Biosphere 2, the Early Internet, and the Worst Disease: Lux Recommends #175
Welcome to Lux Recommends #175, this week’s edition of what we at Lux are reading and thinking about (want to receive this by email? Sign up here).
Articles
Kids store 1.5 megabytes of information to master their native language: “Researchers calculated that, from infancy to young adulthood, learners absorb approximately 12.5 million bits of information about language — about two bits per minute — to fully acquire linguistic knowledge. If converted into binary code, the data would fill a 1.5 MB floppy disk, the study found.” — Zavain
The Lost History of One of the World’s Strangest Science Experiments: “The hummingbirds were dying. Cockroaches were everywhere. And then Steve Bannon showed up.” — Sam
The Worst Disease Ever Recorded: “A doomsday fungus known as Bd has condemned more species to extinction than any other pathogen.” — Adam K
Why there’s so little left of the early internet: “It took nearly five years into the internet’s life before anyone made a concerted effort to archive it. Much of our earliest online activity has disappeared.” — Sam
The Twins That Are Neither Identical nor Fraternal: “They shared a placenta, but on the ultrasound, one looked like a boy, and the other a girl.” — Zack
How an MIT Research Group Turned Computer Code Into a Modern Design Medium: “Bauhaus meets binary” — Sam
Here’s Why Airports Have Carpet — Adam K
And Lightning follows shipping lanes: particles in ship exhaust increase the likelihood and intensity of thunderstorms — Adam K
Movies
Baby Driver: “After being coerced into working for a crime boss, a young getaway driver finds himself taking part in a heist doomed to fail.” — Adam K
Television
Hostile Planet: “A look at the world’s harshest landscapes and the animals that have adapted to live there.” — Adam K
Videos
How much force to pop a tennis ball — Adam K
Mindbending video: “They’re all moving in a straight line” — Bilal
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