your science briefing for 04.11.2025

Space junk is spiraling out of control, does your brain really have a spoonful of plastic, the plan to make greening the energy grid illegal, and more...

Space may be very large, mostly empty, radioactive, and difficult to study. But lower Earth orbit is actually very finite and filling up with satellite constellations and junk, so much so that the ESA is starting to get worried. With at least 29,000 inactive satellites and at least 54,000 pieces of debris that can damage or disable more objects, which could create hundreds of additional pieces of space junk, the concern is that we keep inching closer to Kessler Syndrome becoming reality and ending the space age as we know it, with future launches becoming extremely high risk… (Science Alert)

According to a study that made headlines around the world, your brain contains about a spoonful of plastic. But the reality isn’t so cut and dry according to researchers, and there are duplicated images and false positives in the study which might have inflated the total tally. That said, just given what we know and see, it’s still certain that plastics have infiltrated our brains. We just can’t be certain exactly to what degree, and saying it’s a spoonful may not be as accurate as the headlines made it sound… (Transmitter)

Do you like clean water and air? Has your state gone after polluters, imposed stricter standards for cleanup and day or day to day operations, and provided incentives for a greening of the energy grid? Well, your evil plan to make the world slightly cleaner and healthier is about to get foiled you commie scum! America’s new Golden Path is going to be powered by burning coal and belching clouds of pollution, as per the newest EO instructing the federal government to browbeat states into rescinding any incentives and laws to clean up the environment from Big Fossil… (Mother Jones)

Speaking of big changes and going backwards, crypto scammers rejoice. Your pumps and dumps, rug pulls, and Ponzi schemes with random shitcoins are safe from the law as the Trump administration tells the DOJ to no longer investigate crypto fraud. Which is to be expected now that crypto pump and dumps make up a very non-trivial portion of the president’s and his cronies’ net worth. So, if you ever wanted to pull a Breaking Bad from the comfort of your home, it’s apparently just caveat emptor for your victims as far the government is concerned… (Rolling Stone)

It seems utterly absurd to have to say this to grown adults in the year of our Lord and Devourer Cthulhu 12205, but for the love of all that is cure and fluffy, stop listening to weirdos on social media and drinking your own pee. There’s a reason your body does not want it anymore, and urine, fresh, aged, fermented, or whatever the latest trend is, is not “clearing out toxins from your body,” it is the stuff carrying waste products and contaminants out of you. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a malicious ignoramus in search of validation, your cash, or both… (The Conversation)