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Touring the solar system with a new book of NASA photos
It's easy to get jaded by images of our solar system, especially when NASA probes like Cassini make it look so routine. A new book called The Planets, written and curated by Nirmala Nataraj with a forward by Bill Nye and featuring hundreds of stunning NASA images, should cure you of your cynicism. As Nye puts it, we haven't exactly been doing this for a long time. "You are looking at images with a clarity and sharpness that our ancestors probably couldn't even imagine, let alone capture," he said.
Recommended Reading: The genetics of better beer
You Want Better Beer? Good. Here's a Better Barley Genome Adam Rogers, Wired The beer industry certainly isn't hurting for money these days, but a group of scientists are trying to figure out how to make the beverage even better. They're doing so by breaking down the genome of barley, a key ingredient in the brewing process that that turns starch into sugar for yeast to transform into alcohol during fermentation. Wired has the story of how the geneticists could be on the way to improving suds for all of us to enjoy.
'Orange is the New Black' season five premieres on June 9th
House of Cards isn't the only show Netflix is soon bringing back for a new season. The streaming service revealed today that another one of its hit originals, Orange is the New Black, will be premiering its fifth season on June 9th. Last year, Netflix said the series created by Jenji Kohan would be around for quite a while, after announcing it had been renewed for three more seasons (five, six and seven).
Bill Nye and Buzz Aldrin do a little turn on the catwalk
Never in a million years did I think I'd see Bill Nye and Buzz Aldrin walk a runway together, but that's exactly what happened. Both were part of designer Nick Graham's Fall 2017 fashion show in New York City, where he revealed his new "Life on Mars: F/W 2035" menswear collection. Graham says the event was inspired by our need to explore the Red Planet, as well as his admiration for Aldrin's space travel accomplishments -- like being one of the first humans to land on the moon. That's why you'll see garments with prints of rockets and planets, or designs in red that are meant to represent Mars' famed hues.
The Prius Prime's efficiency, and more in the week that was
What does Tesla have up its sleeve? The automaker is planning to unveil a mysterious new product on Monday, and speculation so far ranges from the finalized Model 3 to a major Autopilot update. Meanwhile, the Toyota Prius Prime received a spectacular 133 MPGe rating, making it the most efficient electrified vehicle you can buy in the US. A new European law could require all new homes to install electric vehicle chargers. And Vello launched the world's first folding electric bike that can power itself.
Bill Nye lands a Netflix show
Everyone's favorite bow-tied scientist is back with a Netflix series. Bill Nye is making a return to TV via a talk show, called Bill Nye Saves the World, set to debut in Spring, 2017.
LightSail sends back photo of deployed solar sails
A series of computer problems and battery glitches make LightSail's victorious unfurling of solar sails extra sweet. Now, we have a sailfie (*groan*) of the spacecraft with its wings proudly rolled out and a view of the sun to prove that it really did successfully deploy its wings in low-Earth orbit on June 7th. LightSail's ground crew is even currently downloading a second image captured from the opposite side, possibly with Earth in the background. The engineers might still increase the tension of the sails in the next few days, so they could look flatter than in the picture above. After that, they'll be analyzing the images and the sails' tensioning results in preparation for the vessel's first major mission in 2016, which was partly crowdfunded via KickStarter.
These videos prove that music and science can (usually) mix
Wondering how NASA could make a clever yet groan-inducing music video like "All About That Space?" Really, it's just carrying on a tradition of producing science-themed tunes. A lot of them are cheesy covers -- we've seen scientific riffs on Adele and Psy, among others -- while others remind you why biology, chemistry and physics are such wonderful things. We've rounded up ten noteworthy science music videos to show you how good (or at least, dorky) they can get. And if you've discovered any other cool or kitschy clips, be sure to share them in the comments.
Bill Nye 'The Science Guy' wants to reboot his classic show, but isn't sure it makes sense
Bill Nye co-hosting The 2014 White House Science Fair livestream Bill Nye -- known to most as "The Science Guy" -- doesn't get paid for his regular appearances at The White House. "I have to pay my own way here!" he says. "I just support it. Generally, the kids are happy to see me and that's good!" Nye was one of the hundreds of guests attending the first White House Maker Faire yesterday morning; he's appeared previously at the annual White House Science Fair and other STEM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Mathematics) events. When we caught up with him, he was carefully framing a selfie with a young maker so that George Healy's portrait of Abraham Lincoln ended up in the shot. Having grown up with Nye's excellent show Bill Nye The Science Guy, we immediately asked what happened to the planned reboot he once teased: "People talk about it all the time; I'm going to a meeting tomorrow. We'll see if that works out."
