I just had a video call with a colleague who is on a ship at the North Pole. A VIDEO CALL. It was smooth and bug-free and he could have been just down the road.
And this is the end of an era, in a gigantic way. One of the most special things about these expeditions is that you’re isolated - recently you might get text-only e-mails once a day, but that was it. You had to actually be present all the time, because the people on board were all you had.
@helenczerski As a child, I watched the moon landing live. It was a pure adventure to hear the astronauts' voices and learn how complicated it was. Today you can talk to the people in the ISS via Social Media. I try to imagine how much easier it is today for them to stay in contact with their family. How much more, do we, the "normal people on earth" learn now. Directly. Must be a two-sided coin.
Just googled where sesame seeds come from (it never occurred to me to ask before) and found that they grow in pods that are hung upside down to ripen until they burst open and release their seeds. The treasure is revealed.
The alternate theory is that "sesame" was a bastardized form of the Talmud, šem-šāmayīm, or "in the name of heaven".
But what I find most intriguing is the likelihood that the phrase was a play on words referring to both. Oil has been seen as godly since time immemorial, sesame is the oldest oil crop to humanity. It's why sesame was seen as treasure at all. Even the word anoint just means to mark with oil, and think of how we use that word.
Today’s reminder that we are still very far from knowing everything: I have just found an odd gap in the scientific literature: the specific mechanisms of generating root pressure in trees and how this relates to the force that tree roots can exert on their surroundings (eg pavements/sidewalks), and what those forces actually are. As far as I can see, having done an extensive literature search, nothing has been done on this since the 1970s. Zilch. Not a sausage. Frustrating! #science#trees
And here's another book I’ve just finished, for anyone who has studied (or is studying) maths. It’s a lovely gallop through the parts of mathematical history that we don’t hear about, steering away from the stories that focus on the “Great Men” of the white western world, and digging around in a far more global and diverse view of how mathematics was developed. Especially highly recommended for anyone teaching maths at any level. It’s out in a couple of weeks. #maths#books#history
Tidying my office the other day and I found my favourite ever certificate, from ten years ago. We had helped with the release of a stratospheric balloon in Texas and then tracked it to recover the data once it was back on the ground. Steely-eyed ballooner! #science#stratosphere