 2021 as a robotaxi driver. Liu is one of the hundreds of safety operators employed by Baidu, driving five days a week in Shougang Park. But despite having only worked for the company for 19 months, he already has to think about his next career move, as his job will likely be eliminated within a few years. Read the full story. Zeyi Yang We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.) + If youve ever admired the incredible Co Rentmeester picture of Michael Jordan leaping through the air, heres the story behind the iconic image.+ If you look to the skies in Alaska, you might just see a Thanksgiving turkey being thrown out of a plane.+ Talking of Thanksgiving, if you want to cook the ultimate turkey, look no further.+ Move over, the hot artists are coming.

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Reviews weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. This is a busy time of year for all of us, and thats certainly true in the advanced nuclear industry. MIT Technology Review released our list of 15 Climate Tech Companies to Watch less than two months ago. Since then, awardee Kairos Power has had three big announcements about its progress toward building next-generation nuclear reactors. Each of these bits of news represents an interesting aspect of the process. So lets dig into the announcements and what they mean for where nuclear technology is going. First, a quick refresher on Kairos Power: While nuclear plants today overwhelmingly use pressurized water to keep reactors cool, Kairos is using molten salt. The idea is that these reactors (which are also smaller than those typically built today) will help generate electricity in a way thats safer and more efficient than conventional nuclear power. When it comes to strategy, Kairos is taking small steps toward the ultimate goal of full-size power plants. Construction began earlier this year on Hermes, the companys first nuclear test reactor. That facility will generate a small amount of heatabout 35 megawatts worthto demonstrate the technology. Last week, the company announced it received a construction permit for the next iteration of its system, Hermes 2. This plant will share a location with Hermes, and it will include the infrastructure to transform heat to electricity. That makes it the first electricity-producing next-generation nuclear plant to get this approval in the US. While this news wasnt a huge surprise (the company has been working with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for years), any day that youre getting a permit or a license from the NRC is an unusual and special day, Kairos CEO Mike Laufer told me in an interview. The company is developing a plan to work on construction for both Hermes and Hermes 2 at the same time, he added. When I asked if Hermes is still on track to start up in 2027 (as we reported in our profile of the company in October), Laufer said thats an aggressive timeline. While construction on test reactors is rolling, Kairos is forging ahead with commercial dealsin October, it announced an agreement with Google to build up to 500 megawatts worth of power plants by 2035. Under this agreement, Kairos will develop, construct, and operate plants and sell electricity to the tech giant. Kairos will need to build multiple reactors to deliver 500 MW. The first deployment should happen by 2030, with additional units to follow. One of the benefits of building smaller reactors is learning as you go along and making improvements that can lower costs and make construction more efficient, Laufer says. While the construction permit and Google deal are arguably the biggest recent announcements from Kairos, Im also fascinated by a more niche milestone: In early October, the company broke ground on a salt production facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that will make the molten salt used to cool its reactors. Salt is one of the key areas where we do have some unique and specialized needs, Laufer says. And having control over the areas of the supply chain that are specialized will be key to helping the company deliver electricity reliably and at lower cost, he adds. The companys molten salt is called Flibe, and its a specific mix of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride. One fun detail I learned from Laufer is that the mixture needs to be enriched in lithium-7 because that isotope absorbs fewer neutrons than lithium-6, allowing the reactor to run more efficiently. The new facility in Albuquerque will produce large quantities of high-purity Flibe enriched in lithium-7. Progress in the nuclear industry can sometimes feel slow, with milestones few and far between, so its really interesting to see Kairos taking so many small steps in quick succession toward delivering on its promise of safe, cheap nuclear power. Weve had a lot of huge accomplishments. We have a long way to go, Laufer says. This is not an easy thing to pull off. We believe we have the right approach and were doing it the right way, but it requires a lot of hard work and diligence. Now read the rest of The Spark Related reading For more details on Kairos and its technology, check out our profile of the company in the 15 Climate Tech Companies to Watch package from October. If youre dying for more details on molten salt, check out this story I wrote in January about a test system Kairos built to demonstrate the technology. STEPHANIE ARNETT/MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW | GETTY, ADOBE STOCK Another thing Donald Trump pledged to enact tariffs on a wide range of products imported into the US. The plans could drive up the cost of batteries, EVs, and more, threatening to slow progress on climate and potentially stall the economy. Read more about the potential impacts for technology in the latest story from my colleague James Temple. Keeping up with climate The UN climate talks wrapped up over the weekend. In the resulting agreement, rich nations will provide at least $300 billion in climate finance per year by 2035 to developing nations to help them deal with climate change. (Carbon Brief) This falls well short of the $1 trillion mark that many had hoped to reach. (MIT Technology Review)Utilities might be spending a lot of money on the wrong transmission equipment on the grid. Dollars are flowing to smaller, local projects, not the interstate projects that are crucial for getting more clean energy online. (Inside Climate News) Sustainable aviation fuel is one of the only viable options to help clean up the aviation industry in the near term. But what are these fuels, exactly? And how do they help with climate change? Its surprisingly complicated, and the details matter. (Canary Media) Automakers want Trump to keep rules in place that will push the US toward adoption of electric vehicles. Companies have already invested billions of dollars into an EV transition. (NewYork Times) Theres a growing chasm in American meat consumption: The number of households that avoid meat has increased slightly, but all other households have increased their meat purchases. (Vox) Trump has vowed to halt offshore wind energy, but for some projects, things take so long that a four-year term may not even touch them. (Grist)

The FDA said organic eggs sold in some Costcos are being recalled for Salmonella concerns.Handsome Brook Farms found that eggs not intended for distribution were packaged and sold.No illnesses have been reported so far. Salmonella can cause hospitalization.It's time to check your fridge if you picked up organic eggs during your last Costco run.Due to Salmonella concerns, organic eggs sold at Costco are being recalled in five states.On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration announced that 10,800 retail units of 24-count organic eggs sold under Costco's Kirkland brand are being recalled.The announcement came after Handsome Brook Farms, based in New York, determined that eggs "not intended for retail distribution" were packaged and sold in 25 Costco stores starting on November 22.The recall specifically applies to Costco organic eggs with the Julian code 327 and a "Use By" date of Jan 5, 2025. The eggs were recalled from Costcos in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.So far, the FDA said there are no illness complaints. Salmonella symptoms usually include diarrhea, stomach cramps, and fever and some past Salmonella outbreaks led to hospitalizations.The FDA said that in rare cases, Salmonella can be fatal in very young children, older people, and those with weakened immune systems.