Month: April 2017

Enlarge (credit: Jon Hall/BBC)

This is a post-UK broadcast review of Doctor Who. River Song always warned the Doctor against spoilers, so be sure to watch the episode first. Doctor Who broadcasts on Saturdays at 7:20pm UK time on BBC One, and 9pm EDT on BBC America.

Thin Ice is a classic, thoroughly entertaining Doctor Who episode with a plot that finally breaks the ice on series 10 of the popular sci-fi show, while still having time to put kids (both on screen and the hide-behind-the-sofa variety) at the center of the story.

There is more room for Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) to discover what the Doctor's motivations are—alongside a good dash of Time Lord ethics: "if I don't move on, more people die," he says as a little boy disappears under the ice, never to be seen again. But when he's challenged by Bill, the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) says: "I'm 2,000 years old and I've never had the time for the luxury of outrage."

Enlarge (credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Global ocean temperatures have been rising, but the consequences of these increases are not fully clear. A recent paper published in PNAS clarifies one of them by showing that harmful algal blooms have already become more intense.

Some types of algae naturally produce toxins. When these algae grow rapidly, they create a bloom that can kill off other species in the same ecosystem. A number of species (including Alexandrium fundyense and Dinophysis acuminate) produces toxins that accumulate in shellfish. People who eat these shellfish can experience paralytic or diarrhetic shellfish poisoning. So these blooms can hurt aquatic ecosystems, fisheries, and people.

The recent paper in PNAS used data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to model sea-surface temperatures and track algal blooms. These models showed that warming in the North Atlantic since 1982 has significantly increased the growth rate of the two most dangerous species of algae. For both of these species, algal blooms have grown to cover a much larger area of the oceans in the last 35 years. Additionally, the length of bloom season has increased by as much as eight weeks over that same time period.

Enlarge / The handmaid June (Elizabeth Moss) must wear regulation red, with a bonnet covering her face, to signify that role as a slave designated to bear children for a prominent man. (credit: The Handmaid's Tale / Hulu)

One of the most exciting new science fiction shows on the Web right now isn't exactly fun. The Handmaid's Tale, currently streaming its first three episodes on Hulu, may repulse you, incense you, or just make you cry. But like a good workout that makes your muscles burn, the hurt of watching this series eventually results in something great.

Based on the celebrated 1985 novel by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale is a half-dystopia, half-fairy tale about what happens to the United States after a far-right religious group seizes control of the government. There are a few notable changes from the novel, but, for the most part, the series follows the events of Atwood's book faithfully.

We aren't quite sure how the new nation of Gilead was formed, but we hear bits and pieces about a war that has left "the colonies" a radioactive wasteland. Food is scarce, and an infertility epidemic is sweeping the world.

Enlarge / The René C. Davidson Courthouse, at 1225 Fallon Street, in Oakland, hosts the Alameda County Superior Court. (credit: Wally Gobetz / Flickr)

The public defender’s office in Alameda County, California, has recently appealed a local judge’s recent rejection of its demands to fix an upgraded court software. That software led to the unconstitutional and erroneous jailing of some of its clients.

“These delays and errors violate Government Code § 69844’s express requirement that Superior Court clerks enter judicial orders ‘forthwith,’ as well as the constitutional right to a complete and accurate record on appeal and the Fourth Amendment prohibition upon unlawful arrests and illegal searches,” Charles Denton, an assistant public defender, wrote in his April 10 brief.

Denton largely reprised many of the same arguments that his office made when he appeared before the Superior Court.

Enlarge / Neanderthals and Denisovans probably enjoyed the view from Denisova cave, too. (credit: flickr user: loronet)

Humans, modern and otherwise, have lived in Denisova Cave in Siberia for tens of thousands of years, where they left behind a treasury of archaeological artifacts. The cave is famous for giving its name to Denisovans, a species of human closely related to Neanderthals. But Neanderthals have lived there, too.

In the cave’s Main Gallery, stone tools had been left behind by people who lived thousands of years ago. Those people were probably Neanderthals, according to a paper in Science this week: The soil says so. Even though no Neanderthal bones have been found with the tools, the paper’s authors are the first to be able to detect the presence of humans based on DNA found in the soil. This allows them to paint a much more detailed picture of the past, in Denisova Cave and elsewhere.

“This is a game changer for researchers studying our hominin past,” says Christian Hoggard, an archaeologist at Aarhus University who wasn’t involved with the story. His words are echoed by myriad researchers excitedly tweeting the paper: “This is pretty damn incredible,” says Rob Scott, an evolutionary anthropologist at Rutgers. Tom Higham, an Oxford professor who specializes in dating bones, called the discovery a “new era in Paleolithic archaeology.”

LEGO

In 2014, Felix Stiessen and Valerie Roche proposed the idea for Saturn V rocket on the LEGO Ideas website. About a year later, their concept received the 10,000 votes necessary for formal consideration by LEGO. The company green-lighted the idea in 2016, and now we have our first look at this set.

As a full disclaimer, I am a lifelong fan of LEGOs and a lifelong fan of spaceflight. So don't expect a rational review of this product by Ars. I mean, the final product will have three removable rocket stages, as well as the lunar lander and lunar orbiter. Drool.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson)

Something strange happened at work the other day: internecine warfare broke out over emoji use on Slack. The psycho-nerdism level was at 11, and it happened among a geeky staff that included someone who had recently merged a toy teddy bear with Amazon's Alexa Voice Service. The things you can do with that freaky device are probably illegal in several states. But I'm digressing.

Our civil war was straight out of HBO's Silicon Valley. It kinda rivaled the Tabs versus Spaces scene from Season 3, Episode 6. However, we weren't fighting about coding methods. What sparked our "first-world problems" brouhaha was Slack finally answering our staff's wishes.

This month's Slack update granted Slackers the ability to type a "status" message—or an emoji—next to their name and avatar. Presumably, this new feature would be used by staffers to display their availability—useful because our US staff of 26 doesn't see each other much. We all work remotely, and much of our real-time communications occur on Slack. We also use Slack to instantly communicate with our London-based Ars brethren and with freelancers across the globe.