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What the Dippin’ Dots ‘cold chain’ can teach us about COVID-19 vaccines

Countless people across the country are desperate to get their hands on the coronavirus vaccine. But the same could be said for another icy treat with some surprising similarities: Dippin’ Dots.

Invented by a microbiologist in 1988, Dippin’ Dots’ self-proclaimed “Ice Cream of the Future” maintains its characteristic beaded form only if stored at -49 degrees Fahrenheit. Slipping even a few degrees in the wrong direction can jeopardize the quality of a batch.

Shipping a coronavirus vaccine is a similarly delicate dance.

@ popsci.com

first posted 2020-12-17

The Legend of the QWERTY Keyboard

In the 1860s, a politician, printer, newspaper man, and amateur inventor in Milwaukee by the name of Christopher Latham Sholes spent his free time developing various machines to make his businesses more efficient. One such invention was an early typewriter, which he developed with Samuel W. Soulé, James Densmore, and Carlos Glidden, and first patented in 1868. The earliest typewriter keyboard resembled a piano and was built with an alphabetical arrangement of 28 keys. The team surely assumed it would be the most efficient arrangement. After all, anyone who used the keyboard would know immediately where to find each letter; hunting would be reduced, pecking would be increased. Why change things? This is where the origin of QWERTY gets a little foggy.

@ smithsonianmag.com

via https://www.smithsonianmag.com/

first posted 2020-11-12

Why do things keep evolving into crabs?

For some reason, animals keep evolving into things that look like crabs, independently, over and over again.

@ youtube.com

first posted 2020-11-04

Grapefruit Is One of the Weirdest Fruits on the Planet

That food was grapefruit, a seemingly ordinary fruit that is, in truth, anything but ordinary. Right from the moment of its discovery, the grapefruit has been a true oddball. Its journey started in a place where it didn’t belong, and ended up in a lab in a place where it doesn’t grow. Hell, even the name doesn’t make any sense.

@ atlasobscura.com

via https://news.ycombinator.com/

first posted 2020-10-07

New Space Toilets

NASA’s first new space potty in decades — a $23 million titanium toilet better suited for women — is getting a not-so-dry run at the International Space Station before eventually flying to the moon.

@ apnews.com

first posted 2020-10-02

Tsar Bomba – Unclassified Footage

Rosatom has released previously classified footage of the largest bomb to ever be detonated, Tsar Bomba.

With a yield of 50 megatons (50 million tons), equal to around 3,800 Hiroshima bombs, the weapon was set off over Novaya Zemlya on October 30, 1961
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/security/2020/08/rosatom-releases-previously-classified-documentary-video-50-mt-novaya-zemlya-test

Tip: YouTube’s auto-translated captions do a great job turning it into english.

@ youtube.com

via https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/security/2020/08/rosatom-releases-previously-classified-documentary-video-50-mt-novaya-zemlya-test

first posted 2020-09-04

A trip through New York in 1911 – Upscaled with neural networks

@ youtube.com

first posted 2020-09-02

Yves Rossy can now take off and land vertically in his rocketeer suit

Some explanations on the last vertical take-off and landing video,
and the next challenges and developments to make my wings accessible to everyone ,
the enthusiastic and passionate people who dream of flying like birds.

@ youtube.com

first posted 2020-09-02

This company is making protein out of air and electricity

Solar Foods produces an entirely new kind of nutrient-rich protein, Solein®, by using air and electricity as its primary raw materials.

@ solarfoods.fi

via https://news.ycombinator.com/

first posted 2020-09-02

The second shuttle launch (STS-27) after the Challenger disaster almost ended in disaster.

One report describes the crew as “infuriated” that Mission Control seemed unconcerned. When Commander Gibson saw the damage he thought to himself, “We are going to die”, and did not believe that the shuttle would survive reentry; if instruments indicated that the shuttle was disintegrating, he planned to “tell mission control what I thought of their analysis” in the remaining seconds before his death.

The shuttle Atlantis actually sustained more damage than what would bring down Columbia in 2003. The Top Secret payload (a surveillance satellite for the US DOD) meant that communication with the ground was done using a slower method of encryption which could have resulted in lower quality images for analysis (eg. higher compression for faster transmission over a slow line).

@ en.wikipedia.org

first posted 2020-05-28