Terraforming Venus

If humans are ever going to colonize another planet in the Solar System, the obvious choice would be Mars. But a vocal minority has long made the case for Venus. They argue that Venus has one huge advantage over Mars — it has almost the same gravity as Earth.

However, there's the problem of its scalding-hot temperature. Back in the early 1980s, French scientist Christian Marchal proposed a way to cool Venus by creating a giant cloud of dust between it and the sun.

Idaho Statesman - Oct 3, 1982

source: Terraforming: Engineering Planetary Environments (1995), by Martyn Fogg

Cooling Venus in this way might be doable, but critics have noted that, even if you succeeded in cooling it, Venus has no water, and you need water to get rid of the carbon in its atmosphere.

Marchal's supporters have subsequently expanded his idea by proposing that we could first hydrate Venus by bombarding it with hundreds of icy asteroids. Of course, doing this would significantly increase the difficulty and cost of the whole terraforming project.

Basically, none of us will ever live to see any of this happen.

More info: Marchal, "The Venus-new-world project," in Acta Astronautica, May–June 1983; "The Terraforming of Venus," by Martyn Fogg.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Jul 24, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Science, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy

Dr. Robert Lopez Infects Himself with Cat Ear Mites

Yesterday, Alex regaled us with the report of a fellow who swallowed a giraffe liver parasite in the pursuit of knowledge.

Well, here's another scientist who wanted to learn what cats went through with an ear mite infestation, choosing to insert them into his own ears.

There's a tremendous long piece about him here, even including a video!

Posted By: Paul - Wed Jul 24, 2024 - Comments (4)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Hobbies and DIY, Insects and Spiders, Mad Scientists, Evil Geniuses, Insane Villains, Science, Cats, 1990s

Swallowed giraffe liver parasite

1928: Emmett Price of the US Bureau of Animal Husbandry swallowed the larvae of an unknown parasite he found in the liver of a dead giraffe. His boss explained that it was considered tradition within the parasitology section of the Bureau to self-experiment in this way.

Buffalo News - July 11, 1928

Indianapolis Star - July 2, 1928

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jul 23, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Science, Experiments, 1920s

The 1941 Slide Rule Queen

This honor was bestowed by my home state's university, the University of Rhode Island.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 19, 2024 - Comments (4)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Science, 1940s, Universities, Colleges, Private Schools and Academia

Male dance moves that catch a woman’s eye

In 2011, researchers from Northumbria University published an article in the journal Biology Letters about male dance moves. They used motion-capture technology to "precisely break down and analyse specific motion patterns in male dancing that seem to influence women's perceptions of dance quality."

Here's the key part of their finding (for those men seeking to improve their dance moves):


Below are two videos from their study showing male dance moves that women like, versus those that they don't.

Good Dancer:



Bad Dancer:

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jul 13, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Science, 2010s, Dance

Arrow Storks

Arrow storks (in German Pfeilstörche) are storks that got arrows stuck in their body while wintering in Africa but nevertheless managed to fly back to their summer habitats in Europe. To date, around twenty-five Pfeilstörche have been documented.

From wikipedia:

Image & text: Overlooked Sights. German Places. By Michaela Vieser and Reto Wettach.

Posted By: Alex - Mon May 20, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Science

Miss Biological Research

Were biologists supposed to pin her picture up in their labs?

New York Daily News - Feb 12, 1964

Posted By: Alex - Wed May 15, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Science, 1960s

Space Songs

Here's a sample track from the album depicted below. The rest of the tracks are on YouTube.

And a bonus! The first side of ENERGY & MOTION SONGS.

Tom Glazer at Wikipedia.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 29, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Education, Music, Science, Vinyl Albums and Other Media Recordings, 1950s

Song about the human dimensions of the oceans

From the YouTube description:


The singer really pulls out all the stops starting about 45 seconds in. But I'm stumped about what scientific concepts the song is expressing. Is the singer trying to sound like a humpback whale?

Posted By: Alex - Wed Apr 10, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Music, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Science

By 2531 everyone in Japan will be named Sato

Japanese demographics professor Hiroshi Yoshida has warned that by 2531 everyone in Japan will have the last name 'Sato'.

Why? Because a) Sato is the most common last name in Japan, and b) Japanese law requires that married couples use the same last name. Because Japanese women almost always take their husband's name, this means that the surname 'Sato' is slowly crowding out all other names.

From the Guardian:


The Think Name Project is promoting Professor Yoshida's research as a way to gain support for ending Japan's law requiring couples to have the same surname.

More info: spoon-tamago.com/

Posted By: Alex - Thu Apr 04, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Odd Names, Predictions, Science, Asia