This Episode Contains: Life is pleasantly mundane for the most part. Except for a crappy thing that happened to Devon at work.

Artificial Butt Rope: “Bigger Proteins, Stronger Threads: Synthetic Spider Silk.” Spider silk is very strong but difficult to harvest. Now, for the first time, scientists have created a biosynthetic spider silk that behaves like the real thing. They were able to use large proteins to make protein changes to make the silk. The strength is expected to increase with this new approach.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180821094234.htm

Brian Matters: “The Spotlight of Attention is More Like a Strobe Light.” Our perception is actually an illusion as our brain changes from a wide focus to narrow focus four times a second. A study was done on humans while a similar study was done on macaque monkeys and both came to the same conclusion. This implies that this type of changing focus has a long history of evolutionary advantage.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180822112415.htm

Sci-Fi: There’s some new Star Wars: Armada news. They’re coming out with a Super Star Destroyer! Star Wars: X-Wing is also still going strong with 2nd Edition. Devon has finished Ball Lighting by Cixin Liu and really enjoyed it. Steven has read a little of The Three Body Problem (also by Cixin Liu). Steven just finished rereading the Harry Potter series, and Devon just started it. We talk about the difference between the books and movies. We then review the new Netflix show Disenchantment.