Science

Ireland's First Computer Scientist - Percy Ludgate

The Irish Times published a piece this week about Percy Ludgate who is believed to be Ireland's first computer scientist. In 1914 the accountant and inventor from Skibereen presented designs for the worlds second analytical engine, a mechanical computer of the time.

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Podcast of the Week: Blindboy with Dr. Sabina Brennan

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Another great podcast this week was Blindboy interviewing neuroscientist Dr. Sabina Brennan about how the brain processes habits, learning, sleep, & lots more interesting topics.

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Maxwell's Demon

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Jonathan O'Callaghan published an interesting article in Quanta Magazine about the history of Maxwell's Demon and how the concept has moved from a thought experiment in thermodynamics in 1867 into physical experiments from 2007 onwards.

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Spider Web Music

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Scientists and MIT used laser imagery to make 3D maps of spider webs and then calculated the vibrating frequency of each thread based on size and elasticity. Using this information, Markus J. Buehler's team then converted these frequencies into sound and music.

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Negentropy

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Alison Carr-Chellman from University of Dayton has developed the theory of negentropy, the opposite of entropy.

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Faster Linear Equation Solving

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Richard Peng and Santosh Vampala of Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new method of solving linear equations that is faster than matrix multiplication. Quanta magazine published an interesting article describing the new method, how it differs from standard matrix multiplication using coordinated random guessing, and how it can solve any sparse linear equation in n2.332 steps compared to the n2.372 of matrix multiplication.

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Covid Air Extraction Spread

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El Pais published another set of informative Covid infection animations, this time illustrating how communial air extraction pipes in apartment buildings can facilitate the spread of Covid from different apartments in an air suction loop. Apartment buildings built prior to 1975 in Spain contain these communical air pipes in bathrooms.

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Podcast of the Week: NPR Shortwave on The Sperm Race Fairytale

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This recent episode of NPR Shortwave is mind-blowing. As it turns out, the sperm race story of contraception that we all learn in school is not what happens in reality, and is littered with mysogonistic bias. The Shortwave team do a great job in this episode describing how the biological process actually works.

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Natrium Molten Salt HALEU Nuclear Reactor

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Nuclear reactor company Natrium, which is backed by Bill Gates' Terrapower, has received a US$80m Department of Energy grant to build a demonstration reactor by the mid 2020s. The 345MWe reactor can power 225,000 homes and uses molten salt as an energy storage and transfer system, which is safer than pressurised water and removes the need for a large amount of concrete shielding.

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Sound of Mars

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The NASA Sound of Mars website simulates how a range of sound clips sound on Mars versus on Earth. The differences in atmosphere and temperature mean sounds are attenuated, lower in volume, and slower.

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