Today’s top story
A “super El Niño” is on the cards this summer, and it can supercharge temperatures to make 2027 a contender for the hottest year on record.
That’s according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center, which declared that there is a 62% chance that the natural climate pattern will emerge between June and August, and a 1-in-3 probability will be particularly strong.
That’s big news for our increasingly disturbed climate, too El Nino tend to strengthen hurricane activity over the central and eastern Pacific while suppressing hurricanes in the Atlantic, triggering extreme weather such as floods, droughts and heat waves across the globe.
The trend
It’s a remarkable engineering feat, especially considering the tens of thousands of evasive maneuvers satellites in the array must complete to avoid crashing into each other. But it also has great costs to radio astronomy and potentially to nearby spacecraftwhile also increasing the chances of an uncontrolled orbital chain reaction.
Three to read
- British officials are battling to contain the spread of a bacterial strain of meningitis behind a deadly outbreak in Kent, England. (The Guardian)
- Federal court blocks Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. his vaccine changes, along with his remaking of a key vaccine advisory panel. (The Hill)
- A single injection of mRNA-like treatment can help the heart muscle to heal after a heart attack in mice and pigs. Can it work on humans too? (Live Science)
Say it, said it
Word of the day: Etosha — A word in Oshindonga (dialect of Namibian) which roughly translates to “The Great White Place”. The Etosha Pan is a salt flat of approximately 1,800 square kilometers (4,700 sq mi) north of Namibia’s capital, Windhoek. And that looks absolutely fantastic from space.
Quote of the day: “Think of your brain as a city: while the whole city is awake and active, a few specific ‘neighborhoods’ (brain regions) decide to turn off the lights for a second. If these neighborhoods are responsible for attention, you experience a lapse.”
Elaine Pinggala neuroscientist at Monash University, Melbourne, on how sleep-like brain activity can cause our attention to drift, and how adults with ADHD experience them much more often.
Fun and games
This crossword puzzle by Senior Staff Writer Harry Baker took our editor-in-chief Alexander McNamara one minute and 55 seconds to complete. Do you think you can beat him?
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