BOB SIEDERER
6 October 2025
Hello again, fans of Science.
At the age of 26, Jane Goodall set off to study chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream Game Reserve, armed with little more than a notebook. Unassuming, modest, and optimistic, she literally changed the world with her pioneering discoveries, environmentalism, and general outlook on life and the planet.
Her name is known around the world, by young and old…the woman who lived with the chimpanzees. Her discovery of their tool use and family dynamics changed our understanding of ourselves.
Jane died this week at the age of 91. Here then, a memoir from Mereya Mayor, another primatologist inspired to enter the field by Dr. Goodall’s work, and the NY Times obituary.
She will be missed by the World!
Thanks to David Almandsmith for covering for me last week, on short notice. I was out of town, expecting to have plenty of time to write the Schmooze Saturday night, only to find that would be impossible, and my Sunday travel schedule wouldn’t allow me to write it on Sunday either. The best laid plans…
Space
A study published last month reports on potential chemical signatures indicating ancient Martian microbial life. While more study is needed, this is pretty exciting news. If in fact this is true, it would be the first proof of life outside of Earth, anywhere in the Universe.
TRAPPIST-1, a faint, cool red dwarf star that is only 40 light-years from Earth, was only discovered in 1999. It has seven planets orbiting it, however, and they all pass between the star and us, allowing analysis using spectography. Because Trappist-1 is a cool star, astronomers have studied it, and its planets, closely, hoping to find an atmosphere. So far, that hasn’t worked out as hoped. Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, wrote about the latest findings recently.
NASA announced that, in the three decades since the first exoplanets orbiting active stars (planets orbiting stars that are not our Sun) were discovered, the total of confirmed exoplanets has now exceeded 6,000, with more than 8,000 candidates awaiting confirmation. The total reached 5,000 only 3 years ago, so the rate of discovery is increasing with time.
Speaking of NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration), it is no longer primarily focused on space exploration, or space and Earth sciences. NASA will now become a national intelligence and security agency, per another executive order from the President. This order is apparently partially related to the administration’s elimination of union rights for thousands of Federal employees. This order adds NASA to the list of agencies covered by that change.
Environment
Despite strong evidence that greenhouse gases are bad for us, the administration wants to cancel the government’s findings that carbon dioxide emissions endanger public health, a declaration made 16 years ago. Many climate protections are based on this endangerment finding and could now be eliminated.
The NY Times “The Morning” newsletter on September 18 reported on the administration’s record on climate change. A few days later, the President addressed the UN and told the delegates that climate change is “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”.
Meanwhile, here in California, the first solar-covered canal is fully online and generating 1.6 megawatts of electricity, while providing other benefits.
In an earlier issue, we wrote about the administration’s cancelling an almost-completed, $6 billion, 65-turbine wind farm off the New England coast. The president is an opponent of wind-driven electricity generation, despite the obvious benefits, because some turbines were installed off the coast of his golf course in Scotland! The potential economic impact is huge.
War on Science
The administration’s war on Science is nothing new. Here’s a history lesson, going back to the 1600s, showing how science and “government” are often at odds.
Your Health
DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, was supposed to save the taxpayers billions of dollars by cutting waste. At least 100 officials from the Department of Health and Human Services who were placed on administrative leave, are still receiving full salary to sit at home and do nothing. Not only is this wasteful (nice work, DOGE!), but psychologically difficult for those involved.
RFK Jr and the President fulfilled a promise to “find the cause of autism” by the end of September. This, despite the fact that extensive research by hundreds of accredited scientists who have been working on this issue for years and years has not found a definitive cause. Autism was first identified in 1911. The government has now decided that Tylenol taken by pregnant mothers causes autism. This, despite that fact that Tylenol didn’t come into existence until 1955.
Here’s Scientific American’s analysis of this “announcement”.
Of course, the fallout out from this finding is much larger than just autism. We can no longer trust anything coming from the government as being based in scientific fact, as those facts are being ignored.
A source you might want to follow
Dr. Jessica Knurick “navigate(s) nutrition science, public health, and misinformation – with tools to think critically and make informed decisions” per her Substack biography. She is passionate and presents her arguments well. Follow her on Substack, or Instagram.
Artificial Intelligence
Shortly after ChatGPT became available for public use, I used it to attempt to write the introduction to this newsletter. It promptly hallucinated. The folks at OpenAI say they have found the reason powerful AI models still make assertions that are factually false. The reasons are a little scary, and show the limits of this technology. Perhaps it shouldn’t be called intelligence, artificial or otherwise. There is a straightforward fix, but implementing it would present a new set of issues.
This week
Some events to consider this week:
- Astronomy on Tap San Francisco, Tuesday, San Francisco
- This Time It’s Different: AI Startups Across Three Generations, Tuesday, Mountain View
- The New Vera C. Rubin Observatory: Surveying the Universe, Wednesday, Los Altos Hills
- Mary Roach: Adventures in Human Anatomy, Thursday, San Francisco
Have a great week in Science!
Bob Siederer
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.