Would you dare to taste test freeze-dried dinosaur poop?
Is it a speckled stone from the garden? Is it a moldy piece of cheese from the back of the fridge? No, it's freeze-dried "dinosaur poo"! And it's the perfect sugary treat for fossil and dinosaur-obsessed kids or, of course, adults with a sweet tooth (and a sick sense of humour).
While many of you may have never heard of freeze-dried lollies, it has a history. Freeze-drying technology emerged in the early 20th century as a solution that aimed to preserve foods for a longer shelf life.
While the technology was initially developed for pharmaceutical and medical use, in the 1960s, NASA introduced freeze-dried foods for astronauts to support their nutrition on early space missions, as traditional cans of food were too bulky for space travel.
Instead, freeze-dried foods were a compact, tasty and nutritionally dense food source that satisfied basic nutritional needs and did not require refrigeration.
At this time, NASA also began experimenting with lollies to provide astronauts with some small comforts for their journey. These innovations led to the creation of freeze-dried lollies for all consumers, who tend to enjoy the unique novelty of the experience of biting into a freeze-dried lolly - with its crunch and burst of flavour - that perhaps cannot be replicated.
Fast forward to today, and freeze-dried lolly manufacturers like CoolThings have taken the novelty one step further, introducing treats like freeze-dried astronaut ice cream, Skittles, and the pièce de résistance: dinosaur poo.
While my gut churns at the thought of trying what looks like something historic you'd find at the back of the pantry, brave staff at ACM took to trialling this sweet treat to give their honest review.
"The freeze-dried Skittles are the best. They taste better than a skittle because of the crunch rather than the chew. I can't eat the strawberries and cream because I'm gluten free."
"I love the Skittles. They taste better than normal skittles. The strawberries and cream is too sweet and crunchy for me and it gets stuck to your teeth."
I like the flavour because I like Skittles but I'm not sure about the texture. The ice cream is a bit of a mind boggle. I enjoy the taste of ice cream without it melting. I think it's the best tasting one out of the lot."
"The dinosaur poo is crispy and crunchy. It's giving me Violet Crumble vibes with a stronger caramel sensation. I like the texture - it's surprising and unexpected. But it is very sweet so I don't know how much of it I could eat. That being said, I'd like to try one more."
"The dinosaur poo tastes like a Malteser. I think the strawberries and cream are too crunchy - I feel like I just broke a veneer."
"Oh my god my girls love those [freeze-dried lollies]. Freeze-dried dinosaur poo - is that what they call it? Yuck. But mmm... I quite like that. It does taste like a Curly Wurly. The powder version not the chewy version. I'd give that a 10/10."
"The dinosaur poo tastes like a Curly Wurly. They're authentic."
"The Skittles are my favourite. They're crunchy, light and unexpected. I'm not a big caramel fan so the appeal of the dinosaur poo was lost on me. However, I can see how this would appeal to kids - it's a great novelty treat or stocking filler at Christmas time."
Read more:
Top meal kit delivery services in Australia: Which one is right for you?
10-step Korean skincare routine and products for radiant skin
Best power banks and portable chargers in Australia 2024
Meet the Airyday founder changing SPF sun protection
Australia's most romantic travel experiences for Valentine's Day
These items are hand-picked to make your shopping experience easier. ACM may be provided with compensation from affiliate partners if you click through.
Is it a speckled stone from the garden? Is it a moldy piece of cheese from the back of the fridge? No, it's freeze-dried "dinosaur poo"! And it's the perfect sugary treat for fossil and dinosaur-obsessed kids or, of course, adults with a sweet tooth (and a sick sense of humour).
While many of you may have never heard of freeze-dried lollies, it has a history. Freeze-drying technology emerged in the early 20th century as a solution that aimed to preserve foods for a longer shelf life.
While the technology was initially developed for pharmaceutical and medical use, in the 1960s, NASA introduced freeze-dried foods for astronauts to support their nutrition on early space missions, as traditional cans of food were too bulky for space travel.
Instead, freeze-dried foods were a compact, tasty and nutritionally dense food source that satisfied basic nutritional needs and did not require refrigeration.
At this time, NASA also began experimenting with lollies to provide astronauts with some small comforts for their journey. These innovations led to the creation of freeze-dried lollies for all consumers, who tend to enjoy the unique novelty of the experience of biting into a freeze-dried lolly - with its crunch and burst of flavour - that perhaps cannot be replicated.
Fast forward to today, and freeze-dried lolly manufacturers like CoolThings have taken the novelty one step further, introducing treats like freeze-dried astronaut ice cream, Skittles, and the pièce de résistance: dinosaur poo.
While my gut churns at the thought of trying what looks like something historic you'd find at the back of the pantry, brave staff at ACM took to trialling this sweet treat to give their honest review.
"The freeze-dried Skittles are the best. They taste better than a skittle because of the crunch rather than the chew. I can't eat the strawberries and cream because I'm gluten free."
"I love the Skittles. They taste better than normal skittles. The strawberries and cream is too sweet and crunchy for me and it gets stuck to your teeth."
I like the flavour because I like Skittles but I'm not sure about the texture. The ice cream is a bit of a mind boggle. I enjoy the taste of ice cream without it melting. I think it's the best tasting one out of the lot."
"The dinosaur poo is crispy and crunchy. It's giving me Violet Crumble vibes with a stronger caramel sensation. I like the texture - it's surprising and unexpected. But it is very sweet so I don't know how much of it I could eat. That being said, I'd like to try one more."
"The dinosaur poo tastes like a Malteser. I think the strawberries and cream are too crunchy - I feel like I just broke a veneer."
"Oh my god my girls love those [freeze-dried lollies]. Freeze-dried dinosaur poo - is that what they call it? Yuck. But mmm... I quite like that. It does taste like a Curly Wurly. The powder version not the chewy version. I'd give that a 10/10."
"The dinosaur poo tastes like a Curly Wurly. They're authentic."
"The Skittles are my favourite. They're crunchy, light and unexpected. I'm not a big caramel fan so the appeal of the dinosaur poo was lost on me. However, I can see how this would appeal to kids - it's a great novelty treat or stocking filler at Christmas time."
Read more:
Top meal kit delivery services in Australia: Which one is right for you?
10-step Korean skincare routine and products for radiant skin
Best power banks and portable chargers in Australia 2024
Meet the Airyday founder changing SPF sun protection
Australia's most romantic travel experiences for Valentine's Day
These items are hand-picked to make your shopping experience easier. ACM may be provided with compensation from affiliate partners if you click through.
Is it a speckled stone from the garden? Is it a moldy piece of cheese from the back of the fridge? No, it's freeze-dried "dinosaur poo"! And it's the perfect sugary treat for fossil and dinosaur-obsessed kids or, of course, adults with a sweet tooth (and a sick sense of humour).
While many of you may have never heard of freeze-dried lollies, it has a history. Freeze-drying technology emerged in the early 20th century as a solution that aimed to preserve foods for a longer shelf life.
While the technology was initially developed for pharmaceutical and medical use, in the 1960s, NASA introduced freeze-dried foods for astronauts to support their nutrition on early space missions, as traditional cans of food were too bulky for space travel.
Instead, freeze-dried foods were a compact, tasty and nutritionally dense food source that satisfied basic nutritional needs and did not require refrigeration.
At this time, NASA also began experimenting with lollies to provide astronauts with some small comforts for their journey. These innovations led to the creation of freeze-dried lollies for all consumers, who tend to enjoy the unique novelty of the experience of biting into a freeze-dried lolly - with its crunch and burst of flavour - that perhaps cannot be replicated.
Fast forward to today, and freeze-dried lolly manufacturers like CoolThings have taken the novelty one step further, introducing treats like freeze-dried astronaut ice cream, Skittles, and the pièce de résistance: dinosaur poo.
While my gut churns at the thought of trying what looks like something historic you'd find at the back of the pantry, brave staff at ACM took to trialling this sweet treat to give their honest review.
"The freeze-dried Skittles are the best. They taste better than a skittle because of the crunch rather than the chew. I can't eat the strawberries and cream because I'm gluten free."
"I love the Skittles. They taste better than normal skittles. The strawberries and cream is too sweet and crunchy for me and it gets stuck to your teeth."
I like the flavour because I like Skittles but I'm not sure about the texture. The ice cream is a bit of a mind boggle. I enjoy the taste of ice cream without it melting. I think it's the best tasting one out of the lot."
"The dinosaur poo is crispy and crunchy. It's giving me Violet Crumble vibes with a stronger caramel sensation. I like the texture - it's surprising and unexpected. But it is very sweet so I don't know how much of it I could eat. That being said, I'd like to try one more."
"The dinosaur poo tastes like a Malteser. I think the strawberries and cream are too crunchy - I feel like I just broke a veneer."
"Oh my god my girls love those [freeze-dried lollies]. Freeze-dried dinosaur poo - is that what they call it? Yuck. But mmm... I quite like that. It does taste like a Curly Wurly. The powder version not the chewy version. I'd give that a 10/10."
"The dinosaur poo tastes like a Curly Wurly. They're authentic."
"The Skittles are my favourite. They're crunchy, light and unexpected. I'm not a big caramel fan so the appeal of the dinosaur poo was lost on me. However, I can see how this would appeal to kids - it's a great novelty treat or stocking filler at Christmas time."
Read more:
Top meal kit delivery services in Australia: Which one is right for you?
10-step Korean skincare routine and products for radiant skin
Best power banks and portable chargers in Australia 2024
Meet the Airyday founder changing SPF sun protection
Australia's most romantic travel experiences for Valentine's Day
These items are hand-picked to make your shopping experience easier. ACM may be provided with compensation from affiliate partners if you click through.
Is it a speckled stone from the garden? Is it a moldy piece of cheese from the back of the fridge? No, it's freeze-dried "dinosaur poo"! And it's the perfect sugary treat for fossil and dinosaur-obsessed kids or, of course, adults with a sweet tooth (and a sick sense of humour).
While many of you may have never heard of freeze-dried lollies, it has a history. Freeze-drying technology emerged in the early 20th century as a solution that aimed to preserve foods for a longer shelf life.
While the technology was initially developed for pharmaceutical and medical use, in the 1960s, NASA introduced freeze-dried foods for astronauts to support their nutrition on early space missions, as traditional cans of food were too bulky for space travel.
Instead, freeze-dried foods were a compact, tasty and nutritionally dense food source that satisfied basic nutritional needs and did not require refrigeration.
At this time, NASA also began experimenting with lollies to provide astronauts with some small comforts for their journey. These innovations led to the creation of freeze-dried lollies for all consumers, who tend to enjoy the unique novelty of the experience of biting into a freeze-dried lolly - with its crunch and burst of flavour - that perhaps cannot be replicated.
Fast forward to today, and freeze-dried lolly manufacturers like CoolThings have taken the novelty one step further, introducing treats like freeze-dried astronaut ice cream, Skittles, and the pièce de résistance: dinosaur poo.
While my gut churns at the thought of trying what looks like something historic you'd find at the back of the pantry, brave staff at ACM took to trialling this sweet treat to give their honest review.
"The freeze-dried Skittles are the best. They taste better than a skittle because of the crunch rather than the chew. I can't eat the strawberries and cream because I'm gluten free."
"I love the Skittles. They taste better than normal skittles. The strawberries and cream is too sweet and crunchy for me and it gets stuck to your teeth."
I like the flavour because I like Skittles but I'm not sure about the texture. The ice cream is a bit of a mind boggle. I enjoy the taste of ice cream without it melting. I think it's the best tasting one out of the lot."
"The dinosaur poo is crispy and crunchy. It's giving me Violet Crumble vibes with a stronger caramel sensation. I like the texture - it's surprising and unexpected. But it is very sweet so I don't know how much of it I could eat. That being said, I'd like to try one more."
"The dinosaur poo tastes like a Malteser. I think the strawberries and cream are too crunchy - I feel like I just broke a veneer."
"Oh my god my girls love those [freeze-dried lollies]. Freeze-dried dinosaur poo - is that what they call it? Yuck. But mmm... I quite like that. It does taste like a Curly Wurly. The powder version not the chewy version. I'd give that a 10/10."
"The dinosaur poo tastes like a Curly Wurly. They're authentic."
"The Skittles are my favourite. They're crunchy, light and unexpected. I'm not a big caramel fan so the appeal of the dinosaur poo was lost on me. However, I can see how this would appeal to kids - it's a great novelty treat or stocking filler at Christmas time."
Read more:
Top meal kit delivery services in Australia: Which one is right for you?
10-step Korean skincare routine and products for radiant skin
Best power banks and portable chargers in Australia 2024
Meet the Airyday founder changing SPF sun protection
Australia's most romantic travel experiences for Valentine's Day
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Astronomers track object from outside the solar system
Scientists have discovered what might be only the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system, the European Space Agency says. The harmless object is currently near Jupiter hundreds of millions of kilometres away and moving toward Mars but it should get no closer to the sun than that, according to scientists. It is too soon to know whether the object, designated for now as A11pl3Z, is a rocky asteroid or a icy comet or how big and what shape it is. More observations are needed to confirm its origins. NASA said it is monitoring the situation. Astrophysicist Josep Trigo-Rodriguez of the Institute of Space Sciences near Barcelona, Spain, believes it is an interstellar object based on its odd path and extreme speed cutting through the solar system. He estimates its size at about 40km across. The first confirmed interstellar visitor was in 2017. It was dubbed Oumuamua, Hawaiian for scout, in honour of the observatory in Hawaii that discovered it. Classified at first as an asteroid, the elongated Oumuamua has since showed signs of being a comet. The second object confirmed to have strayed from another star system into our own is 21/Borisov, discovered in 2019 and believed to be a comet. Scientists have discovered what might be only the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system, the European Space Agency says. The harmless object is currently near Jupiter hundreds of millions of kilometres away and moving toward Mars but it should get no closer to the sun than that, according to scientists. It is too soon to know whether the object, designated for now as A11pl3Z, is a rocky asteroid or a icy comet or how big and what shape it is. More observations are needed to confirm its origins. NASA said it is monitoring the situation. Astrophysicist Josep Trigo-Rodriguez of the Institute of Space Sciences near Barcelona, Spain, believes it is an interstellar object based on its odd path and extreme speed cutting through the solar system. He estimates its size at about 40km across. The first confirmed interstellar visitor was in 2017. It was dubbed Oumuamua, Hawaiian for scout, in honour of the observatory in Hawaii that discovered it. Classified at first as an asteroid, the elongated Oumuamua has since showed signs of being a comet. The second object confirmed to have strayed from another star system into our own is 21/Borisov, discovered in 2019 and believed to be a comet. Scientists have discovered what might be only the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system, the European Space Agency says. The harmless object is currently near Jupiter hundreds of millions of kilometres away and moving toward Mars but it should get no closer to the sun than that, according to scientists. It is too soon to know whether the object, designated for now as A11pl3Z, is a rocky asteroid or a icy comet or how big and what shape it is. More observations are needed to confirm its origins. NASA said it is monitoring the situation. Astrophysicist Josep Trigo-Rodriguez of the Institute of Space Sciences near Barcelona, Spain, believes it is an interstellar object based on its odd path and extreme speed cutting through the solar system. He estimates its size at about 40km across. The first confirmed interstellar visitor was in 2017. It was dubbed Oumuamua, Hawaiian for scout, in honour of the observatory in Hawaii that discovered it. Classified at first as an asteroid, the elongated Oumuamua has since showed signs of being a comet. The second object confirmed to have strayed from another star system into our own is 21/Borisov, discovered in 2019 and believed to be a comet. Scientists have discovered what might be only the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system, the European Space Agency says. The harmless object is currently near Jupiter hundreds of millions of kilometres away and moving toward Mars but it should get no closer to the sun than that, according to scientists. It is too soon to know whether the object, designated for now as A11pl3Z, is a rocky asteroid or a icy comet or how big and what shape it is. More observations are needed to confirm its origins. NASA said it is monitoring the situation. Astrophysicist Josep Trigo-Rodriguez of the Institute of Space Sciences near Barcelona, Spain, believes it is an interstellar object based on its odd path and extreme speed cutting through the solar system. He estimates its size at about 40km across. The first confirmed interstellar visitor was in 2017. It was dubbed Oumuamua, Hawaiian for scout, in honour of the observatory in Hawaii that discovered it. Classified at first as an asteroid, the elongated Oumuamua has since showed signs of being a comet. The second object confirmed to have strayed from another star system into our own is 21/Borisov, discovered in 2019 and believed to be a comet.
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From Evelyn Hugo to NASA: Author Taylor Jenkins Reid reaches for the stars
Taylor Jenkins Reid recalls a moment writing her new novel, Atmosphere: A Love Story, set against NASA's robust 1980s shuttle program, where she felt stuck. She went, where she often goes, to her husband to talk it through. "I said, 'I can't write this book. I don't know enough about the space shuttle. I don't know what happens when the payload bay doors won't shut and you have to get back within a certain amount of revs, but they can't land at White Sands. They have to land at Cape Kennedy.' And he's like, 'Just listen to yourself. You know so much more than you knew a couple months ago. Keep doing what you're doing.'" Atmosphere follows astronomer Joan Goodwin, who is selected to join NASA's astronaut program. She and fellow trainees become like family and achieve their dream of going to space - until tragedy strikes. The story unfolds in two timelines: One when Joan first joins the NASA program and the other in December 1984 when a mission goes terribly wrong. The duo behind Captain Marvel, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, are adapting the book into a film with a cinema release in mind. Reid knew that she had to do more than just her average six to eight weeks of research. Research and rabbit holes, by the way, are Reid's jam. She's written blockbuster novels set in the golden age of Hollywood in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, the 1970s rock scene in Daisy Jones & the Six, 1980s surf culture in Malibu Rising and professional tennis in Carrie Soto is Back. With Atmosphere, though, it took extra time, reading and understanding. "It feels like a fever dream now when I think about it," Reid said. "It was a very intense period of time. " For this endeavor, she needed assistance: "I had to reach out to people, complete strangers that I did not know and say, 'Will you please help me?'" She was surprised at how many people said yes. One of the most important voices was Paul Dye, NASA's longest-serving flight director. "He spent hours of time with me," Reid said. "He helped me figure out how to cause a lot of mayhem on the space shuttle. He helped figure out exactly how the process of the connection between mission control and the space shuttle work. The book doesn't exist if he hadn't done that." Question: How has writing Atmosphere changed you? REID: I'm really into astronomy. Last Thanksgiving my family took a road trip to the Grand Canyon. I routed us through Scottsdale, Arizona, because I wanted to go to a dark sky park. Because of light pollution, we can only see the brightest stars when we go out and look at the night sky in a major city. Whereas when you go to a dark sky park there is very limited man-made light. So you can see more stars. We got there and it was cloudy. I was beside myself. The next night we got to the Grand Canyon and all the clouds had disappeared and you could see everything. I stood there for hours. I was teary-eyed. I can't emphasise enough: If anyone has any inclination to just go outside and look up at the night sky, it's so rewarding. Q: Last year you left social media. Where are you at with it now? REID: I didn't realise how much social media was creating so many messages in my head of, you're not good enough. You should be better. You should work harder. You should have a prettier home. You should make a better dinner. And when I stopped going on it, very quickly I started to hear my own voice clearer. It was so much easier to be in touch with what I thought, how I felt, what I valued. I was more in touch with myself but also I'm going out into the world and I'm looking up at the sky and I am seeing where I am in relation to everything around me and I starting to understand how small my life is compared to the scale of the universe. Q: Serena Williams is executive producing Carrie Soto for a series at Netflix. Did you meet her? REID: Yes. It's the only time I've been starstruck. I was in my bones, nervous. I had to talk to myself like, "Taylor, slow down your heart rate." The admiration I have for her as an athlete but also as a human is immense. The idea that I might have written something that she felt captured anything worth her time, is a great honor. And the fact that she's coming on board to help us make it the most authentic story we possibly can, I'm thrilled. It's one thing for me to pretend I know what it's like to be standing at Flushing Meadows and win the US Open. Serena knows. She's done it multiple times. And so as we render that world, I think it is going to be really, really special because we have Serena and her team to help us. Q: Now for your favorite question. What's up with the Evelyn Hugo movie? REID: There's not much that I am allowed to say but a lot of times I think people mistake me not saying anything as a lack of interest or focus and that's not the case. Everyone is working incredibly hard to get this movie made and everyone knows that there is a lot of pressure to get it exactly right. We're all hard at work. We're taking it very seriously and I give Netflix so much credit because they have such an immense respect for the readership of that book. They want to make them happy. AP/AAP Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. Taylor Jenkins Reid recalls a moment writing her new novel, Atmosphere: A Love Story, set against NASA's robust 1980s shuttle program, where she felt stuck. She went, where she often goes, to her husband to talk it through. "I said, 'I can't write this book. I don't know enough about the space shuttle. I don't know what happens when the payload bay doors won't shut and you have to get back within a certain amount of revs, but they can't land at White Sands. They have to land at Cape Kennedy.' And he's like, 'Just listen to yourself. You know so much more than you knew a couple months ago. Keep doing what you're doing.'" Atmosphere follows astronomer Joan Goodwin, who is selected to join NASA's astronaut program. She and fellow trainees become like family and achieve their dream of going to space - until tragedy strikes. The story unfolds in two timelines: One when Joan first joins the NASA program and the other in December 1984 when a mission goes terribly wrong. The duo behind Captain Marvel, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, are adapting the book into a film with a cinema release in mind. Reid knew that she had to do more than just her average six to eight weeks of research. Research and rabbit holes, by the way, are Reid's jam. She's written blockbuster novels set in the golden age of Hollywood in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, the 1970s rock scene in Daisy Jones & the Six, 1980s surf culture in Malibu Rising and professional tennis in Carrie Soto is Back. With Atmosphere, though, it took extra time, reading and understanding. "It feels like a fever dream now when I think about it," Reid said. "It was a very intense period of time. " For this endeavor, she needed assistance: "I had to reach out to people, complete strangers that I did not know and say, 'Will you please help me?'" She was surprised at how many people said yes. One of the most important voices was Paul Dye, NASA's longest-serving flight director. "He spent hours of time with me," Reid said. "He helped me figure out how to cause a lot of mayhem on the space shuttle. He helped figure out exactly how the process of the connection between mission control and the space shuttle work. The book doesn't exist if he hadn't done that." Question: How has writing Atmosphere changed you? REID: I'm really into astronomy. Last Thanksgiving my family took a road trip to the Grand Canyon. I routed us through Scottsdale, Arizona, because I wanted to go to a dark sky park. Because of light pollution, we can only see the brightest stars when we go out and look at the night sky in a major city. Whereas when you go to a dark sky park there is very limited man-made light. So you can see more stars. We got there and it was cloudy. I was beside myself. The next night we got to the Grand Canyon and all the clouds had disappeared and you could see everything. I stood there for hours. I was teary-eyed. I can't emphasise enough: If anyone has any inclination to just go outside and look up at the night sky, it's so rewarding. Q: Last year you left social media. Where are you at with it now? REID: I didn't realise how much social media was creating so many messages in my head of, you're not good enough. You should be better. You should work harder. You should have a prettier home. You should make a better dinner. And when I stopped going on it, very quickly I started to hear my own voice clearer. It was so much easier to be in touch with what I thought, how I felt, what I valued. I was more in touch with myself but also I'm going out into the world and I'm looking up at the sky and I am seeing where I am in relation to everything around me and I starting to understand how small my life is compared to the scale of the universe. Q: Serena Williams is executive producing Carrie Soto for a series at Netflix. Did you meet her? REID: Yes. It's the only time I've been starstruck. I was in my bones, nervous. I had to talk to myself like, "Taylor, slow down your heart rate." The admiration I have for her as an athlete but also as a human is immense. The idea that I might have written something that she felt captured anything worth her time, is a great honor. And the fact that she's coming on board to help us make it the most authentic story we possibly can, I'm thrilled. It's one thing for me to pretend I know what it's like to be standing at Flushing Meadows and win the US Open. Serena knows. She's done it multiple times. And so as we render that world, I think it is going to be really, really special because we have Serena and her team to help us. Q: Now for your favorite question. What's up with the Evelyn Hugo movie? REID: There's not much that I am allowed to say but a lot of times I think people mistake me not saying anything as a lack of interest or focus and that's not the case. Everyone is working incredibly hard to get this movie made and everyone knows that there is a lot of pressure to get it exactly right. We're all hard at work. We're taking it very seriously and I give Netflix so much credit because they have such an immense respect for the readership of that book. They want to make them happy. AP/AAP Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. Taylor Jenkins Reid recalls a moment writing her new novel, Atmosphere: A Love Story, set against NASA's robust 1980s shuttle program, where she felt stuck. She went, where she often goes, to her husband to talk it through. "I said, 'I can't write this book. I don't know enough about the space shuttle. I don't know what happens when the payload bay doors won't shut and you have to get back within a certain amount of revs, but they can't land at White Sands. They have to land at Cape Kennedy.' And he's like, 'Just listen to yourself. You know so much more than you knew a couple months ago. Keep doing what you're doing.'" Atmosphere follows astronomer Joan Goodwin, who is selected to join NASA's astronaut program. She and fellow trainees become like family and achieve their dream of going to space - until tragedy strikes. The story unfolds in two timelines: One when Joan first joins the NASA program and the other in December 1984 when a mission goes terribly wrong. The duo behind Captain Marvel, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, are adapting the book into a film with a cinema release in mind. Reid knew that she had to do more than just her average six to eight weeks of research. Research and rabbit holes, by the way, are Reid's jam. She's written blockbuster novels set in the golden age of Hollywood in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, the 1970s rock scene in Daisy Jones & the Six, 1980s surf culture in Malibu Rising and professional tennis in Carrie Soto is Back. With Atmosphere, though, it took extra time, reading and understanding. "It feels like a fever dream now when I think about it," Reid said. "It was a very intense period of time. " For this endeavor, she needed assistance: "I had to reach out to people, complete strangers that I did not know and say, 'Will you please help me?'" She was surprised at how many people said yes. One of the most important voices was Paul Dye, NASA's longest-serving flight director. "He spent hours of time with me," Reid said. "He helped me figure out how to cause a lot of mayhem on the space shuttle. He helped figure out exactly how the process of the connection between mission control and the space shuttle work. The book doesn't exist if he hadn't done that." Question: How has writing Atmosphere changed you? REID: I'm really into astronomy. Last Thanksgiving my family took a road trip to the Grand Canyon. I routed us through Scottsdale, Arizona, because I wanted to go to a dark sky park. Because of light pollution, we can only see the brightest stars when we go out and look at the night sky in a major city. Whereas when you go to a dark sky park there is very limited man-made light. So you can see more stars. We got there and it was cloudy. I was beside myself. The next night we got to the Grand Canyon and all the clouds had disappeared and you could see everything. I stood there for hours. I was teary-eyed. I can't emphasise enough: If anyone has any inclination to just go outside and look up at the night sky, it's so rewarding. Q: Last year you left social media. Where are you at with it now? REID: I didn't realise how much social media was creating so many messages in my head of, you're not good enough. You should be better. You should work harder. You should have a prettier home. You should make a better dinner. And when I stopped going on it, very quickly I started to hear my own voice clearer. It was so much easier to be in touch with what I thought, how I felt, what I valued. I was more in touch with myself but also I'm going out into the world and I'm looking up at the sky and I am seeing where I am in relation to everything around me and I starting to understand how small my life is compared to the scale of the universe. Q: Serena Williams is executive producing Carrie Soto for a series at Netflix. Did you meet her? REID: Yes. It's the only time I've been starstruck. I was in my bones, nervous. I had to talk to myself like, "Taylor, slow down your heart rate." The admiration I have for her as an athlete but also as a human is immense. The idea that I might have written something that she felt captured anything worth her time, is a great honor. And the fact that she's coming on board to help us make it the most authentic story we possibly can, I'm thrilled. It's one thing for me to pretend I know what it's like to be standing at Flushing Meadows and win the US Open. Serena knows. She's done it multiple times. And so as we render that world, I think it is going to be really, really special because we have Serena and her team to help us. Q: Now for your favorite question. What's up with the Evelyn Hugo movie? REID: There's not much that I am allowed to say but a lot of times I think people mistake me not saying anything as a lack of interest or focus and that's not the case. Everyone is working incredibly hard to get this movie made and everyone knows that there is a lot of pressure to get it exactly right. We're all hard at work. We're taking it very seriously and I give Netflix so much credit because they have such an immense respect for the readership of that book. They want to make them happy. AP/AAP Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. Taylor Jenkins Reid recalls a moment writing her new novel, Atmosphere: A Love Story, set against NASA's robust 1980s shuttle program, where she felt stuck. She went, where she often goes, to her husband to talk it through. "I said, 'I can't write this book. I don't know enough about the space shuttle. I don't know what happens when the payload bay doors won't shut and you have to get back within a certain amount of revs, but they can't land at White Sands. They have to land at Cape Kennedy.' And he's like, 'Just listen to yourself. You know so much more than you knew a couple months ago. Keep doing what you're doing.'" Atmosphere follows astronomer Joan Goodwin, who is selected to join NASA's astronaut program. She and fellow trainees become like family and achieve their dream of going to space - until tragedy strikes. The story unfolds in two timelines: One when Joan first joins the NASA program and the other in December 1984 when a mission goes terribly wrong. The duo behind Captain Marvel, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, are adapting the book into a film with a cinema release in mind. Reid knew that she had to do more than just her average six to eight weeks of research. Research and rabbit holes, by the way, are Reid's jam. She's written blockbuster novels set in the golden age of Hollywood in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, the 1970s rock scene in Daisy Jones & the Six, 1980s surf culture in Malibu Rising and professional tennis in Carrie Soto is Back. With Atmosphere, though, it took extra time, reading and understanding. "It feels like a fever dream now when I think about it," Reid said. "It was a very intense period of time. " For this endeavor, she needed assistance: "I had to reach out to people, complete strangers that I did not know and say, 'Will you please help me?'" She was surprised at how many people said yes. One of the most important voices was Paul Dye, NASA's longest-serving flight director. "He spent hours of time with me," Reid said. "He helped me figure out how to cause a lot of mayhem on the space shuttle. He helped figure out exactly how the process of the connection between mission control and the space shuttle work. The book doesn't exist if he hadn't done that." Question: How has writing Atmosphere changed you? REID: I'm really into astronomy. Last Thanksgiving my family took a road trip to the Grand Canyon. I routed us through Scottsdale, Arizona, because I wanted to go to a dark sky park. Because of light pollution, we can only see the brightest stars when we go out and look at the night sky in a major city. Whereas when you go to a dark sky park there is very limited man-made light. So you can see more stars. We got there and it was cloudy. I was beside myself. The next night we got to the Grand Canyon and all the clouds had disappeared and you could see everything. I stood there for hours. I was teary-eyed. I can't emphasise enough: If anyone has any inclination to just go outside and look up at the night sky, it's so rewarding. Q: Last year you left social media. Where are you at with it now? REID: I didn't realise how much social media was creating so many messages in my head of, you're not good enough. You should be better. You should work harder. You should have a prettier home. You should make a better dinner. And when I stopped going on it, very quickly I started to hear my own voice clearer. It was so much easier to be in touch with what I thought, how I felt, what I valued. I was more in touch with myself but also I'm going out into the world and I'm looking up at the sky and I am seeing where I am in relation to everything around me and I starting to understand how small my life is compared to the scale of the universe. Q: Serena Williams is executive producing Carrie Soto for a series at Netflix. Did you meet her? REID: Yes. It's the only time I've been starstruck. I was in my bones, nervous. I had to talk to myself like, "Taylor, slow down your heart rate." The admiration I have for her as an athlete but also as a human is immense. The idea that I might have written something that she felt captured anything worth her time, is a great honor. And the fact that she's coming on board to help us make it the most authentic story we possibly can, I'm thrilled. It's one thing for me to pretend I know what it's like to be standing at Flushing Meadows and win the US Open. Serena knows. She's done it multiple times. And so as we render that world, I think it is going to be really, really special because we have Serena and her team to help us. Q: Now for your favorite question. What's up with the Evelyn Hugo movie? REID: There's not much that I am allowed to say but a lot of times I think people mistake me not saying anything as a lack of interest or focus and that's not the case. Everyone is working incredibly hard to get this movie made and everyone knows that there is a lot of pressure to get it exactly right. We're all hard at work. We're taking it very seriously and I give Netflix so much credit because they have such an immense respect for the readership of that book. They want to make them happy. AP/AAP Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Trump cuts satellite data on Antarctic sea ice just as it's needed most
The US decision is part of what has been widely described as an assault on climate science by the Trump administration. It also affects other work by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, including hurricane forecasting, as reported by The Guardian US. This masthead sent questions to the US embassy in Australia and the Pentagon, but did not receive a response by deadline. One important dataset under threat is the Sea Ice Index, which has continuous readings back to the late 1970s. It shows that until about 2015, sea ice was around average, or even a bit above average, but since 2016 it has been consistently low. Doddridge said the satellites were past their mission life but remained operational, suggesting the data would still exist but not be shared for scientific work, forcing scientists to use sources with less reliability and continuity such as Japanese or Chinese satellites. 'We won't lose complete access to sea ice data,' Doddridge said. 'What we will lose is a long-term record of well-calibrated, interoperable satellite sensors. What that means is that we won't be able to compare future extremes with past extremes anywhere near as accurately.' The impacts of extremely low sea ice in Antarctica The PNAS Nexus paper canvasses a wide range of impacts from extremely low sea ice, from ecological harm to feedback loops for global warming. Emperor penguins needed landfast sea ice for breeding platforms, Doddridge said, while Adelie penguins relied on sea ice to stay dry while they underwent a 'catastrophic moult', in which they replace all their feathers over a few weeks and temporarily lose their waterproofing. Crabeater seals give birth to their pups on large ice floes and need to stay with them for the two to three weeks between birth and weaning, but are vulnerable to predators such as leopard seals if the ice floes become smaller or harder to find. The paper also raises the spectre that low sea ice could affect the population of Antarctic krill, small crustaceans that are a main food source for a number of whale species, and which need sea ice in the larval stage. Loading Perhaps the biggest impact of low sea ice is the feedback effect it could have on the destruction of the ice shelf – the part of the ice sheet of compacted snow that sits on the ocean rather than over rock – through iceberg formation or melting, and the corresponding effect on sea level rises. Dr Sue Cook, a glaciologist and co-author on the PNAS Nexus paper, said sea ice suppressed ocean swells and waves close to the ice shelf. If the ice shelf was directly exposed to swell, it would start to bend and crack and might disintegrate into icebergs that then disperse out into the open ocean, Cook said. 'In the 15-year record that we looked at, the years with the least summer sea ice produced more than twice as many icebergs as the years with the most summer sea ice,' Cook said. 'This link between iceberg production and sea ice presence isn't something that we include in any of our ice sheet models at the moment, and that means that we might be underpredicting how quickly the Antarctic margin will retreat as sea ice dwindles around the continent.' She added that most models were based on 15 to 20 years of data, which included long periods of good sea ice coverage. 'If we shift to this state where summer sea ice is very low, but we continue using models based on the previous period, then we will definitely underestimate how quickly Antarctica will contribute to sea level rise,' she said. Dr Will Hobbs, a sea ice scientist with AAPP and co-author of the paper, said one of the most important roles of sea ice was the albedo effect, in which it essentially acts as a sunshade in summer. This works because snow-covered ice reflects about 90 per cent of the sunlight back into space, whereas the darker water of the open ocean absorbs 90 per cent of the sunlight, and warms accordingly. Hobbs said that historically in the Southern Ocean, the system always resets in the midwinter, but the researchers found that in a year of extremely low ice, such as 2016, it would affect the next summer and take about three years to fully recover. Hobbs said statistical analysis using reconstructions of the last century suggested there was a 0.1 per cent chance that the low sea ice trend was part of natural variability.
