Inverse - 📡 The Wow! signal enigma

T.G.I.F

Sept 16 2022

It's Friday, so let's start with the one big question on everyone's minds (ok, our minds): Are we alone in the universe?

A coterie of scientists have devoted their lives work to finding life elsewhere in the cosmos, even just a hint of a clue of some extraterrestrial biology. So in 1977, when radio astronomers detected a signal that had all the predicted hallmarks of an alien radio signal, you can imagine the excitement. This, the scientists thought, could be it — except they never found the signal again. Was it aliens? Was it an anomaly? Was it the interstellar equivalent of a car alarm going off and someone or something shutting it down after the first bleep? That's the theme of our top story today.

Happy Friday! We'll be back on Monday with more wild and true tales from the worlds of science and sci-fi.

What's New

ONE PING ONLY

Science

The "Wow!" signal is still an enigma 45 years after its detection

Forty-five years ago, radio astronomers at Ohio State University detected a strong, clear radio signal from somewhere in the direction of the Sagittarius constellation.

It had all the features SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) researchers expected to see in an actual alien radio signal. The Big Ear radio telescope’s first antenna listened to the signal for 72 seconds before moving on in its scheduled sweep of the sky. Lead astronomer Jerry Ehman hastily wrote “Wow!” next to the signal on a printout of Big Ear’s data, and it’s been known as the Wow! signal ever since.

Three minutes later, when Big Ear’s second antenna swept toward Sagittarius, it found only silence. No one ever heard the signal again, despite hundreds of hours of trying. And for the last 45 years, scientists have been searching for an explanation.

In a recent paper, Columbia University astronomer David Kipping and the late astronomer Robert Gray explore an often-overlooked possibility — but as Kipping tells Inverse, there really are no good explanations. The Wow! signal remains an enigma.

Reel science

Television

The science behind The Rings of Power’s mesmerizing title credits

Sound surrounds us, yet is invisible to the naked eye. But with a suitable substance and a little bit of acoustics, you can bring sight to sound in the form of spectacular patterns — and that’s precisely what the creators of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power did in the stunning title sequence of the prequel series.

According to a blog post by creative director Anthony Vitagliano’s team, the makers of the title credit had an ambitious goal: visualize harmony and conflict in Tolkien’s world based on the Ainur, immortal creatures that “sing such beautiful music that the world is created from their very sound.”

So, they turned to the science of acoustics to create a title sequence “built from the world of sound.” But just what arethese striking symmetrical patterns in The Rings of Power’s title sequence, and how did the creators use sound to make them?

After stumbling upon a Twitter thread by game designer Alex King on the topic, we got some expert help to learn more about how science helped bring the title sequence of this fantasy series to life. Let’s dive in.

Learn more

Scents

Innovation

AI could revamp the once-doomed Smell-O-Vision

When movies made the leap from silent to sound, production companies had their eyes on the next sensory frontier in entertainment.

So in 1939, they attempted to bring smell into the cinematic experience. The Smell-O-Vision, a system that piped prepackaged scents from under movie theater seats, made its debut at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City.

It didn’t go as planned. Audiences complained that the scents were out-of-sync with the movie, overpowering, or simply unpleasant. Despite an attempted revival in the 1960s, the technology largely fell by the wayside.

But now, more than sixty years later, science is considerably closer to making Smell-O-Vision a reality. Computer scientists and chemical engineers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan have developed a machine-learning algorithm that can reverse-engineer a smell based on its chemical makeup.

Air Quality

Mind and Body

Air pollution can damage teens' hearts within two hours, study finds

As I write this, a largely uncontained wildfire rages just 25 miles to my east. The Bolt Creek Fire in Western Washington sparked on Saturday morning, and within hours, much of the western half of the state was choking on toxic smoke. The sky glowed with an eerie orange haze. Falling from the sky were pieces of ash so large they looked like confetti. By Saturday evening this past weekend, the Seattle metropolitan area had some of the worst air quality in the world.

We know wildfire smoke is terrible for the human body. For example, evidence shows it can cause cardiovascular problems even in healthy adults. Less is known, however, about how air pollution, like wildfire smoke, affects the cardiovascular system of healthy teenagers.

Research published today in the Journal of the American Heart
Association offers some alarming insight into how quickly air pollution affects teenagers’ cardiovascular systems. The study authors say their results should serve as a warning bell about how dramatically even short exposure to fine particulate matter can affect young, healthy teenagers.

Happy Birthday

GameCube

Nintendo’s Saddest Child

When I was 10 years old in a Gamestop, I made the most important decision in my video gaming career.

My mom had given me an enticing choice: I could pick one console and one game to bring home. This would be my first piece of hardware that wasn’t a black-and-white Game Boy, so I jumped at the opportunity. The Xbox was immediately out of the running — I was a bit too young to yell at strangers in Halo. That left the PlayStation 2 and the GameCube as the main contenders.

The PlayStation 2 had the upper hand in hindsight, with a DVD player and this weird game starring anime and Disney characters that I’d seen a lot of commercials for. But the GameCube, Nintendo’s purple lunchbox, came home with me, alongside a copy of the truly mediocre Tak and the Power of Juju.

This was a decision I would come to regret.

While my friends were playing Grand Theft Auto Vice City and learning what a keyblade was, my ill-advised choice left me with a platformer with a Nickelodeon show as its only lasting legacy. But as we reflect on the GameCube’s 21st birthday this September, I realize how important that console was. Not just for me, but for Nintendo, and the gaming industry at large.

Go back in time

Exclusive

Entertainment

Diego Luna would return to Star Wars again — under a few conditions

Diego Luna is the beating heart of Andor. Not only is he playing the title role of Cassian Andor, the sacrificial hero of Rogue One, but he also serves as an executive producer. He knows this character inside and out, and the fan enthusiasm towards Andor reflects that. He’s one of the most beloved characters in Star Wars history, so it’s no wonder he’s getting 24 episodes devoted to him.

But could we see even more of Cassian? The answer looks like yes, but with a few conditions.

Inverse asked Diego Luna if he would be open to playing Cassian Andor again, even if it was just in an animated voice role.

Read the full interview

Meanwhile...

Understand the world through 9 images captured this week

This stunning supernova is only a few hundred years old

'Rings of Power' Easter egg reveals a Sauron connection hiding in plain sight

Amazon is proceeding with a new live-action 'Blade Runner' series

Today in history: On September 16, 1620, English colonists aboard the Mayflower set sail for America.

Song of the day: "Gamecube Startup"

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Inverse - 📡 The Wow! signal enigma

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