Recommended Links of the Week No. 547

The nuclear satellite, the perfect cuboid, the age at which you start aging, and the Student Flat Survival Manual lead an edition of the Recommended Links that has a bit of everything and more. Interesting articles, viral videos, and galleries with amazing images.

Articles

Kosmos 954 and when a satellite caused a nuclear mess: "We are talking about launching satellites with nuclear reactors into space! There were several incidents, on April 25, 1973 one of the launches failed and fell into the Pacific Ocean, radiation was detected in the air. Another like Kosmos 367 also failed but reached orbit so they moved it to a higher discard orbit. In 1978 another one failed, Kosmos 954, but it didn't fall exactly into the sea."

The perfect cuboid, an easy problem to understand but still unsolved: "The perfect cuboid is a rectangular box ("box" or "brick") whose edges, the diagonals of its faces, and also its interior diagonal are all integers. It's an easy problem to understand, very "Pythagorean". In fact, its famous formula a²+b²=c² is part of the problem... and of the solution, of course. If perfect rectangles exist (for example, edges 3 and 4 with diagonal 5). Why not also perfect cuboids? The problem is that to this day none is known."

What does a cuttlefish see when it gets 3D glasses?: "If you came across a cuttlefish with 3D glasses at the bottom of the sea, you'd think something was wrong with your breathing equipment. Fortunately, such a scene is only possible in a place like the laboratory of Trevor Wardill and Paloma González Bellido, who describe this Wednesday a series of curious experiments that have allowed them to understand the way these cephalopods see their environment and calculate the distance to their prey."

DuckTales - Moon Theme on an electric toothbrush

Rubin, one of the most immense galaxies in the universe: "Rubin, or UGC 2885, is a quiet giant. It doesn't have small galaxies to cannibalize around it, so it's not absorbing its gas. This is relevant because, normally, this gas is fuel for the formation of new stars. Large galaxies "steal" it from small ones, forming real currents that push and heat this matter."

Finally we know why this 2,600-year-old human brain is so well preserved: "A human skull from the Iron Age found in 2008 contained an unprecedented amount of preserved brain material, a discovery that has puzzled scientists for more than a decade. New research finally explains why this brain resisted decomposition for thousands of years."

The Ganges river overflows with dangerous bacteria: "The levels of bacteria are "exaggeratedly high", said Shaikh Ziauddin Ahammad, professor of biochemical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology. And the only possible source is humans. Specifically, the crowds of ritual bathers who come to wash away their sins and immerse themselves in the waters."

Ultra-advanced simulations

At what age you really start aging, according to science: "Researchers at Stanford University have concluded in a recent study the age at which people start aging. According to their analysis, published last December in Nature Medicine, from age 34 the first signs of aging begin to be detected."

Cinematographic television, the art of photography in series: "Between the excessive –and necessary– lighting of I love Lucy (1951) and the tableaux vivants of productions like The Handmaid's Tale (2017), Westworld (2017) or the series Watchmen (2019) there are several experiments. Some began much earlier than I love Lucy became the benchmark of the first golden age of television."

The rapid territorial expansion of Russia in history: "Russia is the largest country in the world. And by far. This state is a mastodon that occupies a third of the largest continent in the world: Asia (75% of the Russian territory, approximately), and about 40% of Europe (25%). With its 17,098,242 square kilometers, it is a ninth of the earth's emerged land. It has eleven time zones. It would be logical to think that dominating so much territory would be a long process. In a way, yes, centuries. But much less than expected."

Saves baby kangaroo from fires

Student Flat Survival Manual: "There's a very popular thread going around that's a rough diamond on food safety. Let's polish it. (...) As a general rule, if you see mold on a food where it shouldn't be, don't eat it. Some species don't pose a big problem and in principle only alter the food, like Rhizopus stolonifer, better known as "black bread mold""

Whale carcass as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis: "In the coastal town of Eden, in New South Wales, Australia, they recommended that people with rheumatism introduce themselves into a narrow hole in the carcass of a towed whale. These holes were not the natural ones of the animal. No need to go to that extreme. They were cut on one side of the body while it still retained heat."

The tense story of Let it be, the end of The Beatles: "Released on May 8, 1970, far from the bare and unadorned sound the group sought at the beginning, Let it be had the production of Phil Spector and a legendary concert on the roof of Apple Corps as a background. McCartney, who tried to oppose the album's release, left the group a month before its publication. It was the end of the Beatles."