The role of Daft Punk in experiencing a total eclipse

Hello, friends! Among the biggest news this week is that the Sun’s about to do a peek-a-boo with the Moon over North America, so our pals in Mexico, the US and Canada are giving their safety glasses a buff in time for the total solar eclipse on Monday. Today, we’re looking at how you can see it from wherever you are.

There’s also the opportunity to virtually breed some fancy pigeons, tune into the goings-on of Apollo 13 (it’s a thriller), and some choice ’90s pop hidden somewhere.

What will you discover this week?

This week’s kicks

Monday 8 April

😎 It’s a total solar eclipse (in North America)! While our friends in (a 183km-wide band of) the continent will be treated to the spectacle in the flesh, along with the spooky phenomena that accompany it (the drop in temperature, change in wind, animals getting weirded out in various ways), it is possible to get in on the experience from the UK.

🍿 Join NASA’s livestream to watch the eclipse as it happens, or if you prefer your space with a European accent, the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy will also be putting on a show. (It’s also worth noting here that if you’re far enough north or west in the UK, you’ll get to see a partial eclipse.)

🎧 Converting the spectacle into sound: Read about how a device called LightSound translates changing light intensity into sound to help blind and visually impaired people listen to the sky darkening during an eclipse. (A student programmed one such device to play fewer and fewer instruments of Daft Punk’s Around the World as the light falls.)

Tuesday 9 April

🌙 Eid Moonsighting Live, virtual event held by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, 20.00, free: See in the end of Ramadan with a live sighting of the new crescent Moon, joining New Crescent Society director Imad Ahmed and Royal Observatory astronomer Jake Foster as they discuss the relationship between astronomy and Islam.

Wednesday 10 April

🤖 AI as the main driver for future science, hybrid event held by the University of Oxford, 18.00, free: Professor Charlotte Deane MBE discusses the use of machine learning in the design of new molecules before a panel of experts explore how else AI is influencing science.

🌃 See the Moon and Jupiter in tight formation: Toward sunset (about half 7), look west and near the horizon to find the thin crescent Moon and Jupiter shining right beside it to the left.

Thursday 11 April

🌍 Water and climate change: adaptation at the margins, hybrid event held by the Museum of Natural History, 18.00, free: Researchers and practitioners discuss the role of climate science in helping vulnerable communities adapt to climate change.

🫡 Throwback, 1970: Launch of Apollo 13, the third trip set to land people on the Moon that – after an explosion on the spacecraft – became one of the most incredible rescue missions of all time.

🎞️ Follow the events of the mission as they unfold (including the crazy calm-sounding reaction to the explosion itself) in Apollo 13 in Real Time, an interactive project that brings together genuine mission audio, photos and footage.

🚀 Feast your eyes on the anatomy of the Saturn V, the 110m rocket that sent those astronauts to the Moon, explained by xkcd (well, it was only a matter of time) in the 1,000 most used words in the English language.

Friday 12 April

👨‍🚀 Throwback, 1961: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first ever spaceman. “Granny, stop! He’s speaking Russian. He’s probably human,” recalls Rita Nurskanova, who was planting potatoes with her grandmother in the field where Gagarin landed according to this BBC report.

Saturday 13 April

🐦‍⬛ Listen out for the rising song of blackbirds: Blackbirds (Turdus merula) – including some polyamorous males – are piping up at this time of year. Keep an ear out for their distinctive song, often a flute-like motif followed by a twitter, as well as their warning calls, which signal danger.

Sunday 14 April

🧬 Throwback, 2003: The Human Genome Project, which sequenced more than 90% of the human genome in one of the biggest global scientific collaborations of all time, is completed.

🐦❤️🐦 Breed some fancy pigeons: For a crash course in genetic traits and inheritance (albeit extremely simplified), try this game that invites you to become a pigeon breeder.

🪺 Egg update: I finally dug out my 2016 notebook on this, hoping to get the answer to the question “who’s the scientist who drew a cross on an egg while it was still inside the chicken to find out if it flips round just before being laid?”

You know what I found? Nothing. Well, actually, I found this note: “Who’s the guy who found the egg turns over halfway?” As we know from two editions ago, that was a gentleman named J.A.F. Fozzard. But I’m determined to keep digging and reassure myself I didn’t make the cross-drawing up in some Easter chocolate-induced fever dream. I’ll keep you posted.

We need answers

Last week, I asked:

The answer is... spring. According to a study from Coventry University, in collaboration with the Woodland Trust, British Science Association and BBC Springwatch, the season of spring moves across the UK at an average speed of 1.9 miles per hour, taking nearly three weeks to get from south to north.

Professor Tim Sparks worked it out by analysing more than 20,000 records of seven spring events, including swallows arriving and hawthorn flowering, to arrive at the result, also concluding that spring may be moving faster now than before.

Until next week...

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