tbolt
1,200+ New Planets
Analysis was performed on the Kepler space telescope’s July 2015 planet candidate catalog, which identified 4,302 potential planets. For 1,284 of the candidates, the probability of being a planet is greater than 99 percent – the minimum required to earn the status of “planet.” An additional 1,327 candidates are more likely than not to be actual planets, but they do not meet the 99 percent threshold and will require additional study. The remaining 707 are more likely to be some other astrophysical phenomena. This analysis also validated 984 candidates previously verified by other techniques.
“Before the Kepler space telescope launched, we did not know whether exoplanets were rare or common in the galaxy. Thanks to Kepler and the research community, we now know there could be more planets than stars,” said Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters. “This knowledge informs the future missions that are needed to take us ever-closer to finding out whether we are alone in the universe.”
Wild.
Orthoprint, or How I Open-Sourced My Face
Guy 3D prints his own teeth alignment molds:
As far as I know, I’m the first person to have tried DIY-ing plastic aligners. They’re much more comfortable than braces, and fit my teeth quite well. I was pleased to find, when I put the first one on, that it only seemed to put any noticeable pressure on the teeth that I planned to move- a success! I’ve been wearing them all day and all night for 16 weeks, only taking them out to eat. I’m planning on fabricating a bunch of retainers for the current position, which I can use – till I die – at night. They also happen to work very well as perfectly fitting whitening trays, when trimmed down a tiny bit. They’re also fantastic night guards- they’ve been protecting my teeth from nighttime grinding, without being bulky.
And, most importantly, I feel like I can freely smile again. That’s what’s most important.
Impressive.
The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food
Fascinating Article on How Junk Food is Engineered:
Their tools included a $40,000 device that simulated a chewing mouth to test and perfect the chips, discovering things like the perfect break point: people like a chip that snaps with about four pounds of pressure per square inch.
“It’s absurd, but explanatory”
In trying to explain this requirement for a visceral, gut-level understanding of the system, we came up with a metaphor that helps illustrate the point. It’s absurd, but explanatory.
Netflix’s technology team seems top-tier. Running a service that makes up over a 1/3rd of the downstream internet bandwidth can’t be too easy.
User Interface’s From The Martian
Territory Studio created hundreds of screen graphics for the motion picture The Martian and they’re great:
As a story that is mediated by technology, hundreds of screens are employed across eight key sets, forming the lens through which the drama unfolds.
Working closely with NASA, Territory developed a series of deft and elegant concepts that combine factual integrity and filmic narrative, yet are forward looking and pushing NASA’s current UI conventions as much as possible.
Awesome.
Light Stopped for 1 Minute
Back in 1999, scientists slowed light down to just 17 meters per second, and then two years later the same research group stopped light entirely — but only for a few fractions of a second. Earlier this year, the Georgia Institute of Technology stopped light for 16 seconds — and now, the University of Darmstadt has stopped light for a whole minute.
Baseball Advanced Media
Fascinating article by Ben Popper on MLB’s Advanced Media division:
The latest expression of this boundless initiative is Statcast, a big data approach to sports that only a major league nerd could love. High-speed cameras and radar installed in every stadium capture the game in three dimensions and allow for real-time tracking and tabulation of each motion a player makes on the field. Fans watching an amazing replay of a diving catch can learn exactly how fast that outfielder’s first step was, if he broke in the right direction, and how that compares to his historical average.
Baseball has always had a strong statistical element to it. This just takes it one step further.