environment
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Sierra Space Built an Inflatable Space Module the Size of a House, Then Blew It Up
You can’t fly an inflatable module to space without bursting a few on Earth. Sierra Space watched its giant, 20-foot-tall space station module explode in dramatic fashion, but the company wasn’t too stressed about it. In fact, it marked a successful test on the road to building the first commercial space station in low Earth…
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Texas Is Considering a Controversial Land Swap Deal With SpaceX
In April 2023, SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket lifted off for the first time, sending chunks of debris thousands of feet across the South Texas landscape and sparking a fire in a nearby state park. It was an environmental nightmare; the launchpad is surrounded by a wildlife habitat that’s home to endangered species. Now, SpaceX is…
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There’s Been a Staggering Increase in People Killed by Fungi Every Year, Study Finds
The global burden and death toll of fungi has substantially climbed over the past decade, new research finds. The study estimates that fungal infections help kill nearly 4 million people annually—almost double the amount estimated by similar research in 2012. Co-infections like HIV and tuberculosis, a lack of speedy and reliable diagnostic testing, and growing…
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Bottled Water Contains 100 Times More Plastic Particles Than Previously Thought
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. At this point, it’s common knowledge that bottled water contains microplastics — fragments of the insidious material that can be as small as a bacterial cell. But the problem is much worse than previously known: It turns out that bottled water…