"Look up, look down all around, hey satellite..."

I know, Dave Mathews lyrics really are lame, but in the 90s, having an extra DMB ticket was an automatic date for a geek like me. Had I only gotten into here, perhaps dating wouldn't have been so tough. 
 
Satellites are hot off the press! Check out an article in this week's New York Times Magazine about the Grace series of satellites and their role in the geosciences. The current Grace satellites are about to go offline - never skimp on quality name brand AAA batteries - and the replacements might not be ready before their demise. Any delay in orbiting  Grace's replacements will result in a data gap that will surely be a huge loss to science. 

What's great about this article is its exigency - its ability to convey a sense of urgency to its audience. As a reader, you will feel very scared about our current anti-science politics and the implications our current policies are having on us and our earth. Conveying exigency requires a savvy writer who can set an appropriate tone, in this case doom and gloom, without losing readers who might hold different values. Such articles are part of the important corpus of science writing geared towards general readers.