Short Takes – 5-9-24

What you need to know about the historic cicada emergence. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “That’s the conclusion of a paper published last October in Science, which found that more than 80 bird species switched from hunting their general prey to focus on cicadas — a nutrient pulse that boosts their offspring that year.”

Billionaire's 2nd SpaceX trip featuring spacewalk aims for early summer launch. Phys.org article. Pull quote: “While two will venture out, having all four exposed to the vacuum of space has never been done before. SpaceX is replacing the cupola window feature that Resilience flew with on Inspiration4 with an exit hatch instead. After the spacewalk, the crew will have to repressurize the capsule.”

Hazardous Materials: Harmonization With International Standards; Correction. Federal Register PHMSA final rule correction. Summary: “The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is correcting a final rule that was published in the Federal Register on April 10, 2024. The final rule was published to maintain alignment with international regulations and standards by adopting various amendments, including changes to proper shipping names, hazard classes, packing groups, special provisions, packaging authorizations, air transport quantity limitations, and vessel stowage requirements. The corrections address several errors to the hazardous material entries in the hazardous materials table.” Effective date: May 10^th, 2024.

China’s Chang’e-6 launched successfully — what happens next? Nature.com article. Pull quote: “In early June, the spacecraft will drop a lander, which aims to drill and scoop up two kilograms of soil and rocks. After that, an ascender will blast off from the lander and ferry the samples back to the orbiter for the trip back home. Thanks to Queqiao-2, the spacecraft and Earth will remain in contact during the mission’s crucial moments, such as the 15-minute descent and touchdown, the two-day sampling period and the 6-minute ascent.”

Interstellar cloud conditions yield ‘impossible molecule’. ChemistryWorld.com article. Methanetriol duplicated in lab. Pull quote: “‘Interstellar space has a lot of weird molecules that are not stable on Earth,’ comments Wilkins. ‘This makes the field [of astrochemistry] exciting, but also presents a challenge,’ she adds. Predicting the presence of ‘impossible molecules’ in space and the upper atmosphere requires an impressive imagination. For Kaiser, the importance of this discovery is also deeply symbolic. ‘The chemistry of the interstellar medium is more exotic and a continual source of new discoveries in chemistry,’ he says.”

New COVID ‘FLiRT’ variants show virus isn’t going away. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “But fewer than 1 in 4 U.S. adults received the shots last fall, and there’s concern that low vaccination rates combined with mutating variants could be a recipe for a summer surge.”

TSA announces appointment of members to the Surface Transportation Security Advisory Committee. TSA.gov press release. Pull quote: “The STSAC members represent each mode of surface transportation, such as freight rail, highways, mass transit, over-the-road bus, passenger rail, pipelines, school bus industry and trucking among others. For a complete list, please see the STSAC Charter. The Committee also has 14 non-voting members who serve in an advisory capacity for two-year terms from the Departments of Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, and Transportation, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Survey: Chemical shippers still face rail-service issues. ProgressiveRailroading.com article. Pull quote: “"Moving goods through rail is critical to chemical distribution as it is the safest form of transportation for certain materials," said ACD President and CEO Eric Byer in a press release. "Unfortunately, freight-rail service has significantly deteriorated in recent years and the most recent ACD freight-rail survey shows members continue to struggle to receive consistent, on-time rail service."”

How Bird Flu Caught the Dairy Industry Off Guard. ScientificAmerican.com article. Pull quote: “Wild mammals that have been infected with avian influenza display serious respiratory and even neurological symptoms such as seizures. In contrast, infected cows are tricky to spot. “You need to look for it; it’s not something very apparent,” says Zelmar Rodriguez, a dairy veterinarian at Michigan State University, who has visited farms with H5N1-infected cows.”