Bob Siederer
9 September 2024
Hello again Science fans!
Let’s start out with something fun, and not truly science-related. It may make you laugh, may make you mad, may make you shrug your shoulders and go “so what?” It is the lowly penny.
Would you be surprised to know that there are about 724 pennies for every person in the US, lying somewhere. A large percentage are sitting in jars, drawers, anywhere but circulation! I confess to having enough of them in a dresser drawer that the weight is causing the whole dresser to sag! I can’t remember the last time I carried pennies in my pocket on purpose.
A penny costs 3.07¢ to make. For that matter, a nickle costs more to make than it is worth too.
Everything you didn’t know you wanted to know about the penny, and other coins, is in this NY Times article from last Sunday’s Times magazine. It is a good read!
My father worked for the company that invented a process to clad layers of metals together to create coins where the metal in the sandwich didn’t show around the edges. The US Mint never used this process, and copper showed around the edge of our dimes and quarters. But Canada did. Canada has also been paid by about 80 other countries to mint their coinage. The US? Zero.
Space
You’ve probably heard about the drama surrounding Boeing’s Starliner capsule as it took two astronauts to the International Space Station on June 5th. Just after midnight on Saturday, the capsule returned to earth, but without the astronauts. What was supposed to be a roughly 1 week test mission will turn into an 8 month mission as the two astronauts won’t return until February…on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. What’s next for the Boeing Starliner?
The European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft has been looking at Mars for more than 20 years. It just took a spectacular picture that includes Mars’ larger moon, Phobos and the largest volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons.
A long-suspected electric field around the Earth has been detected and measured, more than 60 years since it was hypothesized. A mission called Endurance finally measured the strength of the field. Perhaps we should say the weakness of the field, as it measured just over 1/2 of a volt. But it is real, and scientists have finally proved it.
Nature
The Natural History Museum of London holds a wildlife photography contest each year, and the 2024 results are in. The images will be part of an exhibition running from October 11 through June 29, 2025. Headed to London sometime soon? It might be worth a visit to the museum. Here’s a look at some of them.
We’ve all heard the saying that crossbred dogs are healthier than pure breeds. Umm, maybe not.
If you spend any time at all on social media, you have no doubt seen videos of dogs using soundboard buttons to “talk” with their human family members. A new study debunks the claims that the dogs were responding to subtle cues from their humans and didn’t really understand what the buttons were saying or how to express how they felt. A UC San Diego study concludes that dogs do understand words and use soundboard buttons appropriately.
Efforts have been underway to recreate some extinct, iconic species like woolly mammoths. Have they really thought this through? We may find out soon as we’re closer than you may think to seeing this attempted. Jurassic Park, anyone?
Artificial Intelligence
Why is it that whenever some new technology comes along, such as AI, some people are way ahead of the curve in coming up with novel ways to us these technolgies for devious purposes. Seems a North Carolina man used AI to create hundreds of thousands of fake songs by fake bands, put them on streaming services, and collected at least $10 million in royalties by creating bots that played the songs over and over, each time generating a small payment to him.
Environment
For the second year in a row, the Earth recorded its hottest summer ever.
We’re in the middle of peak hurricane season. Yet, despite dire predictions of a bad season, things in the Atlantic Ocean are relatively calm. Why is that? As you might expect, it is complicated, proving that no matter how detailed the computer models are, there are still forces at work that we don’t really understand fully.
Meanwhile, in the mid-west corn belt, corn is sweating, and may be accounting for why summers in the area are getting more humid. Who would have guessed this?
Universities are back in session, and with the return of students comes the return of more lectures. We have 75 listed in today’s SciSchmooze, and one (or more) of them is bound to interest you.
Have a great week in Science!
Bob Siederer
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