Episode 565: Dark Energy, Glowing Yeast

Real Life

Ben took a family trip down to San Diego just in time for the other fireworks night—turns out, there are often more fireworks on the 3rd of July than the 4th. Devon also caught a local 3rd-of-July fireworks show, which has started to feel like the real deal instead of just a warm-up. Ben: “More fireworks on the 3rd than the 4th, easily.” The trend continues.

While Ben and Devon were oohing and aahing at sky explosions, Steven stayed home and got some solid mini painting in while the family was off in LA. No notes, just vibes. He and Ben also snuck in a round of Walkabout Minigolf on the Raptor Cliffs course—it's like someone built a coastal campground-theme park hybrid, then casually added actual dinosaurs. Possibly the greatest putt-putt theme of all time.

Meanwhile, Ben’s been hooked on Watch Duty, an incredibly useful app that tracks wildfires and public safety alerts—especially important during peak summer heat. And no, Devon is nowhere near the Texas flooding that made national headlines on the 4th. Tragic and preventable, if we hadn’t gutted infrastructure funding and climate prep years ago.

Steven got a chance to run Daggerheart, the new RPG system by Critical Role (yes, spelled right this time). The system leans into storytelling with hope and fear dice—2d12 that keep every roll interesting. He nearly lost a copy to a chaotic-good Barnes & Noble employee, but ultimately triumphed.

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Future or Now

Devon’s existential pick this week? A study suggesting that the universe might start collapsing... in only 7 billion years. Here’s the article. The researchers—drawing on data from the Dark Energy Survey and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument—predict we could be headed for a Big Crunch by year 33.3 billion. Honestly, we barely understand time and space now. Let’s not even get into how to measure it.

Steven brought the yeast: scientists have bioengineered yeast to glow and produce billions of peptide-based drugs. It’s green tech, it's fast, it’s like if a lava lamp could cure cancer. Glowing drug factories made of yeast. We love science when it gets weird and useful.

Ben’s deep in the sleep zone again—this time biohacking naps. Apple Watches, dream journals, and the fact that napping might make you literally see the world differently. Ben’s fully ready to enter his lucid dream coding era.

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Book Club

Next week’s pick is Isaac Asimov’s classic: The Last Question. You can also watch it here if you prefer the audio-visual route. It’s short, sharp, and cosmic in scale—perfect for a group read before the universe crunches itself into a cosmic raisin.

This week, we tackled movies and memories. A great Patreon comment from Renee about the new Pixar-ish flick Elio:

"My kids liked Elio, it just kept reminding me of Flight of the Navigator. Not exactly, and I haven’t seen it in a long time, but enough that I was like hmm... this kind of reminds me of something. Also, in the beginning, Elio stumbles into a museum place and there’s a speaker talking about Voyager and whatnot. I turned to my husband and was like, wait—is that Kate Mulgrew? And he said, 'I have no idea who that is.' Sigh, being married to a non-nerd. But yea, they had Capt. Janeway voice a section about the NASA Voyager program."
Chef’s kiss.

Quick movie reviews:

• Elio (Steven): ★★★¾ — good sci-fi intro for younger audiences.

• Flight of the Navigator (Devon): Still fun, though we forgot it has a 12-year time jump.

• How to Train Your Dragon (Ben & Devon): Ben called it a “competently done action movie,” Devon praised the depth and pacing—especially that final battle.

• Independence Day (Ben): It’s still a banger. Devon’s stunned Steven hasn’t watched it more.

• Jurassic World: Rebirth (Steven): Don't. Just... don’t. Not even for hate-watching.

And lastly: an original Technicolor print of Star Wars—yes, pre-Lucas tinkering—was recently screened in the UK. It’s official: Han shot first.
If you're curious, the best fan restorations are the Despecialized Edition and 4K77, sourced from original 35mm prints. The Force is real, and so is the grainy, unedited magic.

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Let us know if you watched fireworks on the 3rd, if you’ve played Daggerheart, or if you're Team Nap or Team Yeast in the great future wars. And if you’re watching Elio, listen closely—you might just hear Janeway.