Hello!
For the last couple of weeks, I've been working on a thing that lines up all of the public Artemis II photos by time and then contextualizes that with other mission media, spatial data, and crew schedule. I published it this week as an open source project, and people have really been enjoying it. The creative director of NASA even posted about it, saying they're using it internally!
Of course, lots of bugs and notes from folks, which is the fun of making stuff in public. The fun of open source is that other people have actually been fixing some of the problems! So thanks to all of the contributors to the project.
But I want to share one of the notes I got because I've been thinking about it a lot.
Initially, the tool let you toggle on which astronauts took which picture. Most of the pictures were just marked "Artemis II Crew," but some were actually given photographer names in the metadata. However, during a press conference, Artemis II pilot Victor Glover said that they had actually all collectively decided that they didn't want individual photo credit. They didn't want one photo to be Victor's and one to be Christina's; they were just Artemis II photos.
I am conflicted about this. On the one hand, photography is a human art. The Artemis crew learned about photography and made lots of individual technical and artistic decisions when taking their pictures. Some of my favorite photos are the ones with the most choice built in, like this one that shows Earth through a window from an angle. That context hits me really hard, and it's a choice one person made that not every person would make.
At the same time, that photo is on the tail end of a VERY long set of decisions that literally thousands of humans made. Each of those decisions was necessary to build all of the things that got those four humans into the place where those photos could possibly be taken. Not to mention all of the people who paid the taxes who paid for it all! Every one of those Artemis photos is a collaboration between millions, if not billions of humans, and so I can see not wanting to take credit for any of them.
And I can also see a crew of just four people saying, "This is not something you are doing or that I am doing...this is something we are doing."
Ultimately, it wasn't much of a choice. The people who took the photos said they wanted all the photos to be credited to the Artemis Crew, and so I made the decision to take down the part of the tool that let you sort by photographer.
Pretty cool.
Hank
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This Week in Stuff
A scientist made leather out of eggs while on a mission to learn more about dinosaur bones. (YouTube)
We learned about an exciting way to reduce food waste: kitchen sink sandwiches. (TikTok)
Muffin the cat visits the library so often that he was given his own library card. (YouTube)
Five middle school students worked together to safely bring their school bus to a stop in an emergency. (TikTok)
You can take a tour of Goldilocks’ perfect couch. (Instagram)
Please send us stuff you think we should feature to [email protected]
Death rates for cervical cancer in the United Kingdom have fallen by 80% since 1950
Hannah Ritchie
Cervical cancer death rates among women in the United Kingdom have fallen by around 80% since 1950. You can see this reduction in the chart.
This progress happened for a couple of key reasons.
The first was the introduction of population-level screening programs in 1988. Across the UK, women are invited to get a regular smear test to detect precancerous changes or cervical cancer cases early, when treatment has much better odds of success.
Another, and more recent innovation, which could put the UK on the path to eradicating cervical cancer completely, is the rollout of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. This protects someone from the HPV infection, which can later develop into cervical cancer.
In schools across the country, girls in their early teens are offered the HPV vaccine, effectively offering them long-lasting protection. I was one of the first cohorts of girls in the UK to receive this, and it’s something I’m incredibly grateful for.
The UK is not alone in its progress: a number of countries have managed to reduce cervical cancer death rates in recent decades.
Our World in Data is a UK-based non-profit organization that publishes research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. You can find more of their data insights here. Want to receive even more Data Insights like this from Our World in Data directly in your inbox every few days? Sign up for their newsletter!
This Week at Complexly
Patient-scientists, me-searchers, or just researchers who study their own conditions are all over science. This video shines a light on the work of David Fajgenbaum, Chris Nowinski, Sonia Vallabh, Julio Saez-Rodriguez, and Susan Michaelis for their studies of Castleman Disease, CTE, prion disease, IgAN, and aerotoxic syndrome.
Even though the dinosaurs that once hunted us are long gone, we still, in a sense, may be living in their shadows… Because it turns out, those terrible lizards might be the reason we age faster than any other vertebrate group.
Some Games to Play!
Word Bunny (by Samuel Simmons)
SpellCheck.xyc (by Answer in Progress)
This Gubbins postcard was made by Emma. Send yours to [email protected]
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Things We’re Proud Of
Last week, we asked for moments of pride you’ve experienced recently. Thank you to everyone who told us about something you’re proud of!
A few weeks ago, I saved a three-legged baby squirrel from certain death and raised him for a couple of weeks before taking him to a more permanent place. More recently, I reunited a stray dog with their owner. I feel proud for helping these animals and also for showing my 3-year-old daughter how to be a good creature.
I got nominated for an Afdis award. These are a series of awards that are given out every year for the best actress, actor, comedic role etc etc
I got nominated for the best technical performance for my set design for Anthony and Cleopatra where I designed a set that included a wall of doors and a revolving door to let you know whether you were in Egypt or Rome.
This is my first nomination and I am proud of myself for achieving something noteworthy.
I struggle to acknowledge when I should be proud of myself. But I am rather proud of my soldering skills progressing. From first screw out to last screw in I can replace an HDMI port on a game console within an hour. Two years of refining my skill.
My proud news is that I’m running for city council! I believe that I can make a change in my city and I’m excited to start this adventure.
I had a moment of pride when I watched my lovely partner present his research at a symposium last month. I am just so grateful that I got to be there to support him. Love you James :)
I participated in the first athletic competition of my entire life a couple years ago. At 39 years of age, I signed up for a powerlifting meet. I hit all my numbers and I came in dead last. I have never been so proud of myself in my entire life.
I have been preparing a piece of music for an audition for the past 9 months. The other day in my lesson my teacher told me it was the best I had ever played it. I’m proud of myself for that, I’ve worked hard. The audition is in a month, and I think I’m almost fully ready for it :)
I went to the doctor for the first time in 10 years! I'm terribly afraid of doctors but I did it! I'll be taking medication for my anxiety and hopefully my quality of life will get better too!
My moment of pride is that I recently returned to playing rugby - the sport I love so, so, so much. I stopped playing at university because the misogynistic toxic masculinity there was so intolerable. I longed for rugby every week for seven years. Now, my city has an expressly inclusive, majority LGBT+, woman-coached team - I feel so welcomed, I'm training every week, and playing the best I ever have.
I’m about to finish my engineering degree in a few weeks!! Especially as a woman in STEM, I’ve experienced a lot of imposter syndrome and uncertainty, so I’m so proud to see I’ve made it through :) and later this week I’m going to see the microcontrollers I built for my department be used by freshmen engineering students at a competition, which is so crazy and cool and I’m so glad I’ve persevered! and I can’t wait to see what’s next :D
That’s all for now!
If you’d like, make your own kitchen sink sandwich sometime in the next week. Send us a review of how it turned out!
Send your kitchen sink sandwich to [email protected].
