There has been a lot of important scientific research done this year.  Here are a few new and exciting things that we can be thankful for.

In February, the James Webb telescope discovered a new moon orbiting Uranus.  This is the 29th object observed to be orbiting Uranus.  The new moon is estimated to be only six miles in diameter.  It is provisionally named S/2025 U 1, but will eventually receive a new permanent name bestowed by the International Astronomical Union.  All of Uranus's moons have names that come from Shakespeare plays, and the new moon will follow the pattern.

In August, we learned that scientists at the University of California, Davis have developed wheat plants that produce their own fertilizer.  The team used the gene-editing tool CRISPR to get the wheat plants to produce more of one of their naturally occurring chemicals.  This chemical helps bacteria in the soil to convert nitrogen from the air into a form that plants use to grow.  This technology could be used to reduce pollution and lower costs for farmers around the world.

In September, the Perseverance rover discovered a rock on Mars that originated somewhere else.  The rock is nicknamed “Phippsaksla," and has a high iron and nickel content.  This metal combination is typical of iron-nickel meteorites that form in the core of large asteroids.  This all suggests that the rock was formed somewhere other than Mars.  This is not the first time a rover has found a non-Mars rock on Mars, but it is the first time for Perseverance!

These are just a few of the amazing things that happened in science this year.  Did we miss something important?  Tell us about it in the comments!

As we all get ready to feast on Thanksgiving, we thought it would be fun to share some other, exciting and science-y things you can do with food.  Here are some ways to turn your Thanksgiving into exploration and investigation.

Bending Turkey Bones
Materials:
turkey bones
two jars
vinegar

Directions:
1. Wash and dry your leftover turkey bones.
2. Fill one jar with vinegar and one jar with water.  Label the jars.
3. Put a bone in each jar.  Let them sit for one week.
4. Rinse off the bones and see which bones will now bend!

**The bones that were in vinegar bend because the calcium carbonate in the bones reacted with the vinegar. This experiment shows how bones need calcium to stay strong so they don’t break or bend easily.

Make Your Own Butter
Materials:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
container with a lid
salt (optional)

Directions: 
1. Pour the heavy whipping cream into the container with the lid.  The container should be no more than half full of whipping cream.  (Half liquid, half gas)
2.  Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake!  As you shake, you can periodically remove the lid and observe the changing states of matter as your liquid and and gas create a whipped solid: butter!
3.  When your butter is ready, you can refrigerate it.  It will become a bit more solid.
4. Add salt for a bit more flavor.

**Shaking cream makes butter by breaking down the fat globules, causing them to clump together and separate from the liquid.  When all the fat globules have separated, the remaining liquid is called buttermilk.

...Or Maybe Make Whipped Cream
Materials:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
bowl
hand mixer
sugar (optional)

Directions:
1. Pour the cream into the bowl.
2. Using the hand mixer, the cream until it forms stiff peaks.  (Stiff peaks are when you lift the mixer and the whipped cream peaks stay straight up and don't curl or flop over.)
3. Add a little sugar if you want sweet cream.

**Whipped cream is a colloid, which is a mixture where one substance is evenly distributed in another.  In this case, gas bubbles (air) have been mixed into liquid cream, creating a semi-solid foam. The whipping incorporates air into the cream, creating countless air bubbles.  The fat molecules in the cream form a network around the air bubbles, stabilizing them and preventing them from popping.  If you keep whipping cream past the whipped stage, the fat will separate and you get butter!

Nicole Aunapa Mann is a Navy test pilot and NASA astronaut.  In October 2022, she made history by becoming the first Native American Woman to fly in space.

Of Wailaki heritage, and born and raised in northern California, Mann is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes.  Growing up, Mann was always interested in math and science.  After learning how to pilot fighter jets in the U.S. Marine Corps, she realized that she could combine her flight skills and her scientific interests, and she applied to be an astronaut.  She struggled with her confidence and self-doubt, but persevered.

In 2022, she travelled to the International Space Station as the commander of Space-X Crew 5.  During the 157 day mission, she performed two spacewalks installing upgrades to the solar arrays that power the station.  Inside the station, she worked on many experiments, including testing ways to grow better tomatoes in space and 3-D printing human tissue as a way to see if organs can be grown in space for medical needs.

She is currently in training for the upcoming Artemis missions and is a contender to be the first woman on the moon.

John Bennett Herrington is a retired United States Naval Aviator, engineer, and former NASA astronaut.  He made history in 2002 by becoming the first Native American to fly in space.  He is a member of the Chickasaw Nation.

Born in 1958 in Watumka, Oklahoma, Herrington grew up during America's space race with the Soviet Union.  His childhood heroes were astronauts.  Herrington's father was a flight instructor, which spurred his interest in aviation.

When he graduated from college in 1983, Herrington enrolled at the Navy's aviation Officer Candidate School.  In 1985, he was commissioned as a naval aviator.  He went on to spend the next ten years logging more than 3,800 flight hours on various assignments for the navy.

In 1996, NASA selected him from 2,500 applicants to be a part of the new class of astronaut candidates.  Herrington flew on the space shuttle Endeavour as a mission specialist as it delivered new crew to the International Space Station.  During the mission, he performed three spacewalks.  The total mission duration was 13 days, 18 hours, and 47 minutes.

Herrington took pieces of his Native American heritage with him into space.  He brought a flag from the Chickasaw Nation, a flute (made by a Cherokee friend who was an engineer at the Kennedy Space Center), and a feather.

In July 2004, Herrington spent ten days as the commander of the NEEMO 6 mission living in NASA's Underwater Aquarius lab studying survival techniques for space exploration.  He retired from the Navy and from NASA in 2005.