@coreyspowell@mastodon.social
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coreyspowell

@coreyspowell@mastodon.social

Writer, editor, magazine maker, podcaster, procrastinator.

Former editor of Discover and American Scientist magazines. Co-host of #ScienceRules podcast. Invisible Universe on Substack: https://invisibleuniverse.substack.com/

Co-founder of OpenMind magazine.

#science #nature #space #scicomm

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coreyspowell, to random
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For three years, I was careful & managed to avoid getting infected. Last week I traveled for an international conference and briefly let down my guard. Foolish.
Stay safe, everyone.

coreyspowell, to space
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When an object falls toward a black hole, it gets horribly stretched and distorted--a process called "spaghettification."
And we can see this process happening right now at the center of our galaxy. https://www.keckobservatory.org/x7/

coreyspowell,
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In 13 years, the gas cloud known as X7 will pass close enough to our galaxy's central black hole that it will be ripped apart.
Death by spaghettification.
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/watch-the-milky-ways-black-hole-spaghettify-a-cloud/

video/mp4

coreyspowell,
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  • The center of our galaxy is ~27,000 light years away, so in a sense you could say these events happened 27,000 years ago. But the information about them is reaching us now -- and that is the only "now" that really matters.
coreyspowell,
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I propose "Little Fluffy Clouds" by The Orb as the soundtrack to accompany the demise of interstellar cloud X7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ng9Pf_p7Fw

coreyspowell,
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It warms my heart to see there are still a few other Orb fans out there...

coreyspowell, to science
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I did a double take when I read the title of the paper: "Ultrafast reversible self-assembly of living tangled matter"
Then I did another (a triple take?) when I saw the video. https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.03384
#Biology #LifeFindsAWay

video/mp4

coreyspowell,
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California blackworms from complex tangles but can then untangle themselves in milliseconds! Fascinating thread on how they do it, by the researcher studying them:

RT @BhamlaLab
Excited for our paper out today in Science that shows how worms untangle complex topological knots https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade7759

Brief thread below👇
Work co-led by Vishal Patil and @TuazonHarry, and many other team members including Jor…
https://twitter.com/BhamlaLab/status/1651652023941742592

coreyspowell,
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I want a biomimetic headphone cord that can detangle itself like this. (What can I say, I'm not a Bluetooth guy.)
HT @BhamlaLab @TuazonHarry and

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coreyspowell,
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@spacegeck I feel like that cuts to the heart of so much biology research.

coreyspowell,
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@sojourn @todrobbins It does rather seem like they were, er, tying themselves in knots trying to avoid using plain language.

coreyspowell,
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When I think of tangled headphone cords, my brain goes to this classic Jeff Goldblum bit from Portlandia. What a delicious bit of deadpan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfLu7GRMR7g

coreyspowell, to random
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This is real: Astronomers have zoomed in on the supermassive black hole in galaxy M87, revealing both the shadow of the event horizon & jets of hot plasma shooting outward.
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2305/

video/mp4

coreyspowell,
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Six years ago, this was the first black hole ever imaged directly. The new observations connect the "ring" around the event horizon with the mayhem the black hole is causing all around. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05843-w

coreyspowell,
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The full, extra-trippy version of the black hole video is available online, courtesy of @Eso.
https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso2305b/

coreyspowell,
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It sounds really strange: How can a black hole cast a shadow? Here's a quick graphic explanation:
https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso2305a/

video/mp4

coreyspowell,
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@TrynSLP @Lazarou Good thing they stay far, far away from us.

coreyspowell,
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@Lazarou @TrynSLP I smell a SF novel in the making.

coreyspowell,
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@TrynSLP @Lazarou Bright all around, but with a dark, dark heart.

coreyspowell, to random
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The UAE's Hope Mars orbiter got an extremely rare close look at the planet's enigmatic outer moon, Deimos. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01422-1

video/mp4

coreyspowell,
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I know everyone likes to joke about Uranus, but in this image the outer moon of Mars looks a bit like the, er, backside of a human. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01422-1

coreyspowell,
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@DWade25 I just call them as I see them.

coreyspowell,
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@DWade25 Damn I wish I had used that line.

coreyspowell,
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@rich We've seen that small solar system bodies can look like potatoes, diamonds, rubber ducks, ravioli, and...butts.

coreyspowell, to space
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During its 51st flight on Mars, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter spotted its shadow, indicating at least 6 more weeks of winter on the Red Planet.
https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Helicopter-Highlights

image/jpeg

coreyspowell,
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@noplasticshower I expect there is an engineering way to make it work, but the cost/benefit tradeoff could be tough. That's why the InSight mission was intentionally designed to end when its panels got dusty.

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