An Asteroid Impact, Spotted In Advance | Extreme Heat Is Making Learning More Difficult

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I'm sci-fi producer D. Peter Schmidt. Kids across the U.S. just kicked off a new school year,

but the summer heat is still here. In recent years, temperatures have stayed hotter than

normal through September and even into October. And sitting in a sweltering classroom can make

learning really difficult and even dangerous. We'll talk about how learning and teaching have

become more challenging as the planet heats up and what solutions might be on the horizon.

But first, here's guest host and science journalist Sophie Bushwick,

roundup.

Rounding up the top news in science this week.

This Wednesday, an asteroid named 2024 RW1 burned up in the atmosphere above the Philippines.

As asteroids go, it was pretty harmless. But astronomers are still excited about the event.

Here to talk more about the impact is Science Friday's senior producer, Charles Berquist.

Hi, Charles.

Hey, Sophie.

So tell me more about this asteroid.

Yeah, 2024 RW1 was an asteroid about a meter across. And as you said,

it burned up in the atmosphere above the Philippines.

It burned up in the atmosphere without doing any damage. This kind of asteroid really isn't that

unusual. NASA says we get one of this size maybe every two weeks or so. There were some pictures

that captured this particular impact from the ground. But a lot of people in the Philippines

probably didn't get to see it due to weather conditions because there was a typhoon, Typhoon

Yagi, in the area at the time.

Wait, if it's not big and it didn't hurt anything and most people didn't even see it, then why do

we care?

Yeah. So what was going on?

What was cool about this event is that astronomers with a project called the Catalina Sky Survey

actually spotted it earlier in the day, like eight hours earlier or so. And they were able

to predict where and when it would be likely to enter the atmosphere. You know, we have

a good handle on a lot of the bigger objects in space near us. But usually we only learn

about the presence of these smaller near-Earth objects like this one after someone sees the

fireball in the sky. The European Space Agency said it was just the ninth time that the space

mission had been spotted before impact. So this is a pretty unusual event.

And you have a related story about a human-made meteor shower?

That's right. You might recall the space mission called DART, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test.

This was basically testing a possible planetary defense against these larger near-Earth objects.

You know, if you slam something into an asteroid head-on,

would it be possible to nudge it off its course and change its trajectory? So

back in 2022,

NASA sent this craft to slam into Dimorphos. This was a small moonlet orbiting the larger

asteroid called Didymos. And they found that, yeah, they were able to change the trajectory

of that smaller object. But it turns out that crash also kicked loose around two million pounds

of debris and dust and rocks and stuff. Oh, wow.

Yeah. So this new study says some of that material could actually drift through space and make it to

near Mars.

Yeah. So this is a cool one. So if you're hunting for gold, one of the things prospectors keep an eye

out for is the mineral quartz, areas that have very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,

veins of quartz are where you tend to find gold nuggets. Now, researchers say in the journal

Nature Geoscience that that connection between gold and quartz might be due to the piezoelectric

effect. And that's when stress on a crystal from bending or squeezing it can make electricity or

vice versa. Quartz is a piezoelectric material. And the researchers say that the stress on the

quartz from earthquakes could make enough electricity to cause aqueous gold nuggets to

dissolve in the water to deposit out of the solution in the rock. And the electricity could also help

small particles of gold to clump up more gold over time and form larger nuggets or veins of gold

within the quartz.

That is amazing. Wait, so could California's notoriously shaky ground maybe have helped

produce the material for the gold rush?

So it definitely seems plausible, right, if earthquakes lead to gold nugget formation. But I'll

note that there's a lot of evidence that says that there's a lot of evidence that says that there's a lot of

that the San Andreas Fault, you know, the big name fault in California itself isn't normally

associated with gold. And the main California gold rush deposits were like out in the Sierra

Nevadas. So who knows? I guess we'll have to go out there and start digging and try to figure it

out. That's right. Looking for another kind of treasure, researchers may have identified a new

kind of pain medication. Yeah. So we all know that pain medications are a major challenge.

For minor pain, there's things like

aspirin and ibuprofen and acetaminophen. But for serious pain, you're generally looking at things

like the opioid drugs. There are millions of people that need those pain medications

to control acute or chronic pain. But at the same time, you know, those opioids have side

effects and can pose risks of addiction and misuse. So I learned about this new drug from

an article in Scientific American by Marla Broadfoot. The FDA has accepted for review

a new kind of pain medication made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

It's called suzetrogene, formerly known as VX548. And this works in a new way by

stopping up a sodium channel in the pain receptor neurons. It basically

blocks the ability to transmit the pain signal. And if this drug is approved, it would be the

first new way to treat pain in over 20 years. They're hoping to have a decision on this drug

next year. In other medical research news,

there's efforts to see inside a living body. Tell me more.

Yeah, this one is earlier.

So if you want to see inside the body, there are things like x-rays and MRI scans. But

what if you could just look through the skin? Researchers report in the journal Science that

they found if you take the right color dye and apply it to the skin of the mouse, the dye

absorbs light in a way that it makes the skin scatter less light and can actually make it

transparent to certain wavelengths.

Wow.

Yeah, they found that they could see things like blood vessels on the surface of the brain.

You could see internal organs.

In the mouse's abdomen. And they could even watch peristalsis. That's the squishy muscle

contractions that would move food through the digestive tract.

Ah, it's kind of gross, but very, very cool. I love it. So what's the magic ingredient here?

One thing I love about this story is that it's using the food coloring

FD&C Yellow 5, which it turns out is the coloring that helps make Mountain Dew that

bright yellow color or bright yellow M&Ms and a bunch of other snack foods.

The researchers say that it's a very good color.

They aren't sure if the technique will work as well in humans because,

you know, our skin is a lot thicker than mouse skin.

So I shouldn't be rubbing Mountain Dew on my hands to try to see through them?

Probably not. You might need to use like a lot more dye or they'll have to find other

ways to get the dye in there. But, you know, this is an intriguing start.

Okay. From a dye found in snack foods to a different sort of snack. There's a murder mystery

at sea.

Yeah. So you know the line about how the big fish eats the little fish?

Yeah.

This is pretty much that, but with a really, really big fish. Researchers had a satellite

tracking tag on a pregnant shark called a poor beagle. These are not small. Like this was

about seven feet long, hundreds of pounds. The satellite tags collect data like temperature

and depth readings, and they're designed to pop off the shark after a while. And then

they float up to the surface for researchers to collect. So in this case, the team got a

signal from the tag that was on this pregnant poor beagle.

That the tag's been released and is floating near Bermuda. But after they collected it

and read the data, the data was weird. The log on the tracker showed that for months

the poor beagle swam at one depth during the day, another depth during the night. You can

see the depth readings and the water temperature readings going up and down in the logs. But

then starting in March of 2021, there's this period of four days in the record where the

tag keeps moving up and down in the water, but it stayed at a constant temperature, a

temperature about five degrees warmer than the water day and night. And then four days

after that, the tag comes to the surface. So the only explanation that they can come

up with is that the tag spent four days in the stomach of a larger predator before it

was excreted.

Ah, do we know who done it?

So the researchers say either a white shark or a shortfin mako shark are the likely suspects

because they're the only things that would be in the area at that time. And the right

size to go hunting for a poor beagle, but there's really no way to know.

And that's not the only ocean mystery this week.

Yeah, this next one is sad. You may have heard of Hvaldemir. This is a male beluga whale

that fishermen near Northern Norway first noticed in 2019. This particular beluga seemed

very used to humans, and he was found wearing a camera harness that was labeled Equipment

St. Petersburg, which gave rise to the theory that he was an animal.

Okay.

Yeah, so Hvaldemir stayed around Norway and Sweden after he was freed from his spy

harness, and he would sometimes interact with people. He kind of became a tourist attraction

around the area. It took him a while to really learn to hunt for food on his own, and sometimes

he came too close to boats in the area. But last weekend, Hvaldemir the beluga was found

dead.

While an official autopsy is yet to come, we're still waiting to find out if he was

found dead.

In the next few days or so, two animal rights groups have said he appeared to have sustained

multiple gunshot wounds. So we'll have to wait and hopefully find out more about this

sad case.

Yeah, that is sad. Well, I think we need to cheer up with some happier animal news.

There's work out this week on pets playing fetch.

Yeah. So we all know many dogs like to play fetch. And if you talk to cat owners,

they may tell you that their cats also like to play fetch too. Now, scientists have published

a paper, Quantum Fetch, which is a paper that's been published by the National Institute of

Cats, identifying just how fetch-y both cats and dogs are. They surveyed over 8,000 cat

owners and found that 41% reported that their cat would either sometimes, frequently, or

always retrieve toys or objects that the owners threw, which is more than researchers previously

thought. And it turns out all breeds of cats sometimes engage in fetching.

That's awesome. I don't necessarily think of cats doing that, but I guess they enjoy

it as much as dogs do. Yeah. I think that's a good point. I think cats are a great source

of fun.

Yeah. It turns out, you know, the numbers for dogs are higher. 78% of dog owners reported

playing fetch with their dog. They said that the dog breeds that were developed to herd

livestock or as hunting companions are more likely to play fetch than others. But, you

know, all breeds showed some kind of fetching behavior.

So for the pet owners out there, which breeds of cats and dogs are more likely to have fun

playing fetch?

Yeah. So again, all breeds of cats they found sometimes will play fetch, but it seemed to

be more common in Burmese, Siamese, and African-American cats. So they're more likely to have fun

playing fetch than Burmese and Tocanese cats. On the dog side, you're looking at Labrador

and Golden Retrievers, Border Collies, English Cocker Spaniels, things like that.

That makes sense. I mean, Retriever is in the name for some of them.

Exactly. You would expect the Retriever to be good at fetch.

Yes, exactly.

And, you know, in both cats and dogs, they found males are more likely to play fetch

than females. Younger animals more likely to fetch than older animals are. They think that

there may be some kind of fetch that they're more likely to play fetch than older animals.

There's a connection to learning hunting behavior or practicing hunting,

but largely they found it's probably just fun.

I love that. And that's all the time we have for now. Thanks, Charles.

You're welcome, Sophie. Have a great weekend.

Charles Berquist is Science Friday's senior producer.

Support for Science Friday comes from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,

working to enhance public understanding of science,

technology, and economics in the modern world.

Kids across the U.S. just kicked off a new school year, but the summer heat is still here.

In recent years, temperatures have stayed hotter than normal through September and even into

October. And sitting in a sweltering classroom can make learning really difficult, even dangerous.

A story in The 19th describes how learning and teaching have become more challenging,

as the planet heats up, and what solutions might be on the horizon.

Joining me is Jessica Kutz, reporter at The 19th, based in Tucson, Arizona.

Welcome to Science Friday.

Thanks so much, Sophie.

Jessica, why are kids specifically so at risk for heat exhaustion or dehydration?

Yeah, so kids are so at risk because their bodies are still developing the ability to

thermoregulate. And what that means is that, you know, our bodies have this ability to

either heat up or warm up when it's too cold, or to cool down when it's too hot outside.

But for kids, their main ability and our main ability to thermoregulate in the heat is the

function of sweating. But kids don't sweat as much as adults. And that's really important,

because when we sweat, that evaporates off of our skin, and it cools us down. It's kind of

one of our main mechanisms in the heat. And so for kids, also for people who are

pregnant and also the elderly, that ability is somewhat compromised. I would say the other

thing is that kids, they also just haven't learned the cues of their own bodies yet. So

they don't always know when they're overheating, or they forget to drink water when they should

be drinking water. And so they really depend on adults like parents and teachers to remind them

to do these sorts of things to stay safe. And some schools could just run the AC during hot

weather, but many don't.

Don't have air conditioning, right?

That's right. So as you mentioned, heat is extending further into the school year,

but it's also starting earlier into the spring. So this used to not be a problem because,

you know, in places like the East Coast, where there really isn't air conditioning in a lot of

these schools, because they were built in like the 50s and the 60s, they didn't have to think

about having cooling because kids were already out of schools in the summer when it started to

get hotter. But because this heat season is extending, we have a lot of students that are

in these classrooms that don't have any air conditioning. And in contrast, like where I live

in Tucson and Arizona in general, it's always been pretty hot here. And so schools have already

adapted to the hot weather, but a lot of parts of the country don't have that infrastructure yet.

Roughly how many schools would you say don't have AC in the country?

So the latest estimate shows that over 36,000 schools nationwide don't have adequate

cooling or HVAC systems. So that's a pretty large number. They estimate that it would cost

about $4.5 billion to upgrade schools or to just even like bring in air conditioning in the first

place. As part of your reporting, you spoke with teachers. How are they feeling about this problem?

Teachers?

Teachers are feeling pretty frustrated, I learned. Yeah, I spoke to a teacher in Pennsylvania and

another in New York. And so they're really like at the epicenter of this issue. And they're

frustrated because their job has become, as much as it is about the learning and the teaching

their students, it's also become a lot about the safety and having to like be aware of how their

kids are doing in the classroom. And then also having to like deal with all these added distractions

because of that. So one teacher I spoke to in Pennsylvania, she's in Pittsburgh, her classroom

was getting up to like 90 degrees, which is very hot. It's too hot for anyone to be in all day.

So they started allowing water bottles so that kids could drink water during the day. But then

that means kids have to go to the bathroom and they're spilling the water. And it's like creating

interactions when you have like 30 kids now who are all needing to like drink water and take care

of themselves. And it was kind of funny, I talked to one of the teachers in New York. Yeah, he was

saying kids are really lethargic, they are tired. And they also, in his classroom, they would put

their heads down on their desk, because the desk is cool. It's like a cool surface. So you have kids

like essentially falling asleep on these cool surfaces, just trying to stay like a comfortable

temperature. And yeah.

And it's really hard to teach in that kind of environment and for students to learn.

What about other solutions? Are there other ways that schools and teachers can keep students cool?

Yeah, I mean, the best one is just upgrading the school so that they have air conditioning.

Another teacher I spoke to said that he does like close the blinds or he'll turn off the lights. And

actually in New York, the state legislature just passed a law, it's waiting for the governor's

signature.

But it would require exactly that. So when it's 82 degrees inside a classroom, it would require

teachers to close blinds, turn off the lights. And then when it gets to 88 degrees, classes would

have to be canceled. So now when schools are canceled because of heat, they can kind of revert

back to remote learning. We know that has its own issues too, like some, you know, kids are then

home alone and might not have the same capacity to learn from home. You've mentioned how teachers are

taking on a lot of that. And I think that's really important. I think that's really important. I think that's

a lot more in terms of safety. I wanted to mention that, tragically, there was a school shooting in

Georgia earlier this week on September 4th. Two students and two teachers were killed. According

to CNN, that's the 45th school shooting in the U.S. so far this year. So how does that safety

concern intersect with trying to keep kids safe from heat?

Yeah, so this was something, it's just like an unfortunate reality of schools over the last few

decades.

With school shootings, you know, something that schools and teachers used to be able to do

before this started happening was they would leave windows open overnight or they would leave

doors open throughout the school to create like a cross breeze. And once they started

having to kind of take these heightened security measures because of things like school shootings,

all those options to kind of naturally cool down a school completely evaporated with

school shootings and, you know, the need to keep students safe from this other very real

danger during the school year.

Let's switch gears a little bit. Do we know how heat and being in these hot conditions

affects kids' ability to learn and even to just show up to class?

Yeah. So, you know, as I mentioned before, the classroom is just a lot more distracting for

learning. There are a lot of studies that show like lower abilities to concentrate and to take

in information when they're not in the classroom. So I think that's a big part of it.

When temperatures are higher, there was one pretty robust one. It was published in 2020

and researchers analyzed the PSAT scores of 10 million students in the country.

And so they looked at students who had like higher exposure to heat during the school year

compared to those who didn't. And they found that for every degree hotter a school year was,

resulted in a 1% decrease in learning.

You've mentioned some state level guidelines for what schools should do on hot days.

Which states have regulations like that?

Arizona is, I would kind of say like a leader in this area, just because as I mentioned,

they've been dealing with this for a number of years. So in 2017, they created a heat ready plan

for schools in Phoenix. And what that does is it, it just creates like a series of,

you know, guidelines that schools have to follow when it hits certain temperatures. Again,

some of those are like moving around recess or not having recess if it's too hot outside,

you know, taking different measures to keep the classrooms cool. In California, they're also

trying to pass a new bill that would also create a similar heat action plan. But one of the kind

of issues at the moment that policymakers are pointing out is that there isn't any sort of

federal guidance. And so it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like,

you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know,

that could help schools maybe like make these plans more quickly or like have some sort of,

you know, understanding of like, what is a temperature that's too hot for students? Or

what should we be aiming for? So there is an effort to ask the Department of Education to

start creating some sort of federal guideline that schools could look to.

So would you say there's groups actively trying to get some federal guidelines in place? Because

the fact that we don't have those sounds pretty concerning.

Especially with temperatures rising? Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's like so many things right now related to extreme heat is we're kind

of behind the ball a bit in so many different areas of this country and in our infrastructure.

And schools is, of course, one of those. So there are some, like different think tanks that are

trying to put pressure on the federal government that includes the Center for American Progress,

the Federation of American Students, and the Center for American Progress.

And a few others that all signed this letter, really urging lawmakers or urging the government to

start thinking more deeply about this issue and trying to bring some urgency to it. Because as

you mentioned, every year has been hotter than like the year before. So it's, it's not like a

future problem that we have to solve. Schools, even this year already have had to cancel or

have an early dismissal for class because it's just too hot for their students. So we're already

seeing a loss of learning. It's just like so many things related to extreme heat. I don't think

the country has been taking it seriously enough. And it's just now starting to kind of reach this

point where people are starting to pay attention to it. Before we go, Jessica, is there anything

parents can do at home to keep their kids safe when they go off to school? Yeah, there's a few

things I could do. I would say, first of all, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say,

I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say,

do. So one, definitely, as we're talking about, like, take, you know, make sure your child has a

water bottle that they can take to school. There are water bottles that are insulated or they're

steel. And so they keep water cold, which is really helpful. Another tip is like dress your

children in loose fitting, light colored clothes that also keeps them cooler. And then if they do

have like a health issue or health concern, like asthma, or some other concern that makes them more

susceptible to heat, they can talk to their teachers and their schools. Most schools do have

like a portable AC unit that they can bring into a classroom. But sometimes it means like there has

to be a request. So, you know, a parent has to let the teacher know that their student has this

health condition. And so usually they can bring in some sort of portable unit to at least help

those students. Jessica, thank you for joining me. Thank you so much for having me on.

Jessica Kutz is a reporter at the

19th News.

That's all the time we have for today. Lots of folks helped make the show happen, including

Beth Ramey, Santiago Flores, Diana Plasker, Robin Kasmer. On the next episode, we'll figure out how

researchers are using DNA to give a boost to digital data storage. I'm Sci-Fi producer

D. Peter Schmidt. See you then.

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