Popcorn Science Podcast

Close Encounters

In this episode of "Popcorn Science," discuss the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Jurassic Park

God creates dinosaurs, God destroys dinosaurs. God creates Man, Man destroys God. Man creates podcasts. Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth. In this episode of "Popcorn Science," discuss the 1993 film Jurassic Park TOPICS * Science Gripes (5:30) * DNA from mosquitoes = impossible. Half life is too short. * Humans cannot produce lysine either, we're alright. * Not "billions of strands" in a drop of blood. * T-Rex, from brain casts: Good sense of smell, vision, and hearing... sitting still not a good strategy. * Velociraptors: not so big, not so fast. * Humans can probably outrun dinosaurs (19:15) * $112k/yr. Enough for fieldwork? * What do dinosaurs sound like? Mating tortoises. * Science Shine (27:34) * Dinosaurs related to birds, checks out. * Animals fail to show up at the safari ride. * Cloning is a thing, sequencing older samples produce good science * Mosquitoes did exist contemporaneously with dinosaurs. * Chicxulub impact described well * Dinosaur gizzards / gastroliths. * Sex switching does happen in some species. * Chaos Theory * Of it's time (40:39) * What could have been * James Cameron: Dark Jurassic Park * Jim Carey as Malcolm? * Groundbreaking CGI, but also practical effects. * Clothing is firmly rooted in the 90s * CRTs and floppy disks, adjusted refresh rates. * "That's not what unix looks like". This was an actual unix system called IRIX running a real program called fsn ("File System Navigator for cyberspace"). * 90s hacker tropes and fat shaming * John Williams: Wrote the score for everything in the 70s, 80s and 90s * Ratings (54:44) REFERENCES * Jurassic Park (1993) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park] * Amplification and sequencing of DNA from a 120–135-million-year-old weevil [https://www.nature.com/articles/363536a0] * Chicxulub [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater] * Gastrolith [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrolith] * Chaos Theory [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory] * File System Navigator [https://web.archive.org/web/20070409024417/http://www.sgi.com/fun/freeware/3d_navigator.html]

The Fifth Element

In this episode of "Popcorn Science," discuss the 1997 film The Fifth Element. TOPICS * Science Gripes (5:10) * Technobabble * "Memo-groups", the perfect being, genetic memory * Generate skin by exposure to UV * Gravity will mess you up (10:05) * 3D grid lock? Fog layer in NYC? * How big is the death sphere anyway? * New Moon? What about tides, tho? * How do shadows work? (18:41) * -5000 degrees? (22:57) * Parable of the Broken Window (22:37) * Science Shine (24:23) * Aziz! Light! * The fifth element is... Boron... err... Ether (25:40) * Languages (29:40) * Planetary Protection (32:12) * Diva Dance (33:40) * We bring the evil with us where we go (36:32) * Single-use beds * Garbage strike * 65 trillion served, plausible? * Hallway disguise * Of it's time (41:05) * 23rd century look an awful lot like the 90s. Phonebooks? CDs? * Bruce Willis is in every 90's action film. Space Die Hard! * Misogyny. Luc Besson is a creep as are most of the male characters. * Ruby Rod is ahead of his time. * Zorg is a techbro, but what's his motivation. * Ratings (56:52) REFERENCES * The Fifth Element (1997) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Element] * Luc Besson - director [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luc_Besson] * New York 2140 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_2140] - Kim Stanley Robinson * Kármán line [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line] * Parable of the Broken Window [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window] * Divine Language [https://fifth-element.fandom.com/wiki/Divine_language] * Toki Pona [https://tokipona.org/] * Laura sings the "Diva Dance" from the Fifth Element [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgo0CDL6bd0]

For All Mankind

In this episode of "Popcorn Science," we discuss the 2019 series For All Mankind. TOPICS * Science Gripes (6:05) * Dumbest way to move an Asteroid * No reaction control thrusters * Do not need a tower to push * Spike in a rubble-pile asteroid * Sending out crew to asteroid while under thrust? * Living on Mars (14:50) * Radiation on the Surface, aristocracy live above ground? * Happy Valley Base near the equator, but ice is near the poles * Korolev Crater harboring life? No Methane or lava tubes. * Untethered EVA? Risky. * Science Shine (27:08) * Asteroid depiction * A dark rubble pile * Initial contact, asteroid more like a wall than a planet. * Space is quiet! * Phoenix station has 0.2g gravity * Sol is a Mars day * Johnson / Molly Cobb Spacecenter Details * Astrobiology * Methane as a biomarker * Lavatubes are a reasonable place to look for life * Asteroid Mining * Worth the effort? * Flooding the market with rare earths * 122g of asteroid for $1B (OSIRIS-REx) * Of it's time (52:47) * Ratings (1:04:35) REFERENCES * For All Mankind (Wikipedia) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_All_Mankind_(TV_series)#Season_4_(2023%E2%80%9324)] * Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM) [https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/asteroid-redirect-robotic-mission-arrm/] * A City on Mars [https://acityonmars.com/] * Mars Phoenix [https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-phoenix/] * Korolev Crater [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korolev_(Martian_crater)] * Mars Odyssey [https://science.nasa.gov/mission/odyssey/] * Bruce McCandless II [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_McCandless_II] * Mars Watch [https://www.omegawatches.com/en-ca/watches/speedmaster/instruments/x-33-marstimer/product] * Methanogenesis [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanogenesis] * OSIRIS-REx [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSIRIS-REx]

2001: A Space Odyssey

In this episode of "Popcorn Science," discuss the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. TOPICS * Science Gripes (7:00) * Tapir do not live in Africa * Arid environment, but humans likely evolved in arboreal environment * Little evidence for humans living in caves * Humans are not the only tool users, monolith didn't grant unique advantage * Artistic placement of the moon * Random equations / diagrams on screen: Sci-Fi jibberish * Space craft: No thrusters * Moonwalking: Too much gravity, too little falling down * EVA without tether or thruster packs, gardening gloves * Discovery: * Moving too fast: 3 weeks to Mars? 18 weeks to Jupiter? * Habitation ring too slow (or too much gravity) * For every action, these wasn't an equal reaction * Jupiter: * Too many (major) moons * Science Shine (31:00) * Centripetal gravity, close enough * Decent job showing zero-gravity life * Clavius station under ground, close enough to Tycho for a shuttle * Infectious disease concerns in space * Predicted Magnetic anomalies on the Moon!: Lunar Swirls * Earth phases * 13 seconds in vacuum, plausible! * HAL wins at chess * Smooth space turns: Reaction wheels * Commercial travel looks modern * Of it's time (46:33) * Ratings (59:03) REFERENCES * 2001: A Space Odyssey (film, 1968) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001%3A_A_Space_Odyssey] * 2001: A Space Odyssey (novel, 1968) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(novel)] * Stargate Effect [https://2001archive.org/resources/the-special-effects-of-2001-a-space-odyssey/] * Arthur C. Clarke [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke] * Stanley Kubrick [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kubrick] * Also sprake Zarathustra - Richard Strauss [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szdziw4tI9o] * Sapians [https://www.ynharari.com/book/sapiens-2/] * Homo Habilus (tool users) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_habilis] * Stanford Torus [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_torus] * Andromeda Strain: Book (1969) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain], Film (1971) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain_(film)] * Lunar Swirls [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_swirls] * Vacuum Suit Accident [https://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/aerospace-engineering/space-suit-design/early-spacesuit-vacuum-test-wrong/] * Reaction Wheel [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_wheel] * Computer sings "Daisy Bell" (1961) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41U78QP8nBk] * Douglas Rain [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Rain] * Universe (1960) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Rain] - National Film Board of Canada