Latest news with #Kosmos-482
Scientific American
19-05-2025
- Science
- Scientific American
Accidental Alchemy, Flamingo Food Tornado, and Kosmos-482 Lands
Kosmos-482 crash-lands, physicists turn lead to gold and animals show some clever behaviors. By , Allison Parshall, Fonda Mwangi, Jeffery DelViscio & Alex Sugiura Happy Monday, listeners! For Scientific American 's Science Quickly, this is Allison Parshall filling in for Rachel Feltman. Let's kick off the week with a quick roundup of some of the latest science news. First, an update on that doomed Soviet-era spacecraft Rachel mentioned last week. After spending more than half a century orbiting Earth, the Kosmos-482 probe made a crash landing on May 10. According to a post on the app Telegram from Russian space agency Roscosmos, the spacecraft crashed into the Indian Ocean somewhere west of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. reports that other space agencies have estimated different landing spots for the probe, from locations on land in South Asia to stretches of the eastern Pacific. We may never know exactly where Kosmos-482 finally came to rest. In any case, we haven't heard any reports of falling space junk causing harm to humans, so it seems likely the object crashed somewhere out of the way. Now for some accidental alchemy. Despite the wishes of medieval scholars, there's no way to turn lead into gold, right? Wrong. Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider apparently did just that —very briefly, but still. The scientists published a description of this magical-sounding transformation earlier this month in the journal Physical Review C. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Here's how it worked: Scientists at CERN use the Large Hadron Collider to study the early universe by firing lead nuclei at one another at nearly the speed of light. Instead of smashing head-on, the nuclei usually pass very close to one another. In these near-misses, the powerful electric field from one nucleus can shake up the other. If the field is strong enough, it can knock out three protons from an incoming lead nucleus. Since gold has three fewer protons than lead, this transforms the lead into gold. The researchers estimate that 89,000 gold nuclei are produced per second during these experiments. That means that between 2015 and 2018—the accelerator's second run, which is when the scientists collected this data—the collider produced 29 trillionths of a gram of gold. Unfortunately for any prospectors at CERN, those atoms tend to get obliterated in about a microsecond. Nature reports that another CERN accelerator also observed this alchemical reaction during a 2002 to 2004 run. But because that experiment used less energy, less gold was produced. In public health news, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released last Wednesday indicates a massive drop in overdose deaths between 2023 and 2024. In the 45 years that the CDC has collected equivalent data, the biggest one-year dip seen previously was 4 percent in 2018, according to the Associated Press. Deaths dropped from about 110,000 in 2023 to roughly 80,000 in 2024, which represents a nearly 27 percent decrease. The AP reports that experts mentioned several possible factors behind the drop, including the increased availability of naloxone for treating overdoses. It's important to note that, while this is promising news, we still have a long way to go. Overdose deaths are still higher than they were before the COVID pandemic, and overdose remains the leading cause of death for people in the U.S. between ages 18 and 44. If you don't already carry naloxone with you in case you encounter someone experiencing an overdose, consider looking into what resources your state and county offer for training and distribution. You can check out to find more information. We'll wrap up with a couple of fun animal stories. Let's start with flamingos. They're not exactly known for being very active. You're probably picturing the birds standing calmly in crystal clear water. But according to a study published last Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they're surprisingly busy just beneath the surface. Similar to the way spiders use webs to trap prey, the study authors say, flamingos create little water tornados to coax food straight into their mouths. First, the birds use their feet to churn sediment up. Then they jerk their heads up, turning those small whorls of sediment into vortexes. Meanwhile, the animals chatter their beaks to create even more water movement, pulling the swirling sediment into their mouths. From there, the flamingos can filter out tiny prey such as brine shrimp—but it seems like this filter feeding is a lot less passive than it looks. In other animal news, it turns out that chimps use leaves for everything from first aid to bathroom hygiene. In a study published Tuesday in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, researchers describe their observations of two different communities of chimpanzees in Uganda. The researchers identified numerous instances of 'self-care' using leaves, from dabbing wounds to packing them with chewed-up plant matter. The chimps sometimes offered this care to others, too. That's similar to behavior other researchers reported last year in orangutans over in Indonesia. Orangutans have also been seen applying juice made from saliva and the leaves of a plant with anti-inflammatory properties all over their bodies, which scientists suspect they might be doing to relieve joint and muscle pain. Plants seem to be part of a larger wellness routine for chimps, too: the scientists also saw them using leaves to clean themselves up after pooping or having sex. The researchers even described one instance of what they called 'prosocial postcoital penis wiping,' which means one chimp leant another a hand with intimate personal hygiene. While these aren't the first documented cases of first aid in nonhuman animals—or even in chimps, who have been seen putting smashed insects in their wounds, possibly for medicinal purposes—scientists are excited to see evidence that medicinal plant use might be more widespread than expected among our close relatives. That could suggest that wound care goes way, way back in our evolutionary history. That's all for this week's news roundup. Rachel will be back on Wednesday. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by me, Allison Parshall, and edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news. For Scientific American, this is Allison Parshall. Have a great week!
Scientific American
12-05-2025
- Science
- Scientific American
Sinking Cities, Waving Cuttlefish and Falling Spacecraft
Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For Scientific American 's Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman. Let's catch up on some of the science news you may have missed last week. First, a space-junk update. By the time you listen to this a Soviet-era spacecraft may or may not have crash-landed on Earth. Kosmos-482, which the U.S.S.R. launched back in 1972, was meant to follow the successful probes Venera 7 and Venera 8 in landing on and studying Venus. But a suspected engine malfunction meant that Kosmos-482 never achieved enough velocity to escape Earth's orbit. It's been orbiting our planet ever since and losing altitude along the way. Some of Kosmos-482 already fell back down to Earth decades ago, but one last big chunk has held on for more than half a century. Last week researchers said Kosmos-482 would probably make its uncontrolled descent over the weekend. Its potential landing zone stretched from 52 degrees north to 52 degrees south latitude, which covers pretty much everywhere except for Antarctica and, like, places where you can see the northern lights. There's a chance that the 1,000-ish pound [495 kg] lander, which was designed to withstand Venus's atmosphere, will hit Earth in one piece. That could be bad if it happens to crash in a populated area, but it's statistically more likely to hit the ocean or some uninhabited patch of land. And there's still a chance the craft will break up into smaller pieces in the friction of our atmosphere or even burn up entirely. We'll update you on how everything went down next week, or you can check for the latest space news. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Now, the sky may not be falling, but our biggest cities are sinking. A study published last Thursday in the journal Nature Cities found that all of the 28 most populated cities in the U.S. are sinking, regardless of how far inland they are. In 25 of those cities, the researchers say, at least two-thirds of their respective area is losing height. The researchers called out Houston as the fastest-sinking city, with more than a third of its area going down by upwards of five millimeters [about 0.2 inches] each year. Around 12 percent of the city is sinking twice as fast as that, and some spots are dropping by five whole centimeters [roughly two inches] a year. While natural forces and the sheer heft of buildings can play a role, according to the researchers behind the study, the extraction of groundwater is largely responsible for all of this sinkage. The researchers tied the removal of groundwater for human use to as much as 80 percent of the sinking they observed. They noted that in Texas, gas and oil extraction likely exacerbates this problem. One obvious consequence of a city sinking is that it makes the area more prone to flooding. But the study also sounds the alarm on the unique risks brought on by uneven sink rates within a city. If some areas are sinking faster than others, that raises the likelihood that structures like building foundations and rail lines will start to tilt. The researchers noted in a press release that increases in water needs and population, along with climate-change-induced droughts, are expected to add to the problem, making it crucial that cities start adapting to these risks now. If you're looking for someone to blame for that—for the climate-change-related part, anyway—consider your millionaire or billionaire of choice: A study published last Wednesday in Nature Climate Change concluded that the wealthiest 10 percent of the global population is responsible for two-thirds of climate-change-related warming as a result of their consumption and investments. The top 1 percent of people are responsible for one-fifth of all warming all on their own. If you're in the top 10 percent, you're an estimated six times more responsible for droughts in the Amazon than the average person is. According to a recent article in Forbes, a net worth of at least $970,000 puts you in that percentile in the United States, while one-percenters have net worths of at least $11.6 million. If you're looking at your own robust bank account and feeling a little hot under the collar about this study. It does point out a major area for improvement: investments. The authors concluded that the richest among us primarily contribute to climate change through investments tied to high-carbon industries. So if you haven't cleaned up your stock portfolio, now's a great time to do so. As long as you're not, say, flying a private jet everywhere—or worse, taking jaunts into space for fun—then that should make a big difference. And hey if you are doing those things, girl stop. We'll wrap up with a fun story that takes us under the sea. In an unpublished study recently posted to the preprint server bioRxiv, scientists claim that cuttlefish wave to one another to communicate. The researchers observed four distinct arm waves: 'up,' 'side,' 'crown' and 'roll.' These movements are a bit more complicated than our one- or two-armed human gestures. In the 'roll' move the cuttlefish tucks all its arms beneath its head as if it's about to try to somersault forward. The 'side' signal has it move its arms to one side of its body. The 'crown' looks a bit like someone steepling their fingers—if their fingers were several squishy tentacles. The 'up' sign is complicated, with some arms extended up and others twisting in front of the cuttlefish. The scientists observed cuttlefish trading these signals back and forth and occasionally responding to one signal with a different one. That makes them suspect these moves are a form of communication. What's even wilder is that when the scientists recorded cuttlefish signing with an underwater microphone and played the same vibrations for another cuttlefish, that second individual would start signing. So the creatures could be sensing the vibrations of this sign language, in addition to seeing visual cues. Researchers will have to directly connect these signals with certain behaviors or actions to prove that this is actually communication, but for now it is pretty cute. That's all for this week's news roundup. Before I let you go I just wanted to plug our ongoing listener survey real quick. We're looking to learn more about you—yes, you—so we can keep making this show better and better. You can find the survey at It should only take you a couple of minutes, and folks who submit their answers this month will be entered to win some Scientific American swag. More importantly, you'll really be helping out me and the rest of the Science Quickly team. So make sure to check out whenever you get the chance. Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.
Deccan Herald
11-05-2025
- Science
- Deccan Herald
Soviet spacecraft crash lands on Earth after botched journey of half-a-century
Designed to land on the surface of Venus, Kosmos-482 may have remained intact during its plunge. It splashed down in the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia, Roscosmos said.
The Age
11-05-2025
- Science
- The Age
Soviet spacecraft plunges to Earth after 50 years stuck in space
A Cold War-era spacecraft has come crashing down to Earth after being stuck in orbit for more than five decades. An unconfirmed report from Russian space agency Roscosmos claimed that the Kosmos 482 splashed down in the Indian Ocean, west of Jakarta. A Venera module similar to the Kosmos-482 that has crashed back to Earth. Credit: NASA Experts from around the globe had been monitoring Kosmos 482, but its eccentric orbit, coupled with space weather, made its potential landing site difficult to predict. In an update on its Telegram channel, Roscosmos said: 'The descent of the spacecraft was monitored by the automated warning system for hazardous situations in near-Earth space.
11-05-2025
- Science
Soviet-era spacecraft remains return to Earth
The remains of a decades-old Soviet era spacecraft, Kosmos-482, have returned to Earth. It was supposed to go to Venus in 1972, but a rocket malfunction left it stranded in Earth's orbit.
