China Trip
Some pictures from my China trip to accompany discussion on Hello Internet.
#TeamTrees
Today starts a big fundraising campaign to plant 20 million trees.
Various YouTubers and other “web people” are posting material related to the campaign.
FIND OUT MORE (AND CONTRIBUTE) HERE
I’ve posted this Numberphile with Tony Padilla, which combines two epic numbers we’ve discussed previously - TREE(3) and Graham’s Number.
We’ve combined them to create TREE(Graham’s Number).
The brown papers from this video are being auctioned for #TeamTrees.
For extra footage from the TREE(g64) video, see here.
For even more tree-related comment, see our Guide to Trees playlist created with Markus Eichhorn.
And here’s a video with Smarter Every Day about Moon Trees.
Turing on the £50 note
The Bank of England has announced Alan Turing will be on the next £50 note.
Here are some videos we’ve made on the topic…
First an Objectivity video in which we speculated about who might be on the note.
On the Numberphile Podcast I spoke with Simon Singh about his role on the committee which made the decision. It’s the early part of the podcast.
Here’s are some Numberphile videos about the Enigma Machine from Alan Turing superfan James Grime.
And some Computerphile videos…
Plus, while we’re speaking of the Bank of England, some gold in their vault…
Moon Rocks
Four years ago I visited Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Original Mission Control
The cool people at NASA (and my mate Destin from Smarter Every Day) arranged the visit and we went to my equivalent of a Holy Place — the vault in which the Apollo moon rocks are stored.
Among the collection was a cabinet full of the Apollo 11 rocks from Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s famous first moonwalk.
Apollo 11 rock collection
We also saw The Genesis Rock - a famous sample collected during Apollo 15.
Genesis Rock on the Moon
Checking out the Genesis Rock
It has taken a while, but the video from that visit is finally published on Objectivity.
Destin did his own video too, of course.
And Joe Hanson from It’s Okay To Be Smart also visited and released his video in conjunction with ours.
For an Apollo fan like me this was an amazing experience.
My thanks to Destin, the lab staff at NASA, and our friend Gordon who also helped make this possible.
With Destin in Houston
Cheeky pic of Moonwatch in Moon Rock room!
The Future of Objectivity
I’d like to update people about our Objectivity video series. And ask people to consider supporting it on Patreon.
Objectivity has been running since late 2014 and recently passed 200 episodes.
Keith, Brady, and James
The videos are filmed and edited by James Hennessy. They’re some of the most fun projects I work on and we’re both very proud of the channel.
Who wouldn’t enjoy opening treasure chests and seeing the remains of a real dodo bird?
Since the start, Objectivity has mainly been filmed at The Royal Society.
The society has been incredibly supportive, both with access to its archive and funding.
Head librarian Keith Moore and his team go well beyond the call of duty.
Keith and Rupert Baker
This will not change. You will continue seeing Keith and treasures from the society collection.
However funding changes mean we can no longer produce fortnightly videos.
Instead, we’re looking at a reduction to one upload per month.
But ideally we would like to maintain a fortnightly schedule. This is why we’re appealing for help on Patreon.
LIST OF CURRENT PATREON SUPPORTERS
Funding is what allows us to travel to more museums (in addition to the Royal Society) and pay for the cost of production.
White Gloves of Destiny at the AP Archive
Even as little as $1 a month makes a difference - it all adds up.
From my experience most patrons aren’t seeking big perks and rewards. However James and I are devising some nice ways to show appreciation to Patreon supporters - more news on that soon.
Finally - the best way anyone can support Objectivity is simple: keep watching.
And maybe double click that notification bell so you’ll be sure see our new stuff.
Thank you to everyone who already watches and encourages the series.
We love all your comments and feedback.
Messier's Missing Object
I just wanted to share some fascinating images and information which I received too late to include in a video.
The video was this one about Messier 102 on Deep Sky Videos.
Professor Mike Merrifield mentions that M102 was a late inclusion on Charles Messier’s famous list of objects - contributed by his colleague Pierre Méchain.
Its exact co-ordinates on the sky were not included, just a description of where it could be found.
As our video mentions, Messier later mentioned some co-ordinates, but it seems this has only added to the confusion for astronomers and historians.
I read more on the excellent SEDS database (an amazing Messier resource) and learned of Messier hand-wrote co-ordinates in a personal copy of the list.
This “personal copy” was tantalizing, so I contacted the people at SEDS and asked to see it.
Alas I did not receive a response in time - but eventually I did receive a response.
I was kindly supplied with multiple copies of the document in question - and it turns out Messier’s annotation was not very clear.
First here’s a standard photocopy, and I’ve highlighted Messier’s co-ordinates, which are on a facing page from the actual M102 entry.
Second, a deeper scan to show up more detail of the writing.
And finally a copy annotated by Dan Greely (who supplied the copy to SEDS in 1995) and Audouin Dolfuss. It’s fascinating to see these “astro detectives” at work.
My thanks to Hartmut Frommert from SEDS - the SEDS database is a treasure.