Hello Internet Baby

As promised in episode 39 of Hello Internet, here's the email from listener Anne-Lise... Pic not included!

Dear Brady, Dear CGPGrey,

You were wondering in your last episode who has the time to listen to podcasts. Here is a possible answer: scientists on maternity leave!

In the last weeks of my pregnancy I finally had the time to listen to all your episodes. Your conversations replace very well the stimulating exchanges I would normally have at work during the coffee break.

Your last episode was also a great help in the delivery room (see picture). You managed to make me laugh at a time when my husband was too stressed and tired to provide distraction. I recommend your podcast and video to all my friends, especially young parents at home who crave so much intelligent entertainment.

Thank you for your great work on youtube, both of you make fantastic videos and complement each other perfectly, with your different styles. Like real soulmates :) 

Cheers, 

Anne-Lise

POST SCRIPT: It was a boy named Hugo!

National Donut Day

So apparently National Doughnut Day is a thing.

I dug these from the archive (in fact, I uploaded the Nash videos this week!)

Little Bear

Audrey's favourite toy is Little Bear (followed by Hippo, Big Bear and Sophie).

But today Little Bear suffered a setback.

I marked the sad event by uploading this video of happier times!

Audrey on Facebook.

747 Piggyback

An enduring image from my childhood (as a space obsessed kid) was the Space Shuttle being piggybacked on the back of a 747.

Image: NASA/Carla Thomas

So what a thrill to go inside the now retired Shuttle Carrier Aircraft during a recent visit to Houston.

Thanks to everyone at Nasa and my mate Destin for being cameraman!

Some extra footage below not used in the main video.

John Nash

The famous mathematician John Nash died last week.

He and his wife were sadly killed in a car crash as they returned from Nash's collection of the Abel Prize.

Nash was known to many through the film A Beautiful Mind, so it was inevitable that we'd be asked by many people to make a Numberphile film about him.

These two videos - from Numberphile and Numberphile2 - focus mainly on his work on geometry and Nash Embedding Theorem.

These discoveries are are perhaps more beloved my mathematicians than Nash's more "famous" and Nobel Prize-winning work on game theory.

Some people have commented that the videos do not discuss Nash's death. They suggest we filmed it before the accident or were unaware of his passing.

This is not the case.

However we decided these videos should be timeless - something which may be watched today or in three years time.

Sure, today they are being viewed in the tragic context of Nash's death.

But in a year or two, we thought it would be wrong to emphasise a car crash rather than a lifetime of extraordinary work.

This blog post is a prime example of how, for now, the videos can be framed in the context of Nash's passing.

But I am pleased they are timeless and not pegged only to the "news cycle".

When memories of a sad car crash in New Jersey have faded, the videos can continue as a small tribute to the work of a beautiful mind.

A Printed 'Plane Crash Corner'

Many listeners to the Hello Internet podcast will know about Plane Crash Corner.

This is a semi-regular segment when I discuss the latest aviation disasters with a slightly bemused and fearful CGP Grey.

You can only imagine my delight when this email and picture arrived today.

Hello Brady!
My friend T.X. Watson and I are huge fans of plane crash corner. We just graduated community college, and while we were there we ran the a free-press, student run paper as editor-in-chief and copy editor.
We thought because of your experience in journalism and your love of plane crash corner, you would enjoy this fan tribute we did to your mini-segment.
One of our editors wrote about the frequency of plane crashes and big plane crash stories, so we decided to title it “Plane Crash Corner.” 
Attached is a photo of the two of us holding the published segment.
Best,
Faith Gregory

From the NECC Observer (Northern Essex Community College) out of Haverhill, Massachusetts

Up on the Plateau

A while back I visited Chile, making films for Deep Sky Videos.

We visited various sites and telescopes associated with the European Southern Observatory, including the Very Large Telescope.

I've gradually been releasing the videos ever since (it is a big editing job).

This week's release was a real highlight - from our visit to Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).

Located in the barren Atacama Desert, ALMA's main operations are at 2,900m. This means they are just low enough to avoid the designation of "high altitude" for work purposes.

On arrival, we were lucky enough to meet a Deep Sky Videos fan working at ALMA - scientist Denis Barkats.

After medical checks and collecting emergency oxygen cylinders (just in case), we drove up to 5,000m and the main ALMA site, on the Chajnantor plateau.

Not a llama at ALMA but a related vinuca

Parked among the array of dishes

Denis joined us and I co-opted him into being our star on camera - he was much better qualified than me to be "tour guide" for the video.

Me and Denis (ALMA in the background just the left of us)

The main ALMA site was remarkable, 60-odd radio antennae scattered across the moonscape like giant robotic chess pieces.

And they really are like chess pieces. Depending on scientific needs, the antennae are strategically moved around the giant chessboard (measuring 20km by 20km) to optimise there performance as an epic interferometer.  

Despite being slightly light-headed and needing to ensure we always moved slowly, I managed to film a few nice clips for the video.

But best of all (and quite unexpectedly), the ALMA staff even "turned on" the telescopes and swivelled them about. 

It was the ultimate high-tech ballet.

Pic: Clem & Adri Bacri-Normier (wingsforscience.com) / ESO