ScienceStuff
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Space Music Vol. 8: Sun Ra and Afrofuturism
by Robert Lamb | February 9, 2010
It’s Black History Month, so is there a better time to discuss the space music of Sun Ra? Stick to the facts and you have in Herman Poole Blount (Ra’s birth name) a highly prolific and influential black musician. Take the artist at his word and you have a being from another planet, come to Earth to save us with a message of cosmic liberation.
As always, it’s best to tread a middle path between the reality and the myth. In this post we’ll explore Sun Ra’s origins and contributions, as well as just what Afrofuturism is all about. So don your favorite space robe and light-up Egyptian headpiece because we’ve quite the celestial crash course ahead of us.
It seems appropriate that I should write this week’s Stuff from the Science Lab podcast roundup on grow houses and dinner in space right before lunch, when my stomach is rumbling and I’ve already ploughed through my measly cup of yogurt and devoured a very wrinkly tangerine. That seems like a rather pathetic spread for lunch, especially when you consider what the astronauts are noshing on in space.
Forget squeezing your meal out of a tube. Space food has come a long way since John Glenn also earned the little-known distinction of being the first U.S. man to eat anything while hanging out in Earth orbit. I’m pretty sure Glenn didn’t have the option of diving into mashed potatoes and bacon, courtesy of celeb chef Emeril Lagasse.
Remember what summer was like when you were a kid? The season seemed to span an eternity and Christmas might as well have been a million years in the future. But then you grew older. Summers passed in quick succession, Christmases and birthdays swept by like pages in a flip book. Everything seems to be speeding towards an unavoidable conclusion.
Chronically Lost? Blame Your Genes
by Allison Loudermilk | February 2, 2010
Maybe I had “Lost” on the brain (season premiere tonight!), but this story on EurekAlert! caught my eye. Men and women no longer have to fight over which gender needs a map and which one doesn’t. It’s genes, not gender, that could make the difference. Keep reading to see how researchers tried to establish a link between human navigational abilities.
Cosmic Megastructures: How to Enslave a Star
by Robert Lamb | January 29, 2010
The sun is the powerhouse for our solar system, heating the spheres with its radiation and holding everything from gas giants to asteroids in thrall to its massive gravity. Stars, in their various forms, are the most powerful forces in the known universe, so it only comes naturally that a species of egotistical apes would dream about capturing one and bending it to their will.
At first thought, weaponry seems like a bad addition to the Olympics (unless we’re talking marksmanship, archery or, if you want to go ancient, javelin and shot-put). However, there’s a role for weapons in the Olympics that doesn’t culminate in competition or a swift arrest — it just involves a quick, compulsory melting.
London’s Metropolitan Police force recently announced that 58 tons of confiscated guns and knives — plus some keys thrown in for good measure — will be recycled into girders for the 2012 Olympic Games site in Stratford, East London.
Meddling Kids Attempt to Thwart Book Trashing
by Robert Lamb | January 20, 2010
At the end of January 2010, Borders will ship unsold books from 200 closed Waldenbooks to a third-party liquidator. Whatever doesn’t wind up on a shelf somewhere goes in the trash, and the company has stated that there won’t be anything left over to donate. Needless to say, this plan has rubbed quite a few people the wrong way.
Get Your Science on with Stuff from the Science Lab
by Allison Loudermilk | January 19, 2010
There’s a new science podcast in town. Ours! Stuff from the Science Lab is live on iTunes, so when you’re wandering around looking for spiffy new listens that will discuss things like what you get to eat at the space station, why some people think helium-3 might be the ultimate energy source or why runners and parasites may be getting to know each other better, Robert and I have you covered. Or at least, we will in the future.
Just head over to iTunes — you’re heading there anyway to buy some single that you won’t publicly cop to, aren’t you? — plug in “Stuff from the Science Lab” in the search bar or visit the HowStuffWorks room, and you should see it.
At this point in the Space Music series, we must turn our attention to the P-Funk Mothership AKA the Holy Mothership. You probably know this as the vaguely Apollo-esque UFO that P-funk icon George Clinton emerged from onstage during live performances of Parliament Funkadelic. But it is so much more. Click into the funk.
I’ve apparently been watering under a misapprehension. I always thought the logic behind hosing down plants in the cooler hours was that a midday jolt of frigid water might “shock” them. I never considered that dewy beads of water could magnify high noon rays and literally burn leaves. Because that just sounds too bizarre to be true, right?
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