Category: Geeking Science

Geeking Science: Chinese Missions

Erin Penn

CHINA’S ZHURONG MARS ROVER China’s first Mars rover, Zhurong, is pictured next to its landing platform on the surface of the red planet. The rover traveled approximately 10 meters to drop off a wireless camera, then backed up into frame in order to capture this spectacular image. Image: CNSA

Of course the Chinese know how to have their robots take great selfies. Just look how cute the Zhurong is beside its buddy lander. Hi there Zhurong, I hope you have great fun on Mars, or Huoxing (the planet of fire) as you like to call it.

So the Chinese space learning curve has kicked in with successful missions piling up and more planned, each leading and building to the next as a proper space (race) nation should be. Third nation to return samples from the moon, second to land a rover on Mars. Give them time and they might be the first to send back images from Alpha Centauri.

The moon mission returned a new mineral. (Andrew, Tianwen, Sept 15, 2022)

And they packed so much into that little moon mission. Instead of a simple drop and return, they made a in-space reconnect of the sample and orbiter to practice doing the same for a Mars sample return. If they are successful with the Mars sample return on the present ambitious schedule (out and back by July 2031), they will be the first nation ever to do it. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have similar plans in works, but their calendar is looking two years beyond that.

After returning the samples to Earth, the Chang’e-5 visited the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1 for some solar observations, then moved back to the moon for some Distant Retrograde Orbit tests. Both of these additional missions are tests and information gathering for future missions. (The Planetary Society, 2022)

Never do just one thing when you can do twenty – am I right?

This is the way of space missions now. Anything getting out of orbit is carrying a lot of CubeSats for nations and for corporations, as well as the main payload.

Can’t wait to see what all China will pack into their Huoxing (Mars) mission. And it will be fun to see what NASA and the ESA do to try to keep up. At least, some of the new space race (to Mars) will involve flying drones.

I know there will be more robot selfies. Looking fine Zhurong. I’m sure your siblings will look as great as Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance have over the years. I’m geeking humanity’s joint exploration of the solar system and the stars.

Bibliography

Jones, Andrew. “China discovers new moon mineral in lunar samples.” space.com. September 12, 2022. https://www.space.com/china-new-lunar-mineral-chang-e – last viewed 12/17/2022.

Jones. Andrew. “Tianwen-3: China’s Mars sample return mission.” The Planetary Society. September 15, 2022. https://www.planetary.org/articles/tianwen-3-china-mars-sample-return-mission – last viewed 12/17/2022.

The Planetary Society. “Chang’e-5: China’s Moon sample return mission.” (undated). https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/change-5 – last viewed 12/17/2022.

Xinhua. “China’s first Mars rover starts exploring red planet.” May 22, 2021. – last viewed 12/17/2022.

Other Cool Blogs: Scientific American 4/2/2013

Erin Penn

5173163 © Newphotoservice | Dreamstime.com
“Wow, I’ve never expected a woman to write such good science fiction.”
I grit my teeth and close the sale. “Thank you.”
“And hot too. Would you like to meet at the bar later?”
Thankfully, this has never happened to me to me. Well, at a convention. The bar thing – being asked on a date after performing a professional service like tax preparation, that happens every year. The “you are really good at math for a woman”, “you are really smart for a female”, “how come you are not home taking care of babies, you are so pretty”. Yeah, all of that.
It’s called “Benevolent Sexism”.
Women should be home with children. Men should be protecting and supporting the women. Math and science for men; language and emotions for women. Women are fragile; men don’t cry. Females are pretty first and then their occupation; men are competent wage-earners before being physically healthy and attractive. No one is valued for being themselves.
Smile, you look pretty.
How badly does this impact society? When people are being “nice”, but judging worth by gender stereotypes? 
Wage inequality. Medical inequality (see One Gender Research). Legal inequality. Abuse hiding in shadows. Glass ceilings. The list goes on.
And, no, it isn’t pleasant to have to a guy (after turning him down twice while you can’t get away because you are doing his taxes) laughingly go “see you next year, you might say yes!” 
Yes, this article is nearly a decade old. It still applies today.
Tannenbaum, Melanie. “The Problem when Sexism Just Sounds So Darn Friendly…” Scientific American. 2013 April 2. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psysociety/benevolent-sexism/?fbclid=IwAR2Qu6B-R7XjLwA0AGrR0U8VMOQsCHvjo5r23O4p5l63Ptgle6gHjl5VC9E (Last viewed 4/5/2022)
(If you read nothing else of the article, read the obituary for Yvonne Brill. The “twist” at the end is EXACTLY what is wrong about benevolent sexism. If you read a second thing in the article, read the comments of when ‘I f*king love science’ come out on twitter as a woman. )

Geeking Science: Tree Talk

Erin Penn

Photo by Sebastian Unrau on Unsplash

Scientists have discover trees gossip, after a fashion.

Through a fungal network, they share information about insect attacks, can request nutrients, and even nurture their young. So much happening right under our feet!

Within a multi-layer, diverse-culture forest, mother trees can make sure her seedlings get the food they need even under the shade of her branches. But here is a twist on that sharing nutrient network, trees do it with other trees outside their family line and even species. Initially, this might seem counter intutive to the Darwinian “survival of the fittest” concept of every creature and lifeform is out for themselves. When ecology professor Suzanne Simard ran a test, she discovered Birch and Fir trees talk to each other.

When the fir was shaded by the birch in summer, the birch sent more carbon to it. When the birch was leafless in the winter, the fir sent more carbon to it. (Burrows, 2018)

By working together, the two trees had a steady supply of “food” year round.

Cooperation for the win.

This interaction within the forest gives some concerns to clear-cutting and replacing with mono-culture tree species. Even removing the “largest” trees might not be the best option for a healthy forest, as the mother trees are teaching other trees how to share resources. This massive interaction is something loggers need to study to maximize production of good wood products.

<Simard> says, “<Trees> live longest and reproduce most often in a healthy stable forest. That’s why they’ve evolved to help their neighbors.” (Grant, 2018)

As a writer interested in science fiction, all this geeks me out. The interconnectedness of forests brings so much to the conceptual plate of Terraforming. Making oxygen and water won’t bring a planet paradise into existence. We must understand soil, trees sharing water and nutrients, fungi taking 30% of the sugar to provide a communication network and replaying the sugar with nutrients they gather to the tree roots. All these interactions will need to be brought into play on New-Earth, both fictional and in real life.

Bibliography

BBC News. “How trees secretly talk to each other” YouTube. June 29, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWOqeyPIVRo – last viewed 12/18/2022.

Burrows, Sue. “Trees Talk to Each Other in a Language We Can Learn, Ecologist Claims”. ReturnToNow.net. February 28, 2018. – last viewed 12/18/2022 (Note 4/26/2024: website cancelled).

Grant, Richard. “Do Trees Talk to Each Other?”. Smithsonian Magazine. March 2018. – Last viewed 12/18/2022.

McClenaghan, Beverly. “STEM in Context – Talking Trees: How Do Trees Communicate?” Let’s Talk Science. July 23, 2019. – last viewed 12/18/2022 (Note from 9/20/2023 – looks like it is now behind a paywall).

 

Geeking Science: Notifications & Interruptions

Erin Penn

Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash

Every time a person switch tasks, energy is drawn from their cognitive processing. Humans are built to switch tasks every 20 minutes or so; varies from person-to-person and by age. Have a sit-till task, then a doing task. Learning, then resting. Sermons break up long periods of sitting with some song. Working in the field for a while, then a break to take care of the animal. If you are in a lecture, you might find your eyes and mind wandering at the twenty-to-thirty-minute mark.

Modern life overloads this switch task capability with notifications. Beep, beep, beep goes the phone. Co-workers popping in the office for a “quick question.” By the end of the day, the cognitive processor is done with adjusting tasks and decision making. Suddenly pizza or fried chicken looks like a good option on the way home instead of the healthy meal vaguely mapped out in the head from the last grocery trip. Never mind food going bad in the fridge, health issues with salt, and budgets being destroyed. You don’t have time or energy to make a decision.

You are not alone. Research has shown constant interruptions decrease the financial decision-making skills. By living from interruption to interruption, one only lives in the “now”. Long-term goals and critical thinking escape out the window when someone is always coming in through the door with the next new thing. This is a problem for day-to-day life.

And for your writing. If all your cognitive juices are used up before you even drive home, tapping them for creative energy to write at the end of the day becomes impossible.

I can’t write much during the tax season, especially when I’m assigned to a Walmart location. I need to answer the phones and answer all the “quick questions” of passerbys – while dealing with the client, keeping aware of the surroundings to protect their information, monitor emails for needed information, and manage the line. Oh, and the texts from my co-workers who have questions (as well as texts from friends and family about other things in the life, deciding on my food, and taking care of the social media related to my writing/editing occupations).

Ways to free up energy focus on reducing the decision-making and task-switching. If possible, group phone notifications to just three times per day at work. The 8 am coffee break and settle in to work; noon for lunch “conversation” for personal notifications or one for after-lunch getting back into the saddle, then four or four-thirty to close out the day. Five or five-thirty for the drive home for personal responses. People who trim the constant beep-beep-beep down to just three groups per day say they are more productive and less stressed. (Glick, 2022)

Other ways to reduce the cognitive load include making a list of the tasks you WANT to accomplish in the day. When one task is done, look at the list and move on. This way you don’t have to wrack you brain after each task for a new one. Create habits like at the end of the day, flip the hourglass for one group of writing (It’s still working for those following at home about my writing/editing life!). These habits reduce the switch-task costs. Figure out was to cut out distractions, the “just a moment” interruptions. Putting a sign on the door for the work-at-home saying “work hours are 8 to noon and one to five – Any interruptions mean I work over, which mean you do dishes.”

WRITING EXERCISE: Figure out one thing to reduce your cognitive load – either reduction of decision-making or switching tasks – and implement it. For example, setting up notifications to only ding three times a day or turning off the Facebook notifications altogether. Or create a habit, like laying out your clothes the night before so you don’t have to make choices before you have your coffee.

Good luck at limiting your interruptions and restoring your cognitive load to manageable levels.

Comment below what cognitive load burdens are heaviest for you, what you are working on for the Writing Exercise, and how it turned out this week. Follow up in a month or two about it’s impact on your time management and self-care.

Bibliography

Glick, Molly. “Phone Notifications are Messing with Your Brain.” Discovermagazine.com. 2022 April 29. – last viewed 5/5/2022

Geeking Science: String Cheese

Erin Penn

Acquired from Wikipedia Article

Bobbing along editing and an author refers to string cheese, in a fantasy with all the normal medieval and renaissance mish-mash. Wait … is string cheese medieval?

Off to do research, and the answer is “no”. In 1976, Wisconsin cheese-maker Frank Baker decide to see if he could make the normal stretchy-stringy mozzarella properties even more-so to create a light snack people can take with them for lunch. Through a heating and manipulation process to align the proteins, strings of cheese resulted.

The small individually packed cheese product caught on in the 80’s as a child novelty lunch-snack. In the 90’s the Adkin and similar low-carb diets kicked it higher. Now, for the Baker family, string cheese is their only product.

Bibliography
Channel 3000 (youtube channel) “What Makes String Cheese Stringy?” 2009 November 10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl2den0QVrA – last viewed 5/1/2022.

Dairy foods (youtube channel). “What makes Baker Cheese’s string cheese production unique.” 2020 March 19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqFvsNA2GJY – last viewed 5/1/2022.

Higgins, Daniel. “Baker Cheese masters art of string cheese”. Green Bay Press Gazette / USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. 2017 June 6. https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/life/food/2017/06/06/wisconsin-cheesemaker-baker-cheese-masters-the-art-of-string-cheese/96198296/ – last viewed 5/1/2022.

Wikipedia. “String cheese.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_cheese – last viewed 5/1/2022.