Episode 23: Magic Science, Quite Literally | Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Photo by Joshua Fuller on Unsplash

Photo by Jonathan Lampel on Unsplash

We were on an unannounced hiatus (let’s face it, all our hiatuses are unannounced), but we have returned! Caitlin and a (very congested) Nicole are back to talking about Marvel and, in particular, Spider-Man: Far from Home. The duo discuss the science of magic and just how far we are from real holograms. We also talk about the quite real and quite scary realm of deep fakes. What we do not discuss is what our superhero names would be, which in retrospect seems like a huge oversight. Nicole’s would be the Copyrighter, for the record.

Articles

Drones, Illusions, and Tony Stark

• Article about the new, shorter route to the ISS: https://www.engadget.com/2013/03/29/soyuz-cuts-travel-time-to-iss

• Falling off the ISS: https://www.businessinsider.com/what-if-jump-off-international-space-station-2018-6

• How the Mysterio as Fury illusion sequence really was created: https://beforesandafters.com/2019/07/09/how-that-insane-illusion-battle-in-spider-man-far-from-home-was-created-and-what-didnt-make-the-final-cut

• Article on how realistic is the Mysterio technology: https://www.thewrap.com/spider-man-far-from-home-mysterio-deepfake-illusion

• Discussion of the continuity between Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far from Home: https://bgr.com/2019/08/08/spider-man-far-from-home-plot-hole-ruins-endgame-and-mcu-continuity

• Article on how the arc reactor would work in real life: https://www.outerplaces.com/science/item/7048-how-iron-mans-stark-arc-reactor-would-work-in-real-life

3D-Printed Clothes

• Article that includes examples of 3D-printed clothing (including from Black Panther!): https://all3dp.com/2/3d-printed-clothes-myth-or-reality

• Article that includes some of the history of 3D printed clothing and discusses limitations of printed clothing: https://www.wired.com/2017/05/the-shattering-truth-of-3d-printed-clothing

Deep Fakes

• Jordan Peele's fake Obama PSA: https://www.vox.com/2018/4/18/17252410/jordan-peele-obama-deepfake-buzzfeed

• Advanced word insertion and deletion deep fakes: https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/10/18659432/deepfake-ai-fakes-tech-edit-video-by-typing-new-words

• AI-generated faces: http://www.whichfaceisreal.com/

• Samantha Cole was one of the early reporters to talk about deepfakes, this is one of her more recent pieces on them: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43kwgb/not-jordan-peterson-voice-generator-shut-down-deepfakes

• Great compilation of deep fake examples: https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/01/business/pentagons-race-against-deepfakes

Science Corner

• Horseshoe Crab blood: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a26038/the-blood-of-the-crab

• Tardigrades on the moon: https://www.livescience.com/moon-tardigrades-future.html

• More about tardigrades on the moon: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/thousands-of-tardigrades-crash-land-on-the-moon-did-they-survive/2019/08/09/41944b72-b927-11e9-a091-6a96e67d9cce_story.html