May 29, 2017

Thomas Pesquet reflects on living on the International Space Station after his six-month Proxima mission. Beyond science and technology the voyage often reveals more than the destination. A message for all humans.

As Marcel Proust wrote in his book The Prisoner: “The only true voyage of discovery, … would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is.”

The footage was shot with the Space Station’s highest resolution camera at resolutions between 4K and 6K and available here in Ultra High Definition (3840x2160 pixels).

During Proxima, Thomas performed around 50 scientific experiments for ESA and France’s space agency CNES as well as take part in many research activities for the other Station partners. 

Wonderful video. 

May 26, 2017
10 stories to read this weekend - Edition 177 - May 26, 2017

The World Is Running Out of Sand 

It’s one of our most widely used natural resources, but it’s scarcer than you think.

Farming the World: China’s Epic Race to Avoid a Food Crisis 

China’s 1.4 billion people are building up an appetite that is changing the way the world grows and sells food. 

Read more about: China’s Global Food Print | Tiny Farms | Food Giants | Food Technologies 

Discoveries Fuel Fight Over Universe’s First Light 

A series of observations at the very edge of the universe has reignited a debate over what lifted the primordial cosmic fog.

Robot hearts: medicine’s new frontier 

From bovine valves to electrical motors and 3-D printed hearts, cardiologists are forging ahead with technologies once dismissed as “crazy ideas”

This is what it’s like to be struck by lightning 

If you’re hit by lightning, there’s a nine in ten chance you’ll survive. But what are the lasting effects of being exposed to hundreds of millions of volts? Charlotte Huff investigates.

Why We Lie: The Science Behind Our Deceptive Ways 

Honesty may be the best policy, but scheming and dishonesty are part of what makes us human.

Disease naming must change to avoid scapegoating and politics 

Swine Flu, Naples Soldier, Ebola. Disease names express fear, create stigma and distract attention. Can they be improved?

A Warming Planet Jolts the Iconic Creatures of the Galápagos 

Species that inspired Darwin’s theory of natural selection are facing new challenges to adapt.

The Secret Life of Urban Crows (via Longform

…not only do birds recognize human faces and hold grudges for human misdeeds, they teach other birds to recognize grudgeworthy mugs.

Football: A deep dive into the tech and data behind the best players in the world 

Benfica is crafting superhuman players with data science, machine learning—then selling them for millions.

Note:10 stories to read this weekend” is a marquee feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

3:23pm
Filed under: weekend reads 
May 26, 2017
India’s ‘Land of Toys’ Has an Uncertain Future

Good but sad read on the wooden toy-making industry in the town of Channapatna in Karnataka, India.

Channapatna toys are made from the wood of a local tree called Haale Mara (Wrightia Tinctoria), too soft to be used in furniture. The wood is dried under the sun for nearly two months to remove all traces of moisture, and then chopped up into uneven blocks. These slowly take on shape and meaning at a mechanized lathe at the hands of these skilled craftsmen, who then spread lacquer till the product assumes a glossy finish.

[…]

Like many other indigenous crafts in India, Channapatna toys are on the brink of fading out in the next couple of decades.

I still have about a dozen items that were made in Channapatna in my living room for show.

12:44pm
Filed under: channapatna india toys 
May 25, 2017

Biologist Explains One Concept in 5 Levels of Difficulty - CRISPR | WIRED

CRISPR is a new area of biomedical science that enables gene editing and could be the key to eventually curing diseases like autism or cancer. WIRED has challenged biologist Neville Sanjana to explain this concept to 5 different people; a 7 year-old, a 14 year-old, a college student, a grad student and a CRISPR expert.

Also See:

Neuroscientist Explains One Concept in 5 Levels of Difficulty | WIRED

The Connectome is a comprehensive diagram of all the neural connections existing in the brain. WIRED has challenged neuroscientist Bobby Kasthuri to explain this scientific concept to 5 different people; a 5 year-old, a 13 year-old, a college student, a neuroscience grad student and a connectome entrepreneur. 

(Source: youtube.com)

May 25, 2017
How the curveball's resurgence is changing modern pitching

Sports Illustrated has a fabulous cover story on the history of the curveball and how its resurgence is changing modern pitching.

This season marks the sesquicentennial anniversary of the first curveball (and its first controversy). So it’s fitting that McCullers and the red-hot Houston Astros are at the forefront of a revolution in pitching. Spin is in. Thanks partly to technology and the ubiquity of high velocity, the curveball is enjoying a very happy 150th birthday.
[…]
According to MLB’s Statcast data last year, curves that spun faster than 2,600 rpm generated a lower batting average (.196), weaker contact (86.8-mph exit velocity) and more misses per swing (32.2%) than curves below 2,600 rpm (.225, 87.7 mph and 30.2%). Spin rates for curveballs have become just as much of a scouting tool as radar-gun readings for fastballs. The Astros, for instance, rescued McHugh and his 8.94 ERA from the scrap heap before the 2014 season because his high-spin curveball caught their attention. They took away his sinker and made him a predominantly four-seamer/cutter/curveball pitcher. From 2014 through ’16, McHugh won more AL games, 43, than any pitcher except Cy Young winners David Price, Porcello, Corey Kluber and Félix. 

Also See:

Video: How Do Curveballs Change Direction in Midair? 

10:41am
Filed under: baseball mlb sports physics science 
May 21, 2017

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-S34gZ3xwg)

What would happen if every single human from the entire history of our species suddenly came back to life today? How many people would there be, what would they look like as a group and how would it affect society? It’s an absurd question, but it’s still an interesting one to try and answer!

(Source: youtube.com)

May 21, 2017

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3RXtoYCW4M)

The entire field of chemistry summarised in 12mins from simple atoms to the molecules that keep you alive.

Also See:
The Map of Physics
The Map of Mathematics

May 19, 2017
10 stories to read this weekend - Edition 176 - May 19, 2017

The Most Important Scientist You’ve Never Heard Of (via Digg

For 60 years, American drivers unknowingly poisoned themselves by pumping leaded gasoline into their tanks. Here is the lifelong saga of Clair Patterson—a scientist who helped build the atomic bomb and discovered the true age of the Earth—and how he took on a billion-dollar industry to save humanity from itself.

It’ll Take an Army to Kill the Emperor 

The men and women who are trying to bring down cancer are starting to join forces rather than work alone. Together, they are winning a few of the battles against the world’s fiercest disease. For this unprecedented special report, we visited elite cancer research centers around the United States of America to find out where we are in the war.

Also See: How to Fight Cancer (When Cancer Fights Back), where Ed Long does a splendid job of explaining why there’s no cure for cancer yet. I had linked to this piece in Issue 173.

This Is the Best Dinosaur Fossil of Its Kind Ever Found 

Some 110 million years ago, this armored plant-eater, known as a nodosaur, lumbered through what is now western Canada, until a flooded river swept it into open sea. The dinosaur’s undersea burial preserved its armor in exquisite detail. Its skull still bears tile-like plates and a gray patina of fossilized skins.

When Your Child Is a Psychopath 

The condition has long been considered untreatable. Experts can spot it in a child as young as 3 or 4. But a new clinical approach offers hope.

More Is More 

Even if you think yourself a reluctant shopper, consider all of the resources used to create our material world: the steel to build our homes, the natural gas to fire our furnaces, the aluminium in our smartphones and tablets. In the world’s richest countries, consumption has ballooned by over a third in the past few decades to the point that in 2010, each person in the thirty-four richest nations consumed over 220 pounds of stuff every day. How did we come to be such voracious, irrepressible consumers? And how has all of this consuming changed the world?

The Political Arctic - How a Melting Arctic Changes Everything 

Why Vladimir Putin thinks the North Pole belongs to Russia. 

Also see Part One of the “How a melting Arctic changes everything” series.

Dubai oil free future 

Oil won’t last forever, and Dubai’s government knows it. To stay prosperous, the city-state bets big on science and tech.

Reef Avengers 

Indonesia’s reefs have been poisoned or blasted to smithereens by the very people who depend on them the most. Now islanders are working to restore the coral, and recover the resources they’ve lost, piece by piece.

How the Syrian government brought soccer into campaign of oppression 

Backed by FIFA’s tacit support, Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria has woven soccer into its grisly campaign of oppression, tearing apart a generation of players.

Thomas Cook and the Stack Pirates (via Longreads)  

Boredom and an enterprising Brit gave birth to the modern tourism industry, and we’re still trying to make sense of it all.

Note:10 stories to read this weekend” is a marquee feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

10:00pm
Filed under: weekend reads 
May 19, 2017

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v7bN13PjZ8)

Greg Foot explains the inner workings of a telescope. Science has come a long way since the first two lens prototype invented back in 1608. Watch Earth Unplugged’s video about the mountains on the moon here: https://youtu.be/-DJE3U-yaL4

(Source: youtube.com)

May 19, 2017

The Sprinter Factory is a documentary from The Guardian, offering behind-the-scenes look at this year’s Jamaica’s Inter-Secondary Schools Boys and Girls Championships. These annual championships, better known as the Champs, are the bedrock of country’s athletics success, especially in sprinting.

These are the girls running as fast as they can to be Jamaica’s new sprint champions in a country obsessed with its athletes. This is the story of the Champs national youth athletics competition that could change their lives.

Okhalia, Alesha and Shellece have their sights set on being the next Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the adored sprinting champion famous across Jamaica. At their schools, St Jago, Edwin Allen and Wolmer’s High, there is a huge focus on nurturing the most talented girls and preparing them for the Inter-Secondary Schools Boys and Girls Championships – better known as the Champs, the tournament where stars are made. Amid pressure from their schools and parents, not to mention themselves, can the girls triumph at Champs 2017?

Related article: Champs conveyor belt keeps Jamaican sprinting’s speed feed flowing