[[{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/230979","site":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":230979,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/230979","url":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/our-closest-star-has-earth-sized-planet-located-right-in-habitable-zone","path_alias":"our-closest-star-has-earth-sized-planet-located-right-in-habitable-zone","label":"Our Closest Neighboring Star Has A Rocky, Earth-Sized Planet In Its Habitable Zone","content":" ESO\/M. Kornmesser Proxima b An artist's impression of the exoplanet Proxima b, located just 4.2 lightyears from Earth. Hey neighbor! Our lonely patch of the sky just got a little less lonely with the identification of a rocky, Earth-sized planet neighboring the star closest to our own Sun. In a paper published today in Nature, researchers announced the exciting news that they had positively identified a planet about 1.3 times the size of Earth orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri 4.2 light years away. The researchers made the observation by observing the star carefully over long periods of time. They found that once every 11.2 days, the light from the star shifted ever so slightly, a variation called a Doppler shift, during which the star appeared to be moving towards Earth slightly and then away from Earth slightly. That wobble indicated the presence of a planet. Researchers have been looking for exoplanets at Proxima Centauri for years, but it took a long time for researchers to confirm that it was a planet, and not some other kind of interference, like sun spots on Proxima Centauri, which might look similar from our Earth-bound vantage point. "It's the closest planet outside of our solar system that will ever be found." \u201cOnce we had established that the wobble wasn\u2019t caused by star spots, we knew that that there must be a planet orbiting within a zone where water could exist, which is really exciting. If further research concludes that the conditions of its atmosphere are suitable to support life, this is arguably one of the most important scientific discoveries we will ever make,\u201d said John Barnes, a co-author on the paper. "It\u2019s not only the closest planet to our solar system, it's the closest planet outside of our solar system that will ever be found," astrophysicist Ansgar Reiners, one of the authors of the paper said in a press conference on Tuesday. But its closeness to us in distance and size isn't the only thrilling thing about the discovery. The researchers also pointed out that the planet orbits the star in an area that might be considered habitable. If Proxima b has managed to hang on to an atmosphere and liquid water, it might be hospitable to life. There is no guarantee that the planet has either an atmosphere or water. Proxima b orbits Proxima Centauri every 11.2 days at a distance of 4.66 million miles, or about 5 percent of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. For comparison, Mercury orbits the sun at an average of 35.98 million miles. If Proxima Centauri were like the Sun, the short distance between the two would be enough to at least fry the planet's surface. But Proxima Centauri is a much dimmer, smaller star. And at that distance of less than five million miles, the researchers estimate that the planet would get about 65 percent of the radiation that the Earth receives. Without an atmosphere, the temperature on Proxima b would be about-40 degrees Celsius. That's really cold, but if Earth didn't have an atmosphere, our planet would be a chill-20 degrees Celsius. So, we can't really talk. The distance is close enough that if the planet managed to hang onto an atmosphere, it could potentially support water in a liquid state. That's if the planet formed in such a way that water in the protoplanet didn't just vaporize in the early solar system, or if it had water delivered to it by comets later in its life. If you're noticing a lot of 'ifs,' that's because a lot is still unknown about our new neighbor. While computer models suggest that the planet could hold water or an atmosphere, or even a magnetic field, which would help deflect deadly radiation from the planet's surface, there is no evidence yet of any of those things. "If its atmosphere is suitable to support life, this is arguably one of the most important scientific discoveries we will ever make.\u201d SO\/M. Kornmesser\/G. Coleman Comparison A comparison of our Solar System and the Proxima Centauri system. And even if the planet once supported an atmosphere, there's no guarantee that it's still going to be there. It's possible that when Proxima Centauri was more active, the star could have blown away Proxima b's atmosphere early on in its development. We won't know more until new data comes in from other observations, and potentially even future telescope and other missions to study Proxima b. Heading out to Proxima Centauri for a visit might take some time. While it is the closest star, 4.24 lightyears is still a very long way, and getting there would take thousands of years with our current technology. (Although billionaire Yuri Milner thinks we could send tiny, laser-powered spacechips there within a few decades.) In the meantime, until we can develop warp drive or some other awesome tech that would allow us to launch a robotic or manned mission to Proxima b, we will have to content ourselves with telescope-based observations of the planet, and rely on those observations and models to tell us more about what our closest neighbor really looks like. Digitized Sky Survey 2 Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin\/Mahdi Zamani Alpha Centauri AB The large blue star near the top is actually a two-star system called Alpha Centauri AB. Nearby is the red dwarf Proxima Centauri ESO\/M. Kornmesser An artist's idea of what the surface of Proxima b might look like. Y. Beletsky (LCO)\/ESO\/ESA\/NASA\/M. Zamani Observatory Alpha Centauri AB are in the bottom left, Proxima Centauri is in the bottom right. ","teaser":" ESO\/M. Kornmesser Proxima b An artist's impression of the exoplanet Proxima b, located just 4.2 lightyears from Earth. Hey neighbor! Our lonely patch of the sky just got a little less lonely with the identification of a rocky, Earth-sized planet neighboring the star closest to our own Sun. In","ss_name":"Mary Beth Griggs","tos_name":"Mary Beth Griggs","ss_name_formatted":"Mary Beth Griggs","tos_name_formatted":"Mary Beth Griggs","is_uid":242,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":true,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2016-08-24T17:03:00Z","ds_changed":"2016-08-24T17:03:00Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2016-08-24T17:03:00Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":false,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_use_sir_trevor_body":true,"bs_field_flag_gallery":true,"bs_field_flag_video":true,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"bs_in_nps":false,"ts_bonnier_summary":"
Hey neighbor!<\/div>","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"
Space<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2016-08-24T17:03:02.232Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_gallery_items":["0"],"sm_field_image":["http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_4x3\/public\/images\/2016\/08\/eso1629e.jpg?itok=fBPNF-1n"],"sm_field_gallery_display":["gallery_none"],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"sm_field_customhtml_display":["customhtml_none"],"bm_field_flag_gallery":[true],"bm_field_flag_video":[true],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"bm_use_sir_trevor_body":[true],"tid":[221267,223308,221268,204105,204964,205173,212416,63,215612,209805,212470],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["space"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Mary Beth Griggs"],"tm_vid_1_names":["proxima centauri proxima b centauri system exoplanets goldilocks zone habitable zone Space Technology Earth 2.0 search for alien life"],"spell":["Our Closest Neighboring Star Has A Rocky, Earth-Sized Planet In Its Habitable Zone"," ESO\/M. Kornmesser Proxima b An artist's impression of the exoplanet Proxima b, located just 4.2 lightyears from Earth. Hey neighbor! Our lonely patch of the sky just got a little less lonely with the identification of a rocky, Earth-sized planet neighboring the star closest to our own Sun. In a paper published today in Nature, researchers announced the exciting news that they had positively identified a planet about 1.3 times the size of Earth orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri 4.2 light years away. The researchers made the observation by observing the star carefully over long periods of time. They found that once every 11.2 days, the light from the star shifted ever so slightly, a variation called a Doppler shift, during which the star appeared to be moving towards Earth slightly and then away from Earth slightly. That wobble indicated the presence of a planet. Researchers have been looking for exoplanets at Proxima Centauri for years, but it took a long time for researchers to confirm that it was a planet, and not some other kind of interference, like sun spots on Proxima Centauri, which might look similar from our Earth-bound vantage point. "It's the closest planet outside of our solar system that will ever be found." \u201cOnce we had established that the wobble wasn\u2019t caused by star spots, we knew that that there must be a planet orbiting within a zone where water could exist, which is really exciting. If further research concludes that the conditions of its atmosphere are suitable to support life, this is arguably one of the most important scientific discoveries we will ever make,\u201d said John Barnes, a co-author on the paper. "It\u2019s not only the closest planet to our solar system, it's the closest planet outside of our solar system that will ever be found," astrophysicist Ansgar Reiners, one of the authors of the paper said in a press conference on Tuesday. But its closeness to us in distance and size isn't the only thrilling thing about the discovery. The researchers also pointed out that the planet orbits the star in an area that might be considered habitable. If Proxima b has managed to hang on to an atmosphere and liquid water, it might be hospitable to life. There is no guarantee that the planet has either an atmosphere or water. Proxima b orbits Proxima Centauri every 11.2 days at a distance of 4.66 million miles, or about 5 percent of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. For comparison, Mercury orbits the sun at an average of 35.98 million miles. If Proxima Centauri were like the Sun, the short distance between the two would be enough to at least fry the planet's surface. But Proxima Centauri is a much dimmer, smaller star. And at that distance of less than five million miles, the researchers estimate that the planet would get about 65 percent of the radiation that the Earth receives. Without an atmosphere, the temperature on Proxima b would be about-40 degrees Celsius. That's really cold, but if Earth didn't have an atmosphere, our planet would be a chill-20 degrees Celsius. So, we can't really talk. The distance is close enough that if the planet managed to hang onto an atmosphere, it could potentially support water in a liquid state. That's if the planet formed in such a way that water in the protoplanet didn't just vaporize in the early solar system, or if it had water delivered to it by comets later in its life. If you're noticing a lot of 'ifs,' that's because a lot is still unknown about our new neighbor. While computer models suggest that the planet could hold water or an atmosphere, or even a magnetic field, which would help deflect deadly radiation from the planet's surface, there is no evidence yet of any of those things. "If its atmosphere is suitable to support life, this is arguably one of the most important scientific discoveries we will ever make.\u201d SO\/M. Kornmesser\/G. Coleman Comparison A comparison of our Solar System and the Proxima Centauri system. And even if the planet once supported an atmosphere, there's no guarantee that it's still going to be there. It's possible that when Proxima Centauri was more active, the star could have blown away Proxima b's atmosphere early on in its development. We won't know more until new data comes in from other observations, and potentially even future telescope and other missions to study Proxima b. Heading out to Proxima Centauri for a visit might take some time. While it is the closest star, 4.24 lightyears is still a very long way, and getting there would take thousands of years with our current technology. (Although billionaire Yuri Milner thinks we could send tiny, laser-powered spacechips there within a few decades.) In the meantime, until we can develop warp drive or some other awesome tech that would allow us to launch a robotic or manned mission to Proxima b, we will have to content ourselves with telescope-based observations of the planet, and rely on those observations and models to tell us more about what our closest neighbor really looks like. Digitized Sky Survey 2 Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin\/Mahdi Zamani Alpha Centauri AB The large blue star near the top is actually a two-star system called Alpha Centauri AB. Nearby is the red dwarf Proxima Centauri ESO\/M. Kornmesser An artist's idea of what the surface of Proxima b might look like. Y. Beletsky (LCO)\/ESO\/ESA\/NASA\/M. Zamani Observatory Alpha Centauri AB are in the bottom left, Proxima Centauri is in the bottom right. ","proxima centauri proxima b centauri system exoplanets goldilocks zone habitable zone Space Technology Earth 2.0 search for alien life","Mary Beth Griggs","
Hey neighbor!<\/div>","
Space<\/a><\/div>"],"bm_field_feed_builder_exclusion":[false],"im_field_author":[212470],"bm_field_display_social":[true],"bm_in_nps":[false],"sm_field_sponsor_label":[""],"sm_field_subtitle":["Now to figure out if it has liquid water. Or an atmosphere.\n"],"bm_field_display_author_bio":[true],"im_field_tags":[221267,223308,221268,204105,204964,205173,212416,63,215612,209805],"im_vid_2":[212470],"sm_vid_Authors":["Mary Beth Griggs"],"im_vid_1":[221267,223308,221268,204105,204964,205173,212416,63,215612,209805],"sm_field_video_display":["video_none"],"sm_vid_Tags":["proxima centauri","proxima b","centauri system","exoplanets","goldilocks zone","habitable zone","Space","Technology","Earth 2.0","search for alien life"]},{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/230977","site":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":230977,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/230977","url":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/harvard-3d-printed-soft-robot-octopus","path_alias":"harvard-3d-printed-soft-robot-octopus","label":"Harvard 3D Printed A Soft Robot Octopus","content":" Lori Sanders The Octobot From Harvard: "The octobot is powered by a chemical reaction and controlled with a soft logic board. A reaction inside the bot transforms a small amount of liquid fuel (hydrogen peroxide) into a large amount of gas, which flows into the octobot's arms and inflates them like a balloon. A microfluidic logic circuit, a soft analog of a simple electronic oscillator, controls when hydrogen peroxide decomposes to gas in the octobot." Imagine a robot. I\u2019m guessing, after decades of droids and cylons and terminators, that the machine pictured was something metal, rigid, and human-shaped. It\u2019s the popular vision of robots, but clunky, rigid, metal bodies can only do so much. Soft robots is the field of squishier machines, and today a team of Harvard University researchers announced its latest floppy creation: an autonomous, 3D printed octopus-shaped robot nicknamed \u201coctobot.\u201d From Harvard: Harvard's octobot is pneumatic-based, i.e., it is powered by gas under pressure. A reaction inside the bot transforms a small amount of liquid fuel (hydrogen peroxide) into a large amount of gas, which flows into the octobot's arms and inflates them like a balloon. "Fuel sources for soft robots have always relied on some type of rigid components," said Michael Wehner, a postdoctoral fellow in the Wood lab and co-first author of the paper. "The wonderful thing about hydrogen peroxide is that a simple reaction between the chemical and a catalyst-- in this case platinum-- allows us to replace rigid power sources." The fuel, circuits, and motors are all printed within the octobot\u2019s body. Right now, the autonomy consists of the machine deciding when to flex its little robot limbs. Future versions of the octobot man crawl, walk, and otherwise deliberately flop about like other soft robots, but for now, this little machine is a flailing start of an idea. An embryonic creation, it is the goopy seed of future designs, ones that will not only be autonomous, but will have something they can do with that autonomy. Watch a video about it below: ","teaser":" Lori Sanders The Octobot From Harvard: "The octobot is powered by a chemical reaction and controlled with a soft logic board. A reaction inside the bot transforms a small amount of liquid fuel (hydrogen peroxide) into a large amount of gas, which flows into the octobot's arms and inflates","ss_name":"AthertonKD","tos_name":"AthertonKD","ss_name_formatted":"AthertonKD","tos_name_formatted":"AthertonKD","is_uid":183,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":true,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2016-08-24T17:00:00Z","ds_changed":"2016-08-24T17:08:03Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2016-08-24T17:08:03Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":false,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_use_sir_trevor_body":true,"bs_field_flag_gallery":false,"bs_field_flag_video":true,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"bs_in_nps":false,"ts_bonnier_summary":"
Autonomous soft robot octopus.<\/div>","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"
Technology<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2016-08-24T17:08:04.674Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_gallery_items":["0"],"sm_field_image":["http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_4x3\/public\/images\/2016\/08\/octobotstill.jpg?itok=7n85bKgD&fc=50,50"],"sm_field_gallery_display":["gallery_none"],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"sm_field_customhtml_display":["customhtml_none"],"bm_field_flag_gallery":[false],"bm_field_flag_video":[true],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"bm_use_sir_trevor_body":[true],"tid":[212680,210213,201743,201446,223306,205246,63,200098],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["technology"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Kelsey D. Atherton"],"tm_vid_1_names":["robots soft robots biomimicry autonomous robots octobot harvard Technology"],"spell":["Harvard 3D Printed A Soft Robot Octopus"," Lori Sanders The Octobot From Harvard: "The octobot is powered by a chemical reaction and controlled with a soft logic board. A reaction inside the bot transforms a small amount of liquid fuel (hydrogen peroxide) into a large amount of gas, which flows into the octobot's arms and inflates them like a balloon. A microfluidic logic circuit, a soft analog of a simple electronic oscillator, controls when hydrogen peroxide decomposes to gas in the octobot." Imagine a robot. I\u2019m guessing, after decades of droids and cylons and terminators, that the machine pictured was something metal, rigid, and human-shaped. It\u2019s the popular vision of robots, but clunky, rigid, metal bodies can only do so much. Soft robots is the field of squishier machines, and today a team of Harvard University researchers announced its latest floppy creation: an autonomous, 3D printed octopus-shaped robot nicknamed \u201coctobot.\u201d From Harvard: Harvard's octobot is pneumatic-based, i.e., it is powered by gas under pressure. A reaction inside the bot transforms a small amount of liquid fuel (hydrogen peroxide) into a large amount of gas, which flows into the octobot's arms and inflates them like a balloon. "Fuel sources for soft robots have always relied on some type of rigid components," said Michael Wehner, a postdoctoral fellow in the Wood lab and co-first author of the paper. "The wonderful thing about hydrogen peroxide is that a simple reaction between the chemical and a catalyst-- in this case platinum-- allows us to replace rigid power sources." The fuel, circuits, and motors are all printed within the octobot\u2019s body. Right now, the autonomy consists of the machine deciding when to flex its little robot limbs. Future versions of the octobot man crawl, walk, and otherwise deliberately flop about like other soft robots, but for now, this little machine is a flailing start of an idea. An embryonic creation, it is the goopy seed of future designs, ones that will not only be autonomous, but will have something they can do with that autonomy. Watch a video about it below: ","robots soft robots biomimicry autonomous robots octobot harvard Technology","Kelsey D. Atherton","
Autonomous soft robot octopus.<\/div>","
Technology<\/a><\/div>"],"bm_field_feed_builder_exclusion":[false],"im_field_author":[200098],"bm_field_display_social":[true],"bm_in_nps":[false],"sm_field_sponsor_label":[""],"sm_field_subtitle":["Oct-tonomous\n"],"bm_field_display_author_bio":[true],"im_field_tags":[212680,210213,201743,201446,223306,205246,63],"im_vid_2":[200098],"sm_vid_Authors":["Kelsey D. Atherton"],"im_vid_1":[212680,210213,201743,201446,223306,205246,63],"sm_field_video_display":["video_none"],"sm_vid_Tags":["robots","soft robots","biomimicry","autonomous robots","octobot","harvard","Technology"]},{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/230987","site":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":230987,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/230987","url":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/leap-motion-interaction-engine-now-available","path_alias":"leap-motion-interaction-engine-now-available","label":"New Rules Of Physics Apply In Leap Motion's Latest Development","content":" Leap Motion Leap Motion's Blocks demo shows off their new Interaction Engine. When you stick your bare, clumsy, flesh-suit hands into a virtual world, the physics engine reacts like an immune system trying to purge antibodies. What is this? How do I manipulate it? It doesn't fit here, get out! Leap Motion's newly-launched beta of Interaction Engine operates as a layer between human elements and their Unity game engine. When hands show up, it employs an "alternate set of physics rules" to adjust to natural interaction with virtual objects. Gripping, stacking, holding, and throwing get easier and more fluid. The before and after demonstrations are like a cheesy As Seen On TV infomercial: Leap Motion Interaction Engine turned off. Stacking, hard. Damn these blocks! Leap Motion Interaction Engine turned on. Stacking, so easy! Developers can access Interaction Engine 101, an example project and open source code to model their own Oculus and Vive projects, on Github. [H\/T The Verge] ","teaser":" Leap Motion Leap Motion's Blocks demo shows off their new Interaction Engine. When you stick your bare, clumsy, flesh-suit hands into a virtual world, the physics engine reacts like an immune system trying to purge antibodies. What is this? How do I manipulate it? It doesn't fit here, get","ss_name":"samcole","tos_name":"samcole","ss_name_formatted":"samcole","tos_name_formatted":"samcole","is_uid":1442,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":true,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2016-08-24T15:55:00Z","ds_changed":"2016-08-24T15:55:47Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2016-08-24T15:55:47Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":false,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_use_sir_trevor_body":true,"bs_field_flag_gallery":false,"bs_field_flag_video":false,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"bs_in_nps":false,"ts_bonnier_summary":"
Leap Motion's newly-launched beta of Interaction Engine operates as a layer between human elements and their Unity game engine.<\/div>","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"
Technology<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2016-08-24T15:55:49.142Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_gallery_items":["0"],"sm_field_image":["http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/images\/2016\/08\/orion_3.gif?fc=50,50"],"sm_field_gallery_display":["gallery_none"],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"sm_field_customhtml_display":["customhtml_none"],"bm_field_flag_gallery":[false],"bm_field_flag_video":[false],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"bm_use_sir_trevor_body":[true],"tid":[206504,211912,211841,204740,200413,63,222574],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["technology"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Samantha Cole"],"tm_vid_1_names":["leap motion VR virtual reality gaming physics Technology"],"spell":["New Rules Of Physics Apply In Leap Motion's Latest Development"," Leap Motion Leap Motion's Blocks demo shows off their new Interaction Engine. When you stick your bare, clumsy, flesh-suit hands into a virtual world, the physics engine reacts like an immune system trying to purge antibodies. What is this? How do I manipulate it? It doesn't fit here, get out! Leap Motion's newly-launched beta of Interaction Engine operates as a layer between human elements and their Unity game engine. When hands show up, it employs an "alternate set of physics rules" to adjust to natural interaction with virtual objects. Gripping, stacking, holding, and throwing get easier and more fluid. The before and after demonstrations are like a cheesy As Seen On TV infomercial: Leap Motion Interaction Engine turned off. Stacking, hard. Damn these blocks! Leap Motion Interaction Engine turned on. Stacking, so easy! Developers can access Interaction Engine 101, an example project and open source code to model their own Oculus and Vive projects, on Github. [H\/T The Verge] ","leap motion VR virtual reality gaming physics Technology","Samantha Cole","
Leap Motion's newly-launched beta of Interaction Engine operates as a layer between human elements and their Unity game engine.<\/div>","
Technology<\/a><\/div>"],"bm_field_feed_builder_exclusion":[false],"im_field_author":[222574],"bm_field_display_social":[true],"bm_in_nps":[false],"sm_field_sponsor_label":[""],"sm_field_subtitle":["Throwing a block-fueled VR tantrum gets easier\n"],"bm_field_display_author_bio":[true],"im_field_tags":[206504,211912,211841,204740,200413,63],"im_vid_2":[222574],"sm_vid_Authors":["Samantha Cole"],"im_vid_1":[206504,211912,211841,204740,200413,63],"sm_field_video_display":["video_none"],"sm_vid_Tags":["leap motion","VR","virtual reality","gaming","physics","Technology"]},{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/229806","site":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":229806,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/229806","url":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/scishow-explaining-science-world-around-us","path_alias":"scishow-explaining-science-world-around-us","label":"How SciShow Explains The Science Of The World Around Us","content":" SciShow Hank Green films SciShow By 2012, Hank Green had already been creating content on the VlogBrothers YouTube channel for five years, but he wanted to do more. Among the most popular videos he and his brother John have made are educational explainers, but creating those takes significantly more time than a normal video, due to the need for research and fact-checking. "You need to try harder to make sure stuff is right in an educational video than when you\u2019re making a funny video," Hank tells Popular Science. But despite being more resource-intensive to produce, they continued to make these videos because "We felt like it was good for the world." So that year, the Greens applied for and received a grant to create several new channels as part of YouTube\u2019s Original Channel Initiative. One of the ideas they came up with was SciShow, a YouTube channel with the express purpose of educating the public about the science of the world around them. "For SciShow, we\u2019re just excited about understanding people, understanding the world, understanding the universe, and that is the mission," according to Green. And that mission is working\u2014SciShow has nearly 3.7 million subscribers and its more than 1,000 videos have been viewed over 505 million times to date. Ideas for SciShow\u2019s videos come from one of three places, according to Editor-in-Chief Blake de Pastino: viewer questions left as comments on past videos, ideas from staff members in pitch meetings, or \u201cfrom my butt\u201d\u2014questions that come up in de Pastino\u2019s daily life, i.e. \u2018Why does one need to tilt a glass while pouring a beer?\u2019 The answer to that particular question has more to do with science than with the beer itself, but de Pastino explains, \u201cwhat we\u2019re doing is using people\u2019s natural interest in beer to teach them about this one principle of fluid dynamics.\u201d He sends those ideas he comes up with to Alyssa Lerner and Ceri Riley, the two women who run SciShow\u2019s day-to-day operations, to do preliminary research and\/or assign the idea to be outlined and written by one of about 20 freelancers who write for SciShow. As video ideas are pitched, no matter the source, the staff considers how many principles must be explained to fully express the idea. The most interesting pitches, and therefore the most interesting videos, come about when the answer is counter-intuitive. De Pastino believes that\u2019s especially true in science, because, \u201cthere are a lot of things out there that people either don\u2019t know or think they know and is commonly misunderstood.\u201d Rarely, he says, does an idea come up that the staff thinks is too difficult to convert into a video. Rather, if there are too many principles that need to be explained within a video (the more concepts that need to be explained, the longer a video will be), the staff will break the idea up into chunks and explain each principle individually. \u201cThere are a lot of things out there that people either don\u2019t know or think they know and is commonly misunderstood.\u201d SciShow and its spin-offs, SciShow Space and SciShow Kids, produce several different types of videos, and production for each of these takes different amounts of time. De Pastino estimates that it takes about a month on average between the time a script is assigned and when its filmed. However, scripts for the weekly segment \u201c SciShow News \u201d and \u201c Space News \u201d are written on Monday, filmed on Tuesday, and uploaded on Friday. SciShow also does longer videos that dive deeper into subjects. Green has a particular affinity for one deep dive episode, " The Science of Anti-Vaccination," which has been viewed over one million times. The episode is not actually about the effects of vaccination, but rather the psychology of the anti-vaxxer mindset and trying to understand the phenomenon. The reason he enjoys that episode so much is, "because it was an opportunity to frame that conversation in a scientific way," He continued, "Instead of in a culture war way, where we\u2019re like, \u2018Here we are being angry at each other,' we can be like, \u2018Well how do we use science to help understand each other?\u2019 and maybe use those sets of tools to heal that wound a little bit.\u2019\u201d In this age of viral internet trends though, not every story can be worked on for weeks or comes with an embargo that gives science communicators time to prepare\u2014sometimes a story or trend will take the world by storm, like \u201cThe Dress\u201d did in early 2015. \u201cWe were all obsessing over it and fighting over what colors we saw, so we were like \u2018Well, we have to do it,\u2019\u201d says Caitlin Hofmeister, SciShow\u2019s producer. \u201cLuckily that caught on first thing in the morning and we were able to write a script and shoot and edit it.\u201d While one editor will normally \u201ccarry\u201d a video through the end of post-production, as Hofmeister puts it, multiple staff members may work on individual components simultaneously in such a case in order to get a time-sensitive episode up quickly. \u201cWe\u2019re not worried about being the first to report on the gold and blue dress,\u201d she continued, \u201cbut we know our audiences wants to know what we think about it so we\u2019ll do a video.\u201d As with any creator on the internet, SciShow deals with its own set of "trolls," internet users who express (or feign) outrage against content. Science can be particularly prone to this, between particularly vocal anti-vaxxers, the flat Earth society, those who don't believe in climate change, and members of several other movements. According to Green, the best way for creators to protect their audiences from trolls, "is to try and create content for people who are a little more thoughtful and to try to not make content for people who aren\u2019t." While he acknowledges it isn't the best solution, and can even allow trolls to find each other and create their own communities, he simply states, "you gotta do what you gotta do to protect your community." Green has seen many changes in the online video landscape during his tenure, the latest of which is the rise of Facebook as a video platform. He says both the viewer and creator experiences are very different on the social network than on YouTube. "Facebook content tends to be much more like a lighter touch," he explains. "It\u2019s the kind of content you can pop in and out of without any trouble. Whereas, YouTube, it seems like people are there to spend time watching video and they\u2019re happy to spend five, 10, 15 [minutes], even an hour-long session on SciShow videos, which is much better for us." He also says that there are SciShow viewers who only watch on Facebook, that hasn't resulted in a dip in viewer numbers on YouTube. [YouTube viewers are] happy to spend five, 10, 15 [minutes], even an hour-long session on SciShow videos. While some episodes of SciShow are natively uploaded to Facebook, don't expect to see much original SciShow content made for the social network. In October 2015, Facebook announced it was testing a "video matching technology," similar to YouTube's ContentID, which would allow creators to report a duplicate of their video uploaded to the social network. That feature, which Facebook calls \u201cRights Manager,\u201d launched in April. Unlike ContentID though, Rights Manager doesn\u2019t ensure that the creators of videos are paid for the views of their videos. In fact, Facebook doesn\u2019t monetize the majority of the videos being uploaded to the social network (It was reported in June that Facebook does pay some media companies, including Buzzfeed and The New York Times, to produce videos). Until a revenue model is in place, SciShow won\u2019t prioritize Facebook as a platform. "At the moment, it\u2019s not a high-strategic priority for us to be growing on Facebook," Green says, "because it seems like it\u2019s really good for Facebook and not for creators." ","teaser":" SciShow Hank Green films SciShow By 2012, Hank Green had already been creating content on the VlogBrothers YouTube channel for five years, but he wanted to do more. Among the most popular videos he and his brother John have made are educational explainers, but creating those takes significantly","ss_name":"jasonlederman","tos_name":"jasonlederman","ss_name_formatted":"jasonlederman","tos_name_formatted":"jasonlederman","is_uid":892,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":true,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2016-08-24T15:29:06Z","ds_changed":"2016-08-24T16:16:32Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2016-08-24T16:16:32Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":false,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_use_sir_trevor_body":true,"bs_field_flag_gallery":false,"bs_field_flag_video":true,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"bs_in_nps":false,"ts_bonnier_summary":"
SciShow is breaking down the world around us into easy-to-understand science.<\/div>","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"
Entertainment<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2016-08-24T16:16:33.752Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_gallery_items":["0"],"sm_field_image":["http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_4x3\/public\/18_scishow_bright.jpg?itok=vjHzfFi-&fc=82,20"],"sm_field_gallery_display":["gallery_none"],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"sm_field_customhtml_display":["customhtml_none"],"bm_field_flag_gallery":[false],"bm_field_flag_video":[true],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"bm_use_sir_trevor_body":[true],"tid":[222228,222230,113,222232,211790,203964,217081],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["entertainment"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Jason Lederman"],"tm_vid_1_names":["hank green scishow youtube educational content Video Entertainment"],"spell":["How SciShow Explains The Science Of The World Around Us"," SciShow Hank Green films SciShow By 2012, Hank Green had already been creating content on the VlogBrothers YouTube channel for five years, but he wanted to do more. Among the most popular videos he and his brother John have made are educational explainers, but creating those takes significantly more time than a normal video, due to the need for research and fact-checking. "You need to try harder to make sure stuff is right in an educational video than when you\u2019re making a funny video," Hank tells Popular Science. But despite being more resource-intensive to produce, they continued to make these videos because "We felt like it was good for the world." So that year, the Greens applied for and received a grant to create several new channels as part of YouTube\u2019s Original Channel Initiative. One of the ideas they came up with was SciShow, a YouTube channel with the express purpose of educating the public about the science of the world around them. "For SciShow, we\u2019re just excited about understanding people, understanding the world, understanding the universe, and that is the mission," according to Green. And that mission is working\u2014SciShow has nearly 3.7 million subscribers and its more than 1,000 videos have been viewed over 505 million times to date. Ideas for SciShow\u2019s videos come from one of three places, according to Editor-in-Chief Blake de Pastino: viewer questions left as comments on past videos, ideas from staff members in pitch meetings, or \u201cfrom my butt\u201d\u2014questions that come up in de Pastino\u2019s daily life, i.e. \u2018Why does one need to tilt a glass while pouring a beer?\u2019 The answer to that particular question has more to do with science than with the beer itself, but de Pastino explains, \u201cwhat we\u2019re doing is using people\u2019s natural interest in beer to teach them about this one principle of fluid dynamics.\u201d He sends those ideas he comes up with to Alyssa Lerner and Ceri Riley, the two women who run SciShow\u2019s day-to-day operations, to do preliminary research and\/or assign the idea to be outlined and written by one of about 20 freelancers who write for SciShow. As video ideas are pitched, no matter the source, the staff considers how many principles must be explained to fully express the idea. The most interesting pitches, and therefore the most interesting videos, come about when the answer is counter-intuitive. De Pastino believes that\u2019s especially true in science, because, \u201cthere are a lot of things out there that people either don\u2019t know or think they know and is commonly misunderstood.\u201d Rarely, he says, does an idea come up that the staff thinks is too difficult to convert into a video. Rather, if there are too many principles that need to be explained within a video (the more concepts that need to be explained, the longer a video will be), the staff will break the idea up into chunks and explain each principle individually. \u201cThere are a lot of things out there that people either don\u2019t know or think they know and is commonly misunderstood.\u201d SciShow and its spin-offs, SciShow Space and SciShow Kids, produce several different types of videos, and production for each of these takes different amounts of time. De Pastino estimates that it takes about a month on average between the time a script is assigned and when its filmed. However, scripts for the weekly segment \u201c SciShow News \u201d and \u201c Space News \u201d are written on Monday, filmed on Tuesday, and uploaded on Friday. SciShow also does longer videos that dive deeper into subjects. Green has a particular affinity for one deep dive episode, " The Science of Anti-Vaccination," which has been viewed over one million times. The episode is not actually about the effects of vaccination, but rather the psychology of the anti-vaxxer mindset and trying to understand the phenomenon. The reason he enjoys that episode so much is, "because it was an opportunity to frame that conversation in a scientific way," He continued, "Instead of in a culture war way, where we\u2019re like, \u2018Here we are being angry at each other,' we can be like, \u2018Well how do we use science to help understand each other?\u2019 and maybe use those sets of tools to heal that wound a little bit.\u2019\u201d In this age of viral internet trends though, not every story can be worked on for weeks or comes with an embargo that gives science communicators time to prepare\u2014sometimes a story or trend will take the world by storm, like \u201cThe Dress\u201d did in early 2015. \u201cWe were all obsessing over it and fighting over what colors we saw, so we were like \u2018Well, we have to do it,\u2019\u201d says Caitlin Hofmeister, SciShow\u2019s producer. \u201cLuckily that caught on first thing in the morning and we were able to write a script and shoot and edit it.\u201d While one editor will normally \u201ccarry\u201d a video through the end of post-production, as Hofmeister puts it, multiple staff members may work on individual components simultaneously in such a case in order to get a time-sensitive episode up quickly. \u201cWe\u2019re not worried about being the first to report on the gold and blue dress,\u201d she continued, \u201cbut we know our audiences wants to know what we think about it so we\u2019ll do a video.\u201d As with any creator on the internet, SciShow deals with its own set of "trolls," internet users who express (or feign) outrage against content. Science can be particularly prone to this, between particularly vocal anti-vaxxers, the flat Earth society, those who don't believe in climate change, and members of several other movements. According to Green, the best way for creators to protect their audiences from trolls, "is to try and create content for people who are a little more thoughtful and to try to not make content for people who aren\u2019t." While he acknowledges it isn't the best solution, and can even allow trolls to find each other and create their own communities, he simply states, "you gotta do what you gotta do to protect your community." Green has seen many changes in the online video landscape during his tenure, the latest of which is the rise of Facebook as a video platform. He says both the viewer and creator experiences are very different on the social network than on YouTube. "Facebook content tends to be much more like a lighter touch," he explains. "It\u2019s the kind of content you can pop in and out of without any trouble. Whereas, YouTube, it seems like people are there to spend time watching video and they\u2019re happy to spend five, 10, 15 [minutes], even an hour-long session on SciShow videos, which is much better for us." He also says that there are SciShow viewers who only watch on Facebook, that hasn't resulted in a dip in viewer numbers on YouTube. [YouTube viewers are] happy to spend five, 10, 15 [minutes], even an hour-long session on SciShow videos. While some episodes of SciShow are natively uploaded to Facebook, don't expect to see much original SciShow content made for the social network. In October 2015, Facebook announced it was testing a "video matching technology," similar to YouTube's ContentID, which would allow creators to report a duplicate of their video uploaded to the social network. That feature, which Facebook calls \u201cRights Manager,\u201d launched in April. Unlike ContentID though, Rights Manager doesn\u2019t ensure that the creators of videos are paid for the views of their videos. In fact, Facebook doesn\u2019t monetize the majority of the videos being uploaded to the social network (It was reported in June that Facebook does pay some media companies, including Buzzfeed and The New York Times, to produce videos). Until a revenue model is in place, SciShow won\u2019t prioritize Facebook as a platform. "At the moment, it\u2019s not a high-strategic priority for us to be growing on Facebook," Green says, "because it seems like it\u2019s really good for Facebook and not for creators." ","hank green scishow youtube educational content Video Entertainment","Jason Lederman","
SciShow is breaking down the world around us into easy-to-understand science.<\/div>","
Entertainment<\/a><\/div>"],"bm_field_feed_builder_exclusion":[false],"im_field_author":[217081],"bm_field_display_social":[true],"bm_in_nps":[false],"sm_field_sponsor_label":[""],"sm_field_subtitle":["Not all learning happens in a classroom\n"],"bm_field_display_author_bio":[true],"im_field_tags":[222228,222230,113,222232,211790,203964],"im_vid_2":[217081],"sm_vid_Authors":["Jason Lederman"],"im_vid_1":[222228,222230,113,222232,211790,203964],"sm_field_video_display":["video_none"],"sm_vid_Tags":["hank green","scishow","youtube","educational content","Video","Entertainment"]},{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/230983","site":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":230983,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/230983","url":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/making-low-tech-steam-machine","path_alias":"making-low-tech-steam-machine","label":"A Low-Tech Steam Machine Made Out Of Bubble Wrap And Foam","content":" George Ni Solar Sponge A solar heater made from low-tech materials. MIT is known for its high-tech innovations. But sometimes, progress comes in very low-tech forms. In a paper published this week in Nature Energy, MIT researchers lay out a way to create a floating device that turns water into steam using energy from the sun. Also, bubble wrap. The researchers hope that the design could one day be used as a component in small desalination or wastewater treatment plants, and that the low-cost design could last for one to two years. The device is an improvement over the team's 2014 version of a solar sponge, which required sunlight to be concentrated to about 10 times the intensity of a sunny day. This new version works outside on a sunny day by taking advantage of the heat-trapping properties of bubble wrap. The bubble wrap keeps heat from escaping, while a thin layer of copper and a material called a "spectrally-selective absorber" helped turn the sunlight into enough heat to boil the water underneath the floating foam disk.. According to MIT, the inspiration for adding bubble wrap came from the 16-year-old daughter of engineering professor Gang Chen, an author on the paper. Chen's daughter was using bubble wrap to build a greenhouse for a science project. \u201cShe was able to heat it to 160 degrees Fahrenheit, in winter!\u201d Chen said. \u201cIt was very effective.\u201d ","teaser":" George Ni Solar Sponge A solar heater made from low-tech materials. MIT is known for its high-tech innovations. But sometimes, progress comes in very low-tech forms. In a paper published this week in Nature Energy, MIT researchers lay out a way to create a floating device that turns water into","ss_name":"Mary Beth Griggs","tos_name":"Mary Beth Griggs","ss_name_formatted":"Mary Beth Griggs","tos_name_formatted":"Mary Beth Griggs","is_uid":242,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":true,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2016-08-24T15:15:32Z","ds_changed":"2016-08-24T15:15:32Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2016-08-24T15:15:32Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":false,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_use_sir_trevor_body":true,"bs_field_flag_gallery":false,"bs_field_flag_video":false,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"bs_in_nps":false,"ts_bonnier_summary":"
MIT is known for it's high-tech innovations. But sometimes, progress comes in very low-tech forms.<\/div>","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"
Energy<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2016-08-24T15:15:34.192Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_gallery_items":["0"],"sm_field_image":["http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_4x3\/public\/images\/2016\/08\/mit-sun-steam-2.jpg?itok=I-6SnI1f&fc=50,50"],"sm_field_gallery_display":["gallery_none"],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"sm_field_customhtml_display":["customhtml_none"],"bm_field_flag_gallery":[false],"bm_field_flag_video":[false],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"bm_use_sir_trevor_body":[true],"tid":[205310,200454,200375,212427,62,223311,210605,212470],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["energy"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Mary Beth Griggs"],"tm_vid_1_names":["heat solar MIT Energy Science solar sponges steam"],"spell":["A Low-Tech Steam Machine Made Out Of Bubble Wrap And Foam"," George Ni Solar Sponge A solar heater made from low-tech materials. MIT is known for its high-tech innovations. But sometimes, progress comes in very low-tech forms. In a paper published this week in Nature Energy, MIT researchers lay out a way to create a floating device that turns water into steam using energy from the sun. Also, bubble wrap. The researchers hope that the design could one day be used as a component in small desalination or wastewater treatment plants, and that the low-cost design could last for one to two years. The device is an improvement over the team's 2014 version of a solar sponge, which required sunlight to be concentrated to about 10 times the intensity of a sunny day. This new version works outside on a sunny day by taking advantage of the heat-trapping properties of bubble wrap. The bubble wrap keeps heat from escaping, while a thin layer of copper and a material called a "spectrally-selective absorber" helped turn the sunlight into enough heat to boil the water underneath the floating foam disk.. According to MIT, the inspiration for adding bubble wrap came from the 16-year-old daughter of engineering professor Gang Chen, an author on the paper. Chen's daughter was using bubble wrap to build a greenhouse for a science project. \u201cShe was able to heat it to 160 degrees Fahrenheit, in winter!\u201d Chen said. \u201cIt was very effective.\u201d ","heat solar MIT Energy Science solar sponges steam","Mary Beth Griggs","
MIT is known for it's high-tech innovations. But sometimes, progress comes in very low-tech forms.<\/div>","
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