We Might Never See Alien Life And Other Facts
Welcome to What We Learned This Week, a digest of the most curiously important facts from the past few days. This week: Searching blindly for signs of alien life, trolling with perpetual motion, and ancient crystals.
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE, BUT WE CAN'T SEE IT
Even If We Find It, We May Not Recognize Alien Life
Though science fiction would have us believe otherwise, finding life is not as simple as waving a tricoder or peering into a microscope, seeing something strange and exclaiming 'We've found new life!" The problem with finding life is mired with many hurdles: logistical (just getting to a place in our universe that contains even the possibility of life), technological (Earth lifeforms are so resilient that they can survive a two-year trip through space) and philosophical (just what exactly is life?) The universe is vast and near-infinite, which means that alien life must exist, but finding it will still be like locating a needle in a haystack without the faintest idea what a needle is.
[Mosaic]
AND THEY'RE LARGELY DEAD
Flash Cartoons Are The Internet's Zines
Today, Flash is thought to be a broken, unsafe mess that must be expunged from the Internet. But back in the early '00s it was the entry point for a whole slew of online animators, game designers and programmers. And the simple, DIY janky aesthetic of it signaled to the rest of the denizens of the web that this was something made for them, by one of their own. If you're shaking your head at this assertion, ask yourself this: Could Homestar Runner work as a modern YouTube series? Yes. Would it be just as successful? Maybe. Would it be the same? Definitely not.
[Vice]
OR IS IT?
The Perpetual Motion Machine Exists And It's On YouTube
YouTube user Veproject1 has either finally cracked the unsolvable problem of perpetual motion, or come up with the most fantastically devious way to troll Internet engineers. It's fun to watch his machines and try and determine where the mechanical sleight of hand happens. It's certainly a formula for perpetual outrage.
[Digg]
PROTIP: BUY LOW, SELL HIGH
This Game Will Immediately Teach You The Stock Market
This fun little browser-based game from Bloomberg is simple. Click and hold to buy a share, release to sell. The aim — as it is in the real stock market — is to sell your share at a higher price than you bought it. Those of you who remember what happened to the stock market between 2008 and now will probably find this game very easy!
TIME CRYSTALS
Ancient Crystals Could Rewrite Earth's History
The one constant in paleontology is that things keep happening earlier than we expect them. Sure, we can find a rock with signs of ancient life, and peg it as the Very First Instance Of Life. Which is fine and good until we find an older rock with older signs of life. This is precisely what happened here. Scientists just found a very old zircon crystal. It is 4.1 billion years old — so old that scientists believe that at that time, the Earth was still a fiery hellscape.1 And yet, they found evidence of pure carbon inside this very old crystal. Life, uh, truly does find a way.
SEMI-CHARMED SHELF LIFE
Watching This Man Build A Bookshelf Is Satisfying As Heck
I have never met Frank Howarth. However, just the calm, straightforward tone of his voice tells me that he is man who has full confidence in his woodworking abilities. He is a man who not only knows how to build his parents a bookshelf, but knows how to build his parents a better bookshelf. He is truly a master of his craft, and I hope that I will one day have command over something the way Frank Howarth has command over building a bookshelf.
[Digg]
For more stuff from Digg, check out our Originals archive.
