Author: rekearney

Futuristic Sci Fi writer.

Space Junk

Since the space race began the accumulation of junk that circles the Earth has been growing. And no more so than in the last twenty years as more countries propel satellites into orbit, and companies rely more on space technology for interconnectivity to function. But what happens to all the abandoned, outdated, or broken objects once they have no purpose. Until now – nothing. They’ve been left to continue circling the Earth indefinitely.

And it’s becoming a very crowded space as different countries, as well as commercial companies, launch thousands of satellites each year. It’s been necessary for the International Space Station to change its orbiting position several times to avoid colliding with stray debris. Since 1999, the Space Station has changed its course 30 times, a number that has increased recently. Debris could cause massive amounts of damage and even loss of life if a single piece strikes the ISS. Debris travels at around 15,000 mph. Fortunately, NASA constantly track around 30 square miles of space around the ISS for any nearby debris. If any enter this area it triggers the alteration.

Not only is the human race polluting the planet, it’s now discarding waste into space, without any real concern for the consequences. Every space ship that is launched from Earth has to navigate through the minefield of debris orbiting the planet before it truly enters space, a significant problem as we look towards other possibly habitable planets.

Some might consider a solution would be to simply blow up any redundant satellites, but this only creates additional problems. Over 15 years ago a redundant Chinese weather satellite was intentionally targeted by a missile. The result – over 3,500 smaller objects that now need to be tracked as they spin around Earth.

A recent attempt by the European Space Agency to begin removing space junk has sadly encountered a problem. Their intention was to attempt to remove a large discarded conical rocket adapter which has been orbiting the Earth for the last ten years. The ESA craft has been created with four adaptable arms to grab the rocket adapter before flying back to Earth towing the debris behind.

But that wasn’t to be. Ironically another piece of space junk recently hit the rocket adapter breaking it into even more pieces of junk, altering it’s orbit and disrupting the ESA’s plans.

“The most significant threat posed by larger objects of space debris is that they fragment into clouds of smaller objects that can each cause significant damage to active satellites,” the ESA said. “We must urgently reduce the creation of new space debris and begin actively mitigating the impact of existing objects.”

Fortunately the ESA hadn’t intended to launch to collect the debris until 2026 anyway, so adjustments, recalculations and additional planning are now required, but they remain determined to begin cleaning the orbit surrounding Earth.

Leprosy: The Return

When you mention the medical condition Leprosy your mind will naturally think back in time to a period in history when living conditions were poor and life expectancy was limited. Leprosy is a bacterial infection than damages nerves, lungs, skin and eyes, and is well known by the dramatic loss of fingers, arms or legs through uncontrolled infection and wounds. Leprosy still occurs globally, with India accounting for more than half of the diagnosed cases. In some areas of India, China, Thailand, and parts of Africa, Leper colonies are still used to restrict movement and contain Leprosy. Fortunately most people are cured of Leprosy today through drug therapy, and interestingly there are also groups of people who are genetically less likely to contract the infection even if exposed to it.

The social spread and mortality was greatest during the Middle Ages, resulting in segregation and leper asylums. Even as recent as 1983 the Indian government introduced the National Leprosy Elimination Programme to tackle the problem. Until 2019, an Indian could even petition for divorce based on a spouse’s diagnosis.

The last place you might expect to hear of Leprosy cases surging is in Florida. Leprosy has now been classed as Endemic in the state, meaning it’s consistently present but limited to that specific area, just like Malaria is. Florida now accounts for 81% of all Leprosy cases in the US.

“Several cases in central Florida demonstrate no clear evidence of zoonotic exposure or traditionally known risk factors,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wrote in their report, adding that data suggests that “leprosy has become an endemic disease process in Florida.”

The south east region of America has seen the number of cases double over the last decade, and according to the CDC it appears that people are not catching the bacterial infection through the normal routes of exposure to disease carrying animals or travelers. Conclusions from the CDC seem to suggest that the cases they’ve looked into tend to be occurring in patients who are spending long periods of time outdoors and think there may be a link to “environmental reservoirs” as a potential source of the bacteria, which can be found in soil, water and vegetation.

But why now? Could the increasing global temperatures or the reintroduction of bacteria once frozen in the thawing Siberian permafrost, be contributing factors?

Shrinking Populations

With the world’s population hitting the 8 billion point recently, it’s easy to think that the human race is continuing to grow and expand at an uncontrolled rate, absorbing land, exploiting the Earth’s resources, polluting the sea and air, and taking us to an inevitable point of mutual destruction. But, that’s not necessarily true – at least not for every part of the planet.

Surprisingly Japan’s population has been dropping year on year, and it’s getting so bad it’s created an internal crisis that could have devastating effects on the country. During 2022, the total number of Japanese residents fell by more than 800,000 in just one year. This follows thirteen years of continual population contraction. Other figures released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs also highlighted the increasing death rate of over 1.56 million on top of only 771,000 births – the lowest since records began.

Life expectancy is high in Japan, but coupled with low fertility rates, which is also seen in many other east Asian countries too, Japan is seeing a rapidly aging population. In order to balance a stable population Japan needs approximately two births per woman, but the fertility rate is currently only 1.3 births.

As the population gets older, so does the workforce, which also slowly starts to decline, resulting in disastrous implications for almost all areas of the economy. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has even been stated saying that “Japan is standing on the verge of whether it can continue to function as a society.” The number of schools closing in rural areas has increased rapidly while the number of small businesses are stuck with aged owners and no one to take them over.

There are ways to counter a declining population. The simplest is to relax immigration rules, allowing workers from other countries to settle and work, which Japan has done, however that has still not had the desired effect. The number of foreign residents hit a record high recently, but that was still not sufficient to balance the declining population.

Japan is not the only country in the world where the decrease in population is becoming significant. The number of people living in Europe has been declining since 2020 for much the same reason – longer life expectancy and decreasing birth rates. This immediate decline could also be as a result of the COVID pandemic disproportionately increasing the number deaths. China’s population also fell for the first time in 2022 since the 1960’s.

Scientists and researchers now believe that instead of persistent exponential global population growth, the numbers might stabilize around 2100 before consistently falling. That could be a good thing, but could also create one of the biggest social problems for humanity.

Fungal Structures

As mankind develops and expands, the need for buildings and other structures grew with it. Most of those building involved concrete, sometimes on a huge scale, which is damaging to the environment on so many levels. Other materials like wood and plastic are also not sustainable or suitable either. However, a group of scientists believe that we could theoretically create buildings from fungus – and not just the structure, but the internal plumbing and electrics too, making a sustainable, self growing and repairing building.

“We propose to develop a structural substrate by using live fungal mycelium,” explained the European academics in their paper. “Fungal buildings will self-grow, build, and repair themselves.”

In a world which has already begun to see the physic changes caused by climate changes, the need for biological building materials would be a huge step forward in reducing fossil fuels and environmentally-destructive mining processes.

“Fungal materials can have a wide variety of mechanical properties ranging from foam-like to wood-like to polymer-like to elastomer-like,” explained co author microbiologist Han Wösten from The Netherlands’ Utrecht University. “The fact that we can make wood-like materials implies that we can use it for the building industry. The selling point of our materials is that it is biodegradable, thereby helping to create a circular economy. At the same time, it should not degrade when actually used as a building material. We can work around this apparent paradox by coating the material. In fact, we also coat wood with paint of oils to protect it against degradation.”

You might be surprised to know that NASA is also testing whether or not fungus could potentially grow in Martian soil, with an aim to using it to build low cost, sustainable structures on Mars. So far, all experiments have involved killing off the fungus once a structure has been built so that it solidifies and hardens sufficiently to carry the loads needed in structural walls. The aim is to find a way to keep the fungus alive so that it remains a living structure, allowing for further growth, repairs and alterations.

And it doesn’t stop with the main structure. Computer scientist, Andrew Adamatzky, another author of the paper, explained that they are looking to build fungal neuromorphic circuits to replace the electronics inside the building. “The living circuits will be self-growing, self-assembling and self-repairing, which no traditional circuitry can do.”

Overall, a circular economy for construction is the goal, minimizing the use of the Earth’s limited resources and reducing energy consumption.

Amazon Deforestation

Brazil’s former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro was responsible for one the worst periods of destruction of the Amazon rainforest over the last fifteen years, following his removal of environmental protection legislation. However, following the election of a new President, things are beginning to look a little hopeful for the future of the rainforest, as well as the rest of the planet.

The Amazon rainforest is huge, covering an area the size of Australia. It absorbs carbon, soaking up damaging greenhouses gases and releasing essential Oxygen into the atmosphere – it’s no coincidence that it’s called the “lungs of the planet”. Higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere increases the temperature of the planet, melting the icecaps, affecting crop success, increasing droughts, flooding, fires and extinction events.

During the first six months of Brazil’s new President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, destruction of the rainforest has reduced to the lowest levels since 2019, and shows a 33% reduction in deforestation compared to the same period last year. But, don’t get too excited. That still represents 1000 square miles of forest that has been cleared. President Lula has vowed to eliminated deforestation completely by 2030, so a positive start, but is his goal achievable, especially when there is so much economical pressure on him.

During Bolsonaro’s term in office Brazil’s environmental agency was stripped of the majority of it’s enforcement agents, something that President Lula will need to rapidly change if the control and eventual elimination of the destruction of the world’s largest forest is to be enforced effectively.

The destruction of the forest is not only man made. In June, the number of fires hit a record high of over 3000, thought to be the result of the deforestation caused last year, weakening the forest and making it more susceptible to fires in the face of droughts.

To support the preservation aim, President Lula has launched a grant program for the indigenous population in the region to sustain their livelihood and serve as wards of the rainforest, whilst at the same time increasing the amount of recognized indigenous land.

It’s long been documented that there is a direct link between the health of the rainforest and climate change, and this is perhaps mankind’s greatest chance to prevent that change from escalating and taking the planet over the tipping point.

Virgin Births

Recently we heard stories about a captive crocodile that had given birth to a baby despite never coming into contact with a male crocodile to create a viable fertilized embryo. Although the baby was stillborn, it shared virtually all DNA with the mother, confirming its single parent origin. Could this be part of a new phase of evolution in the animal kingdom – in order to survive, even in captivity, could they adapt to still produce the next generation without the normal reproductive processes? I suppose, only time will tell if we eventually hear of a successful virgin birth.

Never to be outdone – humans are at it too!!! While the process of fertilization of a viable human egg with a donor’s sperm outside of the human body has been used for several years, it still requires a mother and a father, as well as implantation of the fertilized egg inside the mother to enable it to grow and survive. However, things are beginning to change.

A group of scientists have used stem cells to create a completely synthetic human embryo without an egg, and without sperm. These fabricated embryos are in the very early stages of development so it’s unknown how far they could continue to viably grow or whether they would even reach a “birth” stage. At present they have not been allowed to develop sufficiently to form a brain or heart. Scientists have agreed not to allow the embryos to grow beyond 14 days, but it’s clearly a step towards something new and different for the human race.

The purpose of this research and experimentation is to help study genetic disorders as well as the causes of miscarriages.

“Our human model is the first three-lineage human embryo model that specifies amnion and germ cells, precursor cells of egg and sperm,” explained team leader Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, biological engineering professor at the University of Cambridge. “It’s beautiful and created entirely from embryonic stem cells.”

The cells are developed to form a yolk sac, placenta, and embryo. With this type of research being such a sensitive area, Professor Zernicka-Goetz gave some clarity on the synthetic embryo. “I just wish to stress that they are not human embryos. They are embryo models, but they are very exciting because they are very looking similar to human embryos and a very important path towards discovering why so many pregnancies fail, as the majority of the pregnancies fail around the time of the development at which we build these embryo-like structures.”

Previously, Zernicka-Goetz and her team have taken mice stem cells and developed them into early embryos that possess the early growth of a brain and a heart.

There is some confusion on whether or not these synthetic embryos should be governed by the same laws that apply to actual human embryos. Clearly, the creation of synthetic human beings as well as the birth of AI, are huge challenges for the future of mankind.