Spaced Out :: 04 2016

I was away at the European Geosciences Union last week presenting in a number of sessions. EGU has long been in Vienna which is a wonderfully cosmopolitan city with by far one of the best transit systems I have used. It works on an honour system and is just efficient and effective. The underground (U-banh) and buses get you anywhere quickly. It also has one of the highest number of hotel beds and apartments available for a major city making it is to stay in comfort.

Anyway, no EGU would be complete without a quick rundown of some of the extensive restaurants that are available throughout the city (and their TrustedReviews links):

Le Pho: specialising in pho (doh!), a Vietnamese soup. Freshly cooked and great price. Was a great start to the week. Yes, James had the large portion!

Pizzeria Osteria da Giovanni: a real backstreet underground cellar feel and a moderate wait for the pizza, but when it came…. O, mamma mia it was good!! Great prices again.

Da Michele: the best host in Vienna, bar none!! A great family feel restaurant, extremely fast and friendly with really great homely Italian food. Big thumbs up!

Universitatsbrauhaus: a piazza in the university quarter that is quiet and pleasant. Great Austrian/German cuisine.

Some really helpful cartography tips from staff writer Lisa Berry on 6 Easy Ways to Improve Your Maps. I particularly like point 2, Find Signal within the Noise, which is pertinent to any kind of exposition. What is your main point and highlight it…. demonstrate you signal.

Following on from my earlier post from Sense About Science, the government have now suspended implementation of the anti-lobbying clause for further consultation. Whilst not removed (yet), this is good news and allows researchers to set out a sensible case.

Historic England have just released Shadbolt’s iconic photos of England which went under the hammer last year and were rescued by HE (and, yes, for those confused Historic England was part of English Heritage which split in two in 2015).

These photos form the earliest aerial images of London and largely cover the suburban fringe that were undergoing rapid expansion - all in amazing detail. Sadly Shadbolt was killed in - perhaps unsurprisingly - a ballooning accident. A great collection that forms a unique part of early aerial photography.

Copyright Historic England

The Beagle 2 was perhaps the most infamous of British attempts in space. The sheer audacity of a tiny mission, built on a shoestring to achieve a dramatic landing on Mars… that failed! it was subsequently found “intact” on the Martian surface using MRO data which is (at best) 30cm resolution (in a low orbit). This has now been reprocessed using multiple images and the so called Super-Resolution Restoration technique to produced imagery with an effective 5cm per pixel resolution to show the Beagle in even greater detail.

And, as suspected, rather than suffering the ignominious fate of impacting into the surface at very high speed, smashing in to a crumpled mess, it landed pretty much bang in the middle of its intended location, descending to the surface for a gentle touchdown. It looks like the “petals” with solar panels didn’t fully deploy which would have stopped the comms kicking in. One day we might know for sure…