Critical Minerals, Space Junk, and A MySpace Reboot

The federal government is committing more than $5 billion dollars to a national effort to expand the Genesis Mission, which is aimed at harnessing AI for science.

Part of that effort involves seeking domestic sources for critical and rare earth minerals that are vital for a wide range of industries, including aerospace, health care, and defense.

According to the US Department of Energy (DOE), these minerals are also key inputs to many clean energy technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicle batteries, and energy storage technologies.

As a result; they’re giving out grants worth between $500 and $750 thousand dollars, to researchers who can help them find the these critical resources here home, instead of having to import them from other countries.

I talked to one of those researchers this week, Dr. David Costello, from Kent State University, who tells us his team will work on the project over the next nine months.

We’re also talking with ABC Radio News Correspondent Jim Ryan, about efforts to keep the Swift Observatory Telescope from crashing to earth as space junk, and taking a bit of a time trip back to the early 2000's when Myspace was the hottest thing in social media, and why the people who are running it now are are giving it a makeover.

Biography
Dr. David Costello's research broadly focuses on how human activities affect the structure and function of stream ecosystems. As an ecosystem ecologist, he studies how entire ecosystems respond to stress, and uses an interdisciplinary perspective to understand the abiotic and biotic forces that modify how sensitive an ecosystem is to human-derived stress. His research has shown that a nuanced understanding of complex interactions (e.g., multi-element cycles, food web interactions) is required to make informed management decisions about critical freshwater resources.