I’m “Brilliant”, Modeling Mars moons manufacture, Rapturous music

Upcoming Appearances/Shameless Self-Promotion

Where I’ll be doing things you can watch and listen to or read about

The Brilliant is an online magazine that showcases people doing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) outreach. The idea is to give communicators a boost and find best practices.

Brilliant journalist Michelle Fincke interviewed me for the magazine, and her results are now online. That was a fun interview, and if you’re new around here it’ll give you some background info on why I do what I do.

If you know of a good STEM communicator, the magazine is always looking for more people to spotlight. Drop ‘em a line!

News Cues

I choose a few to imbue clued views

Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos. They’re lumpy potatoes only about 25 and 13 km across, respectively. How did they get there? The leading idea, still unconfirmed, is that a big asteroid impact on Mars splashed enough material into orbit that the moons coalesced from it. But a new idea was recently tested mathematically: What if it had one bigger moon that got split into two by an asteroid impact? Using the physics of collisions, orbits, gravity, and more, scientists modeled what would happen if two moons were formed in such a way [link to paper]. The result? Nope: The models show that a short time after their creation the two moons would collide at high enough speed to blow them into bits. Since the moons exist now, and have for a long time, this hypothesis is very likely wrong. This is good news, really, because in science you always want to test new ideas, even if the older ones seem to work, especially if the older ones are still unconfirmed. Science in action!

Music of the Spheres

An occasional glimpse into genre scifi music I like

I don’t listen to the actual radio much anymore; I get most of my music from stuff I’ve purchased or through randomly surfing online music streamers. It’s fun, but sometimes I do miss the spontaneity of a radio station.

The only time I do listen to radio is in the car, generally when I run errands. So it’s not on for long and when it is it’s intermittent. That does make it hard to stumble on something new, but to my joy it does happen. Especially this one time just recently…

We had ordered our groceries online, and I was sitting in a parking lot waiting for the clerk to bring them out. I flipped on the classical station and out wafted one of the most hauntingly ethereal and beautiful pieces I have ever heard. Seriously, I was stopped cold in my seat.

I looked at the radio, and the title of the piece was “Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture”, by Jessica Curry.

A huge grin broke out on my face, and I laughed out loud in utter delight. The music is the soundtrack to a video game for PS4 that came out in 2015.

I was the science consultant for it.

As you may know I’m not much of a gamer — my wife and daughter are, and I used to be back in the day but never really gained much enthusiasm for more modern, fancy games. So when I was approached by the British game developer The Chinese Room (via the Science and Entertainment Exchange) I was a little hesitant. But the game sounded really interesting, and they were clearly invested in getting as much of the science right as possible, which is a siren call for me. I agreed.

I wound up doing more than just advising; I wound up writing a half-dozen short articles that would appear in the game as pages from a textbook, or newspaper clippings, and the like. They were all hints, clues for the great mystery the player has to solve.

The art in the game is just stunning. Here’s the preview:

This game is different. Everyone in a small town has disappeared, and you basically walk around and find clues as to what happened. It’s not a shoot-em-up at all, but a thoughtful mystery that tugs at your emotions and slowly builds on that over the gameplay. It garnered a lot of praise from people who understood the intent, though some found it too slow. I found it enthralling once I got into it.

And the music. Oh my, the music. This is among the best game soundtracks I have ever heard. Just stunningly beautiful and emotionally gripping. Jessica Curry is extremely gifted.

Listen:

I mean, just that first note from the solo soprano. Wow. This is now on my listening rotation for when I need something more contemplative, something lush and lyrical.

If you want to play the game it’s available on Steam and Playstation. I recommend it. It’s not like anything you’ve ever played, and it’s beautiful. Just like the music.

Et alia

You can email me at [email protected] (though replies can take a while), and all my social media outlets are gathered together at about.me. Also, if you don’t already, please subscribe to this newsletter! And feel free to tell a friend or nine, too. Thanks!