#5: Internet Root, Genetics, Apple, Helicopters on Mars, and more!

Mosquitoes transfer all kinds of nasty diseases, and this project aims to reduce the population of the “Aedes aegypti” mosquito family.

This gives us food for thought. Technologies like CRISPR exist today and will have a massive impact on our society. They are giving us the ability to change any gene we’d like in any organism.

Is it okay to genetically modify animals? When should it be allowed, and when should it be blocked? What about crops? And what about humans?

We’ve all seen the banners on Wikipedia asking us to donate to the foundation. But what I didn’t know is that Wikipedia’s parent company has more than enough money to go around!

We’ve all seen 404 pages on the Internet. But why 404? This takes us back to the early days of the Web. At CERN, office number 404 was responsible for providing people with requested files. Whenever a request could not be fulfilled (because a file could not be found), the office responded with “Room 404: file not found,” which later turned into the familiar “Error 404: file not found”.

(Thanks to my dad, who pointed my attention to this remarkable historical fact!)

Whether you’re an Apple fanboy or not, you’ll definitely appreciate how Apple has restored an old Italian building to its former glory. Also: marble floors must’ve been cheap back in the day!

The inevitable has happened! Space Debris has hit and damaged the ISS 😖 Scientists have worried about space debris for a long time. Not only could it limit our ability to explore the solar system, but it could also damage things like GPS, TV, and communication satellites which are vital.

Kessler syndrome is the theoretical scenario in which the density of objects in low-Earth orbit is so high that one collision could endlessly cascade.

Curiosity took beautiful pictures from clouds moving over the Martian surface. (Cloud forming is rare on Mars because of its thin atmosphere)

Last bit of Mars-news: Chinese rover Zhurong has captured a fantastic selfie by placing a wireless camera on the planet’s surface and then driving back to its lander.

A few weeks ago, I binge-watched the series For All Mankind, which presents an alternate history in which the space race never ended.

Most of the story is pure fiction, but one episode is about a mission called Apollo-Soyuz, which actually happened! On July 17th, 1975, the US and Soviet Union docked two spacecraft in orbit.