The whole of science is stuffed full of delicious stories, and we really want to tell you every damn one of them. But we know our little human brains can’t absorb too much at one time.
So today we’re introducing our new line of Wholesome SnacksTM, where we bring you a selection of new and tasty tales that have been consumed, concentrated and reconstituted just for you.
Get your bib out because, in today’s snack pack, we’ve got some real doozies for you.
Our first short story starts with the first map of an entire insect brain - specifically, the brain of a fruit fly larvae. Scientists recently created the most advanced brain map to date, slicing the baby fruit fly brain into thousands of individual tissue samples and mapping connections neuron by neuron. It took….quite a while. The findings were pretty interesting and unexpected - here’s to hoping we see scientists move on to even more exciting species in the near future. You’re next, mice!
So, have you ever thought about how you might keep warm in your grave during winter? Well High Gate Cemetery, Britain’s most famous resting place, is apparently considering heated graves to protect stonework in extreme weather. Sudden changes in temperature can result in unacceptable damage, such as the cracked tiles on Julius Beer’s tomb. God forbid the mausoleums look messy - we’ve got celebrities in here, people!
Now on to medical data. Would a smart toilet leak your private info? According to Stanford University, there’s a version of a smart toilet in the lab that can look up your biomarkers and monitor signs of disease. But there are ethical and legal considerations to this, like the possibility of your data transmitted online being hacked. So someone might discover your urine flow is a bit light, or your potassium is low and you need to eat more bananas. Who cares? But information such as the toilet user being pregnant or having cancer getting leaked? Not ideal.
Today in space news - Rolls Royce has secured funds to research how micro nuclear reactor technology might power a moon base. It’s exciting to see this research-backed as we prepare to send humans to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. But mostly we’re interested to see these reactors decked out with all the Rolls Royce trimmings - leather lining, cup holders, perhaps a control panel in mahogany and if they’re really lucky they’ll get a coveted sneaky RR umbrella?
Still in space - the puffy moon suits worn by the Apollo astronauts half a century ago are no longer space couture, so NASA has unveiled a new spacesuit design for the return to the moon. While they haven’t always had a great record for addressing their problems with sexism (remember the tampon fiasco in the 1980s?), NASA’s new Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit is more flexible and actually designed to fit both men and women. It also looks pretty cool and we have the picture to prove it.
And finally in historic achievement news, researchers at the University of Rochester have created a superconducting material at both a temperature and pressure low enough for practical applications. In other words, you don't have to super chill it, squish it or keep it in the super fridge. Superconductivity can give us more efficient electronics and better medical imaging. Or even better - levitating high-speed trains.
You’re gonna love these weird and wonderful news bites from around the globe - so wrap your ears around these morsels and dig in!
SOURCES:
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Rod (00:00):
The whole of science is stuffed full of delicious stories and we really want to tell you every damn one of them, but we've realized, it's just too much to absorb. Introducing our new line of Wholesome Snacks TM. Each packet of Wholesome Snacks TM, features a selection of new and tasty flavored tales consumed, concentrated, and reconstituted just for you. In this week's snack pack, brain pictures, save our corpses, medical toilets, Rolls-Royce on the moon, new space fashions and super-duper conductivity. All right, William, I have some things for you. I have some stories, short stories. First one from Futurity. The first map of the insect brain could shed light on thinking. Apparently it's the most advanced brain map to date. And they've done this of a drosophila melanogaster larvae, fruit fly larva. They've fully mapped the-
Will (01:02):
I like fruit fry lava better than the other name.
Rod (01:04):
Drosophila melanogaster. Apparently the first time they mapped the brain, there was a 14-year study of the roundworm that started in the seventies.
Will (01:12):
Yes.
Rod (01:13):
They only partially mapped, it.
Will (01:14):
Gave up.
Rod (01:14):
But it resulted in a Nobel Prize.
Will (01:16):
Gave up. Oh, well you'd fair enough, halfway for Nobel. And so they've done the whole-
Rod (01:20):
The whole fruit fly larva brain.
Will (01:22):
How complicated is it?
Rod (01:24):
It's crazy. They said, it's really difficult and time-consuming, even with the best tech. And apparently it requires, even a simple one, slicing the brain into hundreds or thousands of individual tissue samples. And then each one has to be electron micro-scoped.
Will (01:39):
Wow.
Rod (01:40):
They're not fucking around. And then they even say neuron by neuron manually, they map the connections.
Will (01:46):
Jesus.
Rod (01:47):
Manually.
Will (01:48):
Oh man, how many connections is this all up?
Rod (01:51):
We're talking 3000, 3016 neurons. 548,000 connections.
Will (01:56):
Wow. Manually 548,000.
Rod (01:58):
Yeah.
Will (01:58):
Wow. Was it a smart one or a dumb one?
Rod (02:00):
It was a smart one. And they say they describe this thing as breathtakingly detailed diagram. This only happened quite recently. Journal articles in science, et cetera, et cetera. Of course. But they were saying one of the most rich areas was in the learning and decision making behaviors. That was the busiest most-
Will (02:18):
This is in the baby fruit fly larva.
Rod (02:20):
In the baby fruit fly.
Will (02:21):
That's a rich area in decision making.
Rod (02:23):
And learning.
Will (02:23):
Okay.
Rod (02:24):
Do I roll over? What do they have to decide?
Will (02:31):
Mortgages, what they going to do with their life?
Rod (02:36):
What do I do with the 40 days available to me?
Will (02:38):
Meaning what show they're going to watch tonight?
Rod (02:40):
They're pretty much like that. I'm disappointed and impressed. I'm impressed they've done it, because it's the first one.
Will (02:46):
Oh, of course.
Rod (02:47):
But we're not doing well. They reckon, okay, next one let's try a mouse. We might be ready within a decade to try a mouse.
Will (02:53):
You know what, the thing that always about brains is we can know the number of, not know, but the number of neurons. I think human brain, it's in the trillion. When you do connections, it just gets to a gobsmack in a huge number because there are some neurons in the human brain that connect up with 10,000 others. And you get to networks that are just shockingly big numbers. And the thing that fascinates me about this is how to try and understand... We are so far away from understanding, let alone, the network of this complexity. That's why you start with the baby fruit fly.
Rod (03:30):
That's my question. What do you do with it when you got it? You look at it and go, "Fuck that's tops."
Will (03:35):
Well, you can be a baby fruit fly then.
Rod (03:38):
That's true. You can know what it's luck to be one.
Will (03:39):
You could put it in ChatGPT and you could say, answer this as if you are as baby fruit fly.
Rod (03:44):
A baby fruit fly. The kinds of statements they're saying, for starters, the brain of a mouse is a million-ish times bigger.
Will (03:52):
Okay.
Rod (03:52):
And I reckon if we're lucky, if we're lucky, they'll do that in the next 10 or more years maybe.
Will (03:57):
Wow. This is-
Rod (03:58):
And it's unlikely human brain may be mapped in the near future. Maybe not in our lifetimes. The fact they've done it, I have to say, hats off, bang hands together, et cetera, et cetera. Good for you people. At Johns Hopkins, here's another, this is a headline I quite enjoy. Highgate Cemetery... This is from the Times of the UK.
Will (04:14):
Where Karl Marx is buried.
Rod (04:16):
The rest of the heading goes on. Marx's resting place considers heating graves because Karl gets cold in winter.
Will (04:23):
It's a bit cold in your grave.
Rod (04:25):
Karl gets chilly. Apparently the cemetery, which is apparently it's Britain's most famous obviously, because you'd heard of it.
Will (04:32):
Maybe, is it so you can go and have a nice little nap on a grave?
Rod (04:35):
Far more pragmatic. You can, anyway. Douglas Adams is also there. George Michael.
Will (04:40):
A whole bunch of Iraqi communists.
Rod (04:44):
Really?
Will (04:44):
Yeah. Around Karl Marx's grave. There's a whole bunch of Iraqi communists that bought all of the plots. And they're like, "We're going to be buried next to Karl Marx." And it's like-
Rod (04:52):
Oh, that's allowed?
Will (04:54):
Sure.
Rod (04:54):
Ironically, because they earned heaps and heaps of money through capitalism. And so they could be there.
Will (04:59):
I don't know.
Rod (05:00):
That's going to be my bit.
Will (05:01):
It's a nice cemetery.
Rod (05:03):
Is it as nice as the Père Lachaise in Paris?
Will (05:05):
Oh, better.
Rod (05:06):
Really?
Will (05:08):
I don't know.
Rod (05:08):
I've only been to the Père Lachaise and seriously, it's the first time I've been to a cemetery and thought I could hang out here just for the hell of it.
Will (05:14):
I hear Jim Morrison's in the ground there...
Rod (05:15):
He is. I walked past that one and many-
Will (05:17):
... rocking out.
Rod (05:18):
Oscar Wilde is there. There's lots of little bits of paper and lipstick marks where I was going to say women, but that's not true. People just go up and go-
Will (05:26):
On Who? Oscar Wilde?
Rod (05:27):
On Oscar Wilde's thing. Jim Morrison's is classic. We're wandering through it. And there's this dude, he looks like he's out of central casting. This little old man hunched over sweeping a bit of the footpath, just sweeping pointlessly. And we watched-
Will (05:38):
Gal was is-
Rod (05:40):
Everything but. And these two young girls come bouncing up to him and they go... They just open their mouths and he just looks down and goes-
Will (05:48):
Oh, he.
Rod (05:48):
Sticks his hand out, like it's that way. Jim Morrison is this way. But it's beautiful. It's freaking beautiful. But in this one, so there's a friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, it seems the Times tell us. And they're worried about damage from temperature changes to all these mausoleums. Apparently there's one in there. The Trust boss, a guy called Ian. He's wondering whether we need to start to install heaters because they're getting busted up by a temperature change. And there's one that's there already. Newspaper Baron and Julius Beer has a tomb that already has an electrical socket in it because-
Will (06:21):
I don't see what the big problem of... How many heaters are we putting here?
Rod (06:26):
Thousands of graves.
Will (06:28):
The point of a grave is it decays into dust eventually.
Rod (06:30):
The point of a mausoleum is, it remains in perpetuity.
Will (06:33):
No, no, no. You should decay into dust.
Rod (06:35):
That's what you think. But you're not a newspaper Baron or Karl Marx.
Will (06:40):
Do you really want your grave to be visible in a hundred million years?
Rod (06:43):
I don't give a fuck whether I have a grave. Honestly, as much as I'm against death, I'm realistic enough to know that afterwards, "Do what you want, whatever lump of meat? Enjoy yourselves."
Will (06:53):
Here lies a lump of meat.
Rod (06:54):
I know. And it doesn't even lie. But apparently this guy's tomb, Julius Beers in 2022, it got so cold, the head of the Trust says, that it froze on the inside and the outside, his tomb. And some of the glass tiles from the wall, broke off. It's dreadful. And so they said we could have plugged the heater into the power socket to stop this temperature shift. But he asked a conservative because he said, "There's a problem. Sudden changes in the temperature, up and up or down, messes with the mausoleums."
Will (07:25):
This is why I'm saying allow it to decay too.
Rod (07:28):
I agree.
Will (07:28):
And don't worry about it.
Rod (07:29):
I agree. And don't build on in the first place. Although they're fun to look at. Rocky mausoleums are fun.
Will (07:36):
But still they're weird. But for me, it's that whole competing to spend heaps on a funeral.
Rod (07:40):
Of course it is.
Will (07:41):
I need a fancy ass box. No you don't. I don't freaking care.
Rod (07:45):
No, you really, really don't. And I have to say what I love about this one too though, saying, "Look, to fix that one, because it got hot and cold. Hot and cold. Hot and cold. It started to get really messy." And then there was another one. Actually, there was another one where the charity decided to help the volunteers out. They would heat the chapel, which also had mausoleums on it. And it turned out that because it got hot and cold, the hot phases, heaps of moisture in the inside, which condensed, and then it was the friendly environment for furniture beetles. But apparently cost 40,000 pounds to fix that particular problem. 40 grand on...
Will (08:21):
Eh.
Rod (08:22):
You're not a fan.
Will (08:23):
Not really. Let them go to dust.
Rod (08:25):
I think it's nuts. Honestly, I think it's nuts.
Will (08:27):
And to use the energy to do something like that.
Rod (08:28):
But they're even trying to make... They try to make financial arguments. They say, "Look, we spent 150,000 pounds or more in the last few years just on conservation work, anyway." It's worse since climate change in the last 10 or 15. What they've said is, "Look, the cost of repairing a listed tomb, a special one of which there are 53,000 odd, it's 2000 pounds a pop." But they're saying potentially if we heat them and maintain their temperature, it could end up being cheaper.
Will (08:56):
Jobs of late capitalism.
Rod (08:58):
Yes it is.
Will (08:59):
Although, no, definitely there are communist structures that are maintaining stupid graves for a long time.
Rod (09:05):
Fucking awesome ones though.
Will (09:06):
No.
Rod (09:07):
You visited Mao's tomb.
Will (09:08):
I've seen Mao.
Rod (09:09):
Did you not like it?
Will (09:10):
I think it's ridiculous. I'm sorry, Chinese listeners. But whatever he was to your country, you can also put him in the ground.
Rod (09:19):
I agree. Though I did love Tiananmen Square.
Will (09:23):
That's a cool square.
Rod (09:24):
That much paving, paving to the horizon, very impressive.
Will (09:27):
It's very like Dune paved.
Rod (09:27):
It is like Dune.
Will (09:30):
Half of the planet... As far as you can see, and then put doors, two kilometer high doors around the horizon.
Rod (09:35):
I'm waiting for Dune two to see if they do that. Because they have to, if the doors aren't two kilometers high, the whole movie's ruined. Alrighty. How about this headline? This is from Futurity, but it's from really the work of Stanford University. Would a smart toilet leak your private info?
Will (09:50):
Yes, it would. Yes, we do. We all know anything smart is not very smart. But also, leaky is a siv and all that data is going to those big da... My bum data. I don't want my bum data going anywhere.
Rod (10:05):
Really?
Will (10:05):
Yeah.
Rod (10:06):
This is where you draw the line.
Will (10:07):
I'll allow my doctor to have my bum data.
Rod (10:09):
What about your wee-wee data?
Will (10:10):
No, it's fine.
Rod (10:11):
Your front bum data's fines.
Will (10:12):
It's fine.
Rod (10:13):
Winky data, no problem. Apparently smart toilets, they're not as common as you think. I don't know how common-
Will (10:19):
I didn't think they were very common. Look, I know there are friends out there that you do a wee, and it can tell you, "Oh, you are low on potassium and eat more bananas."
Rod (10:33):
You are low on molybdenum.
Will (10:35):
Exactly. Eat more molybdenum.
Rod (10:37):
Molybdenum enhanced-
Will (10:39):
I get that that might be a healthy thing to do.
Rod (10:44):
Well, these guys were saying, "Look, there's a version in the lab of a smart toilet and basically it looks up biomarkers and stuff, which is great." And these people who are doing the research want it to become ubiquitous. When you put in a toilet, you also make it a smart toilet because apparently it's going to be good for us. You don't seem impressed.
Will (11:05):
All of these smart things are not nearly as good as they pretend to be.
Rod (11:09):
No, but this one's okay because public health.
Will (11:13):
You know that every single smart toilet like 10 years down the track, it's got some bug and it's sending you a notification that you've done a poo and it gets accident-
Rod (11:24):
You have butt cancer.
Will (11:25):
All the time. And it's just, you're sitting at a coffee and you just get a notification from your toilet. It's just not going to be accurate. It's not going to be on topic. It's going to be so stupidly wrong.
Rod (11:36):
Are you just against toilets? Do you think toilets are stupid?
Will (11:38):
No, I'm not. I love toilets.
Rod (11:40):
There are times when I look at a toilet and I think, "Imagine if toilets were sentient."
Will (11:43):
Why would you imagine that?
Rod (11:44):
I don't know. It's not my fault. It's just what my imagination does for me. And I think, would they love their job?
Will (11:48):
Of course they'd love their job.
Rod (11:49):
They'd sit there going, "I want more to swallow."
Will (11:51):
No, they've had a purpose constrained to the world and the world that they're in says, this is where I sit.
Rod (11:56):
We appreciate you.
Will (11:57):
Maybe they feel lonely and then they finally get to do a job every so often.
Rod (12:01):
Lonely toilet.
Will (12:02):
Yeah, eating.
Rod (12:03):
Eating what?
Will (12:04):
Look, I don't think it's one of the first things that'll be become sentient.
Rod (12:07):
I hadn't even thought of that, that's terrifying.
Will (12:09):
If we're putting AI in things, I think toilets are low down in the sentient.
Rod (12:13):
You're worried about your car, you're worried about your computer, your house security system. But no, it's your toilet that starts telling people dumb things about you. But this one, no, they're really keen. The researchers are saying, "Look, there are upsides for things like smart toilets could flag things like there's a lot of COVID in the water."
Will (12:27):
I know.
Rod (12:27):
That's right.
Will (12:28):
I know.
Rod (12:28):
Now are you in?
Will (12:30):
I'm not against some of that. I just think... I just don't believe that it's actually going to work.
Rod (12:35):
No, I think there'll be huge problems. But they say, the researchers say no, it's going to be cool because we'll treat it like any medical data like that your doctor would have, so that's cool. No, it'll lead to these classic things like someone being told they're pregnant before they realize it. Or better someone's parents being told about their child that they're pregnant before they realize, that should be fine. Anyway, that's new. Rolls-Royce secures funds to develop a nuclear reactor for a moon base.
Will (12:59):
What?
Rod (12:59):
Did you see this?
Will (13:00):
No.
Rod (13:02):
Apparently Rolls-Royce now, the scientists and engineers at that company, they're working with a micro reactor program. We're talking micro reactors on the moon and they want to basically get them happening. And they're in partnership with the UK Space Agency. I didn't know they had a space agency, but there you go.
Will (13:19):
Of course they do.
Rod (13:21):
Three million odd pounds being sent to fund the project. And as the science minister for the UK puts it, "As we prepare to see humans return to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, we are backing exciting research like this lunar modular reactor with Rolls-Royce to pioneer new power sources. Partnerships like this between British industry, the UK Space Agency and government are helping to create jobs." And on they go about standard stuff. They reckon they'll have a reactor ready to rock and go to the moon by 2029.
Will (13:50):
I don't love the idea of putting a nuclear reactor in a rocket because the only way of getting off this earth is a rocket. Scares me a little bit, but I get-
Rod (13:58):
I don't mind.
Will (13:59):
As an energy source, maybe you could take solar panels.
Rod (14:03):
I say do it. I reckon it's awesome.
Will (14:04):
Confession, I've been reading a whole lot about submarines at the moment. Small reactors in the submarine space allow things that are just not possible otherwise.
Rod (14:12):
I'm not against them. Look, I'm more and more turning towards nuclear energy is the only pragmatic solution for a number of things over next 50 years.
Will (14:18):
Shut up.
Rod (14:20):
You agree, you just can't say it out loud.
Will (14:21):
No, I don't.
Rod (14:22):
And of course they go on to say, "Oh, no this is going to be great too because of its terrestrial benefits." Just what I'm talking about micro reactors on earth.
Will (14:30):
Rolls-Royce reactors.
Rod (14:32):
They're very fancy. They're leather.
Will (14:34):
With all the trimmings.
Rod (14:35):
Leather and gold.
Will (14:36):
Cup holders in your reactors.
Rod (14:37):
The best thing I saw on a Rolls-Royce-
Will (14:38):
An umbrella in the door of your reactors.
Rod (14:40):
You've seen the Rolls-Royce umbrellas.
Will (14:42):
Yeah. It's got an umbrella in the door.
Rod (14:43):
Freaking hilarious. That's the only reason to buy it. I told you, I worked at a survey years ago where the British High Commission, Rolls-Royce used to come in and get serviced. The car would come in, they'd service it. The British High Commissioner Chauffeur would take it away and the mechanics would look at me and go, "You don't want to buy a Rolls, mate."
Will (14:59):
No.
Rod (15:00):
They leak too much oil.
Will (15:00):
No.
Rod (15:01):
Too much oil.
Will (15:02):
Other than that, perfect.
Rod (15:05):
I'd have one myself.
Will (15:05):
I'd probably have a couple, actually.
Rod (15:07):
I'd raise a back, lower of the front boom. Boom I'm at 25 cylinders.
Will (15:10):
I was basically about to buy one the other day. Then I looked at the oil use.
Rod (15:14):
It's 10% more than you standard Holden. Fucked up.
Will (15:17):
Ridiculous. Look at the wastage of that.
Rod (15:20):
It horrified me too. That's when I thought, you know what, no Rolls for me. Anyway, so there's a lot of excitement. Continuous present of humans on the moon. And while you're on the moon, you could wear next story.
Will (15:31):
Yeah.
Rod (15:32):
Spacesuit for the return to the moon has been unveiled.
Will (15:34):
Oh, cool.
Rod (15:35):
New spacesuit.
Will (15:36):
Do you got me a picture?
Rod (15:37):
Well look, one exists, but it's not on my piece of paper.
Will (15:40):
Jesus Christ.
Rod (15:41):
I'm terrible.
Will (15:42):
Jesus Christ.
Rod (15:42):
We'll drop one in. Here's an image of it now.
Will (15:45):
Drop it into my brain. Is it a cool spacesuit?
Rod (15:47):
Yeah, it's very cool.
Will (15:50):
Do you know how computers work?
Rod (15:51):
What's a computer? I did this on a typewriter. You wonder why it's always the same font. Apparently they're finally going to do one. It's the first time there's been a big redesign since 1981, that's a while.
Will (16:04):
Fashion's moved since then.
Rod (16:06):
Now what I love-
Will (16:07):
Pants went from wide to skinny. Now they're back to, wide. There's a lot of things we've got to embrace here.
Rod (16:15):
What I love is one of the biggest problems with the original-
Will (16:16):
I'd like to see a spacesuit that it was little like skinny leg jeans.
Rod (16:21):
I want skinny to knee and then flared out hugely for your moon boots.
Will (16:25):
Exactly. Flared out spacesuit.
Rod (16:29):
I'd wear that to work. It turns out one of the biggest problems with the existing suits from 1981. There'd been scuppered plans to send women into space or to get them to do space walks and stuff because the suits don't fit women properly, existing suits.
Will (16:43):
NASA doesn't have a great record of addressing their problems of sexism like their, how many tampons shall we send our spaceship?
Rod (16:54):
It's either infinity or one, we're not sure.
Will (16:56):
It would be impossible to find this out as well.
Rod (16:58):
How would you know?
Will (16:59):
How could you possibly know? Let's just guess and put 700,000.
Rod (17:02):
Let's throw a hundred tons of tampons and a lady on the thing and see what happens. Did you ask her? No.
Will (17:08):
Because it's also not hard. There are companies that do design clothes for women, one or two of them.
Rod (17:17):
But they didn't know any of those.
Will (17:18):
No, impossible.
Rod (17:19):
They didn't know. Look, there's a part of me that makes me happy because of course he fucking did. In 2019, they planned to send an entire female team of astronauts to do a space walk from the International Space Station.
Will (17:31):
To where?
Rod (17:32):
Around, space walks. But that means going outside, float around, go back in.
Will (17:37):
There's no walking.
Rod (17:37):
No it isn't. Its call it go outside.
Will (17:40):
Sky flight.
Rod (17:41):
But it's beyond the sky.
Will (17:42):
Space flight.
Rod (17:43):
Space flight, go space float. It doesn't sound as impressive. Spacewalk does.
Will (17:47):
I feel like if they had thrusters on their boots, that they only activate when you mind walking and you got to slowly walk in the atmosphere. Do you know I would finally go to space if they allowed me to do that? That would be the thing for me.
Rod (18:02):
Otherwise, no, it's off the table? Give me cool red jet boots. Anyway, they said for this space station walk, a couple of days before two lady astronauts were due to wander out. They went, "Oh, hang on, we just worked out none of the space suits would fit them." So they got a dude to do it instead.
Will (18:18):
Whoa.
Rod (18:21):
Clowns. Like you said, you're fucking kidding me. How would you have found out?
Will (18:25):
I would've thought the instant that you're going, "Okay, we're planning this mission." You would go, "Let's try the spacesuit on whoever the person is."
Rod (18:31):
Whoever.
Will (18:32):
It's not a one size fits all thing. I've never thought spacesuit is just grab one off the shelf.
Rod (18:37):
Or they're so big that you could put the biggest human in the world in one. And it wouldn't matter whether they had-
Will (18:42):
All made purely of space elastic. It just stretches to any-
Rod (18:46):
Spacedex, Spanacious.
Will (18:50):
Something.
Rod (18:50):
But anyway, in 2021, the space agency NASA had already spent 420 million dollars on space suit development. But it wasn't working out.
Will (19:02):
Wow.
Rod (19:04):
I'm sorry. I've never done this. But how?
Will (19:06):
You just know.
Rod (19:07):
How?
Will (19:07):
And this is the same story. NASA spending millions on the space pen.
Rod (19:11):
Yeah.
Will (19:12):
And the Soviets using a pencil.
Rod (19:13):
Where's pencil.
Will (19:15):
I assume that the cosmonaut suit was a pretty robust as tractor overalls with some glass embedded somehow.
Rod (19:23):
And when in doubt we weld.
Will (19:24):
Welded tractor overalls.
Rod (19:25):
We weld the problems.
Will (19:27):
Hold still spaceman.
Rod (19:29):
Sorry about the eyes and elbow joints. Finally, they brought in the private sector because in America that's how you make shit work. And they gave them 228 million bucks.
Will (19:39):
Private sector that make things for women or just private sector that make things for space?
Rod (19:43):
Space. Axiom Space. Sounds actually quite macho. They got a contract last year and six months later, six months, first prototype. Apparently it kind of works. It's flexible. It's got a bunch of fancy features. They're hoping and they reckon confidently that... The Artemis Mission, Artemis three launches in 2025. And they're expecting that that space suit will be on it.
Will (20:06):
On the moon.
Rod (20:08):
Finally. Material herald's new dawn for superconductivity.
Will (20:13):
New Dawn?
Rod (20:14):
Apparently University of Rochester work. And it came out of Futurity again. March this year, historic achievement researchers have created a superconducting material at both a temperature and a pressure low enough for practical applications. You don't have to super chill it and you don't have to squish it like Venus or something.
Will (20:31):
Don't keep it in the super fridge. You can use it at... Okay.
Rod (20:34):
Apparently it's not common. If you had good superconductivity and power grids, you wouldn't get all this bleeding.
Will (20:39):
You put them in the grids.
Rod (20:41):
Yep. Levitation of and frictionless high-speed trains.
Will (20:44):
Finally.
Rod (20:45):
Better medical imaging. I know you like...
Will (20:47):
If you need to levitate your medical imaging.
Rod (20:48):
And I know you like to. Faster, more efficient electronics for digital logic and memory devices.
Will (20:52):
Levitating electronics.
Rod (20:53):
Yep. And my favorite, this is my favorite. You make tokamak or takamak machines better for nuclear fusion.
Will (21:01):
Oh, yeah.
Rod (21:01):
Which is always 20 to 40 years away.
Will (21:03):
It's not always, it's less than that now.
Rod (21:04):
It was like 19-
Will (21:04):
It's down to 29.
Rod (21:07):
Down to 29 years away. Next year, 29 years. But if you get this room temperature... Or sorry, lower temperature superconductivity, that will help that as well.
Will (21:14):
Sweet.
Rod (21:15):
In theory. And they've got... It's great. It's great. There's a bunch of... Basically, there's a new kind of material, this stuff. I've translated it into English.
Will (21:23):
No, don't translate it. Give me the complicated name.
Rod (21:25):
No, this is the translation, a nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride that exhibits superconductivity at 69 Fahrenheit and 10 kilobars, which is about 145,000 pounds per square inch or PSI of pressure. Let's give you some kind of idea. 145,000 PSI pounds per whatever.
Will (21:44):
Square inch.
Rod (21:45):
Super inch, I thought it was.
Will (21:46):
It's not a super inch. There's no super inch.
Rod (21:48):
Superconductivity.
Will (21:49):
There's no super inch. I know the imperial system.
Rod (21:54):
Many women would disagree, because they've been lied to by men for so long. No, this is 19 super inches.
Will (22:02):
A super inch can't be shorter than-
Rod (22:05):
Makes you seem more super. So 145,000 psi. For a bit of an idea, sea level air pressure is 15.
Will (22:12):
Okay.
Rod (22:13):
And what do you put in your car? 28 to 50 PSI.
Will (22:16):
It's much more squishy.
Rod (22:17):
It's a shitload of pressure. But apparently we do regularly create high pressure environments to do industrial things.
Will (22:23):
Okay.
Rod (22:24):
It's not insane. This is a good thing.
Will (22:27):
I am feeling good.
Rod (22:28):
It is going to make nuclear fusion happen tomorrow.
Will (22:30):
Finally. There you go. Tomorrow or 29 years.
Rod (22:34):
29 years, every damn year. Those are my snippets. That is our update. Now you are fully informed about everything that happened in the last couple of weeks in science.
Will (22:41):
Back to the science.
Rod (22:42):
Back to the science.
