Surprising Science — December 23, 2009

Festive Space

The latest astronauts to reach the International Space Station have kicked off a Space-based Christmas by arriving wearing Santa hats, elf costumes and clutching a Christmas tree.

bigthinkeditor

The latest astronauts to reach the International Space Station have kicked off a Space-based Christmas by arriving wearing Santa hats, elf costumes and clutching a Christmas tree. “The latest three astronauts to reach the International Space Station, have brought with them some festive cheer. Oleg Kotov, Soichi Noguchi and Timothy Creamer arrived from the Soyuz spacecraft wearing Christmas costumes, shortly after a successful docking procedure. There are currently five astronauts living in the space station.” In a video of the arrivals posted on the BBC’s website the trio are seen having trouble keeping their hats on and disentangling their Christmas tree from surrounding wires in the zero gravity conditions.

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

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7 min

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with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

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