You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
"I feel a little uncomfortable with the title," Mary Roach explains. The term "science writer" has never quite fit. "I think of myself as more of a gateway drug to science for people who don't think science is interesting." It's a point well taken. After all, in spite of having penned several best-selling titles on the subject, the author doesn't really have much in the way of a background, entering the book writing game with a BA and assorted magazine articles to her name. But while Roach lacks any sort of formal training, what the writer does possess is an uncanny talent making complex scientific concepts accessible to the layreader, distilling them to their most basic -- and often disgusting -- core.
It's a skill that has made for a good deal of required reading, including 2010's Packing For Mars, which ought be on the list anyone with even the remotest interest in space travel. Even with that in mind, however, the book's not likely to win NASA any new recruits in the near future, focused largely on the sorts of impact manned space travel has on the human body. It's an impact that, naturally, involves its share of bodily fluids. "Any machine or piece of equipment that works here on Earth in Earth gravity doesn't necessarily work in zero gravity," explains Roach. "It has to be rethought, re-tinkered, completely redesigned, and that includes the toilet." We'll leave some of that to your imagination -- and to Roach's book -- but let's just say that Packing for Mars uses the word "popcorn" in ways you'd likely never imagined. After the break, watch as a particularly animated Roach gets deep and dirty with the oft-unexamined impacts of going into outer space.
Filed under: Science
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
"Space," a great man once said, "is the place." Over the centuries, the cosmos have inspired mankind's imagination and innovation, in pursuit of that final frontier. The past few decades, however, have seen a fading of such romantic pursuits, a phenomenon no better illustrated than with the end of NASA's shuttle program. So, where does that put us in 2013? This month, we travel the country in pursuit of an answer, speaking to some of the top minds in the public and private space games.
We kick things off with a profile of LiftPort, a commercial space endeavor operating out of a small garage in rural Washington State that has been funding its dreams of space elevators through crowdfunded Kickstarter campaigns. Next, we head out to Cape Canaveral in Florida, where Swamp Works has set up shop in an old Apollo training facility. NASA scientists will tell us about some of the organization's far-out plans for getting to Mars and back and 3D printing structures on lunar and planetary surfaces once we arrive.
NASA's Tom Rivellini joins us to discuss "seven minutes of terror," and what it takes to land a rover on the surface of Mars. We'll also pay a visit to NASA's Ames facility to discuss why space travel is still important to life on Earth. And while out in the San Francisco Bay Area, we swing by the SETI institute to find out how the organization is actively looking for extraterrestrial life in the universe, including a discussion with SETI founder and developer of the Drake Equation, Frank Drake.
Next up, things get a bit animated with Packing for Mars author Mary Roach, who will discuss the grosser side of manned space travel, while professional prognosticator (and sometimes rock musician) John Roderick kicks off his new reoccurring segment by explaining how space exploration helps him get out of bed in the morning.
We also take a closer look at how the commercial space sector is pushing exploration forward with Google Lunar X Prize senior director, Alexandra Hall, a lunar rover team at Carnegie Mellon, the Space Angels Network VC firm and Laser Motive, which is working on powering crafts through lasers. Then we'll cap things off by speaking to two former movie costume makers who have launched their own commercial space suit companies. Excited? Take one small step with us after the break.
The rendezvous point is as nondescript as these things come -- a giant convenience store off the side of the freeway, a big cardboard box out front, filled to the brim with pumpkins in anticipation of the upcoming holiday. Stacey Jones approaches us timidly at first, calling my name in our direction, as two of the crew members puff on cigarettes in the unseasonably frigid air. She'd apparently mistaken some other folks for us a moment earlier, a group of college students in hoodies and baseball caps, and is clearly a little embarrassed by the whole experience. It's the first and last time words like "timid" and "embarrassed" can be accurately applied to a middle-aged mother of an adult son who hunts ghosts for a living in central New York State. Group identified, she announces, "We'd better get going. It'll take about an hour to get there." Disappointing news, after the five it took to get to this roadside rest stop. But we nod and smile and get back in our respective cars.
She's careful not to reveal the location until we arrive, for concerns of privacy. I've studied her a bit online. A self-described "ghost cop," YouTube is littered with videos of her leading camera crews through abandoned hospitals, in search of dead people apparently desperate to relate some bit of information to her. The location, however, isn't as classically horror movie as we'd imagined or hoped in the car ride up. It's quite idyllic, really -- a beautiful 100-year-old building off the side of the road, 200 yards from a truly stunning old church. Outside the front door, a small signboard advertises a monthly waffle breakfast.
Decidedly more ominous are the two graveyards that flank the buildings, with tombstones dating back to the early 19th century, generations of farmers under the ground that may well outnumber residents in this sparsely populated locale. The weather, too, is doing its part to set the scene -- strange, gray clouds hanging low in impossible shapes. "The light," says one of the crew members, as we park and begin the unpacking process. "It's...oversaturated." Sounds seem to travel remarkably well in the cold, crisp, pre-storm air. I step across the road with the show producer, to gather b-roll of 150-year-old headstones, still able to hear every word that Stacey says, as she describes her entry into this strange and oft-maligned world, how her son became possessed by demonic forces on an investigation in a graveyard as a teenager. It's a story she'd recount for the Discovery Channel five years ago, coupled with basic cable dramatizations, portrayed by actors bearing slightly resemblances to their real world counterparts, if you're willing to afford them the advantage of a good squint.
Engadget goes ghost hunting -- exploring the gadgetry of paranormal investigation (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Welcome boys and ghouls, to a very spooky episode of The Engadget Show. We've got plenty of tricks and treats for you in this Halloweentastic October episode. We kick things off with a trip to Oklahoma City, to the home of Flaming Lips frontman, Wayne Coyne, who talks Parking Lot Experiments, Halloween displays and why if your phone screen isn't broken, you aren't living your life. Next up, we'll show you all the necessary tools for a proper ghost hunt, with a little help from author Mary Roach, Ghost Hunters' Adam Berry and the crew of the Central NY Ghost Hunters.
In Vermont, we have a conversation with robot head Bina48 to find out what it really means to be alive and we travel to Los Angeles to talk to movie makeup Wizard Kevin Yagher and the costume experts at Global Effects Inc. And when the Engadget Van breaks down outside of an electronics store, it's up to Tim, Brian and rock band, Free Energy, to solve a very spooky mystery.
All that plus a new Ask @hodgman and a gadget table featuring the new iPod touch, Kindle Paperwhite and Galaxy Note II from Dapper Cadaver, our favorite place to buy prop corpses in the Southern California area. Jump on in after the break -- if you dare!
Hosts: Brian Heater, Jordan Morris, Tim Stevens
Guests: Wayne Coyne, Mary Roach, Kevin Yagher, Adam Berry, Chris Gilman, Jesse Thorn, John Hodgman, Bruce Duncan, Stacey Jones, BJ Winslow
Musical Guest: Free Energy
Producer: Ben Harrison
Executive Producers: Brian Heater, Joshua Fruhlinger
Download the Show: The Engadget Show - 037 (HD) / The Engadget Show - 037 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) / The Engadget Show - 037 (Small)
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The Engadget Show 37: Halloween Spooktacular with Wayne Coyne, movie monsters and ghost hunting! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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