Catch a Shooting Star This Weekend
Plus: Walk vs. Run: Which is Most Efficient?
Promising Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks Aug. 11–12
The Perseid Meteor Shower is among the most reliable meteor showers each year. This year’s show promises to live up to that reputation, weather permitting, so long as you’re willing to go outside and exercise a little patiences in middle of the night. The best time to catch the show in 2024: late Sunday night, Aug. 11 through daybreak Monday morning, Aug. 12. I’ve got all the details—what causes is, when to watch, and how to maximize your odds of catching a shooting star (or several).
Walk vs. Run: Which is Most Efficient?
Our resident “this vs. that” writer, who is also a runner and a backpacker, crunches the numbers —from the scientifica literature and from his own tests — on the efficiency of walking vs. running. Either is great exercise and excellent for health and fitness, but there are notable explainable efficiency differences.
The literature says that a long-distance runner burns around 30–50% more calories each mile than a typical walker. So if you’re in no hurry and you want to conserve your energy, walk, don’t run to your destination. If you’re concerned that longer activities burn more calories overall, I’ll get to that…
—Matt Traverso
How is Coffee Decaffeinated?
There are multiple complex methods for taking caffeine out of coffee, including some that use chemical solvents like ethyl acetate, along with techniques to put the flavor back in after its been removed. But typically the flavor is never quite as robust, some aroma is lost, and—surprise—decaf is never actually caffeine-free, this chemist explains.
It's chemically impossible to dissolve out only the caffeine without also dissolving out other chemical compounds in the beans, so decaffeination inevitably removes some other compounds that contribute to the aroma and flavor of your cup of coffee.
—Michael W. Crowder+
Can We Turn Mars into Another Earth?
There are big dreams among some futurists and even practical scientists for setting up human colonies on Mars. I’ve been reporting on space topics since the 1990s, and the dream always seems to be “within our grasp.” But the hurdles are significant. While the technology needed to send humans to Mars pretty much exists, keeping them alive once they arrive—with almost no atmosphere, no readily available water and deadly temperature extremes—is a whole ’nother challenge. If only we could make Mars more like Earth!
I’m working on advanced propulsion systems to take spacecraft beyond Earth’s orbit. I’m helping to develop lunar construction technologies to support NASA’s goal of long-term human presence on the Moon. And I’ve been on a team that showed how to 3D-print habitats on Mars.
—Sven Bilén
The idea of terraforming Mars is a segue into our final story this week…
How to Make Earth Livable Again
Exactly why we need to go to Mars remains a great question. Some argue we’ll need a backup planet when ours becomes unlivable. Seriously? That’s the plan? I have better idea: How about we take care of the planet we’re stuck with, the only one currently known to support life as we know it? I mean yes, there’s a lot of work to do.
In his new book Into the Clear Blue Sky: The Path to Restoring Our Atmosphere, Stanford professor Rob Jackson states the problem bluntly:
“Fossil fuels are making the Earth unlivable and — even ignoring climate change — they are deadly,” he writes.
You don’t have to look far for the evidence.
July 22 was the hottest day on Earth since modern record-keeping began, NASA announced last week, one of many records that just keep getting broken every year, every month, every day.
Yet amid the gloom, Jackson is surprisingly optimistic about our chances to address the climate crisis… if we consider its evil twin, the often-overlooked other immediate threats related to burning fossil fuels: Good old-fashioned air pollution, which kills more than 100,000 Americans annually and millions globally—including many children—and threatens your health and mine every day.
Jackson lays out an optimistic yet pragmatic approach to clearing Earth’s air of deadly pollution, an effort that would simultaneously solve the climate crisis.
I interviewed Jackson to get insight into his vision, which he admits is a tremendous challenge — one he goes so far as to call a dream. Among his pragmatic points: “Clean energy and green solutions do so much more than solve the climate crisis. They clean our air and water.”
The Interview: Dreams of a Clear Blue Sky