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Glass beads created by meteoroid impacts on the lunar surface should contain enough water for future astronauts to use. Plus: Microplastics are changing seabirds’ microbiomes.

Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Mining water

Tiny glass beads on the moon formed by meteoroid impacts might collectively contain as much water as there is in ice near the moon’s poles - and could be harvested for water by future moon expeditions. Mahesh Anand at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, and his colleagues analysed samples returned to Earth by China’s Chang’e-5 lunar probe and found glass beads, known as spherules, that are formed in the extremely hot aftermath of meteoroids hitting the lunar surface. “This is not only scientifically interesting, but I think it is going to be of quite some interest for those who are planning to actually send missions to the moon, to extract resources such as water for enabling more sustainable and longer-term exploration,” says Anand. Read more

Seabirds’ microbiomes

Seabirds that consume a high level of plastic particles have a greater diversity of bacteria in their digestive system than those that ingest less plastic, but it isn’t clear what this increase in gut microbiome diversity means for seabirds. Gloria Fackelmann at the University of Trento, Italy, and her colleagues examined samples of gut microbiomes taken from two gull-like species living in the North Atlantic Ocean: 58 wild Cory’s shearwaters (Calonectris borealis) and 27 wild northern fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis). They also sorted through the stomach contents of each deceased bird and sieved out the plastic particles. “As the number of plastic particles increased, so too did the diversity of the microbiome,” says Fackelmann. Read more

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The ALPS treated water discharge is a turning point in the decommissioning of the power station and for the reconstruction in Fukushima.

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Some black holes could be older than the universe itself - a wild idea, but not inconceivable. New research suggests that we might one day be able to identify them, a breakthrough that would radically change our understanding of cosmology. Most cosmologists would claim that all the matter and energy that permeates our universe today came into existence in a single moment 13.8 billion years ago that we call the big bang. After that, there was a period when the universe grew exponentially fast, called cosmic inflation, before it settled down to a gentler expansion. One problem with this picture is that we don’t know for sure what happened at the big bang. Read more

Saturday 29 April 2023 | 10am-5pm | Cavendish Conference Centre, London

Find out how your brain really works, including how it learns languages, how it stores memories and the importance of sleep. You’ll also look at the mystery of consciousness and how your brain perceives your body, plus much more.

Oswald Schmitz at Yale University on how ranchers could be paid for the carbon that bison store, rather than the meat produced.

Have a great Tuesday!

Alexandra Thompson

Assistant news editor, New Scientist
Email me at [email protected]

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