New York Times: An essential part of an authentic Italian meal, pasta comes in a variety of shapes that are both decorative and utilitarian: The shape of the pasta complements the sauce it is paired with. Recently, the various complex shapes that pasta can take have inspired people to ponder the mathematics involved, writes Kenneth Chang for the New York Times. Sander Huisman, a physics graduate student at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, used Mathematica software to come up with code that would describe such pasta shapes as gemelli and stelline. He was inspired to blog his results as “Pasta visualization” and “Pasta visualization - Part II,” and he even considered doing a mathematical pasta of the month. Architect George Legendre, who was similarly inspired, wrote a book on the subject—Pasta by Design (Thames & Hudson, 2011). Each page spread features a single pasta and includes a mathematical equation, diagram, photo, and suggested sauces to eat it with. In pasta, it would seem, mathematics and art combine in aesthetically pleasing ways.
Recently in Culture and entertainment Category
New York Times: A number of science-based events have been popping up throughout New York City—some serious, others not, writes Jennifer Schuessler for the New York Times. Offered at such eclectic venues as bars, art galleries, and funeral parlors, the talks feature both credentialed scientists and rank amateurs. All include entertainment along with edification. At the Bell House, a music and events venue, the Secret Science Club holds its monthly meetings, which have included such noted scientists as astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium. Other series, such as Nerd Nite at the Galapagos Art Space, celebrate the expertise of amateurs, who rely on tongue-in-cheek PowerPoint slides, faux data, and lots of audience participation. Moonlighter Presents, on the other hand, draws academics, artists, and writers to speak on subjects outside their expertise. Topics have included the poetics of hay fever, the cultural politics of Steely Dan fandom, and the history of the car ferry in Elberta, Michigan.
Idea Lab: Researchers at China’s Zhejiang University in Hangzhou have built a pair of robots that can play table tennis. “Wu” and “Kong” stand some 5 feet tall, weigh 121 pounds, and have humanlike features such as arms, legs, eyes, ears, and hair. The robots use images from eye-mounted cameras to calculate the ball’s position, speed, and angle. Although the robots’ moves are basic so far, the experiment tests their reaction times and abilities, such as visual processing, identification, and calculation. The researchers emphasize that the ultimate goal of the project is not for robots to play games but rather to demonstrate some of the possibilities of robotic technology.
Nature: Icelandic singer Björk's album Biophilia, which is released in two weeks, features songs about DNA, crystals, viruses, and electricity—each accompanied by an iPad app. Björk tells Nature's Andrew Mitchinson that the lessons are designed for children: "I felt that the years between five and eight, when a child's brain is soaking up languages and learning to read and write, are the perfect time to absorb musical theory." As part of her musical science tour, she'll be holding workshops at science museums around the globe, including in San Francisco.
New York Times: As increasingly severe weather destroys crops and urban infrastructure, and as scientists explore the implications of climate change, TV weather forecasters have gained in importance. And since the advent of Doppler radar in the 1980s, their role has gone from delivering National Weather Service reports to making their own local predictions based on data from a plethora of high-tech equipment. With advanced degrees that include courses in calculus and atmospheric thermodynamics, broadcast meteorologists are the ones who “bring it home,” with potentially life-saving local warnings of tornadoes, fires, and floods. “The broadcast meteorologist has emerged as an unlikely hero,” writes Kim Severson for the New York Times. According to Chris Vaccaro, a spokesman for the National Weather Service, “The weather is more extreme, the floods are wetter and the droughts are drier. That’s going to have real implications on society, and it elevates the need for more information and a need for those on-air personalities. It’s beyond what to wear for the day or do I need to carry an umbrella.”
PhysOrg: Lloyd Smith, an associate professor at Washington State University's School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, recently investigated three questions of relevance to major league baseball: Can a baseball be hit farther with a corked bat? Is there evidence that the baseball is livelier today than in earlier years? Can storing baseballs in a temperature- or humidity-controlled environment significantly affect home-run production? Smith, working with colleagues from the University of Illinois and Kettering University, tested all three premises at his Sports Science Laboratory on the Pullman campus. "I've got the cool machine that can do the tests," said Smith. He has published descriptions of his experiments and their results in his article "Corked Bats, Juiced Balls, and Humidors: The Physics of Cheating in Baseball" in this month's American Journal of Physics.
New York Times: A new reality-based cooking show, Stoveman, which airs today on Vimeo, documents the efforts of two men who travel to developing countries to provide the residents with rocket stoves. The show is part of the Paradigm Project, a "low profit" business that depends on revenue earned from the sale of carbon credits; with Stoveman, credits are generated because the highly efficient wood-burning stoves get more cooking power with less combustion and heat-trapping pollution. In the first episode of the new series, principals Greg Spencer and Austin Mann experience the challenges facing wood-collecting women of the nomadic Gabbra culture of northern Kenya.
New York Times: This year’s Stanley Cup Finals between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins was the first “water neutral” series in the history of the National Hockey League, according to a spokesperson for the league. The NHL purchased water restoration certificates through the Oregon-based Bonneville Environmental Foundation, which in turn paid water-rights holders in the Pacific Northwest to conserve water. Margaret Palmer, an environmental science professor at the University of Maryland, said the program is more philanthropic than anything else; she likened it to a donation to water-rights holders to preserve or restore water they don’t need. “I doubt it’s going to explode, but it is a good program,” she said. The NHL calculated that during a seven-game playoff series about 800 000 gallons of water are used, for the ice, concessions, and toilets. The league, which has agreed to restore at least a million gallons by purchasing certificates from Bonneville, is the first major sports organization to commit to such a large-scale effort, writes Jeff Dinunzio for the New York Times.
Nature: The spacesuits worn by the first astronauts are being moved from their current home in Maryland to the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. While the new facility will provide a much better environment for the suits, getting them there intact was a puzzle for conservators, writes Nicola Jones for Nature. Lisa Young, one of the conservators working on the project, came up with a unique solution: transport the suits in retrofitted coffins used by the airline industry. She and her colleagues lined the coffins to make them waterproof and equipped them with seat belts so the suits wouldn't move in transit. The suits' new home will keep them—along with the space shuttles Enterprise and Discovery and roughly 1200 other items such as spare spacesuit gloves, memorabilia, trophies, and artwork—under one roof with lab facilities for visiting scientists and the staff conservators. The conservation work and storage in the newer facility should allow the suits to last another 50 years—a significant improvement over the 20 more years they would likely have lasted otherwise.
Science: In a Q&A with Science's Eli Kintisch, Wendell Berry, whose writings address life in rural communities, explains why he has decided to remove his personal papers from the University of Kentucky. As Berry sees it, in striving to become a first-rank research university, the University of Kentucky is neglecting its original mission to teach and serve the people of Kentucky, his home state.
