In this week’s News for Nerds, we tackle some pressing issues: finding the right parking spot, our mysterious benefactors in the Gulf of Mexico, the enduring fashion sense of Roman gladiators, and much more. And of course, we do it all in the name of science!
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Let’s get started this week with a very serious story: With the help of Google’s supercomputers, mathematicians at Kent State University have determined that a Rubik’s Cube is solvable from any position in just 20 moves.
That’s right, 20 moves. And what makes it even more incredible is that there are over 43 quintillion possible starting positions. If you’re unfamiliar with the term ‘quintillion’, you’re not alone. We’d never heard of it, either, but it turns out that a quintillion is a billion billion. Which, let’s face it, is a lot.
The team at Kent State has spent more than a decade working on this problem, but they got a lucky break when Google offered to lend a hand. For several weeks, Google’s ultra-powerful computers solved thousands of virtual Rubik’s Cubes every second, working every possible combination until they came up with the magic number.
Twenty moves. Think you can manage that? Either way, you can read the full transcript here.
And as a related bonus story, read about the guy who solved a Rubik’s cube while skydiving. Yes, skydiving!
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Have you heard that there’s a mysterious microbe that’s gulping up spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico?
After the BP drilling rig disaster earlier this year, one of the major questions has been: who is going to clean up all of this oil? At the time, neither BP nor the U.S. government seemed to have much of an answer. But in a serendipitous turn, mother nature herself has stepped in to do what no one else seemed willing or able to manage.
Special microbes, which were previously unclassified, have been turning the toxic oil into nontoxic microbes — and doing so much faster, and much safer, than anyone anticipated.
When these bacteria encounter oil in the water, they consume half of it in 1.2 to 6.1 days. More importantly, they don’t appear to be using up all the oxygen in the water as they eat and grow. The fear had been that large microbe blooms might deplete water oxygen levels, leading to dead zones that could impact ecosystems and fisheries.
This doesn’t by any means excuse the crucial mistakes that led to the disaster in the first place. But it is one more example of the many ways that nature continues to surprise (and look out for) us.
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And now, a public service announcement: stop circling the grocery store parking lot looking for the closest spot. Turns out you’re only wasting your time.
Researchers at Mississippi State University used advanced mathematical theories and probability statistics to conclude that, while circling may cut your walking distance by 27 percent, the amount of time wasted while doing so cancels out any actual time savings.
We’re still waiting for the academic study that will convince people to actually walk their shopping carts back to the cart receptacle and not just leave them in the parking lot, twenty feet away. Stay tuned.
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Anyone who knows me knows that I have a special fascination with the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. For the last six years, the Cassini orbiter has been circling Saturn like someone looking for a really good parking spot, all the while taking pictures and sending back valuable information to the fine folks at NASA.
The most recent images to come from Cassini are some of the best yet. They include especially detailed shots of the moons Enceladus, Tethis and Dione. (My favorite of Saturn’s moons is definitely Titan.) You can see the new images right here.
Be sure to keep a close eye on Titan as the Cassini mission continues. Many astronomers believe that we have as much to learn about habitable planets from Saturn’s moons as we do from any other celestial bodies in our solar system. It’s a smorgasbord of planetary information, and we’re only just now starting to dig through it.
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There are many lasting legacies of the Roman empire — inventions and advances in everything from language to agriculture to sewage systems. But not everything that the Romans passed down to us should be considered worthwhile.
Take for example this recent story out of England. It appears that an archaeological dig has produced evidence that Roman legionnaires wore — gasp! — socks with sandals.
Researchers excavating a 2,000 year-old site discovered fibers attached to a rusty nail from a gladiator’s sandal, which led to the conclusion that the socks-with-sandals look isn’t confined to modern-day vacationing retirees.
“You don’t imagine Romans in socks, but I am sure they would have been pretty keen to get hold of some as soon as autumn came along,” archaeologist Blaise Vyner told the Telegraph. Which only goes to show that when in Rome, it is not always wise to do as the Romans do.
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Well, that does it for this week’s News for Nerds. Don’t forget to follow Club Galahad on Facebook and YouTube, or to sign up for the Club Galahad Newsletter. There’s more to come next week. In the meantime, keep gettin’ your nerd on!
NASA’s Cassini orbiter
If you are excited at the prospect of finding extraterrestrial life in the universe, pay close attention. 
Someday our own Milky Way galaxy will collide with the nearby Andromeda galaxy, extinguishing millions of stars and creating many millions more in their place. And even though that particular collision is a few billion years away, 
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