Voyager 1’s aging power supply is forcing engineers to make increasingly careful choices about which systems remain active. Its plutonium-powered generators lose about 4 watts of output each year, so in September the team completed a coordinated “Big Bang” energy-saving change: three devices were switched off and replaced by lower-power alternatives. The devices also help keep the spacecraft warm, making it necessary to adjust them together. A similar change had been made to Voyager 2 about six weeks earlier. The savings should let Voyager 1’s remaining science instruments operate longer; without them, another instrument might have had to be shut down by summer 2027. The probes are now the only spacecraft directly studying interstellar space beyond the Sun’s heliosphere.
Voyager 1 also briefly stopped communicating with Earth after two missed contact attempts on Oct. 18 and 19. Its signal returned the following day, and communication has continued. Engineers are investigating the cause, but found that the active thruster group went offline and an automatic fault-protection system switched to backup thrusters, placing the spacecraft in a stable configuration. The interruption lasted about 48 hours. Meanwhile, Voyager 1 is approaching a symbolic distance milestone: on Nov. 18 it is expected to be one light-day from Earth, roughly 16.09 billion miles away. Radio signals will then take about a day each way, so a message and reply will require roughly two days. The milestone will not change the spacecraft or its surroundings, but underscores its extraordinary distance and endurance.
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Italian farmer Claudio Grossi discovered and planted seeds from his great-grandfather’s attic, growing unusually tall wheat with seven ears per stalk and multicolored kernels. The ancient grain attracted interest as a potential answer to modern agricultural challenges. (smithsonianmag.com)
Obesity rates rose dramatically over the past century, even though earlier generations ate plenty of butter and other high-fat foods. The shift accelerated in recent decades, and familiar explanations like diet and exercise do not fully account for it. (slimemoldtimemold.com)
![The lithium hypothesis of obesity [video]](https://hntoday.pixelshot.io/screenshots/20261031/99348d6522c847df_tn.jpeg)
The video is titled “The lithium hypothesis of obesity.” The provided page contains no information about the hypothesis or its evidence. (youtube.com)
Electrifying transport, heating and industry could halve global energy demand by replacing an inefficient fossil-fuel system that wastes much of its energy as heat. Oxford professor Jan Rosenow also discusses grid demands, battery recycling, China’s solar growth and how electrification can strengthen energy security. (fullycharged.show)
The linked paper’s title proposes that Alzheimer’s disease may begin in the nose and be caused by aluminosilicates. Its contents could not be accessed, so the claim cannot be verified from the provided text. (sciencedirect.com)
William Nordhaus, a Yale economist who won the 2018 Nobel Prize for incorporating climate change into economic analysis, died at 85 after battling brain cancer. He spent more than 50 years at Yale as a professor and university leader. (news.yale.edu)
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