Science Lush

Iron Man Science

Last week I had a blast hosting Marvel.com's Live Red Carpet show for the IRON MAN 3 premiere. The movie comes out on May 3rd in the U.S., so I thought it'd be fun to take a look at some of the science behind the sci fi in the IRON MAN films.

STARK INDUSTRIES TECH

The Marvel Cinematic Universe all begins with the comics, and in this piece on ScientificAmerican.com, E. Paul Zehr goes back to the source with "Iron Man's Top 10 Heavy Metal Moments: Reflections on the First 50 Years of Scientific R&D from Stark Industries." 

Zehr traces the development of Iron Man armor all the way from its "birth" in March 1963's TALES OF SUSPENSE #39, through the suited-up fight scene between Tony Stark and Col. James Rhodes (soon to be War Machine) in IRON MAN 2. Some of the upgrades along the way have included changes in color, a more modular suit that's storable, an waterproof exoskeleton, and a neural interface.

Getting into the suit has become easier as well - the first Marvel IRON MAN film introduced motorized robotic equipment for dressing Stark. And although it's not mentioned in Zehr's "Top 10" list, I was a big fan of the "suitcase suit" in IRON MAN 2.

While Zehr says that, "Right now we don’t even have the technology to safely dress Tony Stark in the Iron Man as shown in the robotics, let alone create the Iron Man armor itself," he points out that there are a few other elements that we're a bit closer to realizing. For example, inventor Phil Nuytten has created "swimmable" Newtsuit and Exosuits that seem to share some design elements with the Iron Man exoskeleton in INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #218  “Deep Trouble” (1987), in which Iron Man hits the water.

For a deeper dive into Zehr's take on the reality of creating an Iron Man suit, check out his book INVENTING IRON MAN: The Possibility of a Human Machine.  

 
A REAL IRON MAN SUIT?

Discovery News also attacks this topic with a fun piece - and some nice pics - on the realities of various features of the Iron Man suit. Exoskeleton systems? In development. Head mounted display? Already functional in military and engineering applications. Repulsors? Unfortunately, not going to show up in our world any time soon.

As we know, Tony is proud of his rep as a tinkerer, and loves spending time in his lab...something that causes some problems between him and Pepper at the beginning of IM3. Here's what the piece has to say about Tony's latest additions:

"Iron Man 3" introduces at least one new technology to the Stark armor, although the details are sketchy indeed. Early in the film, Tony Stark is seen experimenting with a substance that he injects into his bloodstream, which then allows him to telepathically summon his armor to him across great distances. Each piece of armor has its own rocket system and latches onto Stark automatically after it flies across the room (or the country, as the case may be).

As a sci-fi conceit, the concept combines ideas of nanotechology, biotechnology and long-range wireless communications. Stark has also developed a system for remotely piloting Iron Man suits from the ground. The suits essentially become unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones, a recurring concern in movies these days. In real-world news, just this month the FAA will begin allowing civilian agencies to fly UAVs weighing no more than 4.4 pounds in U.S. airspace.

THE ARC REACTOR

Emory University did a series of videos titled EMORY LOOKS AT HOLLYWOOD featuring faculty members applying their areas of knowledge to some of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters. In this 2010 video, Sidney Perkowitz, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Physics, gives his take on the possibilities for a real suit and gets specific on the science behind the power source. 

He, too, suggests that an Iron Man-type of suit is a real possibility in the near (or not so near) future, given the current experimentation with exoskeletons. The military has spent a lot of money building them, and while it'll probably be quite awhile until they cover us head to toe and have a complete neurally integrated sensory system, Perkowitz believes "A walking kind of Iron Man that is stronger than the average soldier, I think clearly that can happen." Sadly, he wasn't so optimistic about the flying part.

A power source is necessary in order for an Iron Man suit to work, especially for the advanced functions. Perkowitz explains that though there are indeed ARC reactors in the real world, their uses are not quite as flashy as what we see in the IRON MAN films.

He says, "As far as I can judge from the film, what Tony's ARC reactor means is a fusion reactor...this idea of making energy by smashing together two hydrogen nucleii and turning them into helium. That's what goes on in our sun. It's a great power source. Physicists have worked on this idea for 60 years. They haven't made it work yet."

Part of the issue is size. Perkowitz explains that in reality, the machines that would generate this would be the size of a building. However, Tony Stark has managed to create a device that will do this same smashing together of hydrogen nucleii in something that's about 3 inches in diameter.

The film actually quotes the power level that Tony's ARC reactor puts out, and Perkowitz was intrigued enough to do some calculations. He determined that the reactor puts out somewhere between 1-16 million horsepower. 1 million hp is the equivalent to 2000-3000 Corvettes...so we're talking about something pretty damn powerful coming out of a device the size of a hockey puck.

If one could actually manage to do this, then Perkowitz says that the Iron Man suit could do just about anything, from punching through walls to - yes - even flying! 

The Lush List: 12/4/12 Curiosity Video, End of the Universe and Space's Neighborhood Watch

STILL CURIOUS?

If you've forgotten just how inspiring the Curiosity Rover and those responsible for her journey are, take 5 minutes to watch this lovely piece created by director/photojournalist Dan Winters, editor John Aldrich and sound designer/composer Shervin Shaeri. With narration from key members of the MSL team, including Adam Steltzner, Miguel San Martin, Ann Devereaux and Allen Chen detailing their personal feelings about the rover, it's a lovely, visual journey through the life of Curiosity thus far.

Here's my favorite quote from the piece, which encapsulates the sense of connection between the engineers and scientists who birthed Curiosity, but now only get the occasional phone call or pic from their kiddo far, far away:

"We get to see her in images that she takes of herself, but we won't ever touch again and we won't ever be able to fix her again." 

Mars Rover Curiosity from Mutant Jukebox - Music & Sound on Vimeo.
Photography Credits: NASA JPL, Dan Winters, David Robertson, Travis Smith

NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH FOR SPACE?

NASA has a little problem...there are about 500,000 pieces of hazardous space junk orbiting the earth, and there's no trash collector scheduled for the route anytime in the near future! This debris includes spent rocket stages, defunct satellites and fragments from other spacecraft that are the result of erosion, explosion and collision, and it threatens current peacekeeping and combat satellites, as a collision between a piece of the space trash and a satellite could release more than 20,000 times the energy of a head-on auto collision at 65 mph.

So what's a government agency to do?

DARPA has created SpaceView, "a space debris tracking project that provides amateur astronomers with the means to make a difference....The vision behind the SpaceView program is to provide more diverse data to the Space Surveillance Network (SSN), a U.S. Air Force program charged with cataloguing and observing space objects to identify potential near-term collisions. SpaceView hopes to achieve that goal by engaging U.S. amateur astronomers by purchasing remote access to an already in-use telescope or by providing a telescope to selected astronomers. When a telescope that is provided by the program is not in use by the SpaceView program, DARPA will provide its use for astronomy and astrophotography." 

So in other words, if you're located where they need you to be, you might get to time-share some equipment, qualify for some fancy upgraded hardware or even receive some minor financial compensation. And of course, there's that satisfying undercover-superhero-feeling that comes from quietly saving the Earth!

Interested astronomers may learn more about the program and sign up at www.spaceviewnetwork.com. Participants will be selected based on geographic location and access to a permanent site for a telescope, among other criteria.

COLBERT'S INTELLECTUAL HYDROPLANE: BECOMING MASSIVE!

Theoretical physicist Sean Carroll hungout with Stephen Colbert last week while promoting his new book THE PARTICLE AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE: How the Hunt for Higgs Boson Leads us to the Edge of a New World.

In between Colbert's jokes about jetpacks and teleportation, Carroll attempts to explain what exactly the Higgs Boson is and why it's important.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Sean Carroll
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

 

The Lush List: 7/23/12 - Age of Miracles, deGrasse Tyson at ComicCon and RIP Sally Ride

Pages: The Age of Miracles

I just finished reading Karen Thompson Walker's THE AGE OF MIRACLES, a lovely, pensive book about what happens when the Earth's rotation begins to slow. Yep, that's right, another book I love about the end of life on Earth as we know it! One day I'll figure out why I'm addicted to stories about the worst possible versions of our future...

As far as this particular gem goes, Walker draws readers into the devastating scenario through her 11 year-old narrator Julia. Smart, quiet, yearning for acceptance, Julia chronicles "the slowing" (the name given to the situation) against the backdrop of 6th grade - a time when it doesn't take a natural disaster for one's world to turn upside down. The days and nights may be getting longer and longer, but eternity has a different meaning entirely when your best friend deserts you at the lunch table for other, more popular girls. Or when you're trying to think of just the right thing to say to the boy you like who has finally realized you exist.

In an NPR interview, Walker says that she did scientific research to help make the story feel realistic.

"I would lift details from newspaper stories," she says. Reports on strange weather, climate change, extinctions and industrial farming all became fodder for the story.

When it was done, Walker worked up the nerve to show her manuscript to an astrophysicist. "I was relieved at how many of the consequences [of the slowing] he felt were based in real science," she says. "And then he helped me make a few of them a little more realistic."

This got me curious about scientists' answers to the "what if" scenario Walker presents, which includes all of the things she mentions in the interview, as well as changes to gravitational force and the Earth's magnetic field. If you're curious as well, here' are some topical tidbits for ya':

• Over at "Ask the Astronomer," Dr. Sten Odenwald answers the question: "What would happen if the Earth stopped spinning?"
• Joelle Renstrom's post on Slate.com: "Could the Earth's Rotation Really Slow Down Like It Does in the New Novel THE AGE OF MIRACLES?", in which she mainly focuses on tidal friction. [FYI, she has a blog called COULD THIS HAPPEN?, where she explores the relationship between science and science fiction. Lots of yummy reading there, and possibilities for S'lush postings...have a feeling I'm going to lose a lot of time to this one...].

Neal DeGrasse Tyson's ComicCon Spaceship Smackdown

Sadly, I was not able to attend ComicCon this year. The only consolation is that because I didn't go, I didn't have to make the difficult decision of which events to actually attend! But apparently one session I would not have wanted to miss was this year's Starship Smackdown panel. As described in the ComicCon program guide:

The must-see panel of Comic-Con, brought to you by the new Geek Magazine, as featured on National Public Radio, returns for another action-packed year as the greatest spaceships in the history of the universe converge in the ultimate cosmic conflagration for the highly-coveted Smackdown title in Comic-Con's most scholarly and erudite panel. Will the Enterprise once again defeat an Imperial Star Destroyer? Can the Serenity make mincemeat out of the Battlestar Galactica? In space, can anyone hear you scream on the Prometheus and can you actually get cell reception in the TARDIS? And what exactly is the "Captain's Courageous" lightning round anyway?

A group of experts debating the merits of competing (fictional) spacecraft? Sign me up!! But what made this year's Smackdown particularly notable was the spontaneous address from audience member Neal deGrasse Tyson. Yep, that's right...when the panelists couldn't make a final decision about which ship was going to take the 2012 title, they turned to the audience for help. And luckily for them, there just happened to be a famous astrophysicist in attendance. Here's what he had to say:

[Source: Seriocity's fantastic, enthusiastic description of the panel,
which I found via THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER].

RIP Sally Ride

I don't remember a time when there weren't female astronauts.
I have Sally Ride to thank for that.

• NASA Tribute: An overview of Ride's accomplishments
• SallyRideScience.com:  The science education company she founded dedicated to supporting children's - especially girs' - interests in science, math and technology.
• Space.com has a number of tributes to Ride. My favorite is a personal memory from X-Prize Chairman/CEO Peter H. Diamandis: "I remember clearly the signs at the Cape during STS-7..."RIDE SALLY RIDE AND ALL YOU GUYS CAN GO ALONG TOO"... All of us rode with Sally on that flight. Her passion and dedication to education and to inspiring women to become scientists and engineers will be sorely missed."
• Related Reading: THE MERCURY 13: THE UNTOLD STORY OF 13 AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE DREAM OF SPACEFLIGHT: Martha Ackmann's book about the women who pre-dated Ride, training in secret in 1961 for the Mercury missions, with the hopes of becoming America's first female astronauts.

ABCNews coverage of Ride's passing, which includes several clips of Ride

Ride talks about her historic flight on NASA's 50th anniversary

 

 

The Lush List: 7/5/12: Higgs Boson, Mysterium Tremendum and Internet Celeb Commercials

Higgs Boson Sweetly Explained

Big news in the science community this past week about discovery of the Higgs boson particle [general readers may be more familiar with this as "The God Particle,' a term that raises the hackles of many scientists]. While the folks at CERN, the home of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), are being cautious and saying it's too soon to know for sure, the discovery is exciting physicists around the globe.

And just what is this li'l particle that's making them jump for joy? As THE NEW YORK TIMES describes it:

According to the Standard Model, the Higgs boson is the only manifestation of an invisible force field, a cosmic molasses that permeates space and imbues elementary particles with mass...Without the Higgs field, as it is known, or something like it, all elementary forms of matter would zoom around at the speed of light, flowing through our hands like moonlight. There would be neither atoms nor life.

So yes, it's a big friggin' deal!

Still lost?

For those of us who want to know more but don't have a string of letters after our name or spent most of science class flirting with the guy behind us, Guardian science correspondent Ian Sample explains what a Higgs boson is, how Cern physicists are looking for it, and why it matters if they find it. And he does it all with very sophisticated tools: ping pong balls, sugar and a cafeteria tray. After watching, I wasn't sure if I should go bake cookies or dig out my set of paddles and get ready to serve...

 

The Grateful Sounds of the Universe

I am definitely NOT a Deadhead. In fact, my musical taste (or lack thereof) could almost be described as the complete opposite of the Grateful Dead: Jersey rock (think ROCK OF AGES soundtrack), Top 40 dance tunes and Broadway musicals. However, when I read this post on Open Culture about Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart's latest project, I finally found a set of tunes for which I'd be willing to take a road trip.

On his new record MYSTERIUM TREMENDUM, Hart used "cosmic sounds" composed in outer space to create the tracks. As described on the site:

To make music like this, you need some unusual collaborators. Hart went to NASA, Penn State, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, working with scientists like George Smoot, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics with John C. Mather. They helped convert light, radio waves, and other electromatic radiation into sound waves that Hart and his band could put to musical use.

For a sampling of "the songs our universe sings," you can watch below in the recording of the Madrone Studios performance in San Francisco on 4/4/12. Gotta love it when a musician kicks off his set explaining that the piece he's about to play is based on "the sounds of the sun and some very deep star clusters."

Just have to give a shout out to Open Culture, which has the tagline "the best free cultural and educational media on the web."  They constantly point me to coolness that I find myself wanting to share with y'all. If you like what I write about here, they are definitely a site to check out.

 
Internet Celebs in Commercials

As you may remember, I'm a big fan of well-done commercials (especially when I see them online instead of in the middle of my favorite TV programs). All sorts of creatures have been utilized in the selling of things, including scantily clad celebrities, gekkos, and funny ladies with headbands dressed in all white. But lately, internet-age celebs have been cropping up in commercials. And I don't mean YouTube stars - I mean the folks who actually created YouTube.

London agency Albion made this film for Code Club, a startup that teaches children coding after-school. In the spot, three savvy kids interview prospective employees for Code Club, including Tim Berners-Lee, YouTube founder Chad Hurley, Skype's Niklas Zennstrom and Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane-Fox, founders of LastMinute.com, among others. And they're not exactly impressed...

The spot reminded me of the ad from Best Buy which debuted during the Superbowl. It features the inventors and Silicon Valley folk who are behind li'l things like the camera phone, Instagram and Square. It's quite a change from their 2011 Superbowl campaign, which featured Justin Bieber and Ozzie Osbourn. 

 

 

The Lush List: 06/25/11: SETIcon, Science of Hangovers and Juicy Brain Photos

SETIcon II
Just what is it about CA and the 'Cons? VidCon starts on Thursday in Anaheim, Comic-Con is right around the corner in July in San Diego, and this past weekend, the SETIcon II hit Santa Clara. And just what is SETIcon? As explained on the event's website:

SETIcon brings together innovative scientists, science fiction authors, space and science artists, space lovers, and the curious and adventurous everywhere for a 3-day public celebration and exploration of space, real science, technology, imagination, and science education.There is no other event in the world like SETIcon that explores space and the human imagination through the lens of real science, attracting global interest and participation. This is not a science conference with technical lectures (SETI Institute scientists lecture all over the world). Instead we’ll bring together scientists with authors and artists to celebrate science and exchange ideas around space exploration and our place in the cosmos. SETIcon will create a new channel of discussion between Earthlings where real science and imagination will meet.

I'm all for increased discussion amongst Earthlings about that sweet spot where science & creativity meet! Unfortunately, I couldn't go myself, so what's a modern girl to do? Absorb some of the conference vicariously via Twitter, YouTube and the blogosphere.

If you search for #Seticon on Twitter, you'll find some nuggets from the conference. Here are a few that caught my eye:

Jenny Ryan @tubebananas: If I can inspire others to do science thru sci fiction & dreaming, then my work has not been so silly as it seems -Robert Picardo #SETIcon

Camilla Corona @Camilla_SDO: Doug Vakoch: Humans are very visually oriented. What if other life forms rely on other senses? #SETIcon #AlienLanguages

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust: Doug Vakoch: what we read into any extraterrestrial message will say more about us than about them. #SETIcon

Marimikel Charrier @Marimikel: People see space as for rocket scientists & billionaires. We need to change that & show how space affects us all. - @maejemison #SETICon

Now, if all these tweets have got your jonesing for more detailed coverage, take a few minutes to read Rebecca Boyle's post on PopSci about the event, where she uses sentences with more than 140 characters to describe it.

...hundreds of space enthusiasts and science evangelists came together to ask questions, buy and wear awesome T-shirts, and talk with breathless, uninhibited glee about the crazy science that keeps them up at night. Luminaries like Frank Drake and Bill Nye, along with planetary scientists, “Star Trek” actors and educators, filled two days of talks. Topics included antagonistic aliens, panspermia (“planetary spit-swapping happens,” SETI scientist Dale Andersen said), robot rights and the 100-Year Starship. It’s the only convention, as one person said, where people will be glad to tell you which of Saturn’s rings is his favorite, or which extremophile is the best.

She goes on to talk about the abundance of science tattoos; the environment created by the unique mix of science professionals and enthusiasts; and folks who have changed jobs midway through life to make careers out of their curiousity about space exploration.

The Seti Institute, the organizer of the event, is supposed to eventually post videos from the sessions on its YouTube Channel. Note to self: bookmark channel for future viewing when I need a break from cute kitty videos and Epic Rap Battles of History: Einstein vs. Stephen Hawking.  

The Hangover Explained
The fact that you missed SETIcon II driving you to drink? Well, if you're going to imbibe, at least do so with the understanding of how the alcohol will affect your body. Y'all know I love creative science vids, so check out this smart-board animation piece from ASAPScience: WHAT CAUSES A HANGOVER?  

       

There's more video fun from creators Mitchell Moffit (@mitchellmoffit) and Gregory Brown (@whalewatchmeplz) on their YouTube channel, including HOW TO SEE OR HEAR THE BIG BANG. They have a fun presentation style, and ridiculously good handwriting.

In addition to the vids, there's an interesting argument in the comments on the BIG BANG piece about the show MINUTE PHYSICS and whether or not ASAPScience is a rip off of it. MINUTE PHYSICS has been on my list o'things to watch for quite awhile now, so I figured this was a particularly appropriate moment to check it out (hey, if I'm actually writing about YouTube videos, then watching them can't be considered procrastination, right?). 

There's definitely a shared visual style here. Is it a rip off? An homage? Or as commenter keepcalmcarryon1939 writes of ASAPScience:

Should we shun Neil deGrasse Tyson because Brian Greene was popular for trying to engage the public in science first? Or shun Brian Greene because Bill Nye did it before him? Or maybe we should shun Bill Nye because he liked to talk about science, even though Carl Sagan had his own television show way before Bill Nye did.

It's not about about who did what first. The important thing is that so many people are interested in talking about science. And that, friends, is really spectacular.

The science nerdling in me agrees - the more engaging ways we have to talk and learn about science, the better. However, the artist in me wonders if I might be a bit ticked off if I felt someone had copied or borrowed my unique take on how to explore science...even if the "borrower" explicitly stated that I had been an inspiration for their creation. Would I feel flattered? Or like calling my lawyer? Thoughts?

[Source: Thanks to The Daily Dot for bringing ASAPScience to my attention].

Wellcome Image Awards 2012

OK, this one's not for those with a weak stomach. The Wellcome Image Awards, from the Wellcome Trust, were presented on June 20th in London. The winner is a photo of a living human brain. Robert Ludlow took it during a surgical procedure on a patient with epilepsy. And while I'm usually somewhat squeamish about such things, I found myself gazing at the photo for longer than I would have thought my delicate sensibilities could handle, amazed at its vibrancy. I'm so used to seeing dull, lifeless brains floating around in jars (um, yes, I watch a lot of sci fi)...was incredible to see the living brain captured in all it's glory, looking so JUICY!

So just what are these fancy awards all about? Says the Trust's website:

Catherine Draycott, Head of Wellcome Images and a member of the judging panel, said: "The Wellcome Image Awards are unique in that the winners are chosen for their scientific and technical merit as much as for their aesthetic appeal. They offer people a chance to get closer to science and research and see it in a different way, as a source of beauty, as well as providing important information about ourselves and the world around us."

Credit Robert Ludlow,Wellcome Images
Intracranial recording for epilepsy. Surface of human brain in situ

You can see the entire collection of photos at WellcomeImageAwards.org, including my two other favorites: a striking shot of caffeine crystals and a very cool pic of connective tissue removed from a human knee.

 

 

Lush List 6/18/12: Udacity courses, Materials Science photos and LA Film Fest

Udacity courses

When it comes to higher education, I've often wondered when we'll switch to a model of distance learning. As four-year universities become pricier, ya' gotta think that at some point, somehow it'll be possible to just stay home in our jammies, stream our lectures, participate in weekly study groups via Google hangouts, and save a hell of a lot of money on room and board.

Sebastian Thrun is bringing that model a little closer to reality. His new venture, Udacity, is offering a selection of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), beginning on June 25th. In addition to Intro to Physics, the free classes include Algorithms: Crunching Social Networks and Intro to Statistics: Making Decisions Based on Data.

The idea is pretty simple: courses are broken down into units; each unit comes with corresponding homework; there are forums where you can interact with instructors and other students; and some classes offer the opportunity to take a certified exam, which does have a cost attached to it. For more details, check out the Udacity wiki.

Just because the classes free of charge, though, don't think you're getting off easy. Thrun was tenured at Stanford, where he taught artificial intelligence, and helped invent the self-driving car at Google. He was intrigued and inspired by the possibilities of online learning after teaching a MOOC on AI at Stanford. While Udacity students won't get an established University's recognition for their coursework, they might get something else more valuable - a job. Udacity is working directly with companies who are seeking employees with specific skill sets.

For more on MOOCs: Instruction for Masses Knocks Down Campus Walls [NYTimes]

Stats or physics not your thing? Open Culture has a list of 500 Free Online Courses from Top Universities.

 

Intro Video for Intro to Statistics.
I have actually signed up for this...remains to be seen if I am disciplined enough to tune in regularly when there's not a real grade at stake.

 

Science As Art

This very purty video from the Materials Research Society features a collection of photographs from their "Science as Art" competition. As described on their site:

Visualization methods provide an important tool in materials science for the analysis and presentation of scientific work. Images can often convey information in a way that tables of data or equations cannot match. Occasionally, scientific images transcend their role as a medium for transmitting information, and contain the aesthetic qualities that transform them into objects of beauty and art.

As a special feature of recent MRS Meetings, we have offered the popular Science as Art competitions, with entry open to all registered meeting attendees. 

My favorite images are Sedat Canli's "Rising Moon" and "Nano Graveyard" by Steven Herron.

[Source: Maria Bellantone]

Los Angeles Film Festival

So many movies, so little time!

The LAFF is in full swing in Downtown Los Angeles, with tons of movies, panels and events to satisfy your cinematic yearnings. Here are a few selections that might appeal to S'Lush readers...descriptions taken from LAFF program guide...

Robot and Frank: Frank is an aging ex-con, played to perfection by Frank Langella, living alone in a house filled with clutter and memories. When his son insists on buying him a robotic caretaker, he is quite resistant, futilely searching for an off switch on his new housemate. Over time, however, the two come to an understanding and even a friendship. But when Frank begins to re-explore old vices, it leads both him and his cybernetic pal down a dangerous path. With supporting performances by Susan Sarandon, James Marsden and Liv Tyler, Robot & Frank is a comic look at the very near future of family and friendship.[For a clip, check out EW's piece on the movie from Sundance]

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World: In this comedy that explores the funnier side of the apocalypse, an asteroid is hurtling through space on a collision course with Earth. Unlike some who decide to party their way out, Dodge, played to perfection by Steve Carell, is taking the news rather calmly, content to putter around his empty apartment until the end. Then he meets Penny, his spirited neighbor from across the hall, played in a delightful turn by Keira Knightley. With a stack of LPs clutched under her arms and a letter from Dodge's high school sweetheart in her hand, she convinces him to try and get his life together even as the world is falling apart.

The History of Future Folk: Sent to destroy the human race, General Trius, the most decorated soldier from planet Hondo, has a change of heart when he hears music for the first time. Taking on the alias Bill Hunt, Trius settles down in Brooklyn, where he starts a family and plays bluegrass banjo at the local tavern. When an assassin from Hondo comes to kill Trius, the two quickly bond over the power of music and form Future Folk — think Flight of the Concords from space. The duo rocks the house every night, but can they save Earth and Hondo from certain destruction in this wonderfully odd, surprisingly sweet sci-fi musical comedy?

 

 

 

The Lush List: 6/5/12: Time Travel and Physics from the International Space Station

1)Flicks: SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED

"My calibrations are flipping pinpoint." 

This week in "Off Hollywood: The Five Best Indie Movies To See This Month," Leonard Maltin recommends a few quality flicks which you probably won't see advertised on huge billboards or via a tie in with your local fast food joint. Included in his round up is SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED, which hits theaters June 8th.The film was inspired by an actual classified ad placed by a man seeking a compantion for time travel, and won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Colin Treverrow and written by Derek Connolly, it follows three cynical magazine employees as they look for the story behind the classified and discover supermarket clerk Kenneth, who believes he's solved the riddle of time travel and intends to depart again soon.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I can only imagine that Kenneth would be inspired by the announcement from a group of physicists at CERN in Sept. 2011 that they had seemingly detected neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light. While the scientists were careful not to draw any overall conclusions about the results of their experiment, if it turns out to be true, it could change the way we think about time travel.

Intrigued?
-For an overview of the experiment, check out "Neutrinos and the Speed of Light - A Primer on the CERN Study" by Brian McLaughlin.
-For a more detailed breakdown of what this announcement means (or doesn't!) for time travel: "Faster-Than-Light-Discovery Raises Prospect of Time Travel" by Stephanie Pappas.

 

2)Web series: SCIENCE OFF THE SPHERE

Tubefilter.com just did a write up about this web series featuring chemical engineer and NASA astronaut Donald Pettit exploring and presenting “fantastic physics that can only be demonstrated in micro-gravity"...which is a lot easier to do when you are hangin' out on the International Space Station!

You can find the entire series on Physics Central's YouTube channel. Too lazy to click over and choose a video to start with? Here's one of my trippy favorites, in which Pettit uses his computer speakers to test the behavior of corn starch, a non-newtonian fluid, in the weightless environment.

3) Welcome Home, Dragon Capsule

"Looks like we got us a Dragon by the tail!"

I got a little misty (or should I say Musk-y?) when Space X's Dragon capsule headed back to Earth last Thursday. As the first privately developed ship to make a round trip to the International Space Station, I found myself filled with hope and awe for our future in space (now if I could only get over my claustrophobia problem...damn those suits...). In a piece in the Chicago Tribune, mission director John Couluris said:

The ability to get to (the) space station on our first time, to not only rendezvous but then to berth, transfer cargo and depart safely are major mission objectives. We would call that mission alone a success.

Here's a video of the historic consummation.

 

 

 

 

The Lush List: 05.23.11: Zombies, Portal 2 & the Fracking Song

1. PORTAL 2: THE VIDEO GAME THAT MAKES YOU THINK

Confession: I am not into video games. I realize this takes my geek status down a notch, but c'mon, I've got enough other things that should qualify me...like my love of science...which in this case, boomerangs right back into video games with Portal 2. The New York Times' review of the game  describes it as "The achingly brilliant new game from the Valve Corporation that wrings more fun out of physics than all of the shoot-’em-ups in the world."

Reviewer Seth Schiesel says the key to the game is that it helps the player to undersand the beauty of physics without the pesky math that often gets in the way.

...the brain seems to understand this science at a basic level. Gently toss a ball to a dog or a small child, and he or she will catch it without the faintest conscious understanding of acceleration, momentum and gravity. Throw the same ball as hard as you can, and that dog or child will try to defend against it or dodge, instinctively understanding complex calculations of velocity and potential impact.

With Portal 2, it's not a ball but rather a portal ray gun that is the player's toy of choice as (s)he attempts to escape what the game describes as a "funhouse of diabolical science," complete with robots, shifting wall panels and some very cool boots. Intrigued? Here's a look at the TV launch ad; for more videos, check out the official game site. This might just be the game that turns me into a player...

 

 

2. EVOLUTION VIDEO COMPETITION

Here's the scoop on a video contest from the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent). Application deadline is Friday, June 10, 2011.

 Submit your best evolution-themed video for screening at this year’s Evolution meeting!

The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) invites scientists of all stripes — graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty — to enter the first annual Evolution Video Competition. To enter, please submit a video that explains a fun fact, key concept, compelling question, or exciting area of evolution research in three minutes or less. Entries may be related or unrelated to your own research, and should be suitable for use in a classroom (K-12, undergraduate, graduate…your choice). Videos should be both informative and entertaining. (In other words, no taped lectures or narrated Powerpoint presentations!) Animations, music videos, and mini documentaries are all fair game. To enter your video, please complete our online registration form.

[Via @Sheril_]

 

3. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, ZOMBIE STYLE

With natural disasters such as the recent Missouri tornado becoming all too common, everyone should have an emergency kit ready to go, and an agreed upon emergency plan that has been reviewed by all family members. However, when you're not caught in the eye of the storm, taking the time to put these things together often claims a very low position on the priority list.

Enter the Center for Diseases Control's (CDC) Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Guide, a cheeky exploration of how the CDC would handle a Zombie outbreak. Turns out that just as with hurricanes and earthquakes, having an evacuation route and a list of emergency numbers is key when the Zombies show up.

[via Gawker via Instapundit]

 

4. THE FRACKING SONG

At last year's Sundance, I was horrified when I saw Josh Fox's documentary GasLand and learned about the environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." Not familiar with the topic? For an intro, check out My Water's on Fire Tonight (The Fracking Song), a project spearheaded by NYU journalism student David Holmes. 

 

For a behind-the-scenes look at how the project came about, check out Mallary Jean Tenore's piece "From Schoolhouse Rock to 'The Fracking Song,' Explainers as 'acts of empathy.' " 

[via @BoraZ]

Google Celebrates H.G. Wells' Birthday

The aliens are taking over!

Google's logo, that is...

In celebration of science fiction author H.G. Wells' 143rd birthday, Google has featured several cryptic logos over the past month, culminating in today's design.

Ben Parr's post on Mashable chronicles the stealth campaign, which included an earlier 'o' abduction, crop circle logo, and various corresponding tweets.

Wells is generally credited with popularizing the concept of time travel in his novella The Time Machine. But is time travel really possible?

-For a primer on the topic, read "How Time Travel Will Work" at HowStuffWorks (from the Discovery Corp).

-Listen to this July 2009  story on Minnesota Public Radio featuring Ronald Mallett, a professor of physics at the University of Connecticut and the author of Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality. Director Spike Lee has acquired the rights for a film he plans to write and direct. Mallett's work has some of its inspiration in Wells' The Time Machine, which he first came across as an 11-year old in the midst of mourning the sudden death of his father. He thought if he could just build a time machine, he could go back in time and warn his dad about what was going to happen and prevent his death...

-In a 2006 MSNBC article, theoretical physicist Brian Greene (The Elegant Universe) and John Cramer, a physicist at the University of Washington, discuss the realities of time travel.

-Courtesy of the internet, go back in time to NOVA's 1999 special on the topic. The companion website includes text & audio from Carl Sagan, an Einstein thought experiment and a "time travel" glossary.