Bob Siederer
1 June 2026
Hello again Science fans!
I’ve been overseas for a while. Thanks to David for swapping dates with me last month. While I was able to keep up with calendar updates while I was away, finding time to reliably write the newsletter wasn’t going to be easy. But I’m back now, and over my jet lag (I think).
This weekend marks the unofficial start of summer here in the US. We tend to mark summer as running from Memorial Day to Labor Day. This year that means the longest possible summer period, as Memorial Day is as early as it can be, and Labor Day is as late as it can be. In many parts of the world, the unofficial start of summer is May 1. But it sure wasn’t summer-like in Germany for my last week, what with morning temperatures of 35, highs barely reaching 50, and rain. It is quite summery there now though.
Of course, astronomical summer starts on the summer solstice, June 21 this year, and ends September 22 with the autumnal equinox. Any season is a state of mind, so take your pick and celebrate as you see fit.
A couple of scheduling items, before we get into the science news:
- The last Ask a Science Envoy talk by Wonderfest for 2026 will occur this Wednesday, May 27. There has been some confusion on the date, so if you were planning on attending on Tuesday, know that the event is actually scheduled for Wednesday. The Wonderfest website may not have been updated to reflect this change yet, but our calendar has and I’ve verified that Wednesday is the correct day.
- The Tech Interactive in San Jose will be holding STEM Summer Camp sessions for children grades 2 – 6. This type of daily course doesn’t fit into our calendar structure well, so we don’t list them there, but instead mention them here. The camps are broken into weekly sessions, separated by ages. If you have children in this grade range and are looking for something for them to do this summer that’s both fun and educational, take a look at their listings for these camps.
Climate and the Environment
I wish I could say things are looking up on this topic, but the UN has just issued a warning that Earth’s climate is further out of balance than at any time in recorded history. 2025 was not quite as hot as 2024 due to the La Niña weather pattern in effect these past months. That is over, and models point to a “super” El Niño later this year, perhaps as strong as the biggest one since we started keeping records in the 1870s.
This should exacerbate the water shortage issues in the West this summer. The lack of snow pack in the mountains this spring has had a dire impact on waterflow in the Colorado River, setting up unprecedented shortages in areas that rely on the Colorado for fresh water supply.
Still, the Administration continues to ignore the science and weaken or eliminate decades of conservation progress, defunding non-fossil fuel energy programs and supporting reductions in air quality regulations.
Space
The Psyche mission which is going to, well, the asteroid Psyche, just passed by Mars where it got a gravity boost and course adjustment. It also tested out some of its instruments, taking pictures of the Martian surface during a rather close approach. NASA released the image above, detailing wind-blown impact craters in the Syrtis Major region. For scale, each pixel represents nearly 1,200 feet. The large craters near the center-bottom average about 30 miles in diameter. Here’s more about the Psyche mission.
We already know that Mars spins slightly faster each year, but up until now we didn’t know why. Scientists in the Netherlands think they know, and it involves a potentially active volcanic region on the surface..
NASA released 12,000 more pictures from Artemis II’s trip to the moon, taken by the onboard crew. Here are some of the most inspiring ones.
We only confirmed the existance of exoplanets (planets orbiting alien stars) in the early 1990s. We now have confirmed nearly 6,300 such exoplanets. And the T16 project, which uses existing data from the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) project and a new technique to look for exoplanets just announced 10,091 new candidate exoplanets. You can read Phil Plait’s thoughts on this here. Not to be outdone, the new Rubin observatory has found 11,000 new asteroids! And it is still in testing phase! It also imaged abound 80,000 previously known asteroids.
Health
Half of US adults under the age of 50 get wellness advice from social media influencers. Just how qualified are these people to be dispensing advice? Fewer than one in five are conventional medical professionals. Some base their advice on a sample of one…their own experiences, and have thousands of followers.
Have you heard of the interstitium? It is a third bodily system, circulating fluids within the human body, after the well-known cardiovascular and lymphatic systems. Researchers are just beginning to understand this system, but the implications are enormous. This NY Times article uses clever animation to illustrate these systems. The interstitium links Eastern and Western medicine ideas. It was discovered because of tattoos!
Breaking News! (because it appeared in my inbox while I was prepping the SciSchmooze)
Between the Administrations release of information about UFOs, and the new film Disclosure Day from Steven Spielberg, expect interest from the media and public about UFOs to increase. Our friend Andrew Fraknoi, Bay Area Astronomer and educator, has put together a list of resources that skeptics have found regarding UFO cases and claims. Click here to download this list. Among other things, Andrew is the lead author of the most-frequently-used introductory astronomy textbook in the US.
Have a great week in science, and an enjoyable, peaceful Memorial Day weekend!
Bob
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