⪮ Good Morning
It is spring time and as the plants begin to blossom, open your mind and eyes to some new ideas. Here are a few links that piqued our interest this last month.
🎡 History of the Ferris Wheel
A recent conversation with friends about what a Ferris Wheel is called in other languages sparked a memory about seeing photos of George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.'s one and only original Ferris wheel.
After trying to top the spectacle of the 01889 Eiffel Tower, Ferris designed the moving wheel ride for the 01893 World's Columbian Exposition. He died tragically only a few years later, but the inspiration behind Ferris' wheel can still be seen today at amusement parks and carnivals.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-ferris-wheel-180955300/
🦣 Mammoth Meatballs
Vow, an Australian cultured meat startup, claims to have made a meatball from a mammoth DNA sequence. The team managed to produce ~400 grams of "mammoth meat" by supplementing mammoth DNA with African elephant DNA and growing that inside sheep muscle cells.
* Not for human consumption
📡 Repeating radio signal from Earth-sized exoplanet
Astronomers traced a repeating radio signal back to a rocky, Earth-sized exoplanet around 12 light-years away. The planet is known as YZ Ceti b and appears to have a strong magnetic field! The planet was first discovered in 02017 and takes only 2 days to orbit its small red dwarf star.
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/7181/yz-ceti-b/
👀 Around The Corner - How Differential Steering Works (01937)
This is an old educational video about how the differential gear works to allow automobiles to turn a corner while keeping one of the wheels from skidding.