Show Notes: Episode 10
This week we start out with a correction (not our mistake, NASA’s), then we go right into Star Trek related news, some fun facts about Patrick Stewart offered up by Wikipedia, and then the usual slurry of strange news, trivia, and nerd rantings.
Corrections
NASA Scientists Should be Ashamed
When the NASA scientists took the DNA out of the bacteria, for example, they ought to have taken extra steps to wash away any other kinds of molecules. Without these precautions, arsenic could have simply glommed to the DNA, like gum on a shoe. “It is pretty trivial to do a much better job,” said Rohwer.
In fact, says Harvard microbiologist Alex Bradley, the NASA scientists unknowingly demonstrated the flaws in their own experiment. They immersed the DNA in water as they analyzed it, he points out. Arsenic compounds fall apart quickly in water, so if it really was in the microbe’s genes, it should have broken into fragments, Bradley wrote Sunday in a guest post on the blog We, Beasties. But the DNA remained in large chunks—presumably because it was made of durable phosphate.
This Week in Star Trek
New Bio of Star Trek Art Director
Richard Jefferies’ brother designed the starship Enterprise . After flying B-17 bombers in World War II, he ended up as Hollywood technical adviser, where he captured the attention of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. The rest is Trekkie history, which Richard Jefferies has captured in a biography about his brother: Beyond the Clouds: The Lifetime Trek of Walter “Matt” Jefferies, Artist and Visionary.
Brent Spiner Tweets About Howard Stern
“I shall spend the day in contemplation. I shall look inside and ask myself, “Will life be worth living if Howard Stern goes off the air?”
“If they don’t make a deal with Howard Stern, they will be making a Sirius mist…oh, never mind.”
“Sorry about the grammatical mistake. I was taking a nap when I wrote it. Nonetheless, Howard Stern is the best interviewer in the business.”
The Week in Wikipedia
In what was possibly the only instance in which an actor adapted an entire novel for the stage, Patrick Stewart played all 43 parts in his version of A Christmas Carol, which played three times on Broadway and at the Old Vic in London
Video Games with Cord Blomquist
Next week’s Rock Band DLC will be two track packs that are all Queen.
Christopher Tin’s “Baba Yetu,” an amazing piece composed for Civilization IV, has received a Grammy nomination. The song was originally created for the 2005 game, but is eligible this year because it has been re-recorded and is a regular part of Video Games Live, a touring show of video game music. The track is nominated in the “Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists” category, is from the composer’s debut album, Calling All Dawns.
Blizzard Upset with Multi-Hour Free Commercials
Blizzard CEO Paul Sams is none too happy with Korean channels MBC Game and OnGameNet. They’ve been broadcasting StarCraft tournaments without the company’s consent, Sams revealed in a press conference in Seoul yesterday. Last month, Blizzard filed to sue both networks and he says the company is currently considering filing against the Korea e-Sports Players Association (KeSPA) as well, who manage these tournaments.
Consumer Corner
Government Finally Realizes that Webcam Barbie is Creepy
Barbie Video Girl, a Barbie doll tricked out with a video camera concealed in her necklace, could be used by predators to create child pornography, warns the FBI in a recent cybercrime alert.
Terrifying Military Tech
After 225 days in orbit, the Air Force’s mysterious X-37B space plane touched down today. It was only the second fully automated re-entry and runway landing in the history of space flight. But the mission of this secret craft? Still unknown.
Some are speculating this could be used as a space bomber or a satellite killer.
Weird Science
SpaceX Dragon Capsule Orbits Earth
Commercial space flight and exploration took a big step forward with the successful orbital flight of the Southern California startup’s Dragon capsule.
Light has been put to work generating the same force that makes airplanes fly, a study appearing online December 5 in Nature Photonics shows. With the right design, a uniform stream of light has pushed tiny objects in much the same way that an airplane wing hoists a 747 off the ground.
In a weird feat of biotechnological virtuosity, scientists have engineered mice with genes from two dads, and none from a mom. This was done by engineering females with eggs containing only chromosomes from a father. Mating added genes from a second father.
Scientists Discover that Nothing Doesn’t Exist
Under just the right conditions—which involve an ultra-high-intensity laser beam and a two-mile-long particle accelerator—it could be possible to create something out of nothing, according to University of Michigan researchers. The scientists and engineers have developed new equations that show how a high-energy electron beam combined with an intense laser pulse could rip apart a vacuum into its fundamental matter and antimatter components.
A vacuum, or nothing, is the combination of matter and antimatter—particles and antiparticles.Their density is tremendous, but we cannot perceive any of them because their observable effects entirely cancel each other out.
Nerd Rage
“Nerdlesque,” a geeky burlesque show at the Brick Theater in Williamsburg on Dec. 11, notions of sexiness will get turned on their head. “There’s been a thing over the last 15-20 years of ‘the nerd’ being defined as the unsexy outsider,” said Chris Chappell, who defines “nerd spirit” as an obsessive but sincere interest in something unusual. “But if you look at bands like Weezer and the popularity of video games, you see nerds have penetrated our culture.” The only place left to infiltrate, it seemed, was burlesque.
Girl Claiming to be Nerd Launches Clothing Line
I admit that whenever I told anyone I work with at CNN that I really loved the “Battlestar Galactica” series on Syfy, I quickly followed with a “Time magazine called it the best television series of 2005,” as if the fact that I loved the show weren’t enough.
Eckstein was so passionate about giving the girls permission to “get their girl on” that she negotiated rights with Lucasfilm to develop a line of clothing called Her Universe and other products aimed strictly at the female market.
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posted 09 December, 2010
by cordblomquist - Permalink / Short URL
