Expert Q&A from Louisiana State University

We’re actually right on track for the number of storms we typically see at this time of year. I think it feels more noticeable because we haven’t had a major landfalling event yet. That’s thanks to the position of something called the subtropical high in the North Atlantic Ocean, which is currently directing most of them toward the open ocean.

Water transport timescales are great indicators of how water and the material it carries move in and out of different part of a landscape. How long it takes water to move through different parts of the delta ecosystem yields insights into much much and where sediments will be deposited, and provides valuable information about the dynamics of nutrients that influence wetland water and soil quality.

Both species have healthy population levels, but both sectors are facing major challenges. Gulf Coast shrimp is really impacted by imported product. With 80-90% of shrimp imported, domestic shrimp can’t set the price point. An influx of imports over the years has dropped prices to record lows.

Crab price is better, but both crabbers and shrimpers are facing the same price increases on everything, just like we are at the store. Diesel or gas, bait, etc. have all gone up, including insurance. Labor has become a major program as both sectors face graying of the fleet with very few young people entering the fisheries.

Many boats can’t find enough deckhand labor. This is also the case for processors on land. Both are also impact by storms.

Between cost, insurance (or lack thereof), and an aging industry, infrastructure for both shrimp and crab is decreasing across the coast.

NASA has begun designing a new mission to understand whether we are alone in the universe, called the Habitable Worlds Observatory. It is focusing on searching for life-like us, on Earth-like planets, around Sun-like stars, because this is the only example of life we have.

One key part of Earth-like planets is holding an atmosphere around a small, rocky planet. For Earth, our magnetic field has protected our atmosphere from the immense energy output by our Sun for billions of years. We have our magnetic field because the radioactive decay of Uranium and Thorium deep in Earth's core continues to heat it, allowing it to be molten. We know Mars used to have an atmosphere, but it eroded once its core cooled and froze. Further, we know life like us requires Iodine as it helps regulate our metabolism and body temperature.

Iodine, Uranium, and Thorium are among the heaviest elements known. We do not know when these elements first formed abundantly in the Universe. Its possible it was only recently, and thus we are among the first life in the universe. Alternatively, these elements may have been available for a long time.

We answer this question by looking deep into the past, which requires pointing our most powerful telescopes at distant galaxies, to understand what processes generate these heavy elements.

Conspiracy thinking thrives during times of social and political upheaval because conspiracy theories offer simple, emotionally satisfying explanations. When institutions appear unstable or untrustworthy, people naturally search for hidden causes behind confusing or frightening events.