Health Trotter

May 12, 2021 at 11:52PM As COVID-19 vaccination continues, many of us are gearing up to come out of our shells after what feels like years of laying low. But this spring’s emergence of trillions of Brood X cicadas will make our renewed buzz of activity look like child’s play. Every 17 years, trillions of Brood X cicadas emerge from below ground, ready to party. The circle-of-life spectacle comes with a deafening mating ritual—plus sex in the treetops, predation and also, inevitably, death. Just about as quickly as they emerge, the cicadas will all be gone. The adults will be left to decompose on the ground, and newly hatched nymphs will burrow into the soil, their home for the next 17 years until, like clockwork, the cycle begins anew. Here’s an animated look at this year’s Brood X cicada emergence: The nymphs emerge Brood X cicada nymphs emerge at night, through exit holes they’ve created in the ground, when soil temperatures reach about 64℉. A revolting molting Th...

May 12, 2021 at 02:26AM Outer space is rapidly becoming Outer Space, Inc., as the rise of private launch providers is making it increasingly easy to turn a buck in an industry that was once exclusively a not-for-profit government operation. The commercialization of low-Earth orbit took a big step forward yesterday, with NASA’s announcement that the space agency has inked a deal with Houston-based Axiom Space , in which Axiom will fly the first purely commercial crew to the International Space Station (ISS)—and pay NASA handsomely for the privilege. “We are excited to see more people have access to spaceflight through this first private astronaut mission to the space station,” said Kathy Lueders, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations, during a May 10 press conference. “This is another first for human space flight,” added Phil McAlister, NASA’s director of commercial spaceflight development. “I’m very bullish on the commercial crew market.” I...