Recommended Links of the Week (No. 677)

Xenotransplants, Fibonacci music, the deepest photo of the universe ever taken, the categorical imperative, and Batman against the humble. If none of that tempts you, then this NeoTeo column is not for you. Enjoy it!

How the Higgs boson changed our understanding of the universe (and why it ruined the life of the physicist who discovered it): "According to Higgs himself, that was 'the only good idea' he ever had, and at first he believed his theory was nothing more than useless calculations. What actually happened, however, is that the particle he theorized and that the collider later proved to exist revolutionized our understanding of the universe. That single good idea earned Higgs the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013, and paradoxically, ruined his life, as he himself recounts. In 2022, it marks the tenth anniversary of the Large Hadron Collider detecting the Higgs boson."

Optimotuss, the system to travel on the Metro without stopping at any station - "It is not science fiction": "A new transport system would allow speeds close to 100 kilometers per hour (km/h) with the same energy consumption as current trains. It is called Optimotuss and is the work of several researchers from the University of Alcalá (UAH). In the worst case, travel time would be reduced by 1.5 times, although it could be possible to travel up to six times faster. Just imagine the possibility of making a one-hour journey in just ten minutes."

Fourteen recipes to die before your time: "Many times we eat purely for pleasure, from a hedonistic impulse, and the foods that produce this are the sweetest, greasiest, or saltiest. Thus, these social media profiles offer us fat, novelty, and exaggeration, among other ingredients. The perfect show for our manipulable brain to end up mesmerized by such posts. So that your dreams may be more cholesterol-laden (...) we have chosen the 14 recipes with which you can die (almost literally)."

Tool's iconic song that was composed using the Fibonacci sequence: "Tool's discography is as vast as it is complex, and in this sense, today we will talk about 'Lateralus', the third single from the album of the same name, which has a close mathematical link since it uses the Fibonacci sequence in its composition. But to begin, what is the Fibonacci sequence? In mathematics, the Fibonacci sequence is an infinite series of numbers, where each digit is the result of the sum of the previous two. Thus, starting from 0 and 1, the Fibonacci sequence goes as follows: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144..."

This is "one of the deepest photos of the universe ever taken". It's just an appetizer of what James Webb promises: "In recent stability tests, the engineering team wanted to keep the images because there was available bandwidth. The 72 captures with a total exposure of 32 hours over eight days were combined into an image that, according to NASA, is one of the deepest ever taken of the universe. NASA's own officials have been astonished by the result."

Xenotransplants: imaginative medical solution or possible cause of new zoonoses?: "But now let's fast-forward a few years or a couple of decades into the future. Xenotransplantation has been approved and is becoming common use. However, viruses that hide sibilantly from our detection will always exist. And worse, viruses unknown to science, especially if they haven't triggered alarms by causing problems in humans, must exist by the hundreds or thousands, since scientists' interest (measured by funding potential) is limited. Suppose one of these viruses that infects pigs is not detected in these novel 'medical farms'. This virus begins to come into contact with humans through transplanted organs."

The phoenix, the bird that rose from its ashes: "Legend has it that the life of a mythical bird of fire did not end with death, for it rose again from its ashes. This would be the most basic and recognizable description of the popular phoenix, a bird so iconic that popular references to other important flying creatures, such as the Chinese fenghuang or the Persian simurgh, are made using the name of the phoenix. Even so, what made it gain so much relevance and what are its origins?"

Heavy metal is good for the mind according to science: "Although no one wants to end up as deaf as Black Sabbath singer John 'Ozzy' Osbourne, listening to 'metal' music at the appropriate decibel level can be a recommendation for the brain. First, we must banish the preconceived ideas that its followers are more violent, suffer more brain injuries, or are more prone to self-harm, as the mistaken urban legends of the 80s and 90s of the 20th century claimed. When it comes to refuting prejudices, Macquarie University (Australia) published academic research that ruled out that this genre of music with intense sounds and voices could cause someone to become a serial killer."

History of Japanese animation (1901-1960): "This medium had its own pioneers and forerunners who helped shape anime. But first, scholars of our time, and earlier ones, decided to search for the first examples of animation. Discovered in 2005, the first Japanese example in history can be dated to 1907, although we know nothing about its creator. This small animated breath (it only lasts 4 seconds) allows us to observe a man dressed as a sailor writing the ideograms 'katsudô shashin' on a chalkboard, then turning and greeting by removing his cap."

The 80s - Pop Culture: "Questions: would the lives of many of us be the same without having seen a DeLorean disappear in Hill Valley when lightning struck it while it was traveling at 150 km/h? Would our summers be the same without having seen Crockett and Tubbs catching bad guys, while blowing the vice budget on a Ferrari and Adolfo Domínguez suits in Cayo Vizcaíno and around Miami? Would it be the same to show off our physique with certain sunglasses without the memory of seeing Tom Cruise pushing the limits of his F-14 in a 110-minute music video?"

Immanuel Kant and his categorical imperative, the self-imposed moral law: "Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was a German philosopher and scientist considered one of the most influential thinkers in universal philosophy. A precursor of idealism and the first representative of criticism, he is one of the most influential European thinkers and an essential figure in universal philosophy. Kant's ethics is in fact considered a rational foundation of human rights. For this Prussian philosopher, the moral law originates within the human being as an end in itself, without being subject to any external legislation, so duty conditions moral action as something self-imposed."

Batman, revenge against the humble: "Batman is probably the only superhero who amplifies the legends of his villains: they achieve more frenzy among the public than the hero himself tasked with defeating them. Many more Joker avatars appear on our social media than Batman's bat, and also many more t-shirts among teenagers in our cities. There are even Joker imitators who commit murders in real life (as recently happened on the Tokyo subway). It's no wonder, the Joker has managed to have his own movie that has become a contemporary cult work."

Videos

Robotic arms to feed a semi-paralyzed man, teaching the computer how to drive, Duke Nukem VS Michael Tyson, YouTube on a Commodore PET, DIY rides, an eerie arcade hall in San Francisco, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on N64, Green Hill Zone with Tesla coils, why there are always traffic jams, complicated machine to feed kittens, how a record player works, how Norway became a rich country, the falseness of primitive technology videos, kittens trying "catnip" for the first time, does an egg fix a radiator?, an Indian scam call center busted by police thanks to a YouTuber's investigation, and the animated short: Catisfaction.

Galleries

The world's tallest website, depressing photos, satirical oil paintings, the best bird photos, underwater form photography, porcelain sculptures, jewel insects, photos of artworks in ULTRA HIGH DEFINITION, Victorian "criminal" children, skeletal sculptures, amazing landscapes of Vietnam, East London in 1902, fire and destruction, the Animated Dump of the Week and the Visual Dump.