The Moon is going mini! 🌕

April 12 brings a micromoon, when the full moon is at its farthest point from Earth. It’ll look 14% smaller and 30% dimmer than a supermoon. Why? It’s the farthest it gets from Earth in orbit. 

🐍 It’s neither a snake nor a worm🪱; it’s a Kaup’s Caecilian! 

Meet C.C., a legless amphibian designed for burrowing and aquatic living. With tiny eyes covered by skin and a paddle-shaped tail, its underground lifestyle makes it seldom seen, leaving much about it a mystery to scientists.

Hyperloop: Preferred Public Transportation of the Future?

Public transportation is a part of our everyday life in many regards. Many use it for work commutes, and the convenience of subway and train travel is great for many reasons. In places like Japan, they have hyper efficient bullet trains that can really get people where they need to be quickly. But believe it or not, public transportation may change forever and get even better than the bullet train. What could be better than that? It is something that Elon Musk proposed in 2013 called the hyperloop. The hyperloop using magnetic levitation to move a small “pod” or train, through a tube at speed of about 760 mph (that is faster than a Boeing 747)! The tubes will have vacuum pumps remove the air, so that there will be no air friction, and the fact the train levitates over the rails, allows for a close to zero friction environment, allowing for incredible speeds. (Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (2025b, March 28). Hyperloop. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/technology/Hyperloop)

Human Health

I believe the hyperloop could impact the world in an incredible way because it could be running on zero emissions, which is incredible to think about. (Hyperloop Development Program. (2024, March 15). Hyperloop could replace 66% of European flights in 2050 – hyperconnected Europe Vision Paper shows. https://www.hyperloopdevelopmentprogram.com/news-about-the-hdp/blog-post-title-four-bhf55#:\~:text=Hyperloop%20helps%20achieve%20Green%20Deal,tonnes%20per%20annum%20by%202050.)

This would make the air quality better, and with more travel being done by hyperloop, there is actually a lot less car accidents, which is also good for human health. In 2022, 42,514 lives were lost on U.S. roads.  With there being proper safeguards on hyperloop travel, it could be even safer than airplane travel, which is statistically way safer than car travel. (The roadway safety problem. U.S. Department of Transportation. (n.d.). https://www.transportation.gov/NRSS/SafetyProblem#:\~:text=In%202022%2C%2042%2C514%20lives%20were,the%20first%20half%20of%202024.)

Energy

The energy to power the hyperloop will be about three times more than the current bullet train in Japan. (Fast as a plane, clean as a train. PSI. (2024, October 14). https://www.psi.ch/en/news/psi-stories/fast-as-a-plane-clean-as-a-train#:\~:text=In%20their%20study%2C%20the%20scientists,in%20the%20same%20future%20scenario.)

However, the hyperloop will be about 40% more energy efficient than an airplane. (Energy and emissions analysis of the Hyperloop Transportation System. (n.d.-a). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360767788_Energy_and_emissions_analysis_of_the_hyperloop_transportation_system)

 With the tubes being designed with solar panels on the top, this could allow for the tubes to be generating all the power from renewable solar energy.

Environment

This could be the future of renewable energy powered public transport. With the idea of it being zero emissions and having the potential to run off solar power, we truly could have a very interesting means of transportation in the near future. This will be a costly development, but it could have many pay-offs.

References

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (2025b, March 28). Hyperloop. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/technology/Hyperloop

Hyperloop Development Program. (2024, March 15). Hyperloop could replace 66% of European flights in 2050 – hyperconnected Europe Vision Paper shows. https://www.hyperloopdevelopmentprogram.com/news-about-the-hdp/blog-post-title-four-bhf55#:\~:text=Hyperloop%20helps%20achieve%20Green%20Deal,tonnes%20per%20annum%20by%202050.

Fast as a plane, clean as a train. PSI. (2024, October 14). https://www.psi.ch/en/news/psi-stories/fast-as-a-plane-clean-as-a-train#:\~:text=In%20their%20study%2C%20the%20scientists,in%20the%20same%20future%20scenario.

Energy and emissions analysis of the Hyperloop Transportation System. (n.d.-a). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360767788_Energy_and_emissions_analysis_of_the_hyperloop_transportation_system

The roadway safety problem. U.S. Department of Transportation. (n.d.). https://www.transportation.gov/NRSS/SafetyProblem#:\~:text=In%202022%2C%2042%2C514%20lives%20were,the%20first%20half%20of%202024.

In this convo, physicist and novelist Dr. Alan Lightman shares how AI is challenging our assumptions about consciousness, creativity, and what it means to be human. Lightman holds a rare dual role at MIT in both the sciences and humanities, and his perspective bridges rational explanation with poetic wonder.

They talk about:

• Whether consciousness can ever be explained—or simulated—by machines
• If AI can ever experience love the way we can
• If creativity is uniquely human, or just another pattern to reproduce
• What the distinction is between natural and artificial intelligence
• Why scientific knowledge doesn’t destroy awe—it deepens it
• A potential future where we merge with AI, becoming “homo techno”

Lightman calls himself a spiritual materialist—someone who believes everything is made of atoms and molecules, yet still experiences meaning, beauty, and the ineffable. The episode doesn’t give simple answers, but it raises beautiful questions!

The convo starts out a little slow, but picks up towards the end with great banter about everything from love, consciousness, amoebas and frogs.

Sharing here in case anyone might be interested - Lightman brings a physicist's clarity and a novelist's soul to the discussion of AI.

Btw - Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams is an incredible book and it's one book that I think I'll keep coming back to for my whole life. Would highly recommend his writing to anyone curious about science and the beauty of the world :)

Researchers from the University of Minnesota, Columbia University, and YourChoice Therapeutics have developed YCT-529, a non-hormonal male contraceptive pill that blocks sperm production. After successful trials on mice and primates, it showed promising results in preventing fertility with no side effects.