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The article focuses on the impact of harmless debris from the collision of the satellites Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 in February 2009 on working spacecraft around Earth. The wreckage is said to encourage a chain reaction of collisions that poses risk to spacecraft and manned space flights. Seven hundred large fragments from the accident were identified by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network 489 miles above the Earth. Chinese authorities raises concern that the debris may hit their nearby weather and maritime surveillance satellites.

The article focuses on a new discovery of fossilized feathers which are the earliest known prototype of species of birds that are alive today. These feathers were allegedly found on Beipiaosaurus, flightless birds that were related to modern birds found in northern China. According to paleontologist Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who analyzed these feathers, the new discovery is important in understanding the evolution of feathers. The article discusses how feather fossils have offered information on the evolution of feathers.

The article discusses plumes of polluted air which can be wider than the Amazon River and deeper than the Grand Canyon filled with sulfates, smog, industrial grit and other substances that are crossing the Pacific Ocean from China on wind currents and are causing climate change in the U.S. and other worldwide locations. The role dust from the Taklamakan desert of western China plays in the plumes and the spread of pollution is discussed.