These are the latest articles and videos I found most interesting.
- Spellbinding Time-Lapses of an African Desert
- Bill Gates: how mobile banking can change the lives of the poor
- NASA Plans to Search for Life on Jupiter’s Europa
- The Navy’s Indoor Ocean
- The First Electric Motor
- ALASA Concept Video
- Making a Baby With Three Parents
- Aurora Touching Sunrise
- The Pendulum Equation
Spellbinding Time-Lapses of an African Desert
The stark, untouched beauty of Namibia’s diverse landscapes dazzles in this incredible time-lapse from filmmaker Matthew Hood. Watch the hours melt away as sunny daytime vistas yield to crystal-clear starry skies at night.
Bill Gates: how mobile banking can change the lives of the poor
This February, Bill Gates is acting as The Verge’s very first guest editor and will be sharing his vision for how technology can revolutionize life for the world’s poor by 2030. In this episode of the Big Future, our animated explainer series, he talks about the vast potential of mobile banking.
NASA Plans to Search for Life on Jupiter’s Europa
NASA is asking for $30 million in its fiscal year 2016 budget request to plan a mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa which it calls one of the most likely places to find current life beyond Earth. WSJ’s Monika Auger reports.
The Navy’s Indoor Ocean
It’s 240 feet wide, 360 feet long, and holds over twelve million gallon of water. This is the MASK, the maneuvering and seakeeping basin at the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Carderock. It’s one of the largest indoor oceans in the world, making the MASK the most advanced test facility of its kind. So why does the Navy need an indoor ocean? The truth lies in these dimly-lit, somewhat mysterious waters.
The First Electric Motor
Michael Faraday launched a torrent of innovation and discovery when he demonstrated the first electric motor. This video discusses this important early device, including a demonstration of a working model of Faraday’s electromagnetic rotation device.
ALASA Concept Video
DARPA’s Airborne Launch Assist Space Access program (ALASA) seeks to propel 100-pound satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO) within 24 hours of call-up, all for less than $1 million per launch. The current ALASA design envisions launching a low-cost, expendable launch vehicle from conventional aircraft. Serving as a reusable first stage, the plane would fly to high altitude and release the launch vehicle, which would carry the payload to the desired location. The program is moving ahead with rigorous testing of new technologies that one day could enable revolutionary satellite launch systems that provide more affordable, routine and reliable access to space.
Making a Baby With Three Parents
In hopes of preventing a host of serious diseases potentially passed on to a child by a mother with mitochondrial mutations, scientists are pursuing mitochondrial transfer or mitochondrial replacement therapy. Because it involves combining mitochondrial DNA from a healthy mother with nuclear DNA from two parents, the procedure is sometimes called “three-parent in vitro fertilization” — a term almost as controversial as the procedure itself. In this clip from the 2014 World Science Festival program “Designer Genes: Fashioning Our Biological Future” fertility specialists Paula Amato and Jamie Grifo discuss the science of the procedure.
Aurora Touching Sunrise
All we need now are angels singing
The Pendulum Equation
The pendulum equation is the result of centuries of endeavor by a series of great minds. Not only does this formula derive the period of a pendulum but it also provides a method for determining acceleration due to gravity . The video demonstrates how to use a simple pendulum and the equation to determine acceleration due to gravity.
Alan Tatourian 