Episode description:  

It’s time. On April 8, 2024, millions of people across North America will see a total solar eclipse. Get the most out of totality with this special bonus episode. Listen up for safety tips, learn how to make your own pinhole projector to safely and learn how anyone—including you!—can contribute to NASA research through citizen science. And if you’re not in the path of totality, watch NASA’s live broadcast starting at 1 p.m. EDT. NASA’s Curious Universe is an official NASA podcast.     

See when the eclipse starts where you are with NASA’s Eclipse Explorer: go.nasa.gov/EclipseExplorer

Sun Series: Minisode! Countdown to Total Solar Eclipse 2024

On episode 331, flight directors discuss NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test and the operations behind this historic mission.

Houston We Have a Podcast: Crew Flight Test: The Mission

Sun Series: Space Weather | About the Episode

From Earth, the Sun can seem steady and predictable. But when you look at our star close up, there’s a lot going on. Go behind the scenes with NASA’s Moon to Mars Space Weather Analysis Office, a team monitoring space weather—eruptions of radiation and plasma from the Sun that can wreak havoc on spacecraft and pose dangers to astronauts. We’ll also revisit the most powerful geomagnetic storm on record, an 1859 event that produced northern lights visible in the tropics and made electrical systems go haywire.

Introducing NASA’s Curious Universe         

Get curious with NASA. As an official NASA podcast, Curious Universe brings you mind-blowing science and space adventures you won’t find anywhere else. Explore the cosmos alongside astronauts, scientists, engineers, and other top NASA experts who are achieving remarkable feats in science, space exploration, and aeronautics. Learn something new about the wild and wonderful universe we share. All you need to get started is a little curiosity. 

NASA’s Curious Universe is an official NASA podcast hosted by Padi Boyd and Jacob Pinter 

Discover more ad-free, original NASA shows at nasa.gov/podcasts 

Find the full NASA’s Curious Universe catalog at nasa.gov/curiousuniverse

Sun Series: What is Space Weather?

This is the translation of yeast fermentation data and beer flavor chemistry into music. 

This project captures the flavor data associated with beer fermented by a unique yeast originally found in wasps and bumblebees, which makes a rapid sour beer without bacteria or additional yeast. The graph associated with this track shows three aspects of beer flavor produced by these yeast cells. These data, provided by scientists at Lachancea LLC, were sonically translated into music by North Carolina-based sound artist Jude Casseday in partnership with Dr. Anne A. Madden at The Microbe Institute.

This ”sonification of data” translates 8 days of fermentation data (seen on the track label art) into less than a minute of music. Visit: https://microbeinstitute.org/sound-of-beer to learn more about the data that goes along with this music. 

Audio Description: First we hear the buzzing of bees which suggests the wasp and bumblebee origins of this unique Lachancea yeast. Then the flavor notes resound the instant these yeast are added to the malted grains. Fermentation takes off. The Ph, alcohol, and glycerol shift rapidly in the first 3 days of fermentation. You’ll hear the alcohol—the resonant bell (black data line)—rise as the yeast converts sugars in grain into ethanol. At the same time, the pH—the woodwind (red data line)—drops quickly, as this unique yeast churns out tart lactic acid that increases the acidity of the beer (decreasing the pH). Layered into this is the softer voice of the glycerol. Glycerol has no flavor on its own, but is a heart note in the beer, it improves mouthfeel. The glycerol—plucked string (blue data line)—increases steadily, but very slightly, alongside the alcohol. There is a settling in after the first 3 days and the flavor tones intertwine and resolve in a slight souring which gives the beer its unique flavor and unique sound.

Making Science more Accessible: Such “multisensory teaching” approaches—engaging visuals, touch, and hearing—provide an effective and inclusive way to educate diverse audiences, including those with learning disabilities and/or diverse learning needs. (Sources: Center for Student Achievement Solutions, and The International Dyslexia Association)

To learn more about these yeasts, visit: https://lachancea.com/
To learn more about this sound artist, visit: https://bandcamp.com/bcmuze
To learn more about these interdisciplinary microbiology projects, visit: https://microbeinstitute.org/

This project is copyrighted. Please contact microbeinstitute@gmail.com for permissions and more information on use.

The Sound of Beer Flavor

On episode 332, NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test Commander Butch Wilmore and Pilot Suni Williams discuss their astronaut journeys and preparation to be the first humans to fly Starliner.

Houston We Have a Podcast: Crew Flight Test: The Astronauts

For the first time, a NASA spacecraft is flying through the Sun's atmosphere. Nour Raouafi, project scientist for Parker Solar Probe, explains why the Sun's corona is the source of one of the biggest mysteries in all of space science. So, what does it take to build a probe that can touch the Sun—including surviving temperatures of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit and barreling through sudden eruptions of solar plasma—and live to tell the tale? We'll also go inside the fleet of NASA spacecraft studying the Sun from many angles, including the rescue mission to save a wildly spinning observatory before it became lost in space forever.

Sun Series: Soaring Toward the Sun

How inflatable habitats moved from concept papers to the International Space Station, and what NASA is doing to eventually put one on the Moon.

Small Steps, Giant Leaps: Episode 128: Engineering Inflatable Structures for Space

On episode 333, the CHAPEA crew checks in on their ninth month in a Mars simulated habitat, and a Mars architecture expert explains CHAPEA’s role in NASA’s long-term plans to explore the Red Planet.

Houston We Have a Podcast: Mars Audio Log #9

On episode 334, a principal investigator talks about an experiment on board the space station observing the forces that drive space weather.

Houston We Have a Podcast: Atmospheric Waves

Sun Series: Bonus: Dispatches from the Path of Totality | About the Episode

On April 8, 2024, North America experienced its last total solar eclipse until the 2040s. As the Moon’s shadow fell across the U.S., NASA sent Curious Universe producers out into the field across the path of totality to talk to space nerds and eclipse scientists. In this special bonus episode of our Sun Series, we’ll relive the special day together.

Introducing NASA’s Curious Universe         

Get curious with NASA. As an official NASA podcast, Curious Universe brings you mind-blowing science and space adventures you won’t find anywhere else. Explore the cosmos alongside astronauts, scientists, engineers, and other top NASA experts who are achieving remarkable feats in science, space exploration, and aeronautics. Learn something new about the wild and wonderful universe we share. All you need to get started is a little curiosity. 

NASA’s Curious Universe is an official NASA podcast hosted by Padi Boyd and Jacob Pinter 

Discover more ad-free, original NASA shows at nasa.gov/podcasts 

Find the full NASA’s Curious Universe catalog at nasa.gov/curiousuniverse

The Sound of Beer Flavor

Anne Madden

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