A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, the new era of macroeconomics; (9:25) the EU after striking a huge deal; (17:00) and the challenges for Mexico as its youth departs.
Tag Archives: Mexico
Top New Science Podcast: UAE’s New Mars Mission, ‘Enhanced Weathering’ & Mexico’s Deep Caverns
On this week’s podcast, an ambitious Mars mission from a young space agency, and how crumbling up rocks could help fight climate change.
In this episode:
00:46 Mars hopes
In a few weeks the UAE’s first mission to Mars is due to launch. We speak to the mission leads to learn about the aims of the project, and how they developed the mission in under six years. News Feature: How a small Arab nation built a Mars mission from scratch in six years; News Feature: Countdown to Mars: three daring missions take aim at the red planet
09:53 Research Highlights
Pluto appears to be losing its atmosphere, and solving the mystery of a pitch-black prehistoric mine. Research Highlight: Goodbye, Pluto’s atmosphere; Research Highlight: Why ancient people pushed deep into Mexico’s pitch-black caverns
12:12 Climate rocks
Researchers have assessed whether Enhanced Weathering – a technique to pull carbon dioxide out of the air – has the potential to help battle climate change. Research Article: Beerling et al.
18:41 Briefing Chat
We take a look at some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time we talk about an outbreak of flesh-eating bacteria in Australia, and how flatworms can regrow their nervous systems. The Atlantic: Australia Has a Flesh-Eating-Bacteria Problem; The New York Times: A Worm’s Hidden Map for Growing New Eyes
Top New Science Podcasts: Biodiverse Oasis In Mexico, Thermoacoustic Speakers
First up this week, News Intern Rodrigo Pérez-Ortega talks with host Meagan Cantwell about an oasis of biodiversity in the striking blue pools of Cuatro Ciénegas, a basin in northern Mexico. Researchers have published dozens of papers exploring the unique microorganisms that thrive in this area, while at the same time fighting large agricultural industries draining the precious water from the pools.
David Tatnell, a postgraduate researcher at the University of Exeter, talks with host Sarah Crespi about using heat to make sound, a phenomenon known as thermoacoustics. Just like the sound of fire or thunder, sudden changes in temperature can create sound waves. In his team’s paper in Science Advances, Tatnell and colleagues describe a thermoacoustic speaker that uses thin, heated films to make sound. This approach cuts out the crosstalk seen in mechanical speakers and allows for extreme miniaturization of sound production. In the ultrasound range, arrays of thermoacoustic speakers could improve acoustic levitation and ultrasound imaging. In the hearing range, the speakers could be made extremely small, flexible, and even transparent.
New Landscape Videos: “Eight Great Gardens Of The World” (Nowness)
Do you love plants and all things to do with gardens? In our #GreatGardens series, we revisit our top eight episodes which feature the planet’s wildest sub-tropical landscapes and quintessential rural retreats.
Top Wildlife Videos: “A Monarch Butterfly Swarm” In Mexico (PBS)
In the mountains of Mexico, a spy hummingbird ventures into the heart of a breathtaking monarch butterfly swarm.
Travel & Surrealism: “Jungle Xanadu – The Story Of Las Pozas” (2020)
Filmed, Edited and Written by: Bob Krist
Narrated by: Fabiola Stevenson
Edward James, a rich eccentric and patron of artists Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte, built a surreal sculpture park in the jungles of the Sierra Gorda in Xilitla, Mexico. The project took 35 years, spreads over 80 acres, and is accessible to the public. This piece is filmed in black & white infrared, a technique that reacts to heat as well as visible light.
Top Science Podcasts: A Greater Mayan Empire & Costs Of Illegal Fishing
This week on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Lizzie Wade joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a turning point for one ancient Mesoamerican city: Tikal. On 16 January 378 C.E., the Maya city lost its leader and the replacement may have been a stranger. We know from writings that the new leader wore the garb of another culture—the Teotihuacan—who lived in a giant city 1000 kilometers away.
But was this new ruler of a Maya city really from a separate culture? New techniques being used at the Tikal and Teotihuacan sites have revealed conflicting evidence as to whether Teotihuacan really held sway over a much larger region than previously estimated.
Sarah also talks with Rashid Sumaila, professor and Canada research chair in interdisciplinary ocean and fisheries economics at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. You may have heard of illegal fishing being bad for the environment or bad for maintaining fisheries—but as Sumaila and colleagues report this week in Science Advances, the illegal fishing trade is also incredibly costly—with gross revenues of between $8.9 billion and $17.2 billion each year.
Super Bowl Ads: Hilarious “Avocados From Mexico Shopping Network” (2020)
Healthy, delicious, always in season- it may seem like Avocados From Mexico have it all. But they don’t have a luxury yurt. Or a Tortilla Chip Floatie. Luckily, Molly Ringwald and the Avocados From Mexico Shopping Network has everything you need to give your avocado everything it deserves.
Future Of Homebuilding: World’s First 3D-Printed Community Being Built
The Vulcan 2 3D printer can print a house in just 24 hours of print time. This technology is currently being put to the test in rural Mexico, where it’s being used to build the world’s first 3D-printed community, designed for residents living on less than $3 a day.
History: “Aztec Art And The Fragility Of Empire” (Art Institute Chicago)
Aztec art drew on the Mesoamerican past, citing works from the ancient cities of Teotihuacan and Tula to lend authority and legitimacy to the new empire. But this engagement with the past also provoked reflection on the inevitable end of empire and the cyclicality of time, themes that resonate as the five hundredth anniversary of the Spanish invasion of Mexico unfolds this year. In this illustrated lecture, Claudia Brittenham, University of Chicago, discusses how Aztec art reflects this engagement with this historical past. This lecture delivered on October 31, 2019, was generously sponsored by the Boshell Foundation Lecture Fund.
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