Don Petit is one of my favorite American astronauts. He's made some great science videos during three different trips to the International Space Station. This video was made on Planet Earth, but it's still fascinating. When Pettit's fellow astronaut Mike Massimino found himself with a broken BBQ grill, he called up Pettit to come help fix it. Why call an astronaut to fix your BBQ? Because experiments in understanding the fundamentals of combustion and space station safety gave Pettit an edge in figuring out how to make the Earth-bound grill work.
Being an astronaut can help you fix a BBQ on Earth
Cannibalism, murderous insects, face mites, and creepy clowns
Gory Details is National Geographic reporter Erika Engelhaupt's new book about the science of creepy, interesting, and real things such as face mites (above), the caloric intake of cannibals, the unpleasantries of earwax, and the psychology of coulrophobia. From an interview with Engelhaupt in Science News: SN: Do you have a favorite reporting field trip?… READ THE REST
What would happen to a pair of Crocs at the bottom of the ocean?
What would happen to a pair of Crocs if they sat 3 kilometers down on the ocean floor? How about a styrofoam cup? Or a fishing lure? The Hydraulic Press Channel employs a high pressure chamber to subjects those items and more to a simulated 3 kilometers of depth. READ THE REST
Video compilation of people who think snow is fake
Yesterday, Jason posted a video from someone in Texas who couldn't melt a snowball in 10 seconds with a hairdryer and seems to think something funny is going on. Like dogs barking at the rain, many us are mystified and annoyed by the whims of nature. But not all of us think that the snow… READ THE REST
Make 2021 the year you learn to play guitar like an expert with these courses
"I think the guitar hero is a dying breed." – Kirk Hammett, Metallica guitarist With the surge of EDM, pop, hip-hop, and other genres in recent years, the guitar isn't the overwhelming power instrument that it once was in the last century, but don't count the six-string out just yet. Music is cyclical. What's popular… READ THE REST
These Hollywood-renowned photographers want to teach you how to shoot like them
To become a photographer, you can take classes and training sessions to deep-dive into the medium. You can even throw yourself in by learning on the job and expanding your skill set through practice. But even with all that practical knowledge and hands-on training, you could still be missing that unique spark. That tiny extra… READ THE REST
Get this master class in Python programming for just $35
Innovation almost always comes when someone, often in a mix of both genius and frustration, decides there's just got to be a better way. Back in 1989, Dutch computer scientist Guido van Rossum felt the same way. The result of his journey was Python, a decidedly lithe, streamlined coding discipline that has emerged to become… READ THE REST