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If youve ever flown through outer space, at least while watching a documentary or a science fiction film, youve seen how artists turn astronomical findings into stunning visuals. But in the process of visualizing data for their latest planetarium show, a production team at New Yorks American Museum of Natural History made a surprising discovery of their own: a trillion-and-a-half mile long spiral of material drifting along the edge of our solar system. So this is a really fun thing that happened, says Jackie Faherty, the museums senior scientist. Last winter, Faherty and her colleagues were beneath the dome of the museum’s Hayden Planetarium, fine-tuning a scene that featured the Oort cloud, the big, thick bubble surrounding our Sun and planets that’s filled with ice and rock and other remnants from the solar systems infancy. The Oort cloud begins far beyond Neptune, around one and a half light years from the Sun. It has never been directly observed; its existence is inferred from the behavior of long-period comets entering the inner solar system. The cloud is so expansive that the Voyager spacecraft, our most distant probes, would need another 250 years just to reach its inner boundary; to reach the other side, they would need about 30,000 years. The 30-minute show, Encounters in the Milky Way, narrated by Pedro Pascal, guides audiences on a trip through the galaxy across billions of years. For a section about our nascent solar system, the writing team decided theres going to be a fly-by of the Oort cloud, Faherty says. But what does our Oort cloud look like? To find out, the museum consulted astronomers and turned to David Nesvorný, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. He provided his model of the millions of particles believed to make up the Oort cloud, based on extensive observational data. Everybody said, go talk to Nesvorný. He’s got the best model, says Faherty. And everybody told us, There’s structure in the model, so we were kind of set up to look for stuff, she says. The museums technical team began using Nesvorný’s model to simulate how the cloud evolved over time. Later, as the team projected versions of the fly-by scene into the dome, with the camera looking back at the Oort cloud, they saw a familiar shape, one that appears in galaxies, Saturn’s rings, and disks around young stars. We’re flying away from the Oort cloud and out pops this spiral, a spiral shape to the outside of our solar system, Faherty marveled. A huge structure, millions and millions of particles. She emailed Nesvorný to ask for more particles, with a render of the scene attached. We noticed the spiral of course, she wrote. And then he writes me back: what are you talking about, a spiral? While fine-tuning a simulation of the Oort cloud, a vast expanse of ice material leftover from the birth of our Sun, the ‘Encounters in the Milky Way’ production team noticed a very clear shape: a structure made of billions of comets and shaped like a spiral-armed galaxy, seen here in a scene from the final Space Show (curving, dusty S-shape behind the Sun) [Image: AMNH] More simulations ensued, this time on Pleiades, a powerful NASA supercomputer. In high-performance computer simulations spanning 4.6 billion years, starting from the Solar Systems earliest days, the researchers visualized how the initial icy and rocky ingredients of the Oort cloud began circling the Sun, in the elliptical orbits that are thought to give the cloud its rough disc shape. The simulations also incorporated the physics of the Suns gravitational pull, the influences from our Milky Way galaxy, and the movements of the comets themselves. In each simulation, the spiral persisted. No one has ever seen the Oort structure like that before, says Faherty. Nesvorný “has a great quote about this: ‘The math was all there. We just needed the visuals. An illustration of the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud in relation to our solar system. [Image: NASA] As the Oort cloud grew with the early solar system, Nesvorný and his colleagues hypothesize that the galactic tide, or the gravitational force from the Milky Way, disrupted the orbits of some comets. Although the Sun pulls these objects inward, the galaxys gravity appears to have twisted part of the Oort cloud outward, forming a spiral tilted roughly 30 degrees from the plane of the solar system. As the galactic tide acts to decouple bodies from the scattered disk it creates a spiral structure in physical space that is roughly 15,000 astronomical units in length, or around 1.4 trillion miles from one end to the other, the researchers write in a paper that was published in March in the Astrophysical Journal. The spiral is long-lived and persists in the inner Oort Cloud to the present time. The physics makes sense, says Faherty. Scientists, we’re amazing at what we do, but it doesn’t mean we can see everything right away. It helped that the team behind the space show was primed to look for something, says Carter Emmart, the museums director of astrovisualization and director of Encounters. Astronomers had described Nesvorný’s model as having “a structur,” which intrigued the teams artists. We were also looking for structure so that it wouldn’t just be sort of like a big blob, he says. Other models were also revealing thisbut they just hadn’t been visualized. The museums attempts to simulate nature date back to its first habitat dioramas in the early 1900s, which brought visitors to places that hadnt yet been captured by color photos, TV, or the web. The planetarium, a night sky simulator for generations of would-be scientists and astronauts, got its start after financier Charles Hayden bought the museum its first Zeiss projector. The planetarium now boasts one of the world’s few Zeiss Mark IX systems. Still, these days the star projector is rarely used, Emmart says, now that fulldome laser projectors can turn the old static starfield into 3D video running at 60 frames per second. The Hayden boasts six custom-built Christie projectors, part of what the museum’s former president called the most advanced planetarium ever attempted. In about 1.3 million years, the star system Gliese 710 is set to pass directly through our Oort Cloud, an event visualized in a dramatic scene in ‘Encounters in the Milky Way.’ During its flyby, our systems will swap icy comets, flinging some out on new paths. [Image: AMNH] Emmart recalls how in 1998, when he and other museum leaders were imagining the future of space shows at the Haydennow with the help of digital projectors and computer graphicsthere were questions over how much space they could try to show. “We’re talking about these astronomical data sets we could plot to make the galaxy and the stars,” he says. “Of course, we knew that we would have this star projector, but we really wanted to emphasize astrophysics with this dome video system. I was drawing pictures of this just to get our heads around it and noting the tip of the solar system to the Milky Way is about 60 degrees. And I said, what are we gonna do when we get outside the Milky Way?’ “Then [planetarium’s director] Neil Degrasse Tyson “goes, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, Carter, we have enough to do. And just plotting the Milky Way, that’s hard enough.’ And I said, ‘well, when we exit the Milky Way and we don’t see any other galaxies, that’s sort of like astronomy in 1920we thought maybe the entire universe is just a Milky Way.'” “And that kind of led to a chaotic discussion about, well, what other data sets are there for this?” Emmart adds. The museum worked with astronomer Brent Tully, who had mapped 3500 galaxies beyond the Milky Way, in collaboration with the National Center for Super Computing Applications. “That was it,” he says, “and that seemed fantastical.” By the time the first planetarium show opened at the museum’s new Rose Center for Earth and Space in 2000, Tully had broadened his survey “to an amazing” 30,000 galaxies. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey followedit’s now at data release 18with six million galaxies. To build the map of the universe that underlies Encounters, the team also relied on data from the European Space Agencys space observatory, Gaia. Launched in 2013 and powered down in March of this year, Gaia brought an unprecedented precision to our astronomical map, plotting the distance between 1.7 billion stars. To visualize and render the simulated data, Jon Parker, the museums lead technical director, relied on Houdini, a 3D animation tool by Toronto-based SideFX. The goal is immersion, whether it’s in front of the buffalo downstairs, and seeing what those herds were like before we decimated them, to coming in this room and being teleported to space, with an accurate foundation in the science, Emmart says. But the art is important, because the art is the way to the soul. The museum, he adds, is a testament to wonder. And I think wonder is a gateway to inspiration, and inspiration is a gateway to motivation. Three-D visuals aren’t just powerful tools for communicating science, but increasingly crucial for science itself. Software like OpenSpace, an open source simulation tool developed by the museum, along with the growing availability of high-performance computing, are making it easier to build highly detailed visuals of ever larger and more complex collections of data. Anytime we look, literally, from a different angle at catalogs of astronomical positions, simulations, or exploring the phase space of a complex data set, there is great potential to discover something new,” says Brian R. Kent, an astronomer and director of science communications at National Radio Astronomy Observatory. There is also a wealth of astronomics tatical data in archives that can be reanalyzed in new ways, leading to new discoveries. As the instruments grow in size and sophistication, so does the data, and the challenge of understanding it. Like all scientists, astronomers are facing a deluge of data, ranging from gamma rays and X-rays to ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and radio bands. Our Oort cloud (center), a shell of icy bodies that surrounds the solar system and extends one-and-a-half light years in every direction, is shown in this scene from ‘Encounters in the Milky Way’ along with the Oort clouds of neighboring stars. The more massive the star, the larger its Oort cloud [Image: AMNH ] New facilities like the Next Generation Very Large Array here atNRAO or the Vera Rubin Observatory and LSST survey project will generate large volumes of data, so astronomers have to get creative with how to analyze it, says Kent. More dataand new instrumentswill also be needed to prove the spiral itself is actually there: theres still no known way to even observe the Oort cloud. Instead, the paper notes, the structure will have to be measured from detection of a large number of objects in the radius of the inner Oort cloud or from thermal emission from small particles in the Oort spiral. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a powerful, U.S.-funded telescope that recently began operation in Chile, could possibly observe individual icy bodies within the cloud. But researchers expect the telescope will likely discover only dozens of these objects, maybe hundreds, not enough to meaningfully visualize any shapes in the Oort cloud. For us, here and now, the 1.4 trillion mile-long spiral will remain confined to the inside of a dark dome across the street from Central Park.
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Modern business operates under a dangerous paradox. The same forces that make curiosity essentialrapid change, complexity, and uncertaintyare the ones that systematically suppress it. While organizations desperately need the innovation and adaptability that comes from asking better questions, the relentless pressure for speed creates an environment where curiosity dies. Pressure Points This isn’t theoretical. The consequences play out in boardrooms and headlines daily. Three pressure points consistently strangle organizational curiosity: Always-On Urgency transforms work into endless reaction cycles. Volkswagen’s emissions scandal emerged when employees, under pressure to quickly meet environmental regulations, defaulted to shortcuts rather than pausing to ask whether their approach was ethical or sustainable. The constant demand for immediate responses eliminates space for the fundamental question: “Is this the right approach?” Pressure to React Immediately equates speed with competence while framing thoughtful questioning as hesitation. During the Deepwater Horizon crisis, BP executives rushed to provide public reassurances rather than taking time to fully assess the damage. This premature response not only eroded public trust but led to operational missteps that worsened the disaster. When leaders feel compelled to have answers immediately, they abandon the inquiry that leads to better solutions. Speed-Obsessed Work Culture makes “move fast and break things” the dominant operating principle. Theranos epitomized this dangerunder immense pressure to deliver revolutionary blood-testing technology, leadership ignored scientific red flags and silenced employees who questioned feasibility. The rush to market created a fraudulent enterprise that collapsed under scrutiny. Its the combination of these pressures that puts organizations at risk. Diane Hamilton, author of Curiosity Unleashed and creator of the Curiosity Code Index, researched what inhibits curiosity in the workplace to help leaders break out of stagnant patterns. According to her findings, when environments squeeze out curiosity, People start holding back ideas, skipping conversations, and sticking to what feels safe. Thats when curiosity shuts down and organizations cling to past ways of doing things that no longer work. Speed Bumps The solution isn’t choosing between speed and curiosityit’s installing strategic speed bumps which create just enough pause for better questions to emerge. Leaders need speed bumps at three levels: interpersonal, team, and organizational. Interpersonal. Curiosity often gets squelched in one-on-one dialogues, but the most powerful speed bump is deceptively simple: pause during heated discussions to state what you heard and ask if you understood correctly. Instead of rapid-fire debate, try: “I’m gathering that you’re worried about this direction because it might alienate our longest-standing clients. Is that an accurate understanding of your concern?” This technique significantly increases accurate listening while slowing potentially tense exchanges. It creates room for questions and deepens relationships by signaling that you value others’ perspectives enough to ensure you’ve heard them correctly. When leaders model this behavior, it spreads throughout the organization. Team-Level. Teams need built-in moments that interrupt the execution mindset. The most effective approach involves structured quiet time before critical discussions or decisions. Allocate a few minutes for everyone to write down thoughts, questions, or concerns before opening discussion. Use question-oriented brainstorming techniques with creative constraints, such as: “Generate five ‘what if’ questions about our marketing strategy in the next two minutes.” This approach maximizes diverse perspectives while ensuring introverts have processing time and extroverts can refine initial thoughts. These pauses aren’t about halting team progressthey’re about widening the lens to identify hidden opportunities and blind spots. Organizational. The highest-leverage organizational speed bump involves reframing acute problems as opportunities for systemic improvement rather than issues requiring quick fixes. When urgent issues arise, resist the default response of immediate patches. Instead, pause to examine underlying causes and explore broader solutions. Great Ormond Street Hospital demonstrates this approach brilliantly. Facing critical errors during patient transfers between operating rooms and intensive care, hospital leaders could have simply demanded faster, better execution of existing procedures. Instead, they paused to seek inspiration elsewhere. After observing Formula One pit crews, they invited Ferrari’s team to analyze their patient handover process. The racing experts identified fundamental structural problems: unclear roles, overlapping conversations, and unpredictable leadership transitions. By applying pit crew principlesdefined roles, synchronized actions, and systematic error trackingthe hospital reduced technical errors by nearly half while improving information transfer. The breakthrough came not from moving faster, but from pausing to intentionally redesign the system. The Roadmap Start immediately with these three steps: This week: Implement “paraphrase and check” in your next three important conversations. Notice how it changes the dynamic and information quality. This month: Introduce two-minute question-oriented brainstorming sessions before your team’s most critical decisions. Track whether this generates insights you would have missed. This quarter: Identify your organization’s next acute problem as an opportunity for strategic learning rather than quick fixes. Ask what other industries or approaches might offer unexpected solutions. Organizations don’t need to choose between speed and learningthey need both. Strategic speed bumps maintain momentum while ensuring critical thinking and innovation never get sacrificed. The most successful organizations don’t just move fastthey move wisely.
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E-Commerce
Parking in a city can be a problem. Its not just about finding parkingits about finding the right parking. Sometimes, theres a $10 parking spot only a block away from a garage that charges $50! So how do you know the best place to parkespecially if youre new to an area, as I was a few years ago, or if youre traveling and arent familiar with a city? For me, the answer is a smart and completely free user-submitted database of parking spots and rates. Itll help you understand the best place to park. And Ive personally used it for years. Psst: If you love these types of tools as much as I do, check out my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. You’ll be the first to find all sorts of simple tech treasures! Your inside eye on parking prices First things first, the elephant in the room: Yes, Google Maps can technically navigate you to a place to park. But, like most other mapping services, it often makes it hard to find all the available garages and lots in any given area. And even if you do manage to find them, it doesn’t show you any meaningful info about how much they charge. So rather than driving in circles and eyeing prices, look at a service called Parkopedia before you head into a city where parking might be a challenge. All you have to do is plug a city, address, or street name into the box on the Parkopedia home page. Then, tell it when youll be arriving and when youll be leaving. (Parking prices function by time of day, and day of the week, after all.) Youll get a convenient map with parking rates. Scroll around, and you can find the best parking options. When I tell Parkopedia that Ill arrive in Boston in the late afternoon, for example, I see that theres an underground parking lot I can park in for $9instead of the $42 spot a block away! Thats the secret. Like GasBuddy and so many other apps, Parkopedia depends on user-submitted data, so it may not always be perfectand it may be better in some cities than others. But Parkopedia is available all over the world and has data for many, many places. By the way, Parkopedia has a parking reservation featurebut Ive never used it! I use it solely as a database, and its a great way to get started when Im figuring out where to park for an event in an unfamiliar city. But if youre thinking of reserving parking online, you might also want to consider SpotHero. You can use Parkopedia on the web as well as via the service’s native Android and iPhone apps. (But I recommend the website, as it’s simpler and more polished and doesn’t require any downloads.) Parkopedia is free. (The company makes money by integrating its data into other systems and by selling parking reservations, if you’re interested in that.) The service promises never to sell your personal data. You dont even have to create an account or sign in to use it. Ready for even more Cool Tool goodness? Check out my free Cool Tools newsletter for an instant introduction to an incredible audio appand a new off-the-beaten-path gem every Wednesday!
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