A weekly outpour of 5 of the things I consume every week. A coalescence of art, podcasts, articles, essays, newsletters, movies, web series and any other form of media you can imagine.
Hi readers! Hoping you had a blissful long weekend and a Happy Diwali *^*^
Do you know what 'Media res' means?
It means 'in the midst of things', it is used as a literary device where exposition is bypassed and filled in gradually, through dialogue, flashbacks or description of past events.
If you associate yourself to the field of business and commerce and hardly pay attention to what's happening around in the sphere of Science, it's time to change.
I find the enigma of cosmos deeply engaging and time and again I come back to it only to realize we are in the middle of things, and also in our individual lives, let's not forget science in the middle of things. Here's to the cosmos!
1. The James Webb Time Machine on Unexplainable from Vox (Podcast)
Heard of ‘The Hubble’? Multiply it by 10 and you get James Webb.
The James Webb Space Telescope will find the first galaxies that formed in the early universe and peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems. If you want to know more about all of this, listen to this podcast.
2. Avi Loeb: Aliens, Black Holes, and the Mystery of the Oumuamua on Lex Fridman (Podcast)
Avi Loeb is an astrophysicist at Harvard and in this podcast he answers all these questions
Are we alone in the universe?, Consciousness, Sending digital copies of humans to space, Oumuamua ,UFO sightings, How long will human civilization last?, Are humans ready for discovering an alien civilization?, Black holes, Dark matter, Advice for young people, Existentialism, Mortality, Meaning of life and much more
If you are planning to go for a long run, this is your companion.
3. The Microdose by Michael Pollan (Newsletter)
Michael Pollan, the king of educating people about psychedelics has recently launched his bi-weekly newsletter called ‘The Microdose’ and here’s the bio:
There has never been a more exciting – or bewildering – time in the world of psychedelics. What just a few years ago was an obscure corner of clinical and neuroscientific research has blossomed into a vibrant scientific field, yielding promising new treatments and important insights about the mind and brain.
If you view the world of psychedelics in contempt, here’s some solid research references for you to change your mind. (Oh BTW you should also read ‘How to change your mind’ by Michael Pollan)
4. This is Life at 400 on The Nautilus (Magazine)
It is a task to find well research articles and on the top to find good magazines filled with a dozens of them. Nautilus is just that!
A magazine dedicated to the wonders of science. You can spend hours on this website without realizing where did the time go.
This article ponders upon the consequences of increase in human life span to more than 100 years. Will our pension benefits get affected or our marriages? Read this to find out.
Thank me later!
5. The Greatest Story Ever Told by Neil deGrasse Tyson (Essay)
If Rob from the show MAD on Cartoon Network popularized art and craft for me, Neil got me enthused about astrophysics.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is perhaps the world’s best-known popularizer of science. The astrophysicist has achieved that status through his ever-expanding body of work in television (Cosmos), podcasting, journalism, social media and books (Read ‘Astrophysics for people in a hurry’) and as director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
In this essay, he talks about the greatest story ever told – the big bang and how the universe emerged unscathed from the chaos.
Have a productive week ahead!