9 Things to Look forward to in 2018

Time to get excited! From NASA's incredible space plans to an electronic hat that's going to change a whole lot of lives, Will, Gabe and Mango unveil some really good reasons to be optimistic about the new year.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what, Mango, what's that? Will? Now you know how
much I love new space missions. And you and I
were talking a few weeks ago about this satellite that
NASA's launching next year. It's called the Tests or the
Transiting Exoplanets Surveys Satellite. Yeah, I mean that's the one
that's headed to look at the planets outside our Solar system, right, Yeah.
And it's wild to read about just how far this
satellite will be looking. This is a two year survey

(00:22):
and Tests will be looking at two hundred thousand of
the brightest stars near the Sun and all the planets
around them. And in the survey, they're expecting to look
at about three hundred Earth size planets. And I love
it when these kinds of missions launch. I know it's exciting.
So when is it launching exactly? Well, they say it's
gonna be no later than June. And I really love

(00:42):
this time of year because it's a chance to pause
and hit refresh, you know in some ways, and and
think about all the exciting things happening in the year ahead.
So that's what we're gonna do today, And today's nine
things were excited about for two thousand eighteen let's get started.

(01:17):
Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and it's always I'm joined by my good
friend Man and the man on the other side of
the soundproof class wearing a T shirt that says, actually,
what does it say? It says new year knew you
this year new shoe. What in the world does that mean?
Is that like Dr SEUs or something? I have no idea,
but I'm sure it's profound that Tristan is one deep guy?

(01:40):
Who are not kidding? All right, Well, we've got another
smart guy on the phone, and that's our lead researcher,
Mr Gabe Louisier. Hey there, Gabe. All right, Well today
we're talking about some of the things we're excited about
for two thousand eighteen. So Mango, you want to kick
us off with the first fact, Yeah, definitely. So obviously
we're both excited about this search for exoplanns and everyone's

(02:01):
been talking about whether we should go to Mars or not,
but very few people talk about NASA's mission this year
to the Sun. But that's exactly what's happening in two
thou eighteen. It's called the Parker Solar probe, and the
whole idea is to trace the flow of energy around
the Sun and understand the solar winds and magnetic fields there.
And while it won't actually get to the Sun, it'll

(02:21):
actually get closer to Venus and then return in two
thousand twenty five. The probe is covered in all this
armor of carbon capositi solar shields, I guess, And that's
to protect it from the heat. Wow. So we get
the closest that will get you set is near Venus. Yeah,
so it'll get to Venus, it'll actually orbit Venus, I believe,
so that to reduce on energy. Uh. And and then

(02:43):
and then I'll head back. Venus, which my son likes
to remind me, is actually the hottest planet despite being
the second planet. All right, that's a good one. We're
sticking with some space themes. Okay, well, Gay, what's your
first fact? So I go to space one to actually
and you know, the Sun is great and all, but
I'm a little more excited about the fact that two
space tourists are going to be headed to the Moon.

(03:03):
And uh, this is part of a SpaceX project. Um.
It's called the Falcon Heavy Rocket and it's gonna launch
with a crew of the Dragon too. It's it's the
most powerful rocket to blast off since uh NASA's Saturn
missions in the nineteen seventies. The mission is supposed to
last about a week and it will be mostly automated,
so the space tourists will, you know, pretty much just

(03:24):
sit there and hope that everything goes okay. And in
case something, you know, does go wrong, they'll have a
little bit of training and including how to pilot the
craft manually. But the capsule is just going to orbit
the Moon, not actually touched down. Um, and we don't
know who's going yet, but to private individuals approached SpaceX
and has to be a part of the Moon cruise,

(03:44):
and they haven't announced who they are yet, but there
you can be sure they're paying a pretty penny for
the privilege. There's not there's not an exact date yet
for the mission, just lateen but it's coming so so
they do know who the two people are. We don't know,
but those two people have been chosen. I mean. The
other weird thing about it is they call it Dragon
two instead of Double Dragon. That's the weirdest fact of all. Right, Well,

(04:12):
I guess I will go next with a fact that
I feel like we can't talk about two thousand eighteen
without at least talking about the Winter Olympics and pyeong Chang,
South Korea. And this is definitely going to be an
interesting one. I mean, you know, it's only fifty or
so miles from the North Korea border, and we all
read about how the Russian team has been suspended by
the IOC for systematic doping, so that's going to be

(04:33):
a unwrinkle in this and it'll be interesting to see
how many of their athletes compete independently. But one of
my favorite parts about the Olympics is hearing about the
new events that they're adding each time. And this year,
the the events that I saw listed were big air snowboarding,
mixed doubles curling. That sounds exciting, and mass starts speed skating.

(04:53):
I really don't understand what any of those mean, and
I kind of don't want to look them up because
I just want to be surprised by what mass start
speed skating is chaos. But anyway, I'm excited for the
Olympics as always. Okay, mango, what's your next fact? So
one of the things everyone's kind of excited about in
two thousand eighteen is that women are finally being given

(05:14):
the right to drive in Saudi Arabia. And obviously this
is a big deal. So Stacy looked up the reasons
women have been held back to this point and they
are ridiculous or actually infuriating. So these are some of
the reasons that Saudi Arabia is given in the past
for why women shouldn't drive. Mail drivers wouldn't know how
to handle women driving in cars next to them. Allowing

(05:36):
women to drive will make women more promiscuous and also
bring shame on the Saudi family. And also driving harms
women's ovaries, is that it's so crazy in battling, and
so all these, of course, are these stupid reasons. And
I remember I had this friend in college. He lived
in Saudi Arabia, and she said that her mom talked
about how the year or two they had spent there,
she felt like her wings have been clipped because she

(05:57):
just couldn't be independent at all. So getting the right
for these women to drive is really exciting, but it's
going to be baby steps. So women still can't work
as taxi drivers, and the reason the change isn't taking
place until June is partially to train police on how
to interact with women when they pulled them over, because
men and women don't actually often interact unless they're related
to one another. That's very interesting fact and hopefully as

(06:20):
the first of many steps in that direction. Okay, Gabe,
what's your next fact? So one thing we're celebrating in
eighteen is the one hundred birthday of the John Deere tractor.
Nineteen eighteen was actually just the beginning of the John
Deere tractor line, which started thirty two years after the
man himself passed away. And John Deer was originally a

(06:41):
blacksmith by trade, which led him to inventing the first
steel plow in eighteen thirty seven. Uh. The company then
made all kinds of different farm implements for the next
eighty years or so before actually finally venturing into the
tractor game in eighteen. And the company already jumped the
gun a little bit and marked this anniversary by bringing
a family to their Waterloo, Iowa plant in October and

(07:05):
the family got to watch the first tractor roll off
the assembly line and they got to keep it too. Wow,
it's pretty awesome. It's a good fact. Okay, well, my
last fact of the day. Um, it's actually pretty wild
to think about the fact that Phase one trials will
begin late next year for an AIDS vaccine, and this
doesn't seem like something we could be saying by this point,

(07:27):
And of course it's still very early, but scientists from
the n i H and the pharmaceutical company Sono Fie
appear to have us closer than ever to having a vaccine.
The vaccine combines three broadly neutralizing antibodies into a single compound,
and the number of anybodies make it nearly impossible for
HIV to mutate into AIDS, and so if it proves

(07:47):
to be effective, the drug could be used as a
vaccine to help treat people who already have the disease.
And if the trial goes well, then the drug could
be in the market in just a few years. So
obviously fingers crossed on that one. Yeah, it's pretty awesome, alright, mango,
what's your next fact? So? Uh? I love that they're
all these exciting medical innovations on the horizon, right, Like
the AIDS thing is so promising and awesome. But one

(08:10):
of the things that warmed my hearts was that there's
this new cooling cap for people going through chemo, and
basically you wear the cap before, after, and during your
session and it's significantly reduces hair loss, which you know,
we've all had friends and relatives with cancer, and especially
watching little kids with leukemia lose their hair and you
realize how difficult it is. During that time, at least

(08:30):
they can feel a little more confident from you know,
looking like themselves, and then it's kind of wonderful. That
is pretty neat. That's that's great. Alright, Gabe, you get
to close this out today. What's your last fact of
the day. All right, Well, this is significantly less important
than new developments and cancer and AIDS research, but there
is something I am excited about, um and that's that

(08:51):
George R. R. Martin is releasing a new Western Roast
based book this year. You know, before you know, we
get too excited. Is it's not the long awaited sixth
book and the Song of Ice and Fire series that's
Blawn Game of Phones, but it is based in the
same world. It's it's called Fire and Blood, so he's
mixing it up a little bit. And it's said to

(09:12):
be a two volume history about the tar Gerrian Kings.
That appear in those books, and Martin says the first
one will likely be released by the end of twenty eighteen,
and he said that at least one West Rose book
will be released this year and who knows, maybe too
a boy can dream. Wow, you really close that out
with a profound statement there. You know, Mega, We've had

(09:33):
a lot of good facts today, and I know we
talked about some pretty important things, you know, these space
missions and obviously what with women driving in Saudi Arabia,
aids vaccine, these caps for those dealing with chemotherapy. But
I feel like Gabe really hit us with some very
very important facts like the John Dear anniversary of the

(09:53):
George Are Martin novel coming out, So I feel like
he probably deserves to take the trophy today. Here's to
all your dreams coming true. Okay, that's right. I think
you made the right plice. This is our last episode
of Nine Things for the year. Look forward to getting
back to it next year, and happy New Year everybody.
We'll be back with a full length episode tomorrow. Thank

(10:15):
you so much for listening. Kay