Astronauts say outer space smells like burnt steak

From Space.com: “Space is an airless vacuum, so technically, you can’t smell anything. However, space is not a complete vacuum. It’s full of all manner of molecules, some of which have their own strong odors when we smell them on Earth. During the Apollo moon landings, the astronauts would often comment on a gunpowder-like smell once they had clambered back into the airlock and removed their helmets. Similarly, after spacewalking, astronauts returning to the confines of the International Space Station reported the smell of gunpowder, as well as ozone and something like burnt steak. So what’s going on? Where does the smell come from? Scientists have two good theories. One is that, while an astronaut is on a spacewalk, single atoms of oxygen can adhere to their spacesuit, and when they reenter the airlock and repressurize, molecular oxygen — O2, or two atoms of oxygen — floods into the airlock and combines with the single oxygen atoms to form ozone, or O3. This would explain the sour, metallic smell.”

Why would someone run thirty hours in a hurricane on a race with no course?

From the NYT: “Finally, the race directors shouted go, and the runners broke toward every point of the compass. We were all headed toward the same finish line. But in between here and there — some 120 miles on the most efficient and complete route — we would take countless different paths. That’s because adventure racing is a mash-up of an Ironman triathlon and a wilderness treasure hunt, with teams of three tracking down hidden checkpoints over vast distances in rough terrain. For this national championship contest, we had to seek 50 checkpoints secreted throughout the Monongahela National Forest over the course of 30 hours — during which time few teams would sleep. To reach the checkpoints, we could use only our feet, mountain bikes and canoes, and for navigation we had to rely on maps and compasses. Whichever team found the most checkpoints (and crossed the finish line) by the deadline would win.”

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How the four-color ballpoint pen became a symbol of France

From Engelsberg Ideas: “Although it is sold and used all over the world, one distinctive aspect of the four-colour ballpoint’s identity is that it was – and still is – Made in France. In 1957 the French critic Roland Barthes published a collection of essays entitled Mythologies, in which he examined the cultural significance of various French objects that he called ‘myths’, ranging from washing powder to steak-frites and the Citroën DS 19. When I began to search for examples of quintessential French objects and cultural practices for Garlic & Pearls, the 4-Colour pen was one of the first examples that came to my mind. Not only is the aerodynamic pen an example of an enduringly successful practical design; it is also a French ‘myth’, a cultural object loaded with meaning. Although it was produced by a team of designers and engineers, the innovative multicolour ballpoint was the inspiration of one man, design pioneer and industrialist Marcel Bich, who gave to Bic, the brand he created, a simplified version of his name.”

Hi everyone! Mathew Ingram here. I am able to continue writing this newsletter in part because of your financial help and support, which you can do either through my Patreon or by upgrading your subscription to a monthly contribution. I enjoy gathering all of these links and sharing them with you, but it does take time, and your support makes it possible for me to do that. I also write a weekly newsletter of technology analysis called The Torment Nexus.

Scientists say iguanas pulled off a record-breaking ocean voyage

From Gizmodo: “Iguanas on the remote islands of Fiji may appear to live chill lives, but according to new research they had to work for it: by floating across thousands of miles of ocean on vegetation in the last 30 million years or so. A new investigation of the Iguanidae family tree—a tree that includes some 2,100 reptilian species, from the marine iguanas of the Galapagos to chameleons of the tropics and chuckwallas of the desert—indicates that Fiji iguanas are most closely related to lizards in the American Southwest. Given the vast geographic distance between the two but their relative genetic proximity, researchers say a group of reptiles hitched a ride on floating debris and never looked back—somehow making it to Fiji and surviving there for about 34 million years. The research was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

Residents of the island of Manhattan still buy steam by the pound

From Works In Progress: “Since 1882, Manhattan has delivered steam into the homes and businesses of its citizens. It is used for: pressing linens at The Waldorf Astoria; cleaning crockery and heating food in restaurants; washing clothes at dry cleaners; sterilizing medical equipment at New York-Presbyterian Hospital; by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to control the humidity levels and temperatures around its artwork. Steam functions like any other utility: produced centrally, metered, and delivered into homes and businesses through a 105-mile-long grid of pipework. Like electricity and water, it plays an integral part in the daily operation of the city. Today, the Manhattan steam system is responsible for heating 1.8 billion square feet of residential, 700 million square feet of commercial, and 90 million square feet of industrial floorspace. This represents over three quarters of Manhattan’s total residential footprint.”

To defend the herd, reindeer will create a “reindeer cyclone”

Acknowledgements: I find a lot of these links myself, but I also get some from other newsletters that I rely on as “serendipity engines,” such as The Morning News from Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack, Jodi Ettenberg’s Curious About Everything, Dan Lewis’s Now I Know, Robert Cottrell and Caroline Crampton’s The Browser, Clive Thompson’s Linkfest, Noah Brier and Colin Nagy’s Why Is This Interesting, Maria Popova’s The Marginalian, Sheehan Quirke AKA The Cultural Tutor, the Smithsonian magazine, and JSTOR Daily. If you come across something interesting that you think should be included here, please feel free to email me at mathew @ mathewingram dot com