Photo: bradhoc, CC BY 2.0
This week we’ve got stories about yesterday’s March for Science, Bill Nye’s new series on Netflix, and the sad story of a high-tech juicer that isn’t. It’s the news roundup for Sunday, April 23, 2017!
March for Science
Hundreds of thousands of people across the United States gathered in public places yesterday to celebrate science and to urge their political representatives to listen to scientists and to make science-based and evidence-based policies. The main march in Washington, DC, is estimated to have gathered over 40,000 attendees, with over 50,000 in Los Angeles, 40,000 in Chicago, 20,000 in Philadelphia, and tens of thousands each in dozens of other satellite launches across the country. The reasons for protesting were varied, but included the common disbelief among the political class of the reality and dangers of human-caused climate change, the importance of applying data to policies on women’s health and gun violence, the necessity of continuing government funding for “big science” projects, the importance of the separation of church and state, and more. And the marches weren’t limited to the United States, either: there were over 600 marches worldwide, including cities like Toronto, London, Berlin, and even Sydney. Now the real question is: will it make any difference? Only time will tell. You can check out the DC rally in the recording below, or check out some of the best signs over at the Washington Post.
Juicero, or Don’t
The “Keurig of Juice” has a problem: it’s expensive and unnecessary. At $400 retail, the machine takes juice packets and, well, it squeezes them “freshly,” just for you. Only you can do that yourself, with these things called “your hands.” On April 19, Bloomberg reported that some of the investors were surprised to learn that just squeezing the juice bags gets you basically the same results, but with an extra $400 in your wallet. The CEO of Juicero came up with some pretty lame excuses, like the fact that its internet-of-things connectivity means that it can protect you if there’s a recall, or if your expensive juice bags are a day or two older than they should be (in this case “protect” means “won’t make them into juice for you even if they’re probably still good”). Anyway, it’s more than a little hilarious, and probably not great for the company. You can read more about it at Gizmodo.
Bill Nye Saves the World
This week, Bill Nye’s new series “Bill Nye Saves The World” dropped on Netflix. I’ve only had the chance to watch the first two episodes so far, but all in all it’s looking good. The first one was a bit heavy-handed to start with—about Climate Change it spent the first half basically trying to convince viewers that Climate Change is Real and Important, which for you lovely readers is probably a lot redundant—but the panel interviews that make up the second half of the show put a little more meat on its bones, and of course there’s also the pure entertainment value of Bill Nye being the science-crazed lunatic he is. I’m looking forward to viewing the rest of the episodes, but in the meantime here’s a review over at Vox. Their TL;DR is basically that it’s imperfect, but also great to see a science show that’s unabashed in its political bent. He’s literally trying to convince the naysayers that science is important, especially if you make laws. I hope the White House has a Netflix subscription.
Best of the Rest
And because time is limited on this mortal coil, here’s your weekly linkspam!
- Canada voted to uphold net neutrality
- Cassini took another great shot of Earth from Saturn
- Monsanto was “found guilty” at a totally real and not made up “trial”
- Scientists have designed the lowest density MOF to date
- Scientists have also discovered that the immune system helps your heart beat
- Intel released its latest SSDs and they’re very, very fast, and
- The X-Files is coming back for ANOTHER ten-episode season!
Oh and in case you missed it, Elle wrote another great piece on Friday about assault, harassment and their (lack of) consequences in academia, so if you haven’t had the chance, you can go check that out now.
That’s all for today. Have a great week.
***
Thanks again for reading. Except for the very *very* occasional tip, we only get paid in my own (and your) enthusiasm, so please like This Week In Tomorrow on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @TWITomorrow, and tell your friends about the site!
If you like our posts and want to support our site, please share it with others, on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit — anywhere you think people might want to read what we’ve written. If there’s something you think we’ve missed or a story you’d like to see covered, drop us a line! Thanks so much for reading, and have a great week.
***
Richard Ford Burley is a human, writer, and doctoral candidate at Boston College, as well as Deputy Managing Editor at Ledger, the first academic journal devoted to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In his spare time he writes about science, skepticism, feminism, and futurism here at This Week In Tomorrow.