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- Generous orcas, light-fingered ethicists, and avian astronauts
Generous orcas, light-fingered ethicists, and avian astronauts
Plus 5 talks and lectures on exoplanets, quantum physics, and more
Leonie Mercedes
July 08, 2025
Hello, friends!
How have you been? Wimbledon has been owning me and honestly, I don’t mind that one little bit.
💃🏽 It’s my party: ahem Speaking of which, I wrote about the new tech at this year’s Championships for Ingenia. Take a look to find out how Hawk-Eye works, how AI is transforming sport at large, and just how many km of cabling run round the All England Lawn Tennis Club. 🎾
Coming up:
💌 the love language of orcas
🤫 the relative likelihood of ethics books vs. non-ethics books to be missing from libraries
🐥 chiiiicks iiiiin spaaaace.
Let’s go!
read all about it
Why are orcas bringing “gifts” to humans?: “Orcas often share food with each other – it’s a prosocial activity and a way that they build relationships with each other,” says Jared Towers, executive director of marine research company Bay Cetology. “That they also share with humans may show their interest in relating to us as well.” (Smithsonian Magazine)
Michelin-starred chef prepares lobster bisque and onion soup for ISS astronaut: “‘Cooking for space means pushing the boundaries of gastronomy,’ [Anne-Sophie] Pic said. ‘With my team in my research and development lab we embraced a thrilling challenge: preserving the emotion of taste despite extreme technical constraints.’” (The Guardian)
People are using AI to ‘sit’ with them on psychedelic trips: What could possibly go wrong? (MIT Technology Review)
📷 Take a look at this ’sprite’ above a thunderstorm captured by an ISS astronaut (Space)
that time when…
…we thought about sending chicks to the Moon (7 July, 1962)
An extraterrestrial canary in the coal mine? Montage by Leonie Mercedes.
“A member of the barnyard set may be the first visitor to the moon,” goes the report in Science News Letter.
“Scientists have developed germ-free chicks that could be used to detect the presence of microscopic life long before man steps on the Moon’s surface,” it continues.
“Dr Joseph Pensack of American Cyanamid Company said that any potentially dangerous organism from outer space could then be studied without being introduced into our atmosphere.”
This is the last I could find of this plot, and American Cyanamid, which once brought us fertilisers, explosives and antibiotics, is no more.
what’s happening this week?
Your agenda for Monday 7 July – Sunday 13 July.
All times are BST, and all sky views are from London.
look around you
🔭 in a sky near you: Very early risers (and I know you’re out there!) should keep an eye out for Venus this week. The morning star will rise in the northeast at about half 2, reaching heights of about two outstretched stacked fists above the eastern horizon in the half hour before sunrise (around about half 4 round these parts).
👀 closer to Earth: Count the butterflies on a buddleia bush. Buddleia’s purple cones of hundreds of little flowers are irresistible to insects when the sun is shining. Find them in gardens, parks, and along railway lines.
online talks and events
🖥️ Codes, computers and quantum physics, with Professor David Lucas, Tuesday 8 July, 17.00, free
🌪️ A journey into random dynamical systems and multiplicative ergodic theory, with associate professor Cecilia González Tokman, hybrid event by Loughborough University, Wednesday 9 July, 12.00, free
🧠 Building deep internal models during periods of rest and sleep, with Helen Barron, Wednesday 9 July, 12.00, free
🪐 Exploring exoplanet atmospheres in the age of Webb and Ariel, with Dr Tim Rawle, Wednesday 9 July, 19.00, free
☢️ From Becquerel to Oppenheimer: the science of the nuclear age, with Frank Close, hybrid event by the Royal Institution, Saturday 12 July, 19.00, pay what you can
we finally know…
…that ethicists (might) steal more books.
“It does not appear that books endorsing conventional morality are less likely to be missing than books challenging conventional morality: Kant and Mill are missing as much as Nietzsche.” Schwitzgebel, Eric (2009) ‘Do ethicists steal more books?’, Philosophical Psychology, 22: 6, 711–725
In this study, “relatively obscure, contemporary” ethics books were about 50% more likely to be missing than non-ethics books. Classic (pre-1900) books about ethics were found to be about twice as likely to be missing from library shelves.
Source: ‘Do ethicists steal more books?’, Philosophical Psychology (2009)
we need answers
Last week I asked:
Historically coming in black or white, what object, pressurised to about 1.9 bar (27 psi), has since 1972 been most often seen in a colour known as “optic yellow”?
The answer is… a tennis ball.
until next week…
Here’s another from the archive:
On 16 April 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann had an accident in the lab, sinking into “a not unpleasant intoxicated-like condition, characterised by an extremely stimulated imagination”. What had he just discovered?
Answer comes next week. See you then! x