Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Reader Bryan called my attention to the latest robot production of Boston Dynamics. Their robots just keep getting more and more amazing. These four, dancing to a classic rock song, are almost unbelievable. Now what we see here is completely programmed—the robots are not of course making “decisions” from a network programmed into them. But that’s coming!
This is a lovely video showing a new way of visualizing cells as they are living and operating. The “microscope” that does this is extremely large and complex. I don’t know much about it, and don’t fully understand the principles, but this video probably tells you all you need to know. The images are stunning, and I love the enthusiasm of the researchers.
There’s an article on this 130-year-old device at bOINGbOING, though the text adds almost nothing to the YouTube notes about this mechanical bird-song-maker:
This wind-up mechanism has a tiny bellows and several gears that produce a remarkably lifelike bird call.
Szymon Pawelec, the collector and demonstrator who consulted on the Scorsese film Hugo, says:
A mechanical singing bird mechanism. Made around 120 years ago in Paris, probably by Bontems. In the film I hope you can identify all the major parts and see them working together to make the sound. The mechanism was in a rusted and seized state and has been restored. Surpisingly [sic] the bellows are in good original condition. See our channel for more, much more.
Here’s another one. I’m still not sure how the damn things work, producing a rather complex bird call, but I have no mechanical talent for discerning these things. It’s enough to marvel at it.
h/t: Barry
Don’t deny that you’ve wondered “How do astronauts go to the bathroom?” Well, this official NASA video gives you the answer, at least for the International Space Station, and it all looks like a pretty dire job. That toilet is scary.
The narration and demonstration (no real excretions were filmed) is done by Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy, who does his descriptions straight-up, without a touch of humor. There are also videos online videos about how to keep your body clean in space (see this one about hair washing), but Lord, these astronauts must be pretty rank after a six-month stint!
Swedish musician Martin Molin, a member of the band Wintergatan, is also a prolific creator of bizarre instruments that the band uses in their performance. This one, the Marble Machine, uses 2000 ball bearings that hit chimes, and also has percussion and a bass. The Wikipedia section about the machine says this:
The machine is powered by a hand-crank, and works by raising steel marbles through the machine into multiple feeder tubes, where they are then released from height via programmable release gates, falling and striking a musical instrument below. Instruments played by marbles striking them include a vibraphone, bass guitar, cymbal, and emulated kick drum, high hat and snare drum sounds using contact microphones. The music score is stored on two programmable wheels that utilize Lego Technic beams and stud connectors to trigger armatures to release the marbles. A final music video showing the machine in use was released in 2016, and has been viewed over 147 million times. [JAC: it’s now over 151,000,000!]
Ten months after the debut of the original Marble Machine, the band disassembled it and announced their plans to make a new marble machine for the purpose of touring. The new machine, to be called “Marble Machine X”, would solve a multitude of mechanical functionality problems with the original Marble Machine. Martin Molin, the builder of the original Marble Machine, is collaborating with a team of engineers and designers as well as fans for the design and build of the Marble Machine X. The original Marble Machine is now back in his possession after being exhibited in Museum Speelklok in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
You can see the live, conventional-instrument performance of this song here.
But wait! There’s more! Here’s Marble Machine X in a test demonstration. There’s an ad in the middle, and then more demonstration in the second half.
Go to SolidSmack to see two other videos of two other machines: a Paper pulling music box and a “modulin”
h/t: Vidya
Reader Jon Mummaw alerted me, and I’m alerting you, that the new Mars rover is being launched today. In fact, in about 20 minutes from when this post goes up, the rocket will take off. You can watch it live at the links below. Perseverance will not only collect soil samples from the bed of an ancient Martian lake, hoping to find evidence of any form of life (the samples will someday be returned to Earth, they say), but also has its own drone called Ingenuity. CNN describes several of the technological features of the rover and drone. And below I’ve reproduced Jon’s words with links.
Perseverance, an updated version of the mars rover Curiosity, is scheduled for liftoff at 7:50 a.m. EDT on Thursday, July 30, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Perseverance will be launched atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. Live coverage begins on NASA TV at 7:00 a.m. EDT. You can watch the launch live on NASA’s YouTube Channel or on NASA TV. Although the weather forecast looks favorable for a Thursday launch, the launch window runs from 30 July to 15 August 2020. If the 30 July launch is successful, Perseverance is scheduled to land at Jezero crater on 18 February 2021. Entry, decent and landing (EDL) will be similar to Curiosity’s harrowing Seven Minutes of Terror, although Perseverance is equipped with HD video cameras to record the landing. The HD video, however, will take weeks to transmit to earth.
The Perseverance rover has improved wheels, carries 23 cameras, two microphones and will seek signs of ancient life and collect rock, soil, and drill core samples for possible return to Earth during a later mission. Perseverance also carries an experimental autonomous helicopter called Ingenuity, which will be deployed to take close up photographs of the surrounding Martian landscape.
“The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission’s disk-shaped cruise stage sits atop the bell-shaped back shell, which contains the powered descent stage and Perseverance rover. Below is the brass-colored heat shield that is about to be attached to the back shell.”
JAC: Here’s a photo of the rover. What an ingenioous species we are! Pity we keep hating and killing each other. . . .
If you think computer-assisted and computer-display modern cars are complicated (I do; I have a low-tech 2000 Honda), then you’re going to be blown away by this new 14-minute video about now the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle jet fighter is controlled. Col. Themely, who has flown these things in extenso, tells us what all the buttons are displays are for, though some of the displays aren’t activated because they’re classified. The amount of redundancy and safety features is impressive. Though the plane has been around since 1967, with continual upgrades, it remains a marvel of human ingenuity. And remember, every bit of this plane was made out of material wrested from the Earth, and designed by a mess of neurons in our heads.
Now guess what all this costs? After you’ve watched the video, click below the fold to find out, but guess first. Oh, and the top speech is Mach 2.7, or 2071 miles per hour (3346 km/hr).
Today Ars Technica brings you inside the pilot’s seat of an F-15C Eagle fighter jet to break down every button in the cockpit. Join retired United States Air Force pilot Col. Andrea Themely as she walks you through everything at your disposal, from emergency features and communication controls to navigation features and weapons and defense. With 1100 hours of experience piloting F-15’s, Col. Themely expert eye is ready to guide you each step of the way.
Click “read more” to see what one of these bad boys costs. Continue reading “The complex cockpit of an F-15 fighter jet”