Curating the Internet: Science and technology micro-summaries for October 12, 2019

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Authored by @remlaps

The danger of over-interpreting a single scientific study; A NASA animation demonstrates the relative speeds of different planetary motions; Programming languages for blockchain; NASA's first all-female space walk rescheduled for Oct. 21; An obsessed fan reverse engineered a reflection in a Japanese pop idol's eyes in order to find and assault her

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  1. Exoplanets, Life, and the Danger of a Single Study - This article calls to attention the practice of reporting science news based upon a single study by pointing to a recent study reporting that a planet, K2-18b, had been found that had water and orbits in its star's habitable zone. This "potentially habitable" planet was widely reported in the press, (including Curating the Internet: Science and technology micro-summaries for September 14, 2019), but astronomers quickly started to resist this claim. The authors of the study continue to describe the planet as "potentially habitable", but many other astronomers have now weighed in, saying that although the planet is technically in the so-called "habitable zone", the reality is that the planet's temperature and atmospheric pressure are both probably too high to support life as we know it. With some caveats dealing for things like pressure groups the author suggests that science journalists have a responsibility to challenge the things their told, seek out dissenting view points, and make sure to publish a balanced and nuanced perspective. The author also suggests that science journalists should be more skeptical when they sense that a study is being hyped - which is consistent with the bird study in Curating the Internet: Science and technology micro-summaries for October 1, 2019. This short excerpt summarizes the problem nicely: "But an information pipeline that runs uninterrupted from scientists to press officers to the news media puts us at risk of another kind of misinformation. A great science story counts for nothing if it gives readers a misleading impression or paints a cartoonish, one-dimensional picture of how science works. Such stories are their own brand of fake news. In writing them, we do neither the scientists, their press officers, nor our readers any favors."

  2. Earth is screaming through space at 1.3 million mph. A simple animation by a former NASA scientist shows what that looks like. - NASA has posted a video that demonstrates the relative differences in speed of the Earth's various movements through space. The types of motion include the Earth's rotation around its axis, it's revolution around the Sun, it's orbit through the Milky Way Galaxy, and the planet's motion in relationship to the cosmic microwave background. As Elon Musk posted on Twitter, the fact that we can't sense this motion here on the ground, "makes it clear that you can only sense acceleration, not velocity."

    Here is the video:


  • Programming Languages Used in Blockchain, Explained - Programming languages are used to control how blockchains operate, to manage the use of smart contracts on the blockchain, and to control the applications that make use of blockchains and cryptocurrencies. According to this article, the most common languages are C++, javascript, python, and solidity - each of which has strength and weaknesses. For example, C++ is an older language with a high learning curve due to its outdated syntax, javascript doesn't support sha256, python has limited complexity, and solidity doesn't allow smart contracts to exploit new features after creation.

  • NASA's First All-Female Spacewalk is Really Happening This Time - The schedule says Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will do a space walk on October 21. A previous walk was planned back in March, but had to be scrubbed due to sizing issues with one of the space suits. The goal of the mission will be to swap out batteries on the International Space Station's solar panels. Koch also made an appearance training Bumble the Astrobee in Curating the Internet: Science and technology micro-summaries for October 11, 2019. Of the 550 people who have been sent to space since 1961, 11% have been female.

  • STEEM Japanese pop idol attacked after STALKER finds her home by zooming in on her EYES - Ena Matsuokaa, member of the J-pop group Tenshitsukinukeniyomi, is a Japanese pop idol. Recently, she was ambushed outside of her home by Hibiki Sato, an unemployed 26 year old. Sato told police that he found her home by zooming in on the reflection found in the singer's eyes in an online photo. He was able to match her surroundings to a Google Maps image, and even figured out the particular apartment by analyzing the angles of light and shadow in the photo. He also confessed to being an obsessed fan, as well as assaulting and molesting the singer. (A 10% beneficiary setting has been assigned to this post for @rt-international.)

    • In order to help make Steem the go to place for timely information on diverse topics, I invite you to discuss any of these links in the comments and/or your own response post.

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    Concerning the point 1: this is the reason why any single observation has to be independently cross-checked! To go back to my field, we have two general-purpose experiments at the LHC, ATLAS and CMS, for this very same reason :)

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    This post has been voted on by the SteemSTEM curation team and voting trail. It is elligible for support from @curie and @minnowbooster.

    If you appreciate the work we are doing, then consider supporting our witness @stem.witness. Additional witness support to the curie witness would be appreciated as well.

    For additional information please join us on the SteemSTEM discord and to get to know the rest of the community!

    Thanks for having included @steemstem in the list of beneficiaries of this post. This granted you a stronger support from SteemSTEM. Note that using the steemstem.io app could have yielded an even more important support.

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