The Bear Grylls approach to diagnosis

Hello, friends!

...and a warm welcome to what I’ve decided to call “season 2”. For newcomers (lovely to see you!), we’re a regular dispatch of (mostly free) science talks streaming this week, astronomy for urban skies and things to notice while you’re outside. Let’s go!

🍿 online lectures and talks 🐧

Tuesday 24 September

The ancient history of computers and code, hybrid event by Gresham College, 18.00, free: Yep, that says ancient. Professor Victoria Baines talks us through the long history of computer language and software, making stops at the difference and analytical engines of yore, and the textile mills of Northern England. Run, don’t walk.

Wednesday 25 September

Mysteries of the deep sea, hybrid event by the Natural History Museum, 18.30, free to £25: Dr Adrian Glover takes us 4,000 metres beneath the Pacific Ocean to meet some of the alien-like creatures seen on the SMARTEX deep sea expedition, including the cursed “Barbie-pig”. Darling, it’s better down where it’s wetter.

Friday 27 September

The scientist and the forger, hybrid event by the Royal Institution, 19.20, free to £20: Professor Jehane Ragai blows the case wide open on the ongoing battle between art forgers and the scientists trying to catch them, exploring some notorious cases. Dress code: overcoat, gumshoes.

🔭 in a sky near you… 🪐

This week, Saturn is still very large (relatively speaking) and very bright in our night sky after reaching opposition on the 8th. (We get the best view of planets when they’re in opposition, or directly ‘opposite’ the Sun, with the Earth directly in between.) To spot it this week, look south east, just above the horizon, at about 9pm.

About an hour later Jupiter will rise in the north east, keeping a tight formation with the Moon tonight (Monday).

👀 closer to Earth 🌍

Easy find: Autumn has descended (along with about a foot of rain where I am) and the trees are in voluptuous fruit. Visit the elder tree you might have foraged this spring to see explosions of little dark purple berries where the white flowers once were. (Bonus points if you catch a woodpigeon mid-scran.)

Harder: Keep your eyes peeled for the attractive blue wing feathers of Eurasian jays, which start coming out in greater numbers this month. They’ll be spending the season hoarding acorns, nuts and seeds – up to 5,000! – before the winter. A real treat of a find.

💫 we need answers

Back in… *checks notes* June, I asked:

The answer is… Pluto. The vehicle was the New Horizons space probe, sent by NASA to fly by Pluto and send back photos of its surface, which we’d never seen in proper detail. (And if you haven’t, do yourself a favour. Phwoar, right?)

Back when New Horizons launched in January 2006, Pluto was still a planet. Just seven months into its journey, and almost nine years before the probe’s arrival in July 2015, it had been (accurately? ruthlessly? depending on your point of view) reclassified as a dwarf planet.

The calculation is courtesy of Grand High Nerd Randall Munroe (of xkcd), who in What If? 2 divided the mission’s $850m budget by the 5 billion miles it had travelled to get 17¢ per mile, “pretty similar to the cost of gas and snacks on a road trip”.

🤔 until next week…

What disease derives part of its full name from the sweet-tasting urine of those who had it?

Answer comes next week. See you then! x