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COY WIRE: Hey, everyone.
You made it to Friday, and you already know Fridays rock.
This is the first Friday in February,
one of the coldest months in the year for many Americans.
But it's also a month that celebrates
love and appreciation.
So we're sending you our love and appreciation.
I'm Coy.
This is "CNN 10."
Let's finish this week strong.
We're going to begin today's episode
by talking finance, specifically about interest rate hikes.
An interest rate is what banks get paid by the people
who borrow money from them.
In the United States, the Federal
Reserve System is the central banking
system for the entire country.
It was created on December 23, 1913,
with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act as a way
to protect against future financial crises.
When the Federal Reserve raises interest rates,
it means people have to pay back a higher percentage
of the money they borrow.
Why would the Fed want to do that?
Well, because of inflation.
The thinking goes that if interest rates are higher,
and it's more expensive for people and businesses
to borrow money, they'll spend less of it,
and inflation will settle back down.
The cost of living in America has
gone up significantly as prices of things we buy have risen.
We'll hear now from CNN Business Reporter Matt Egan.
MATT EGAN: The Fed's war on inflation isn't over,
but it is shifting.
This 25-basis-point rate increase from the Fed
is the smallest since this fight against inflation
began back in March.
Now, the Fed is still trying to slow this economy
down to knock inflation down.
But it's gone from slamming the brakes on the economy
to tapping the brakes.
And that is an important shift because it lowers the risk
that the Fed ends up causing an accident,
either in financial markets or in the real economy or in both.
And the Fed is changing its tune on inflation a bit.
The statement says that inflation remains elevated.
But it also concedes that it has eased.
COY WIRE: OK.
Did you know tsunamis can travel thousands of miles
at speeds up to 500 miles per hour?
A tsunami is a series of waves usually caused
by an underwater event like an earthquake
or a volcanic eruption.
And they can cause serious damage to communities
that are hit by them.
More than 700 million people live in coastal areas that
could be exposed to tsunamis.
So imagine how powerful it would be if we could predict them.
We're traveling to Tonga, a Polynesian country that's
part of an archipelago of islands,
to hear about the work of the folks
at the Tonga Geological Society, who
are studying the ocean floor to get a better
sense of what causes tsunamis.
- Late December 2021, in the middle of the South Pacific,
an underwater volcano is active once again.
Two weeks later, a series of eruptions
will reverberate around the planet
and be visible from space.
Tsunami warnings were issued across the Pacific.
And the next afternoon, a series of waves
hit the island country of Tonga, some as high as 15 meters,
killing three people and leaving mass destruction in their wake.
When the dust had settled a few months later,
a ship from New Zealand's National Institute of Water
and Atmospheric Research, or NIWA,
set sail to find out what had triggered the eruption.
Marine geology technician Erica Spain was on board.
ERICA SPAIN: The voyage up to Hunga Tonga Ha'apai
to map the volcano was really exciting.
It's a multidisciplinary voyage.
So you've got multiple science streams working together
to try and figure out what was going on
and why it erupted so violently.
- These are the multi beams on either side.
- Spain's mission was to map the seafloor
around the volcano using a machine called
a multibeam echo sounder.
ERICA SPAIN: An acoustic pulse, so a ping or a sound,
is emitted or sent out from the bottom of the ship.
And then it echoes effectively off the seafloor.
And then we have hydrophones, or a listening ear,
that receives that echo.
And from that we can determine how deep the seafloor is
and build up an idea of its shape and geometry.
Every volcano has a different trigger in terms
of when it might erupt.
And by mapping Hunga Tonga Ha'apai
and then comparing that to other volcanoes,
we can begin to build up a better image
what these triggers might be or what they might
look like on the seafloor.
- Mapping, taking rock samples, and filming underwater all help
build a bigger picture of what happened here.
ERICA SPAIN: So you have to become
a seafloor detective to piece all those small parts together.
- That detective work can help countries like Tonga
better prepare for tsunamis.
COY WIRE: 10 Second Trivia--
the vernal equinox marks the start of what season, spring,
summer, fall, or winter?
Happening on March 20 this year, the vernal equinox
marks the start of spring.
Bye-bye, wintertime.
Yesterday, February 2, was Groundhog Day.
On this day, some people predict when winter will come to an end
by watching a groundhog in Pennsylvania, my home state,
one of the most notorious groundhogs
of all time, Punxsutawney Phil.
Each year, in a tradition derived from a Pennsylvania
Dutch superstition, people watch to see how the groundhog
emerges from its burrow.
And whether or not the furry creature sees a shadow,
well, that will determine when winter will end
and spring begins.
February 2 isn't just some random day.
It falls at the midpoint between the winter solstice
and the spring, or vernal equinox,
making it the ideal time to consider when
spring time might finally come.
We're going to meet up with one of our in-house experts
now to break it all down and find out what Punxsutawney Phil
had in store for us this time.
All right.
The forecast and the hat you've all been waiting for.
We're here with friend of the show, CNN
meteorologist Allison Chinchar.
And here it is, Punxsutawney Phil officially
predicts six more weeks of winter
after seeing his shadow Thursday morning.
ALLISON CHINCHAR: That's right.
Now, the legend goes if the groundhog sees his shadow,
which he did this morning, we will
have six more weeks of winter.
But if there had not been a shadow,
spring would actually arrive early.
Now, scientifically speaking, winter will officially
come to an end on the equinox, on March 20,
regardless of what Phil predicts.
But mother nature doesn't always follow the timetable,
and neither does Phil.
COY WIRE: All right.
So what if we don't like his forecast?
ALLISON CHINCHAR: OK.
So don't worry because he's actually usually wrong.
In the past, Phil has been way more likely to see
his shadow than not.
In fact, he's reportedly seen his shadow 105 times,
but not seen his shadow only 20 times.
Statistically speaking, Phil has only
been correct in his forecast about 40% of the time
in just the last 10 years.
COY WIRE: That's not very good, Phil.
All right.
The interesting thing here is also that Phil is not
the only forecasting groundhog.
In fact, there are many others just like him.
He has competitors in states like Georgia, New York,
Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio.
In some states, they're not even groundhogs.
They have nutrias.
They have possums.
They have ducks and a lobster?
ALLISON CHINCHAR: I'm not sure how you'd see that shadow.
Not so much.
Now, some of the more colorful names
include Pierre C. Shaddeaux of Louisiana,
General Beauregard Lee of Georgia,
and Staten Island Chuck from New York, just to name a few.
And ultimately, Coy, what this means
is if you don't like Phil's forecast,
chances are you'll like one of the other forecasters'
forecasts just as well.
COY WIRE: And for today's story, getting a 10 out of 10,
scientists have invented a shape-shifting robot.
Check this out.
The robot was presented as part of the research
on metal microparticles.
And it's made from gallium, a metal with a low melting point.
The robot is able to move via the use of magnets.
Scientists hope that one of the areas this type of drippy droid
could help would be surgeries, believe it or not,
potentially making them more effective and safe.
And their inspiration for all this, a sea cucumber.
What in the world.
All right.
Special shout out now to Sycamore Middle
School in Sycamore, Illinois.
We see you.
It has been awesome learning with you this week.
Let's finish this day off right and take boundless energy
into the weekend.
And remember, you are more powerful than you know.
I'm Coy Wire.
And it's been a blessing to spend this week with you.
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