Brains, the Blanket Octopus, and Planting Trees: Lux Recommends #188
Welcome to Lux Recommends #188, this week’s edition of what we at Lux are reading and thinking about (want to receive this by email? Sign up here).
Articles
Tree planting ‘has mind-blowing potential’ to tackle climate crisis: “Research shows a trillion trees could be planted to capture huge amount of carbon dioxide” — Sam
Scientists Are Giving Dead Brains New Life. What Could Go Wrong? “In experiments on pig organs, scientists at Yale made a discovery that could someday challenge our understanding of what it means to die.” — Adam G
One Big Dream: Yao Ming Wants to Make Chinese Basketball Global: “As his nation’s first (and still only) NBA star, Yao Ming made basketball relevant in China. Now, as chairman of the CBA, he wants to make Chinese basketball relevant across the world and ensure that he’s not the country’s last export.” — Adam G
An Animated Map of the Earth — Sam
What’s in a Stock Ticker Symbol? More Than You Might Think: Longer tickers, cool tickers, and even tickers that spell words trounce the stock returns of short and single-letter issues. — Alex
Unlocking the mystery of superhuman strength: “Can the same power that allows humans to lift cars in life-and-death moments fuel athletes? Science is only beginning to find an answer.” — Adam G
Machine learning has been used to automatically translate long-lost languages: “Some languages that have never been deciphered could be the next ones to get the machine translation treatment.” — Brandon
The blanket octopus looks like a rainbow ghost alien: “Honestly, how are any of us supposed to get anything done when there are animals like this cruising above in the ocean like it’s no big deal?” — Adam G
30 Fascinating Photos From Behind The Scenes Of Movies With Awesome Practical Effects — Adam K
And The Story Behind all the Animals on O’Reilly’s Book Covers — Sam
Books
The Making of Karateka: Journals 1982–1985 and The Making of Prince of Persia: Journals 1985–1993 by Jordan Mechner: “Mechner’s candid journals from the time capture his journey from his parents’ basement to the forefront of the fast-growing 1980s video game industry… and the creative, technical and personal struggles that brought the prince into being and ultimately into the homes of millions of people worldwide.” Fascinating glimpse into this era. — Sam
Life Finds a Way: What Evolution Teaches Us About Creativity by Andreas Wagner: “How the principles of biological innovation can help us overcome creative challenges in art, business, and science” — Sam
Videos
Flying into Los Angeles on the 4th — quite the spectacle. — Adam K
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