Science

Trump Administration Ends Fetal Tissue Research Funding

The Trump administration announced on January 22 that it will end the use of fetal tissue from elective abortions in federally funded research, a policy that affects the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Intramural Research Program and all NIH-supported extramural research. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya stated that this decision aims to advance science by investing in alternative technologies, as funding for research using human fetal tissue has declined steadily, with only 77 projects funded in Fiscal Year 2024. This policy shift is part of broader efforts by the administration to align taxpayer-funded research with its ideological perspectives.

New Method Tracks Space Debris Using Seismometers

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Imperial College London have developed a method to track falling space debris by utilizing existing networks of seismometers to detect sonic booms produced during reentry. This technique was demonstrated by reconstructing the trajectory of the Shenzhou-15 orbital module, which reentered the Earth's atmosphere on April 2, 2024, traveling at speeds of Mach 25-30. The study, published in the journal Science, highlights the growing risk of space debris as the frequency of uncontrolled reentries increases, providing a new tool for monitoring potentially hazardous objects.