Tag: space

• Mister Potato Home

  Scientists from the University of Manchester have created a new building material dubbed ‘StarCrete’ that could be the key to settling Mars and the Moon. Jeff and Anthony discuss the amazing breakthrough, and the dark road to its discovery. [more]

  March 31, 2023Episodes

• The Quietest Room on Earth

  Inside a building in Minneapolis, there is a room so quiet that people believe an hour inside will drive anyone mad. It is so quiet, they say, that you will hear the sound of your own internal organs. A writer from the New York Times recently decided to put that claim to the test by breaking the record for the longest stay inside. Jeff and Anthony look at the history of anechoic chambers, and decide how long they could last in the deafening silence. [more]

  January 12, 2023Episodes

• Throwing Stuff into Space

  Burning tons of jet fuel to propel objects out of Earth's atmosphere and into orbit is an expensive, environmentally damage prospect. One company in California is deleoping an alternative. SpinLaunch just completed their 10th test launch, literally throwing satellites thousands of kilometers up into the air. Jeff and Anthony dig into the engineering challenges - and pure audacity - of such an endeavor... and they come away very impressed. [more]

  October 28, 2022Episodes

• Mutating Astronaut Blood, A Cautionary Tale

  Researchers at NASA have been holding on to astronaut blood for 20 years. But that's not the story. The story is that over that period, the blood has been mutating. Anthony and Jeff discuss this new wrinkle in the dangers of space travel - and space colonization - and how some very smart people are thinking about it. [more]

  September 30, 2022Episodes

• Hibernation Information and Measuring a Second

  Can humans reach new planets by hibernating during the trip? A new study on hibernation reveals how the benefits of torpor don't scale with size, and Jeff and Anthony debate the science of human hibernation. Then, what does it take to accurately measure a second? Anthony and Jeff take a look at the effort to redefine the unit of measure that relates to all others. [more]

  July 8, 2022Episodes

• Moon Trees and Watching Memories Form

  One of the Apollo 14 astronauts took a bag of tree seeds to the moon. A few years after the astronauts returned home, some of the seeds were planted across the United States... and then forgotten. Anthony and Jeff discuss the effort to track down these Moon Trees, and if they really mean something. Then, researchers have directly observed what happens inside the brain of a zebra fish when it is being traumatized. Jeff and Anthony talk about what this breakthrough means, and how exactly the scientists traumatized those fish. [more]

  April 4, 2022Episodes

• Houdini Birds and the Space Dagger

  Researchers in Australia have been trying to track magpies using tiny, featherweight transmitters, but the birds have banded together to escape the magnetic backpacks that house the signal. This kind of cooperation has never been observed among this species and it raises a whole bunch of new questions. Anthony and Jeff take a look at those wily birds, and what this could mean for their incessant pranks. Then, new analysis of a dagger found in King Tut's tomb reveal that it is made out of iron from a meteorite. Jeff and Anthony step through the incredible process used to make that discovery. [more]

  March 15, 2022Episodes

• Movies in Space and Shared Creativity

  The company co-producing Tom Cruise’s upcoming space movie, has unveiled plans to build a space station module that contains a sports and entertainment arena as well as a content studio by December 2024. Jeff and Anthony discuss the feasibility and application of such a project. Then, a new article in the Academy of Management Journal, finds that handing a mature idea to somebody else for execution harms the creativity of the final product. Anthony and Jeff discuss their own creative ventures, and look at the how data can inform creativity. [more]

  January 31, 2022Episodes

• Lightning Seen and Lightning Round

  Scientists have never been able to adequately explain where lightning comes from. Now the first detailed observations of its emergence inside a cloud have exposed how electric fields grow strong enough to create bolts. Jeff and Anthony step through how scientists have been able to record the spark of lightning. Then, Anthony starts his own lightning - a lightning round of headlines! Paralyzing rats, happiness from marriage, celebrity worship, sleeping in space, and more! [more]

  January 21, 2022Episodes

• Xenobots and Space Crime

  The US scientists who created the first living robots say the life forms, known as xenobots, can now reproduce in a way not seen in plants and animals. Anthony and Jeff step through this discovery and what it could mean for humanity. Then, it appears NASA is investigating first allegation of crime in space. Jeff and Anthony speculate on how this might play out, and what the future of intergalactic criminality could look like. [more]

  December 20, 2021Episodes