Today's CNN 10 Transcript

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COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: What's up, sunshine? I'm Coy Wire. This is CNN 10, your 10 minutes of news where we simply tell you the what, letting you decide what to think.

We have science that'll make you say, wait, what? Space claws, cartwheeling snakes, and a proposal that is quite literally golden. We start though with some very serious news in Spain where rescuers are working through the aftermath of a deadly collision involving two high-speed trains south of Madrid.

At the time of this recording, dozens of people have been killed, dozens more injured after the trains collided in Toledo province with more than 500 passengers believed to have been on board.

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OSCAR PUENTE, SPANISH TRANSPORT MINISTER (through translator): The signal control system at Erdos station failed as a result of a communication fault in the computers. Three computers relying on the network were affected, and automatically, over a 63-kilometer stretch, the system lost the LZB safety network. This caused all trains traveling along that stretch at the time to come to a halt automatically.

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WIRE: Emergency crews, firefighters, medical teams, and Spain's military emergency unit have all been deployed while service on the high-speed line connecting Madrid with southern Spain has been suspended.

Investigators working to determine exactly what happened. This is Spain's third rail disaster this year. In January, two high-speed trains collided near Cordoba, killing more than 40 people.

For now, the focus is on this tragedy, on the victims, their families, and the rescuers still working at the scene.

Here's something I did not have on my bingo card today. Cooking dinner can help create air pollution. Learn something new every day on this show. NOAA researchers found that chemicals released while cooking food called VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, account for about 26 percent of the ozone produced from human-generated VOCs in the L.A. basin. That's comparable to the contribution from cars, trucks, and other fuel-burning vehicles.

Now, Californians probably shouldn't start suddenly declaring frying pans as public enemy number one. Ground-level ozone forms through a whole chain of chemical reactions involving sunlight, VOCs, and nitrogen oxides.

Point is, as cars get cleaner, scientists are discovering that sources we once overlooked, like cooking oils, paints, cleaners, and personal care products, matter more than they'd originally thought.

Pop quiz, hot shot.

NFL players have had a union for decades. What year was the NFL Players Association founded?

1936, 1956, '76, or '96?

If you said 1956, touchdown! The NFL Players Association was formed nearly 70 years ago to give players a collective voice over things like pay, working conditions, benefits, and safety. Now, another group on an NFL sideline is making labor history of its own.

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have become the first NFL cheerleading squad to gain official union representation. The Cowboys voluntarily recognized the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Association, meaning the two sides can now begin negotiating a collective bargaining agreement.

It's basically a contract negotiated by workers as a group, covering things like pay, hours, benefits, and working conditions. Published reports say some cheerleaders have earned about $500 per game, plus hourly pay for practices, while many also maintain full-time jobs outside of the team. Some of the women spoke openly about their wages on a Netflix reality show in 2024.

And here's our labor law knowledge bomb for the day. A union doesn't automatically mean workers get everything they're asking for, right? It means they negotiate collectively, rather than one person at a time. NFL players have had a union since 1956. NFL cheerleaders? Until now? Never. New routine, new formation, different kind of teamwork.

Now to a story at the intersection of ingenuity and space junk. As humans launch more satellites, rockets, and spacecraft, we're also leaving a growing mess in orbit above our planet. NASA says there may be more than 100 million pieces of man-made debris whizzing around in low-Earth orbit, at up to ten times the speed of a bullet. At those speeds, the tiniest pieces of debris can cause huge problems, potentially damaging satellites, space missions, even the International Space Station.

So, students in South Korea are developing a gripping solution. Think of it like one of those arcade claw machines, except instead of winning a stuffy, you're actually trying to clean up space. Our Kristie Lu Stout shows us how.

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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What sorcery is this?

OK, so this is me, but let me explain. I recently visited a university in South Korea to check out this soft gripper that's going to be sent to space. I brought some objects because I want to test your gripper, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, yeah.

LU STOUT: It's made out of thin plastic strips, and it can pick up just about anything.

LU STOUT: Easy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

LU STOUT: From tiny nuts and bolts.

Oh, just missed it. No, I got it! To delicate objects, and even me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could you cross the gripper, OK? Is it perfect?

LU STOUT: I can test it, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, sure.

LU STOUT (voice-over): The interwoven structure of the soft plastic strips makes it incredibly strong.

LU STOUT: All right, let's do it.

Oh, there we go! What sorcery is this?

LU STOUT (voice-over): And because of its amazing design, it could even lift up to 100 kilos, or around 220 pounds.

LU STOUT: I'm being held by thin strips of plastic.

LU STOUT (voice-over): It's being developed by students at KAIST to attach to satellites to collect space debris.

According to NASA, there's more than 9,000 metric tons of space debris in Earth's orbit alone. That is a big mess to clean up.

Gyeongji Kang came up with the original design, inspired by an ancient art of cutting and folding paper, similar to origami.

GYEONGJI KANG, PHD CANDIDATE, AEROSPACE ENGIRNEERING, KAIST: We used origami-inspired design in this gripper, because the strips intersect each other, so the load is distributed.

LU STOUT (voice-over): The original design was developed in collaboration with the Korean Institute of Science and Technology. Now, the team at KAIST are working on a larger version, which they say will be launched into space for tests next year by the Korean Space Agency.

SUNG-JIN LEE, PHD CANDIDATE, AEROSPACE ENGINEERING, KAIST: In our mission, our gripper will be attached at the end of the robotic arm. I think it can be a chance to become a pioneer of space robotics.

LU STOUT: Imagine being a student and having your prototype set up into orbit. I can't wait to see the results. That's good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

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WIRE: Snakes generally have four famous ways to get around, and I was today years old when I learned the scientists have names for all four of them.

Lateral undulation, rectilinear movement, concertina movement, and sidewinding. But did you know some snakes can cartwheel? Yep, full-on head-over-heels snake gymnastics.

Scientists in Japan and Malaysia have just recorded footage of the Southeast Asian dwarf reed snake. Somersaulting at high speeds, our Patrick Cornell shows us how these sinuous creatures slithered their way into a new skill.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's say, hypothetically, you need to make a quick getaway. You could try cartwheeling like this snake. Yes, I said cartwheeling snake. In case you're not already horrified, this is it in action in super slow-mo. Researchers just documented the dwarf reed snake's unique escape method. When it needs to flee, it pops itself into the air and rolls.

Scientists originally spotted it in the wild in Borneo, now recreated in a lab and officially recorded in the journal Current Biology. The study authors say the acrobatic escape method is four times faster than the snake's traditional slithering.

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WIRE: Today's story getting a 10 out of 10 proof that sometimes love really is worth its weight in gold. Colorado's Jack Vulcani decided he was ready to propose to his longtime girlfriend, Joanne. Instead of buying a ring, he went into Colorado's creeks and rivers nearby and panned for the gold himself, one tiny fleck at a time.

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JACK VULCANI: The smallest gold you've ever seen, but it's right there. I was like, this is going to take forever. And for some reason that got me going.

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WIRE: Jack says it took him months, but he eventually collected enough gold and it took it to a jeweler who melted the tiny flakes and cast them into a one-of-a-kind engagement ring.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I initially kind of got excited just because it's like, well, that's a new thing.

VULCANI: They asked a few times. They're like, it's seriously just from up in the mountains. I was like, yeah, it's all from the mountains. They were really blown away. It was, it was a great reaction.

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WIRE: Then came the big moment.

JOANNE: I'm just watching this video of him gold panning. I'm like, this is cute, but I don't know why we're doing this right now. Um, and then halfway through the video, I realized, oh, this is the process of you making the ring.

And, um, I just start crying. I black out a little bit, but it was -- it was a really special moment.

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WIRE: Joanne said, yes, the two are now married and Jack had enough leftover gold to make his own wedding band. Same rivers, same gold, two rings. That proposal really panned out.

All right, sunshine, shout out time. This one goes to Mrs. Meyers and all of our friends at Romig Middle in Anchorage, Alaska. More than 100 hours of 3D printing and all that paper mache and all that it took to get here to Atlanta. Thank you for making CNN 10 a part of your day and making me.

Sometimes the biggest discoveries come from looking at familiar things a little differently. You never know what might be hiding in plain sight.

I'm Coy Wire and we are CNN 10.