Featured Links - August 14, 2023

Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

A classic Jaguar

AI Is Building Highly Effective Antibodies That Humans Can’t Even Imagine. "Robots, computers, and algorithms are hunting for potential new therapies in ways humans can’t—by processing huge volumes of data and building previously unimagined molecules." AI does have some good uses and this is one them.

How NASA Nearly Lost the Voyager 2 Spacecraft Forever. "The space agency lost touch with the beloved spacecraft following a faulty command signal. Here’s how it happened—and how engineers worked to bring it back."

The Sweep and Force of Section Three. A long, comprehensive, reasoned explanation of why Trump (and possibly many of his associates) is not eligible to run for office. Thanks to Timothy Snyder for pointing this out.

Smoking-gun evidence for modified gravity at low acceleration from Gaia observations of wide binary stars. "A new study reports conclusive evidence for the breakdown of standard gravity in the low acceleration limit from a verifiable analysis of the orbital motions of long-period, widely separated, binary stars, usually referred to as wide binaries in astronomy and astrophysics." If confirmed, this could be Nobel-prize winning research. 

How Editors Blend Art and Science to Bring NASA’s Space Photos to Life. "Webb’s stunning images are not beamed to Earth from the $10 billion space telescope in full color. In fact, Webb’s detectors capture monochromatic photos that are exceedingly dark. Thanks to expert image processors Joe DePasquale and Alyssa Pagan at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, the dark gray raw images come to life in unbelievable ways."

Good Omens (BBC Radio). "Adaptation of the 1990 fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. An angel and a demon try to save the world from an apocalypse. Starring Peter Serafinowicz and Mark Heap."

Who Needs Meta or Google for News? Use ‘Really Simple Syndication’. "RSS is a universal, open, algorithm-free news feed you can have for free. Silicon Valley giants treat it like a secret." I can't imagine using the internet without a feed reader. 

7 Easy Food Swaps That Help the Planet. "Consider ditching resource-hungry foods for these delicious alternatives that leave a lighter footprint."