Missing the bar? Become a master mixologist in your living room.
Certified sommelier Carlos Batista will show you the ropes of bartending.
- Neighborhood bars might be closed, but you can still enjoy your favorite cocktails at home.
- Sommelier Carlos Batista will teach everything you need to know about vodka, sake, tequila, wine, whiskey, and more.
- In his nine-course bundle, you'll learn all about flavors, how to read labels, and how to mix the perfect drink.
While the term "social distancing" is on everyone's lips, some recommend the term "physical distancing" instead. We might not be able to crowd into bars, but we can still be social. Zoom happy hours and cocktail sessions, anyone?
If you want to learn how to craft the perfect cocktail, the Mixologist and Budding Bartender Bundle is for you. This nine-course bundle is taught by Carlos Batista, a master sommelier. And by the end of his 179 lessons, you'll be able to mix anything in your liquor cabinet.
Do you wonder about the differences between whiskey, bourbon, rye, and scotch? A deep dive into the exciting world of whiskeys and scotches will educate you on the history of these spirits, teach you how to recognize flavors and aromas, and refine your knowledge of reading a label.
Courses in gin, brandy, vodka, tequila and mezcal, and sake will make you an expert on everything on the shelf. Of course, every sommelier needs to talk about wine, and Batista doesn't let you down. You'll learn how to properly taste wine and detect defects in a glass. You'll also be armed to decant a bottle in a restaurant setting.
Once you have knowledge of all these liquors, you'll need to know how to put them together. A 20-lesson course in serving cocktails will make you the star of the party—even if, for now, it's in the privacy of your living room.
Carlos Batista has worked in the hospitality industry for over two decades. Besides being a certified sommelier, he holds a Specialist of Spirits certification. He's a mixologist, entrepreneur, and author of 11 books related to beer, wine, spirits, sake, cigars, and hospitality service.
The Mixologist and Budding Bartender Bundle is on sale now for just $29.99, a 93% discount from the original price.
Price subject to change. Subscribers must be of legal age where they reside. These courses do not condone underage drinking in any capacity.
When you buy something through a link in this article or from our shop, Big Think earns a small commission. Thank you for supporting our team's work.
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New Hubble images add to the dark matter puzzle
The images and our best computer models don't agree.
September 23, 2020
Surprising Science
Scientists can detect the gravitational effects of invisible dark matter. Dark matter causes visual distortions of what's behind it. The greater the distortion, the greater the amount of dark matter. Maybe.
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<p class=""><br></p>
<p>Dark matter is believed to be important stuff, the glue that holds together the dust, gas, and stars that make up galaxies. It's the organizing force for the universe's large-scale structure, the shape you'd see if you were able to zoom way, way out, and it comprises most of a galaxy's mass.</p><p>We don't know precisely what dark matter is, since it doesn't emit or reflect light, or absorb it for that matter, rendering it invisible to our instruments. However, we can see what dark matter does, insofar as light from objects behind dark matter warps and is magnified as it makes its way toward us. That visual distortion is referred to as dark matter's "lensing" effect, as it's similar to what you might see passing a magnifying glass over an object.</p><p>Now a new <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aax5164" target="_blank">study</a> of images from the <a href="https://www.spacetelescope.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hubble Space Telescope</a> combined with <a href="https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/toolbox/spectra1.html" target="_blank">spectra</a> from the European Southern Observatory's <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Very Large Telescope</a> (VLT) in Chile finds that there's either a lot more dark matter than computer models predict, or there's a major puzzle piece missing from what we thought we knew about dark matter's behavior.</p>
A trio of intriguing galaxy clusters
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQzNDA0OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNTkzNzUyOH0.0IRzkzvKsmPEHV-v1dqM1JIPhgE2W-UHx0COuB0qQnA/img.jpg?width=980" id="d69be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2d2664d9174369e0a06540cb3a3a9079" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />The three galaxy clusters imaged for the study
<p>The discrepancy has to do with images of three galaxy clusters captured by Hubble's <a href="https://www.spacetelescope.org/about/general/instruments/wfc3/" target="_blank">Wide Field Camera 3</a> and <a href="https://www.spacetelescope.org/about/general/instruments/acs/" target="_blank">Advanced Camera for Surveys</a> as part of two Hubble projects: The Frontier Fields and the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH) programs. The three clusters are called <a href="https://spacetelescope.org/images/heic1115a/" target="_blank">MACS J1206.2-0847</a>, <a href="https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1416a/" target="_blank">MACS J0416.1-2403</a>, and <a href="https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1615a/" target="_blank">Abell S1063</a>.</p><p>Such imagery can be used for authenticating — or exposing flaws in —predictive computer models of dark matter's behavior, locations, and concentrations. </p><p>Lead author <a href="https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/massimo.meneghetti/en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Massimo Meneghetti</a> of the INAF-Observatory of Astrophysics and Space Science of Bologna, Italy, <a href="https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic2016/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">says</a> that "galaxy clusters are ideal laboratories in which to study whether the numerical simulations of the Universe that are currently available reproduce well what we can infer from gravitational lensing."</p>Mapping dark matter
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d904b585c806752f261e1215014691a6"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fO0jO_a9uLA?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>The assumption has been that the greater the lensing effect, the higher the concentration of dark matter.</p><p>As scientists analyzed the clusters' large-scale lensing — the massive arc and elongation visual effects produced by dark matter — they noticed areas of smaller-scale lensing within that larger distortion. The scientists interpret these as concentrations of dark matter within individual galaxies inside the clusters.</p><p>The researchers used spectrographic data from the VLT to determine the mass of these smaller lenses. <a href="https://www.oas.inaf.it/en/user/pietro.bergamini/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Pietro Bergamini</a> of the INAF-Observatory of Astrophysics and Space Science in Bologna, Italy explains, "The speed of the stars gave us an estimate of each individual galaxy's mass, including the amount of dark matter." The leader of the spectrographic aspect of the study was <a href="http://docente.unife.it/docenti-en/piero.rosati1/curriculum?set_language=en" target="_blank">Piero Rosati</a> of the Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Italy who recalls, "the data from Hubble and the VLT provided excellent synergy. We were able to associate the galaxies with each cluster and estimate their distances." </p><p>This work allowed the team to develop a thoroughly calibrated, high-resolution map of dark matter concentrations throughout the three clusters.</p>But the models say...
<p>However, when the researchers compared their map to the concentrations of dark matter computer models predicted for galaxies bearing the same general characteristics, something was <em>way</em> off. Some small-scale areas of the map had 10 times the amount of lensing — and presumably 10 times the amount of dark matter — than the model predicted.</p><p>"The results of these analyses further demonstrate how observations and numerical simulations go hand in hand," notes one team member, <a href="https://nena12276.wixsite.com/elenarasia" target="_blank">Elena Rasia</a> of the INAF-Astronomical Observatory of Trieste, Italy. Another, <a href="http://adlibitum.oats.inaf.it/borgani/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Stefano Borgani</a> of the Università degli Studi di Trieste, Italy, adds that "with advanced cosmological simulations, we can match the quality of observations analyzed in our paper, permitting detailed comparisons like never before."</p><p>"We have done a lot of testing of the data in this study," Meneghetti says, "and we are sure that this mismatch indicates that some physical ingredient is missing either from the simulations or from our understanding of the nature of dark matter." <a href="https://physics.yale.edu/people/priyamvada-natarajan" target="_blank">Priyamvada Natarajan</a> of Yale University in Connecticut agrees: "There's a feature of the real Universe that we are simply not capturing in our current theoretical models."</p><p>Given that any theory in science lasts only until a better one comes along, Natarajan views the discrepancy as an opportunity, saying, "this could signal a gap in our current understanding of the nature of dark matter and its properties, as these exquisite data have permitted us to probe the detailed distribution of dark matter on the smallest scales."</p><p>At this point, it's unclear exactly what the conflict signifies. Do these smaller areas have unexpectedly high concentrations of dark matter? Or can dark matter, under certain currently unknown conditions, produce a tenfold increase in lensing beyond what we've been expecting, breaking the assumption that more lensing means more dark matter?</p><p>Obviously, the scientific community has barely begun to understand this mystery.</p>
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Did our early ancestors boil their food in hot springs?
Scientists have found evidence of hot springs near sites where ancient hominids settled, long before the control of fire.
September 23, 2020
Ryan Pierse/Getty Images
Culture & Religion
Some of the oldest remains of early human ancestors have been unearthed in Olduvai Gorge, a rift valley setting in northern Tanzania where anthropologists have discovered fossils of hominids that existed 1.8 million years ago.
<p> The region has preserved many fossils and stone tools, indicating that early humans settled and hunted there.</p><p>Now a team led by researchers at MIT and the University of Alcalá in Spain has discovered evidence that hot springs may have existed in Olduvai Gorge around that time, near early human archaeological sites. The proximity of these hydrothermal features raises the possibility that early humans could have used hot springs as a cooking resource, for instance to boil fresh kills, long before humans are thought to have used fire as a controlled source for cooking.</p><p>"As far as we can tell, this is the first time researchers have put forth concrete evidence for the possibility that people were using hydrothermal environments as a resource, where animals would've been gathering, and where the potential to cook was available," says Roger Summons, the Schlumberger Professor of Geobiology in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). </p><p>Summons and his colleagues have published their findings today in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>. The study's lead author is Ainara Sistiaga, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow based at MIT and the University of Copenhagen. The team includes Fatima Husain, a graduate student in EAPS, along with archaeologists, geologists, and geochemists from the University of Alcalá and the University of Valladolid, in Spain; the University of Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania; and Pennsylvania State University.</p>
<h3>An unexpected reconstruction</h3><p>In 2016, Sistiaga joined an archaeological expedition to Olduvai Gorge, where researchers with the Olduvai Paleoanthropology and Paleoecology Project were collecting sediments from a 3-kilometer-long layer of exposed rock that was deposited around 1.7 million years ago. This geologic layer was striking because its sandy composition was markedly different from the dark clay layer just below, which was deposited 1.8 million years ago.</p><p>"Something was changing in the environment, so we wanted to understand what happened and how that impacted humans," says Sistiaga, who had originally planned to analyze the sediments to see how the landscape changed in response to climate and how these changes may have affected the way early humans lived in the region.</p><p>It's thought that around 1.7 million years ago, East Africa underwent a gradual aridification, moving from a wetter, tree-populated climate to dryer, grassier terrain. Sistiaga brought back sandy rocks collected from the Olduvai Gorge layer and began to analyze them in Summons' lab for signs of certain lipids that can contain residue of leaf waxes, offering clues to the kind of vegetation present at the time.</p><p>"You can reconstruct something about the plants that were there by the carbon numbers and the isotopes, and that's what our lab specializes in, and why Ainara was doing it in our lab," Summons says. "But then she discovered other classes of compounds that were totally unexpected."</p>
<h3>An unambiguous sign</h3><p>Within the sediments she brought back, Sistiaga came across lipids that looked completely different from the plant-derived lipids she knew. She took the data to Summons, who realized that they were a close match with lipids produced not by plants, but by specific groups of bacteria that he and his colleagues had reported on, in a completely different context, nearly 20 years ago.</p><p>The lipids that Sistiaga extracted from sediments deposited 1.7 million years ago in Tanzania were the same lipids that are produced by a modern bacteria that Summons and his colleagues previously studied in the United States, in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park.</p><p>One specific bacterium, <em>Thermocrinis ruber</em>, is a hyperthermophilic organism that will only thrive in very hot waters, such as those found in the outflow channels of boiling hot springs.</p><p>"They won't even grow unless the temperature is above 80 degrees Celsius [176 degrees Fahrenheit]," Summons says. "Some of the samples Ainara brought back from this sandy layer in Olduvai Gorge had these same assemblages of bacterial lipids that we think are unambiguously indicative of high-temperature water."</p><p>That is, it appears that heat-loving bacteria similar to those Summons had worked on more than 20 years ago in Yellowstone may also have lived in Olduvai Gorge 1.7 million years ago. By extension, the team proposes, high-temperature features such as hot springs and hydrothermal waters could also have been present.</p><p>"It's not a crazy idea that, with all this tectonic activity in the middle of the rift system, there could have been extrusion of hydrothermal fluids," notes Sistiaga, who says that Olduvai Gorge is a geologically active tectonic region that has upheaved volcanoes over millions of years — activity that could also have boiled up groundwater to form hot springs at the surface.</p><p>The region where the team collected the sediments is adjacent to sites of early human habitation featuring stone tools, along with animal bones. It is possible, then, that nearby hot springs may have enabled hominins to cook food such as meat and certain tough tubers and roots.</p><p>"The authors' comprehensive analyses paint a vivid picture of the ancient Olduvai Gorge ecosystem and landscape, including the first compelling evidence for ancient hydrothermal springs," says Richard Pancost, a professor of biogeochemistry at the University of Bristol, who was not involved in the study. "This introduces the fascinating possibility that such springs could have been used by early hominins to cook food."</p>
<h3>"Why wouldn't you eat it?"</h3><p>Exactly how early humans may have cooked with hot springs is still an open question. They could have butchered animals and dipped the meat in hot springs to make them more palatable. In a similar way, they could have boiled roots and tubers, much like cooking raw potatoes, to make them more easily digestible. Animals could have also met their demise while falling into the hydrothermal waters, where early humans could have fished them out as a precooked meal.</p><p>"If there was a wildebeest that fell into the water and was cooked, why wouldn't you eat it?" Sistiaga poses.</p><p>While there is currently no sure-fire way to establish whether early humans indeed used hot springs to cook, the team plans to look for similar lipids, and signs of hydrothermal reservoirs, in other layers and locations throughout Olduvai Gorge, as well as near other sites in the world where human settlements have been found.</p><p>"We can prove in other sites that maybe hot springs were present, but we would still lack evidence of how humans interacted with them. That's a question of behavior, and understanding the behavior of extinct species almost 2 million years ago is very difficult, Sistiaga says. "I hope we can find other evidence that supports at least the presence of this resource in other important sites for human evolution."</p><p>This research was supported, in part, by the European Commission (MSCA-GF), the NASA Astrobiology Institute, and the Government of Spain.</p><p>Reprinted with permission of <a href="http://news.mit.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MIT News</a>. Read the <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2020/early-human-hot-springs-food-0915" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
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Elon Musk promises $25,000 electric car at Tesla's 'Battery Day'
The electric car manufacturer says updates to its battery design and manufacturing process will help lower production costs.
September 23, 2020
Tesla
Technology & Innovation
- The high cost of batteries is the main reason why electric vehicles cost more than gas-powered cars.
- At the company's 'Battery Day' event on Tuesday, Tesla announced a new battery design that will give its cars more power and a longer range.
- The success of Tesla's plan depends on its ability to scale up production.
<p><br></p><p>Cheaper, more efficient batteries. That's what Tesla says will allow it to offer a $25,000 electric car within the next three years. The announcements came at the company's "Battery Day" event on Tuesday afternoon in Palo Alto, California.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"One of the things that troubles me the most is that we don't yet have a truly affordable car, and that is something that we will make in the future," Tesla CEO Elon Musk told a socially distanced audience, who were sitting in cars in a parking lot. "But in order to do that, we've got to get the cost of batteries down."</p><p>How to cut costs? Tesla is working on a design update for its batteries, and the company plans to begin manufacturing them in-house. (Panasonic currently produces Tesla batteries.) A key design update is removing a tab within the battery that connects the cell to what it powers.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b608c8c7e239d684d054fca8ef092598"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l6T9xIeZTds?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"You actually have a shorter path length [for the electron to travel] in a large tabless cell than you have in the smaller cell with tabs," Musk said. "So even though the cell is bigger, it actually has more power."</p><p>Tesla also plans to lower costs by using nickel instead of cobalt in its cathodes. The company said its new cathode design would reduce costs by about 75 percent, and also remove waste water from the manufacturing process. </p><p>What's more, the international cobalt supply is limited, and most of it comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where adult and child <a href="https://www.raconteur.net/business-innovation/responsible-business-2019/cobalt-mining-human-rights" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">miners are known to be exploited</a>.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQzMTgyNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzE2NDc3N30.ZuuywtLYeDTXGG1A9i9H1F1NmKoQ8a0h2zWP_5O5aV0/img.jpg?width=980" id="accf9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c3ec2a41448fa5bde4ef2a0754030c84" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Tesla Battery Day" />
Screenshot of Tesla's 'Battery Day' presentation
Tesla
<p>It's unclear when Tesla will stop using cobalt, or when it will stop sourcing its batteries from Panasonic. But Tesla claims that its new battery design and manufacturing changes will allow it to cut the cost per kilowatt-hour in half. If Tesla can successfully scale up production, the company could hit its goal of $100 per kilowatt-hour sooner than expected.</p><p>Hitting that mark could usher in the electric-car revolution, considering $100 per kilowatt-hour is <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/How-Soon-Can-Tesla-Get-Battery-Cell-Cost-Below-100-per-Kilowatt-Hour" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">generally regarded as the threshold</a> the industry needs to reach in order to make electric vehicles cost competitive with gas-powered cars. </p><p>A $25,000 electric car would also be Tesla's cheapest offering by far. The company had previously promised a $35,000 car, but only offered one at that price for a limited time. Tesla's website says its Model 3, its cheapest car, starts at about <a href="https://www.industryweek.com/leadership/article/22027923/tesla-declines-as-model-3-price-cut-renews-demand-concerns" target="_blank">$39,000.</a></p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQzMTgyNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNzY0MTU5MH0.IbgeqLBCvi13pdhaQYQ4-w5Ie3MVGapQ241bXVVAJe0/img.jpg?width=980" id="b5764" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="35f0b3e6dcab88a41f224f0f66e8c5bf" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Tesla battery" />
Photo of Tesla's new battery design
Tesla
<p>To be sure, Musk is known for promising big on his projects, but not always following through on the promised timetable. But despite having an "insanely hard" 2020, as Musk said, Tesla's had a good past couple years.<br></p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"In 2019, we had 50% growth," Musk said at the event. "And I think we'll do really pretty well in 2020, probably somewhere between 30 to 40 percent growth, despite a lot of very difficult circumstances."</p>
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