Август 2024 г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• Siberian gold miners accidentally find ancient woolly rhino mummy with horn and soft tissues still intact
• The second horseman: Medieval Rus warrior burials discovered in Russia
• Russian research reactor lifespan extended
• Facing "financial crisis," Russia on pace for lowest launch total in 6 decades
• Infrared spectrum of graphene oxide explained by KFU scientists
• Six Russian supercomputing centers form research consortium
• Pink-throated creature - with "stocky" body - is a new species in Vietnam
• Russia set to cut research spending by 25%
• "Catastrophic" SpaceX Starship explosion tore a hole in the atmosphere last year in 1st-of-its-kind event, Russian scientists reveal

При проведении горных работ в Оймяконском районе Якутии обнаружили мумифицированные останки шерстистого носорога. У животного хорошо сохранились мягкие ткани и рог, судя по которому, носорог был взрослым.

Gold miners in Siberia recently unearthed a mummified woolly rhino carcass with its horn and soft tissues still intact. The miners in the Sakha Republic, came across the carcass while excavating the site of a new quarry.
Photos of the remains, found in the Oymyakon District, appeared on the Russian social media site Telegram on Aug. 2.
Following the discovery, researchers at the North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) in Yakutsk visited the site and recovered the rhino's horn. The rest of the mummified woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) will be excavated in the coming months, according to a translated statement from the NEFU.
"This is a truly unique find that will allow us to study the history of the region, its ancient fauna, climate and geological conditions in more depth," Anatoly Nikolaev, rector of the NEFU, said in the statement.
The permafrost in Siberia provides ideal conditions for the preservation of ancient creatures. The cold conditions mummify the remains, normally dehydrating soft tissues and locking them away in a frozen "time capsule."
The discovery of soft tissue is rare and allows scientists to get a far better insight into the life of the animal and the environment at the time it died compared to skeletal remains. It also provides a better opportunity to extract ancient DNA from the remains.
Maxim Cheprasov, senior researcher and head of the laboratory of the NEFU Mammoth Museum, said this is only the fifth time scientists have found a woolly rhino with intact soft tissues. "Until today, there was no such rare find in the collection of the Mammoth Museum," he said in the statement. "In the modern history of NEFU, this is the first such find."
Woolly rhinos mainly lived during the Pleistocene epoch (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago), first appearing about 300,000 years ago across northern Eurasia. As the last ice age ended, their range contracted until they only inhabited parts of Siberia - eventually going extinct about 10,000 years ago as a result of the changing climate and human activity.
NEFU researchers plan to study the horn before the rest of the remains are excavated. "According to morphological parameters, it belonged to a mature individual," Cheprasov said. "The exact biological age and sex of the animal will be determined after a comprehensive study of the carcass itself."
The woolly rhino discovery is one of several projects at the NEFU to learn about the ice age megafauna of Siberia. In June, researchers undertook a necropsy (animal autopsy) of a 44,000 year old mummified wolf pulled from the permafrost in Republic of Sakha.

При исследовании могильника Гнездилово под Суздалем российские археологи обнаружили два мужских захоронения XI века. Помимо оружия среди погребального инвентаря в одном из деревянных сооружений оказались элементы конской упряжи, в том числе достаточно редкая находка - стремена.

Recent excavations at the Gnezdilovo burial ground, near the historic town of Suzdal in Russia, are offering fresh insights into the region's early medieval history. Led by the Suzdal expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the State Historical Museum, this multi-year dig has uncovered a wealth of information about the people who lived and died in North-Eastern Rus' over a millennium ago. The discovery of intact burial sites and a trove of artifacts, including weapons and equestrian equipment, sheds new light on the social and cultural dynamics of this critical period in Russian history.
Rediscovering Gnezdilovo: Unplowed History Unveiled
According to the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences report, the Gnezdilovo burial ground, was first partially explored in 1851 by A.S. Uvarov, and was long believed to have been fully excavated. However, the recent Suzdal expedition has revealed that much of the site remained untouched, with many burial mounds overlooked due to plowing that had rendered them nearly invisible.
Over the past four years, a comprehensive geophysical survey has mapped the entire necropolis, spanning approximately 3 hectares (7.4 acres), revealing its intricate spatial structure. To date, around 50 undisturbed burials have been meticulously excavated, alongside hundreds of medieval objects unearthed from sites disturbed by agricultural activity.
The significance of Gnezdilovo lies not only in its scope but also in the quality and variety of the artifacts found. The site includes burials dating back to the 11th century AD, a period of considerable importance in the formation of the Russian state.
The artifacts discovered, including jewelry, coins, and weapons, provide a glimpse into the lives of the region's elite, highlighting the complex social hierarchies and cultural influences at play during the early days of Suzdal's prominence.
The Axes of War and Symbols of Status
The 2024 excavation season has focused on two key areas of the burial ground: the central part, where melted fragments of 10th-century jewelry indicate the presence of cremation burials, and the northeastern section, which has yielded undisturbed 11th-century burials, some of which contain male remains alongside battle axes - a clear indicator of their warrior status. The discoveries include three large burial mounds with male remains interred in pits over 3 meters (10 feet) in length, showcasing complex burial structures.
One of the most fascinating finds is from Grave 59, where the remains of a man, estimated to be between 35 and 40 years old, were uncovered. Accompanying the body was a bronze lyre-shaped buckle, a knife, and a battle axe, the latter positioned near the feet of the deceased.
The type of axe found, characterized by a hammer-chop on the butt, was popular across Rus' in the 10th and 11th centuries, particularly in regions like Volga Bulgaria and among the Mordvins and Muroms. The presence of such weapons in North-Eastern Rus' underscores the region's connections to neighboring cultures and the importance of martial prowess within its social structure.
A Warrior and His Horse: A Rare Equine Burial
An even more remarkable discovery comes from Grave 49, which has been dubbed "the second horseman" due to the presence of equestrian equipment alongside the remains of a man aged 25 to 30. The burial pit, measuring 3.7 by 1.6 meters (12.1 by 5.2 feet), contained an elaborate wooden structure assembled without the use of nails, further indicating the high status of the individual interred there.
In addition to a bronze lyre-shaped buckle and iron belt separator rings, the grave contained a knife with remnants of a sheath, a battle axe, and an array of equestrian gear, including iron bits, stirrups, and a girth buckle.
The inclusion of equestrian equipment is particularly unusual in Old Russian burials, making this find exceedingly rare. Across the entire history of archaeological exploration in North-Eastern Rus', only 15 burials with stirrups have been documented, two of which have now been uncovered at Gnezdilovo.
The significance of these items, combined with the size and complexity of the burial structure, suggests that the man buried here was not only a warrior but also someone of considerable rank, possibly a leader or a member of the local elite with strong ties to horse culture - a tradition likely influenced by the neighboring nomadic peoples.
Gnezdilovo: A Window into the Past
The ongoing excavations at Gnezdilovo are augmenting our understanding of the early medieval period in North-Eastern Rus'. The burial ground's wealth of artifacts, especially those related to warfare and social status, provides a unique window into the lives of the region's inhabitants during a formative period in Russian history.

Уральский атомный центр «Институт реакторных материалов» продлил срок работы исследовательского реактора ИВВ-2М, введенного в эксплуатацию в 1966 году, до конца 2040 года. Реактор используется для различных материаловедческих исследований, а также для создания изотопов, применяемых в ядерной медицине и промышленности. Срок службы ИВВ-2М составляет 30 лет, после чего его необходимо реконструировать и модернизировать.

Russia’s Institute of Reactor Materials (IRM, part of Rosatom’s Scientific Division) has completed the procedures necessary to extend the service life of the IVV-2M pressurised water research reactor until the end of 2040.
IVV-2M is one of the basic reactor installations for materials science research of fuel, absorbent and structural materials necessary for the creation of innovative designs of power reactors. The reactor has wide experimental and applied capabilities. It is also used to produce isotopes used in nuclear medicine (for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer) and in industry (flaw detection).
"Modern reactors are installed with a service life of at least 60 years. The IVV-2M reactor was put into operation on 23 April 1966," explained IRM Chief Engineer Ivan Russkikh. "This was at the height of the deployment of the Soviet nuclear programme, when there was still no clear idea of the actual service life of such facilities. Its service life was set at 30 years, which is why it was necessary to go through the extension procedure."
The first complete modernisation of the reactor was carried out in the 1970s, and the power was increased from 10 MW to 15 MW. Then, in 2007 after updating the equipment, the service life was extended until April 2025. Since 2010, IRM implemented a programme for the most recent reconstruction of the reactor, which has now been fully completed.
"First of all, we strengthened safety measures: we replaced control and protection systems, installed modern smart electronics, updated systems for radiation monitoring, reactor cooling, and coolant purification," said Russkikh. "Even the storage shaft for used fuel assemblies has undergone modernisation. About 250 people participated in the preparation of equipment and documentation for extending the service life of IVV-2M."
IRM was founded in Zarechny in the Urals for materials investigations in 1966. The Institute conducts reactor tests and post-reactor research for the nuclear industry in accordance with the most modern requirements. It has a powerful production base. As well as the IVV-2M research reactor for the production of isotopes and research work, it has hot cells, radiochemical equipment, and a site for the production of irradiation devices.
IVV-2M is designed to undertake a wide range of scientific and experimental studies. These include research in solid state physics and nuclear physics; adiation chemistry, radiation, nuclear and reactor technologies, neutron activation analysis; research on nuclear materials; studying the influence of radiation on devices, sensors, semiconductor materials and equipment; research on structural materials and biological protection materials; production of radioactive isotopes; and specialist training.
The State Committee for the Use of Atomic Energy of the USSR issued an order for the construction of the IVB-2 in 1962 the launch complex of the reactor was put into operation in 1965 and it was officially launched at the Sverdlovsk Institute of Physics and Technology (SIPT) in 1966.
In 1969 SIPT became the Sverdlovsk branch of the NA Dollezhal Scientific Research and Design Institute of Power Engineering (NIKIET). In 1974 a hot cell facility was installed. In 1997 it became a NIKIET subsidiary and in 2003 was reorganised as an independent enterprise - IRM.

В этом году Роскосмос, будучи в глубоком финансовом кризисе, осуществил всего девять орбитальных запусков (по состоянию на 16 августа), почти достигнув минимума за последние 60 лет.

A Progress cargo supply spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early on Thursday, local time. The mission was successful, and Russia has launched hundreds of these spacecraft before. So it wasn't all that big of a deal, except for one small detail: This was just Russia's ninth orbital launch of the year.
At this pace, it appears that the country's space program is on pace for the fewest number of Russian or Soviet space launches in a year since 1961. That was when Yuri Gagarin went to space at the dawn of the human spaceflight era.
There are myriad reasons for this, including a decision by Western space powers to distance themselves from the Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, after the invasion of Ukraine. This has had disastrous effects on the Russian space program, but only recently have we gotten any insight into how deep those impacts have cut.
In recent weeks, the first deputy director of Roscosmos, Andrei Yelchaninov, has given a series of interviews to Russian news outlets. (Most Russian media are state-owned or state-controlled, so none of this information can be independently verified, but it is interesting nonetheless.) One of the most revealing of these interviews was given to national news agency Interfax. It was translated for Ars by Rob Mitchell and provides perspective on Russia's space crisis and how the country will seek to rebound.
A financial crisis
"We are in an ongoing process of emerging from financial crisis, and it’s complicated," Yelchaninov told Interfax. "I would remind you that contract cancellations by unfriendly contacts cost Roscosmos 180 billion rubles ($2.1 billion US). This forces us to build a new economy in severe conditions."
As a result of this, Russia's space industry has been operating at a loss in recent years and may not begin to break even until 2025. Russia's invasion of Ukraine also came as United Launch Alliance finally ended its practice of purchasing RD-180 rocket engines, manufactured by NPO Energomash. This fact, in concert with decreased commercial demand for Russia's Proton and Soyuz rockets, has forced the Russian government to subsidize these elements of Roscosmos.
These companies "are currently in a financial revitalization procedure and have received State subsidies several years ago in order to maintain viability, and are now seeking new sales markets and additional workload," Yelchaninov said. Asked about possibly selling more Russian-made engines to the United States, Yelchaninov replied, "That issue is not on the agenda."
Russia had to look to new sales markets after what Yelchaninov euphemistically refers to as the "special military operation". "After the beginning of the SMO we were forced to shift from our traditional partners in Europe and the US, with whom we had many years of interaction, for new international directions including the countries in Africa, the Mideast, and Southeast Asia," he said.
During the interview, Yelchaninov confirmed that Russia has committed to participating in the International Space Station program until "at least" 2028. NASA is pushing to extend the operational lifetime of the station to 2030, at which point the United States plans to de-orbit the aging laboratory using a modified Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Rather than working with the United States in space, Yelchaninov said that Russia's space program would focus on cooperation with China rather than competition there. "The key project of our bilateral cooperation is creating an International Lunar Station to which we are jointly striving to attract additional international partners," he said.
Big plans, big delays?
In addition, Russia is also continuing the development of its oft-delayed "Russian Orbital Station," or ROS. The current plans call for the launch of a scientific and power module in 2027, with the core of the station (four modules) to be launched into orbit by 2030. Further expansions will take place in the early 2030s. It should be noted, however, that these dates can charitably be described as aspirational.
Even more speculatively, Yelchaninov mentioned several future rocket projects, including the Amur-LNG vehicle and the Corona rocket.
In 2020, Russia aimed to debut the methane-powered Amur rocket with a reusable first stage by 2026. This vehicle was developed to be cost-competitive with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. Yelchaninov now said Roscosmos intends to develop first-stage reuse in two phases. In the first of these, a Grasshopper-like program would test landing technologies before moving to experiments with a complete booster. But don't expect to see Amur any time soon. Yelchaninov revealed that Russian and Kazakh officials are still in the design phase of a launch site at Baikonur, rather than actively building anything.
Yelchaninov also said Roscosmos would like to develop a single-stage-to-orbit rocket named Corona in the future. This appears to be an updated take on a Russian rocket design that is more than three decades old.
"We have already studied whether or not a new booster of this type will be in demand," Yelchaninov said. "The answer is obvious - we are reducing the cost of access to space by more than an order of magnitude and discovering entirely new opportunities for super-operational delivery of cargo, and we are moving toward an ideology of space as a service."
I would not hold my breath on seeing Corona fly.

Казанские химики расшифровали инфракрасный спектр оксида графена. Хотя этот наноматериал на основе углерода, кислорода и водорода является одним из наиболее изучаемых материалов последнего десятилетия, многие вопросы, связанные с его химической структурой, еще не решены.

The study was conducted under the project "New approaches to deciphering the structure and chemical properties of graphene oxide", supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation.
Graphene oxide is a nano-material based on carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. It represents two-dimensional sheets of graphene with oxygen-containing functional groups attached to carbon atoms - epoxy, hydroxyl, carboxyl and others.
"Graphene oxide has attracted the attention of researchers since the first half of the twentieth century. It was then that active work began to study the structure and chemical properties of this material," says the first author of the article, Senior Research Associate of the Laboratory of Prospective Carbon Nanomaterials Vasily Brusko. "After the discovery of the unique conducting properties of graphene in 2006, a new golden era in the field of graphene oxide began. Today it is one of the most studied materials of the last decade. Its applications range from selective membranes to electrodes of chemical energy sources, from filler of polymer composites to theranostics."
In aqueous solutions, graphene oxide is able to delaminate into individual sheets just one atom thick.
"This gives unlimited possibilities for its modification and incorporation into polymer matrices," Brusko explains. "At the same time, the polymer is structured with the latter acquiring a number of interesting properties: rheological, conductive, optical and others. It is also possible to obtain graphene from graphene oxide."
According to the project lead, Lead Research Associate of the Laboratory of Prospective Carbon Nanomaterials Ayrat Dimiev, many fundamental issues related to the chemical structure of graphene oxide remain unresolved today.
"In particular, the most important issue is the characterization and standardization of this material," he stresses. "One popular method of characterization is infrared spectroscopy. Although the first infrared spectrum of graphene oxide was published back in 1955, to date it has not been fully deciphered. In particular, there is no understanding of where the absorption bands associated with graphene oxide's basic oxygen groups, epoxides, and tertiary alcohols are located. This leads to massive misinterpretation of the spectra. Interestingly, even absorption bands that were previously unambiguously and convincingly assigned to specific groups are now massively misinterpreted."
During the study, KFU chemists synthesized several dozen modified graphene oxide samples and recorded their infrared spectra. The graphene oxide samples were modified with alkaline reagents, amines and hydrogen bromide. Partially oxidized graphene oxide samples were also prepared.
"I fell in love with this material back in 2010, when I synthesized it for the first time in the laboratory of Professor James Tour at Rice University, then I paid attention to its very interesting properties which are difficult to explain from the point of view of a chemist, and the fact that the literature is full of illogical interpretations of the properties of graphene oxide and direct errors in the interpretation of experimental data." shares Dimiev.
A number of unique properties, according to the scientist, are characteristic of aqueous dispersions of graphene oxide, the rheological properties of which depend on its concentration.
"These systems cannot be unambiguously attributed to any classical type of liquid systems. Aqueous solutions of graphene oxide exhibit anomalously high acidic properties and cation exchange capacity, which cannot be explained in terms of a generally recognized structural model. In addition, well-knownb reactions, targeting the functional groups present in it, do not run well with graphene oxide," continues the researcher.
The scientist reports that the decoded infrared spectra were recorded by Artur Khannanov, Associate Professor of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry, and NMR spectra obtained for independent confirmation of changes in the structure of graphene oxide - by graduate and former employee of Kazan University Aydar Rakhmatullin.

Шесть российских суперкомпьютерных центров объединяются в исследовательский консорциум c суммарной производительностью 1,5 ПФлопс и системами хранения научных данных более 15 Пбайт. В консорциум вошли ХФИЦ ДВО РАН, Институт автоматики и процессов управления ДВО РАН, Институт динамики систем и теории управления им. В.М.Матросова СО РАН, Институт вычислительной математики и математической геофизики СО РАН, Институт математики и механики им. Н.Н.Красовского УрО РАН и Институт космических исследований РАН.

Six Russian supercomputing centers are teaming up to form a research consortium. Dubbed the Distributed Scientific Supercomputer Infrastructure consortium, the facilities will combine a relatively meager 1.5 petaflops of compute performance with scientific data storage systems exceeding 15 PB across 900 servers.
Included in the consortium is the Khabarovsk Federal Research Center of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Automation and Control Processes of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Vladivostok), the V.M. Matrosov Institute of System Dynamics and Control Theory of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Irkutsk), the Institute of Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk), the N.N. Krasovsky Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Ekaterinburg), and the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow).
The consortium does not include Russia's most powerful state-owned supercomputer, the Lomonosov 2 located in the Lomonosov Moscow State University, which has an Rmax performance of 2.48 FP64 pflops. Nor is the commercial Yandex Chervonenkis supercomputer, with 21.53 FP64 pflops, included.
Announced by the Russian Academy of Sciences on August 16, the consortium aims to coordinate efforts for the "development and support" of Russian supercomputer centers and specialized data centers to "address pressing scientific, technical, and socio-economic challenges."
The six centers included in the consortium already support around 240 organizations across Russia, and contributed to more than 300 research papers in 2023.
"For various reasons, the time has come for systemic solutions in matters of building a national supercomputer infrastructure," commented Alexey Anatolyevich Sorokin, PhD. "We need to move away from competition between shared use centers to combining their resources and competencies. Today, there is a demand for a distributed infrastructure that should cover technological sites in different regions of the country connected by high-speed communication channels, and equipped with modern computing systems with different architectures and specialized data storage systems."
"The creation of the Distributed Scientific Supercomputer Infrastructure consortium is an important step towards uniting the resources and competencies of Russia’s leading scientific centers," added Nikolai Yuryevich Lukoyanov, director of the N.N. Krasovsky Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics.
"This project not only strengthens the interaction between various supercomputer centers, but also ensures more efficient use of high-performance computing systems in solving complex scientific and applied problems. The consolidated infrastructure will allow us to significantly expand the range of research, improve the quality of data processing, and support the development of science and technology in various regions of the country. The consortium will look to modernize the centers for collective use, and equip them with up-to-date equipment.
A report by Tom's Hardware speculates that the initiative has been motivated by US chip sanctions imposed on Russia, noting that "pooling in resources will enable Russian scientists to get access to higher performance."

Вьетнамско-российская группа исследователей обнаружила в горных лесах северного Вьетнама новый вид лягушек. Оранжево-розовое земноводное размером в дюйм получило название Leptobrachella aurantirosea.

Frogs can be sticky, slimy or wet. Some have webbing connecting their toes while others rely on circular toe pads to keep a grip on leaves and logs. They come in all shapes and sizes, and exist around the world. Researchers were on the hunt for some of these jumping creatures when they traveled to the evergreen forest mountains of northern Vietnam, according to a study published Aug. 20 in the Russian Journal of Herpetology. As they reached 7,500 feet above sea level, they came upon a small puddle that was "created by a small stream of water flowing along a large rock," according to the study. Perched nearby was a one-inch-long frog, unlike any other species discovered, researchers said. The animal had V-shaped markings down its back and distinctly separated toes, according to the study, and researchers identified it as a new species.
Leptobrachella aurantirosea, named after its orangish-pink background color, is a species of leaf-litter frog, researchers said. The frog has a "stocky" and medium-sized build and its snout projects slightly over its lower jaw, according to the study. L. aurantirosea’s tongue is "large" and "broad," researchers said, and its legs are robust leading to rounded fingertips. From the area between the eyes on the back of the head and down the frog’s back, gray patches with a V shape connect to thicker brown stripes on the legs. The frog’s throat is "pinkish-white" with gray speckling, and the bottom of the legs are "pinkish orange with some cream spots," researchers said.
"Most of the species in the genus Leptobrachella which are currently known are only recorded from one or two sample sites, thus pointing to a very restricted, narrow distribution of each species," according to the study. "This at the same time points to a possibly high number of still unrecorded species diversity in the genus." Researchers said the new species brings the total count of Leptobrachella frogs in the area to 32, and they are found in various elevations in northern Vietnam. Environmental separation in the mountains may account for most of the divergence in species, researchers said.
The frogs were discovered in Ha Giang Province, Vietnam, just south of the border with China. The research team includes Hoa Thi Ninh, Tao Thien Nguyen, Linh Tu Hoang Le, Thanh Vinh Nguyen, Huy Nguyen Quoc, Nikolai L. Orlov, Olga Bezman-Moseyko, Manh Van Le, Sang Ngoc Nguyen and Thomas Ziegler.

В следующие два года расходы на российскую науку сократятся на четверть в соответствии с утвержденным бюджетным планом. Больше всего пострадает финансирование прикладных исследований - оно снизится с 458 млрд рублей до 362 млрд в 2025 году и до 260 млрд в 2026 году. Расходы на фундаментальные исследования останутся практически на прежнем уровне: снизятся с 261 млрд рублей до 235 млрд в 2025 году, а затем увеличатся до 276 млрд в 2026 году.

The Russian government’s spending on research will drop by 25% over the next 2 years under a plan finalized earlier this month by the nation’s Federal Assembly. The budget plan, which sets federal spending levels for 2025 and 2026, marks the latest blow to a Russian scientific community already struggling with international sanctions linked to the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as the emigration of talent to other nations.
Funding for applied research, which receives roughly two-thirds of Russia’s federal research spending, will be hit hardest by the cuts, dropping from 458 billion rubles ($4.9 billion) this year to 362 billion in 2025 and 260 billion in 2026, according to a recent analysis by the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge of the Russian Higher School of Economics. Spending on basic research will remain essentially flat, falling slightly from 261 billion rubles to 235 billion in 2025, then increasing to 276 billion in 2026.
Overall, the plan calls for the share of federal spending dedicated to research to fall from 2.7% this year to 2% in 2026 - its lowest level since 2004. The drop comes as Russia has dramatically ramped up military spending, which is expected to account for 40% of federal outlays this year, and reduced budgets in other areas.
The cuts will likely make it harder for many Russian scientists to remain globally competitive, says geneticist Vladimir Volobuev, head of Russia’s National Center for Genetics Research. But he and some other researchers, as well as the government, hope to replace some of the lost funding with money from industry and other private sources.
Some of that private funding could come from Russian investors now prevented by international sanctions from investing money abroad, says chemist Alexander Redekop, head of PSS Corporation, a leading Russian electrochemical firm. "A significant part of the capital that was previously freely transferred abroad remains in the Russian Federation and could be allocated for the needs of Russian science," he says. PSS Corporation, Redekop notes, already funds research at several leading Russian technical universities. And Volobuev says such partnerships could "have a positive effect, since [they] will promote closer interaction between scientists and business."
Along with the budget cuts, government officials have hinted that they plan to keep a closer eye on how researchers are spending government funds. Earlier this year, for example, Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov said the government wants to see "results, not publication reports" from research laboratories. Some scientists fear oversight could translate into less freedom to pursue curiosity-driven research. "Scientists cannot achieve success without free creativity, as it is impossible to plan a discovery," neurophysiologist Olga Martynova, head of a neuroscience laboratory operated by the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Novye Izvestia, a Russian newspaper.
The new budget plan is likely to make it even more difficult for Russian President Vladimir Putin to achieve ambitious science goals he announced shortly after being reelected in March. He vowed to put Russia among the "the top 10 of global leaders by the volume of scientific research and development over 6 years" and to increase research spending to 2% of gross domestic product, up from 0.4% of GDP in 2023.

Иркутские ученые из Института солнечно-земной физики СО РАН совместно с коллегами из Парижского института физики Земли пришли к выводу, что взрыв ракеты Starship компании SpaceX на высоте около 150 км во время испытательного полета в ноябре 2023 года проделал на некоторое время «дыру» в ионосфере - явление, когда из нее исчезают заряженные электроны. Обычно такие атмосферные возмущения образуются в результате химических процессов из-за взаимодействия с топливом двигателей. Это первый случай, когда «дыра» образовалась в результате антропогенного взрыва.

The high-altitude explosion of one of SpaceX's supersized Starship rockets last year temporarily ripped a hole in the upper atmosphere, a new study from Russian scientists shows. It is the first time this type of atmospheric disturbance has been created by a human-caused explosion, the researchers say.
On Nov. 18, 2023, SpaceX launched its superheavy Starship rocket - the largest and most powerful rocket ever built - for the second time ever from SpaceX's Starbase test and manufacturing facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
Around 4 minutes after liftoff, the rocket's first stage - the large, lower part that contains the main engines - detached from the upper part of the rocket as planned but unexpectedly exploded shortly afterward, before it could land back on Earth. Then, another 4 minutes later, the rest of the rocket blew up in a larger "rapid unscheduled disassembly" around 93 miles (150 kilometers) above the ground, when a fire started as the rocket vented liquid oxygen. The company's founder and CEO Elon Musk later said that the rocket would have made it to orbit if it had been carrying a proper payload.
In the new study, published Aug. 26 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, researchers revealed that the second explosion temporarily created a large hole in the ionosphere - the part of the atmosphere between 50 and 400 miles (80 and 650 kilometers) above Earth's surface where gases have been ionized, or stripped of electrons, and turned into plasma.
"Usually, such holes are formed as a result of chemical processes in the ionosphere due to interaction with engine fuel," study lead author Yury Yasyukevich, an ionosphere physicist at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISTP), said in a translated article from the Russian state media site TASS. This is the first known time that an ionospheric hole has been created by a "catastrophic phenomena" such as a human-made explosion, he added.
Multiple satellites and international ground-based stations observed the disturbance, which lasted for 30 to 40 minutes before the affected part of the ionosphere fully recovered, the researchers wrote. The peak size of the hole remains unclear.
Human-caused ionospheric holes are nothing new. Scientists have long known that chemicals in rocket fuel, such as carbon dioxide and water vapor, can react with ionized oxygen atoms, causing them to temporarily recombine - or turn back into regular oxygen atoms - leaving a gap, or hole, in the plasma sea within the ionosphere.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets are particularly prone to creating ionospheric holes, either during the separation of the rockets' first and second stages shortly after launch or when the rockets dump their fuel during reentry. When the atoms within these holes reionize and turn back into plasma, they release red aurora-like light, creating bright, blood-red light shows in the night sky that astronomers have dubbed SpaceX auroras.
But in this case, the ionospheric hole was created "due to the shock wave generated by the Starship explosion," which temporarily scattered the free electrons within the ionosphere, essentially stripping the plasma of its normal properties, the researchers wrote. Any of the rocket's fuel not immediately burned up in the explosion "might have reinforced the depletion and extended its duration," they added - but it was not the primary cause of the hole. As a result, there was no aurora-like light show once the plasma returned.
The researchers said that the effects of ionospheric holes are poorly understood and require further research but added that novel ionospheric phenomena like this provide a rare chance to learn more about the plasma-filled region of our upper atmosphere.
"Analyzing the data and understanding their nature, we understand more deeply the structure of the ionosphere, [and] the nature of the phenomena that occur in it," Yasyukevich told TASS.
This was the second time one of SpaceX's 400-foot-tall (120 meters) rockets exploded in as many flight tests. In the first test, on April 20 last year, the first starship was given a self-destruct code around 4 minutes after lifting off when it entered into an uncontrolled spin around 18 miles (29 km) above the ground. On this occasion, chunks of debris from the destroyed rocket rained down on Earth, triggering a federal investigation and leading to a lawsuit from environmental groups.
A similar ionospheric hole did not occur after the April explosion because the incident happened at a much lower altitude, meaning its shock waves did not reach the ionosphere, the researchers noted.
Starship finally made it to orbit in one piece during its third test flight on March 14 this year but was lost somewhere in the Indian Ocean upon reentry.

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