Greetings Earthlings and welcome to our second science digest. Science has been advancing at the rate of Moore’s Law and there’s so much good stuff since we last talked about JPL’s open house and zombified Texas fire ants.

Space Odysseys 2009
I was glued to NASA TV last month as the Hubble was repaired. I was impressed with the way everyone worked together and the dialog between the astronauts and ground control (our politicians could learn more than science from these guys -- who said geeks had poor communication skills?). I was doubly impressed with the clear quality of the sound and video image – all from space! I was looking forward to watching the next mission, which was scheduled to blast off this week, but it’s been delayed until July. In the meantime, I’ll ponder NASA's plan to fly a rocket booster into the moon, with the hope that the resulting 6 mile high explosion will confirm the presence of water (which they hope to use as fuel and sustenance for the planned 2018 return of man to the moon). When we were at JPL last month, one scientist remarked that ours will be the last generation to look up to the moon and not see lights (unless Obama makes good on his threat to cut funding for a Lunar base). If that doesn't boggle your mind, consider a very serious plan to build an inflatable tower which would serve as a way to get into space at a vastly deflated cost.



While we are pondering the stars, I’d like to remind you of one of my favorite astronomy sites: The Astronomy Picture of the Day. I like this one in particular because it reminds me of one of my favorite songs, "Under the Milky Way Tonight," which is unfortunately something that, living in Los Angeles, you don't get a sense of very often.

Seeing Is Not Always Believing
Research about our brain has exploded in the recent past. fMRI technology makes it relatively easy to study the brain while we do things. We’re beyond merely learning about our biological wiring; we’re learning what the electrical blips and bleeps might mean. I’m fascinated with perception and how our brains take sensory data and make a world of it. Did you know that your eyes perceives the world upside down? It’s our brains that turn the image of it right side up.

What profession loves to take advantage of our mis-attention and misperceptions? Put on your white gloves and get our your black hat. It’s Magic! A few months ago, Science News had a cover story about scientists who are picking up a few Neurological tricks from professional magicians. Using eye tracking technology, magician and neuroscientist Gustav Kuhn tested participants as they watched him throw and palm a ball. The eyes watched the ball – even when it was palmed. It was the brain that tricked the participant into believing differently. Wired covered the same topic with Teller from the duo Penn and Teller the same month. These stories reminded me of the “amazing color changing card trick,” that got me a few years ago. Watch the video below and try it yourself (and share what you see in the comments section).



I wanted to learn more about perception and cognition, but I hate standardized tests so I thought MIT’s OpenCourseware (OCW) would be a perfect way to feed my curiosity. OCW classes are free publications and lectures culled from many of the courses taught at MIT. UC Berkeley also has similar online content and other university lectures are available here. (Thanks to @Communicatrix for the tip.) It can be cheap to feed your mind, but sadly, none of these courses count for credit.

Intelligence, Evolution
Transcendent Man, is the new movie about the life and concepts of Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity is Near and The Age of Spiritual Machines (see trailer below). Considered either a crackpot or “the rightful heir to Thomas Edison” (and, by some, both), Kurzweil is one of the most innovative and forward thinking individuals alive today.



Recently Kurzweil came under fire in this Newsweek article, which asserted that many of his past predictions have been proven incorrect. I couldn’t help but be impressed with Kurweil’s respectful response to the author, who it appeared wrote a rather sensationalist story. (The news rag also trashed Oprah recently, which means they must be desperate to boost circulation.) However, regardless of where you stand on Kurzweil, this kind of dialog is rarely seen today and was refreshing to read.

Red Skies At Night, Gas Guzzlers Delight
If you’re looking for crazy sensational science concepts, look no further than this article from TheAtlantic.com, which reports on an idea to use blimps to spray sulphur gas into the atmosphere as budget method to combat global warming. Yes, it’s for real!

As a side effect of the process, our skies would turn red. I guess red might just turn out to be the new blue. The sulphur spraying could potentially be so cheap and effective that our current half-hearted attempts to get nations to go green could be moot. Indeed the Kyoto Protocol itself could become redundant; An international agreement would be unnecessary, since it'd only take one nation to get jiggy with the red stuff to chill the whole planet out. Of course once you can regulate the planet at the touch of a gas-powered thermostat, we might need to agree what the ambient temperature should be. My boyfriend and I argue about the A/C in our car -- imagine that on an international level (this could get ugly).

Heavy Shit
On the lighter side (or the heavier one, depending on how you look at it), the periodic table is getting a new element. Element 112, temporarily named "ununbium," was first discovered over a decade ago by a team of German scientists led by Sigurd Hoffman. It's pretty hard to make, requiring a particle accelerator and a lot of patience, hence it took a while for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) to officially welcome the new element into its fold. Hoffman has already revealed the existence of more elements with atomic numbers 107-111 and his team are in the game to cook up even heavier ones.

Vampires
In the science-meets-genre video sector, I recently picked up a collection of short documentary films by French scientist Jean Painlevé called Science is Fiction. Imagine old documentaries with a French interpretation (yes, there was the mention of a ménage a trois). Here’s a glimpse of one featuring octopi mating (see below).



And this liquid crystal footage from Painlevé is just asking to be mashed up for club eye candy.

Finally, if you ever wanted to see a real live vampire bat forced to feed, well, let me point you to another of Painlevé's many gems (see below).



Note: this video is a good taster of Painlevé's films (with nice accompanying music), but you’ll have to go to 3:02 to get to the vampire bat and the real action starts at 5:54. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that vampire bat looks too happy in there. OK, I admit, I had to turn away when he started his thing with the guinea pig. I don’t think they’ll let you make films like this anymore. Extra points if you get to the FIN.

Heathervescent is a writer, technology consultant and agent of
cacophony. You can read more of her adventures at www.heathervescent.com and follow her @heathervescent.