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A look at the scientific breakthroughs changing the world, explorations in space and in worlds beyond our own and the threats posed to us by our own planet, both out of our control and of our own making.

Science

Axios Pro Rata

Sierra Space, a Louisville, Colo.-based commercial space transportation and infrastructure company, raised $1.4 billion in Series A funding at a $4.5 billion valuation.

Why it matters: This is one of the largest VC raises ever for an aerospace company, and moves Sierra Space closer toward its ultimate goal of building a private space station in orbit. In the meantime, it's also working on low-orbit spaceplanes that can deliver cargo and, eventually, crew.

Investors: Coatue, General Atlantic and Moore Strategic Ventures co-led, and were joined by BlackRock, AE Industrial Partners and family offices of Stanley Druckenmiller and Vincent Viola.

History: Sierra Space was formed earlier this year via a spinout from Sierra Nevada Corp., which said the move was partially designed to secure outside investment.

The bottom line: "Sierra Space's planned space station, Orbital Reef, is a joint project with Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin and may be operational by 2027. Companies seeking zero-gravity or microgravity environments for pharmaceutical research, 3D-printed human organs, or work in fiber-optics, energy and semiconductors, have expressed interest in station, [CEO Tom] Vice said." — Gillian Tan, Bloomberg

Sierra Space raises $1.4 billion at $4.5 billion valuation

It moves the company closer toward its ultimate goal of building a private space station in orbit.

Space

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest reached a 15-year high after it soared 22% in one year, according to data published Thursday. 

Why it matters: The Amazon is the world's largest tropical rainforest and stores vast quantities of CO2, the primary greenhouse gas. 

Brazil was also one of the nations that promised to end and reverse deforestation by 2030 during the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, earlier this month. 

By the numbers: Nearly 13,235 square kilometers (5,110 sq. miles) was lost during the 2020-2021 period — the most since 2006, according to the data. 

The big picture: The Brazilian Amazon hadn't recorded a single year with more than 10,000 kilometers of deforestation in over a decade, AP notes. 

Deforestation of the Amazon increased under President Jair Bolsonaro. 

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest accelerated and reached a 12-year high in 2020 according to data from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research published last December.

Our thought bubble, via Axios' Andrew Freedman: The agreement to combat deforestation was one of the key outcomes that occurred on the sidelines of COP26, in addition to the formal Glasgow Climate Pact. 

The new data underscores how big a challenge the global community faces in order to rein in deforestation in a country where the government has enacted policies that do the opposite, and instead ease the development of rainforest lands.

What they're saying: "It is a shame. It is a crime," said Márcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a network of environmental nonprofit groups, to AP. 

"We are seeing the Amazon rainforest being destroyed by a government which made environmental destruction its public policy."

Go deeper... Research: Protected land status determines a forest's fate

Amazon deforestation in Brazil surges to worst in 15 years

The Amazon is the world's largest tropical rainforest and stores vast quantities of CO2, the primary greenhouse gas.

General view of a burnt area of the Amazonia rainforest in the surroundings of the city of Porto Velho, Rondonia state, Brazil, on September 15, 2021. 

General view of a burnt area of the Amazonia rainforest in the surroundings of the city of Porto Velho, Rondonia state, Brazil, on September 15, 2021. Photo: Mauro Pimentel/AFP via Getty Images

Brazil

Ominous forecasts about the impact of climate change serve as the backdrop for the world — led by U.S. lawmakers and companies — to debate big action on the problem, which could upend energy systems and our way of life.

Energy & Environment

China is becoming the most formidable rival America has faced, and the risk of confrontation with Russia, North Korea or Iran still looms. Authoritarians are rising, the chaotic Afghanistan exit revealed the limits of U.S. power, and the pandemic, climate change and other critical challenges continue to pose grave threats.

World

Percentage change of calls to helplines, by reason

Source: Brülhart, M., Klotzbücher, V., Lalive, R. et al. in Nature; Chart: Thomas Oide/Axios

Fear and loneliness replaced relationship and livelihood concerns during the pandemic, a team of scientists said after looking at millions of helpline calls in multiple countries before and after the COVID-19 pandemic started.

The big picture: Doctors and policymakers are trying to assess the impact of quarantines, school closures and other public health measures on our emotional and mental well-being. Using helpline data could become an important assessment tool, the researchers said.

"When it comes to tracking mental health, we are so far behind," says Cindy Liu, director of the Developmental Risk and Cultural Resilience Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who published a perspective piece in Nature.

Liu says she's "impressed" by the potential usage of helpline data.

The impact of pandemic measures on mental health was unclear because "we have no historical data to compare these situations to," says Marius Brülhart, professor of economics at the University of Lausanne and co-author of the study, published Wednesday in Nature.

"At the beginning of the pandemic, there were wild claims, with some people saying having lockdowns and social distancing is going to lead people to despair. They're going to take to the bottle, they're going to start hitting their spouses, and they're going to start being suicidal. On the other end of the spectrum, you have people saying, 'actually, no, you need to have lockdowns to calm the population  — people are very anxious,'" Brülhart tells Axios.

What they found: The team examined 8 million calls or texts to 23 helplines in 14 EU countries, the U.S., China, Hong Kong, Israel and Lebanon from 2019 to early 2021.

They found a 35% rise on average in helpline calls, which peaked about six weeks after the initial outbreak.

"We were really interested to see what was behind the increase in the calls, and we were kind of relieved to see there were two main motives for people to call: They were anxious about the virus and anxious about getting infected. The other one was loneliness, [as] people with stay-at-home orders were cut off from their social circle," Brülhart says.

The risk of suicide did not appear to increase, he says, matching U.S. reports showing a national decline in 2020.

The team then looked at data from 10 of the countries that described why roughly 2.2 million people reached out during the initial pandemic wave.

They found the timing of strict lockdown and social distancing measures was linked to increased calls due to fear, loneliness and suicidal thinking.

However, the timing of governments' financial support for workers appeared to help alleviate that distress, Brülhart says.

Between the lines: There are few real-time trackers to gauge mental health during a global public health emergency such as a pandemic. For instance, suicide statistics can be released years later, Brülhart says, whereas infection rates, hospitalizations and economic indicators are updated quickly.

Helplines tend to track their completely anonymized data in real-time and tend to be relatively consistent globally. Brülhart says that "there's this sort of dormant treasure of information that strangely mental health researchers have not tapped yet."

Yes, but: The data is anonymized so certain characteristics, factors or entire groups may not be included, Liu and Brülhart say.

Another limitation, Liu points out, is that the categories looked at — for example, loneliness, relationship concerns and interpersonal violence — are related and intersecting, as "life in general is kind of messy."

"Loneliness itself is probably an ongoing concern. It may have been present before the pandemic and got worse during the pandemic — and actually still may be an issue, but not necessarily presented as loneliness. It can still be very much a relationship issue. So, I think there's more room for growth in how to actually categorize the content of these calls," Liu says.

Go deeper: The risk of loneliness and trauma from COVID-19

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (En Español: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: dial 711 then 1-800-273-8255) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

Fear and loneliness caused surge of early pandemic calls for help

Suicidal thoughts and interpersonal violence appear to have fallen in the pandemic.

Mental health

Public health

Coronavirus

The U.S. faces a range of health care flashpoints — unaffordable drugs, opioids, vaping — as we debate whether to adopt universal care. For now, the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, but Republicans want to issue it a final death blow.

Health

Axios Space

A new kind of fuel for small satellites was successfully tested in space for the first time.

Why it matters: Iodine electric propulsion could enable new ways for tiny satellites to explore the solar system and allow spacecraft to avoid collisions in orbit, according to ThrustMe, the company behind the technology.

Analysts predict thousands of new small satellites could launch to space in the coming years, and engineers are looking for efficient and less expensive ways to maneuver them in orbit and keep them out of the way of harmful space debris or other satellites.

What's happening: The iodine-fueled thruster — called NPT30-I2 — was launched aboard the Beihangkongshi-1 satellite sent to space by China's Long March 6 rocket in November 2020. 

A new study from Nature detailing the mission suggests the novel thruster could act as an alternative for satellite companies looking to diversify the types of fuel they use in the future.

"In parallel with our in-space testing we have developed new solutions allowing increased performance and have commenced an extensive ground-based endurance testing campaign to further push the limits of this new technology," Dmytro Rafalskyi, CTO and co-founder of ThrustMe, said in a statement.

Context: Thrusters for small satellites typically run on xenon, a relatively rare and expensive gas that's not easy to produce.

Iodine-based propulsion is cheaper and the fuel is easier to work with than xenon, Rafalskyi added. 

The new type of propulsion can also be used in a relatively small thruster, which is key for little satellites where every gram of weight counts toward performance.

Yes, but: "Iodine is highly corrosive, presenting a potential danger to electronics and other satellite subsystems — Rafalskyi and co-workers had to use ceramics and polymers to protect the metal components of their system," Igor Levchenko and Kateryna Bazaka, two researchers who weren't involved in the study, wrote in a commentary.

They also pointed out it takes about 10 minutes for the iodine to heat up, meaning it might be hard to maneuver satellites using the thruster in time if a quick-turnaround emergency occurs. 

Go deeper: Russian anti-satellite test reveals dangers of space junk

A new kind of propulsion could aid in space exploration

Iodine-fueled propulsion for small satellites could help companies maneuver their spacecraft.

A view of the thruster as it fires in space

A view of the flight model of the thruster. Photo: ThrustMe

The premier of British Columbia, Canada, declared a state of emergency Wednesday following the "atmospheric river event" that brought record rainfall, flooding and mudslides to the Pacific Northwest.

The big picture: A woman died in a mudslide that swept away a B.C. highway Tuesday, and B.C. Premier John Horgan told reporters he expected more storm-related fatalities to be confirmed in the coming days. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau deployed the country's military personnel to assist with rescue efforts on Wednesday.

The floods have displaced thousands of people, per CBC News.

Meanwhile, residents in the small U.S. border city of Sumas, Washington, were assessing property damage after floodwaters impacted three-quarters of homes, AP notes.  The only river still under threat from flooding in the state is the Skagit. 

A flood warning remained in effect for the river on Thursday.

Our thought bubble, via Axios' Andrew Freedman: The floods were exacerbated by the wildfire season and heat waves that affected this region, which denuded hillsides of vegetation and led to mudslides and more runoff. It's an example of one climate disaster leading to another.

In photos: Floods ravage Washington state and British Columbia

 Nate Blackwood, 11, of Sedro-Woolley, Washington, pulls a rowboat out of his flooded front yard near the Skagit River, on November 17

People pull a rowboat from a flooded front yard near the Skagit River in Sedro-Woolley, Wash., on Nov. 17. Photo: Joe Nicholson/AFP via Getty Images

The Port of Vancouver as traffic is cut off by flooding in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021. 

Traffic at the Port of Vancouver, Canada's largest port, is cut off by flooding on Nov. 17. Photo: Taehoon Kim/Bloomberg via Getty Images

 A car is seen partially submerged as floodwaters from the Skagit River inundate farmland outside of Burlington, Washington, on November 17

A car is partially submerged as floodwaters from the Skagit River inundate farmland outside of Burlington, Wash., on Nov. 17. Photo: Joe Nicholson/AFP via Getty Images

 A fire at an RV dealership in the flooded Sumas Prairie in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, on Wednesday, Nov. 17

A fire at an RV dealership in the flooded Sumas Prairie in Abbotsford on Nov. 17 has complicated flood rescue efforts, local media report. Photo: Jimmy Jeong/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A woman in Burlington, Washington, fishes trash from the banks of a levee on the flooding Skagit River, on November 17

A woman in Burlington, Wash., fishes trash from the banks of a levee on the flooded Skagit River on Nov. 17. Photo: Joe Nicholson/AFP via Getty Images

An abandoned semi-truck on the side of a road during a flood in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, on Wednesday, Nov. 17

An abandoned semitruck on the side of a road during a flood in Abbotsford on Nov. 17. Photo: Jimmy Jeong/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

People on a rowboat in a flooded street in Sedro-Woolley near the Skagit River, on November 17

People on a rowboat in a flooded street in Sedro-Woolley, Wash., near the Skagit River, on Nov. 17.  Photo: Joe Nicholson/AFP via Getty Images

  A view of flooding in the Sumas Prairie area of Abbotsford, Canada, on November 17.

A view of flooding in the Sumas Prairie area of Abbotsford on Nov. 17. Photo: Don MacKinnon/AFP via Getty Images

Go deeper: Extreme weather outruns the world

Editor's note: This article has been updated with more photos and details of the military deployment. 

British Columbia declares state of emergency over floods

A flood warning remains in effect for Washington state's Skagit River.

 The flooded Sumas Prairie in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021. 

The flooded Sumas Prairie in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, on Nov. 17. Photo: Taehoon Kim/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Friday's science stories

Sierra Space raises $1.4 billion at $4.5 billion valuation

Amazon deforestation in Brazil surges to worst in 15 years

Fear and loneliness caused surge of early pandemic calls for help

A new kind of propulsion could aid in space exploration

British Columbia declares state of emergency over floods