Music of the spheres!
Is outer space really the silent and lifeless place it's often depicted to be? Perhaps not. Astrophysicist and musician Matt Russo takes us on a journey through the cosmos, revealing the hidden rhythms and harmonies of planetary orbits. The universe is full of music, he says -- we just need to learn how to hear it.
Making Pizza Dough Out Of Cauliflower Is A Delicious Revelation
Behold the Cauliflower Pizza: serve it up Di Fara style with cut basil. (Jen Carlson/Gothamist)
Did you know you can make a lower carb, healthier pizza crust almost entirely out of cauliflower? You can, and this weekend we tried it. There are a ton of recipes online, but it all comes down to two versions: one that uses shredded mozzarella in the dough, and one that does not. We tried the one that does not... and it was delicious.
First things first: yes, it works. It's more delicate, but the dough will not fall apart. Do not be afraid! You just need to make sure you have cheesecloth to wring all of the water out of the cauliflower—if you do not do this, it will not work. It's also not as time-consuming or as complicated as you might think—here's how to do it:
Cauliflower "Flour" Ingredients
- 1 head of cauliflower (we used a medium sized one and it was more than enough)
- 1 egg
- A dollop of goat cheese
- 1/2 cup grated parm (or more!)
- Salt, pepper, and any other seasoning or herb you want in the dough
- Garlic or garlic powder
Suggested Toppings
- Fresh mozzarella
- Sliced tomatoes (or tomato sauce)
- Basil
- More parm, to sprinkle on top
Instructions
First, grind up the cauliflower in your food processor. Don't have a food processor? That's fine, you can use a box grater, though it will take more time.
Next, cook the cauliflower—you can heat it up in your microwave for 5 minutes, or cook it (for that same amount of time) with a little bit of water in a pot or pan. After it cools (you can put it in the fridge to speed along this process) place it into a piece of cheesecloth and wring every last drop of water out of it. This is important!
Now you have a nice ball of dry cauliflower "flour," which you will mix with one egg, a dollop of goat cheese, a half a cup or so of grated parm, and any seasoning you want. Honestly, once you have the egg and cauliflower in there, you don't have to be exact in what type or how much cheese to add.
Once that's done, form it into a pizza crust and bake at 425ºF for about 10 minutes (until it starts to get golden). Do this on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, and WITHOUT any toppings.
Remove your dough from the oven and add your toppings (we recommend putting a little garlic powder on the dough before you start topping it—cauliflower has a pretty bland taste, so don't be afraid to season). Then return it to the oven to cook for another 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted.
Remove from the oven and try to let it cool for a couple of minutes before slicing it up. While it's cooling, get it into your head that this will not taste like your standard pizza dough (duh)... but it IS very good. We served ours up Di Fara style, by cutting basil on top and tossing it on to a paper plate.
In Praise of the Telescopic Perspective via Nina Reznick
When the Voyager completed its exploratory mission and took the last photograph — of Neptune — NASA commanded that the cameras be shut off to conserve energy. But Carl Sagan had the idea of turning the spacecraft around and taking one final photograph — of Earth. Objections were raised — from so great a distance and at so low a resolution, the resulting image would have absolutely no scientific value. But Sagan saw the larger poetic worth — he took the request all the way up to NASA’s administrator and charmed his way into permission.
After nearly half a century of reign, the Voyager took the now-iconic image of Earth known as the “Pale Blue Dot” — a grainy pixel, “a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam,” as Sagan so poetically put it when he immortalized the photograph in his beautiful “Pale Blue Dot” monologue from Cosmos — that great masterwork of perspective, a timeless reminder that “everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was… every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician” lived out their lives on this pale blue dot. And every political conflict, every war we’ve ever fought, we have waged over a fraction of this grainy pixel barely perceptible against the cosmic backdrop of endless lonesome space.
In the cosmic blink of our present existence, as we stand on this increasingly fragmented pixel, it is worth keeping the Voyager in mind as we find our capacity for perspective constricted by the stranglehold of our cultural moment. It is worth questioning what proportion of the news this year, what imperceptible fraction, was devoted to the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded for the landmark detection of gravitational waves — the single most significant astrophysical discovery since Galileo. After centuries of knowing the universe only by sight, only by looking, we can now listen to it and hear echoes of events that took place billions of lightyears away, billions of years ago — events that made the stardust that made us.
BOSTON DYNAMICS UNVEILS STUNNING ROBOT THAT CAN RUN, JUMP AND EXECUTE THE PERFECT BACKFLIP
Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot can execute a perfect backflip.
Atlas, which can also keep its balance when it’s pushed and get back up if it falls over, can now perform impressive gymnastic moves.
Boston Dynamics has just released footage of the machine’s latest trick, and viewers are both impressed and concerned.
Stunning Library in China [via Nina Reznick]
Have you ever seen a library as stunning as this? The structure is incredible. It features a giant spherical auditorium in the middle that looks just like a giant eye. This impressive 5-storey library, located in the Binhai Cultural District in Tianjin, China, was designed by Dutch design firm MVRDV in collaboration with the Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute (TUPDI) and has since been dubbed 'The Eye of Binahi'.
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