[La semaine en bref] We discover that ethical thinking in space is urgent…

Space ethics Space exploration should not resemble Earth exploration, which is characterized by overexploitation of resources and shameful extractive labor. Will this wish be heard? I’m not sure if we’ll believe the claims of various private companies launching an attack on the skies. Don’t worry, because the Space Treaty was ratified in 1967 by… countries, not companies. What will happen to the travel conditions of humans exposed to radiation during long interplanetary flights? There are a lot of ethical questions you should ask yourself now, before it’s too late [Aeon]. In the archive: Space: The law of stronger will always be better, 2016.

Covid-19, influenza and beyond? – Measles has come to alarm experts who fear an epidemic in France of this particularly contagious disease (its famous reproduction rate, or R0, is between 15 and 20, compared to about 3 for SARS-CoV-2) after the discovery of the measles virus. Outbreak at Guilherand-Granges. In this town of Ardèche, 59 cases were identified between mid-September and mid-October. Surprisingly, many of these include vaccinated individuals. How do we explain that? Too early injection or falsification of vaccination records are the two hypotheses held by the regional health agency [Le Monde]. In the archives: Covid-19, an accelerator of measles? 2020.

In 2023, the French Biodiversity Capital is… – Rawan! Every year for the past twelve years, the French Office for Biodiversity, together with its partners, has rewarded French municipalities and co-municipalities for their work on behalf of biodiversity according to several categories. Thus, among the municipalities with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants, Valles de Teles, with a population of 181, stands out. As for the combined urban communities, the metropolis of Rouen-Normandy has been designated as the French Capital of Biodiversity due to its numerous actions deployed over twenty years to protect and restore the forests, arboreal and arboreal heritage of its lands. Vacation destination? [OFB] In the archives: The richness of recorded French biodiversity, 2016.

Massacre of the Suns… Starfish, or sunflower starfish (Pycnopodia helianthoides)It is one of the largest known species among these animals with 24 arms and a diameter of approximately one meter. This is denounced by scientists, who estimate the number of specimens that died in the Pacific Ocean during the past three years at about 5.75 billion. The cause is starfish wasting syndrome, a disease about which little is known, except that it is linked to global warming. A ray of hope every breath. Teams from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California have successfully bred sea eels in captivity, with the idea of ​​one day reintroducing them into the wild. [New York Times]. In the archives: Acidification threatens marine ecosystems, 2011.