When the Nintendo 64 was released in the U.S. on September 26, 1996, it threw players into a whole new world of gaming. Complete with 3D worlds and 64-bit graphics, this mega console helped turn video gaming into the immersive medium it is today. To celebrate its 20th anniversary in the U.S., check out 10 facts about the Nintendo 64.

1. IT ALMOST HAD A DIFFERENT NAME.

While in development, the Nintendo 64 was codenamed “Project Reality,” but that was obviously never meant for mass consumption. The system did, however, have another name planned for consumers: Ultra 64. That was the working title for the system until the company learned Konami had the word “Ultra” trademarked for its Ultra Games division.

2. ON AVERAGE, GAMES WERE MORE EXPENSIVE THAN THEY ARE TODAY.

$59.99 might sound like a steep price for a game today, but when the N64 was released, titles were actually substantially higher, averaging about $75 a pop when the system first came out. Not only that, but game prices weren’t as consistent as they are now, with some coming in at $59.99 and others (like Killer Instinct Gold) topping out at $79.99—and we’re not even adjusting for inflation.

3. IT LAUNCHED WITH JUST TWO GAMES IN THE U.S.

If you weren’t a fan of the Super Mario Bros. franchise, you were out of luck when the N64 first launched. Outside of Super Mario 64, there was only one other game available when the system first hit shelves: Pilotwings 64. That’s it. Eventual system-sellers like GoldenEye 007, Banjo Kazooie, WCW/nWo Revenge, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time were still a ways off in September 1996. In a bit of digital symmetry, the N64’s launch lineup almost perfectly mirrored that of the Super Nintendo’s, which included Super Mario World, the original Pilotwings, and F-Zero.

4. A PERIPHERAL ALLOWED IT TO GO ONLINE, BUT ONLY IN JAPAN.

Years before online gaming became the norm, Nintendo attempted to bring gamers together with the Nintendo 64DD—a peripheral disc drive that allowed players to interact via the Internet and play games, share creations, and socialize. Unfortunately, due to years of delay, the actual tech behind the 64DD was out of date by the time it became available for purchase, and company support quickly dwindled. It also didn’t help that it was only available in Japan, basically cutting its potential user base into a fraction of its potential.

5. NINTENDO HAD TO SELL MARIO PARTY WITH PROTECTIVE GLOVES.

The Nintendo 64’s controller was oddly shaped and difficult for some gamers to grasp at first, but the implementation of an analog stick is something that systems have been using ever since. However, that stick, despite being a logical leap forward for gaming tech, came back to haunt the company. After receiving complaints about injuries suffered while using the analog stick to play Mario Party, the New York Attorney General came to terms on a settlement with Nintendo to begin selling sports gloves to anyone who bought the title.

What type of injuries could a game controller inflict? Blisters, of course. During portions of the game that required players to move the stick at a rapid pace, people were reporting not only blisters but also puncture wounds, friction burns, and other injuries to the palms of their hands. To avoid an even messier situation, Nintendo agreed to provide worried customers with sports gloves if they called an 800 number. Though the title sold more than 1 million copies, the cost of the gloves bit into the profits for Nintendo; luckily for the company this problem wasn’t widespread, as they had received fewer than 100 complaints from parents over the years.

6. PEOPLE ARE ROUTINELY BEATING SUPER MARIO 64 IN LESS THAN TWO HOURS.

Super Mario 64 was a big deal for Nintendo in 1996: It revolutionized 3D game design and proved that simple mechanics can make the jump to a far more powerful console. The game’s impact was so huge that it’s still being played today—albeit by speed runners looking to get into the record book for the fastest completion time.

By memorizing each section of the game, and exploiting a few glitches here and there, players have found ways to complete Super Mario 64 in under two hours. As of right now, the record for the fastest time collecting all 120 stars in the game is one hour, 40 minutes, and 12 seconds.

7. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME WAS ALMOST A FIRST-PERSON GAME.

If you think fans were enraged when The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker gave the franchise a cel-shaded makeover, imagine how they would have reacted if Nintendo went ahead with its early idea of making Ocarina of Time from the first-person perspective. In an interview about the game’s development, designer Yoshiaki Koizumi said creator Shigeru Miyamoto toyed with the idea early on:

“Right. In the beginning, he had the image that you are at first walking around in first-person, and when an enemy appeared, the screen would switch, Link would appear, and the battle would unfold from a side perspective.”

8. THE CARTRIDGES KEPT CERTAIN GAMES FROM SEEING THE LIGHT OF DAY.

Nintendo’s insistence on sticking with cartridges over discs was seen by some as one of the charms of the company, but the reality was that the decision held the system back in countless ways. Simply put, discs on a system like Sony’s PlayStation could hold more data than cartridges, and while discs do require loading times (sometimes lengthy loading times for those who remember), you could pack more high-quality graphics, video, and audio into a game that way.

While Sony could release sprawling, technologically superior games like Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid on two or three discs, the N64 would have had to use numerous cartridges to fit the same game, which was incredibly cost-prohibitive and cumbersome. As the console wars raged on, this relegated the N64 to releasing first-party titles with simpler, more cartoonish graphics, while Sony was able to push the limits further with a range of outside developers.

9. SHIGERU MIYAMOTO WANTED GOLDENEYE 007 TO END WITH EVERYONE SHAKING HANDS.

When you look across the vast library of Nintendo games over the years, there’s one thing that’s (almost) noticeably absent compared to other systems: violence. The company has always held tight as the more “family-friendly” gaming option, with Mario, Luigi, and even Zelda providing fairly bloodless adventures. But one of the Nintendo 64’s most popular games also happened to be one of the most violent: GoldenEye 007.

Despite its popularity, all the guns and killing didn’t exactly thrill Shigeru Miyamoto, who, at one point, suggested after the main mission was over, players should be able to “shake hands with all your enemies in the hospital,” according to an interview with the game’s director, Martin Hollis.

10. SUPER MARIO BROS. 64 IS STILL THE CONSOLE’S BESTSELLING GAME.

This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise: Super Mario 64 is the bestselling game on the Nintendo 64—by a lot. It sold around 11.89 million copies, while Mario Kart 64, the next highest seller, sold around 9.87 million. GoldenEye 007 came in third, with 8.09 million copies sold.

Paid family leave is a hot-button issue in this country. Despite the growing number of households that have two parents working full-time, the U.S. is one of the few nations that doesn’t guarantee paid maternity leave. Many companies do offer this and similar benefits to their workers, but as a recent report [PDF] shows, the employers that still don’t are costing us. According to a new analysis from the Center for American Progress, families lose out on at least $20.6 billion each year due to the lack of paid family and medical leave in the U.S.

Bringing a new baby into the family isn’t the only reason workers may need to take time off. Leaving work to recover from illness or care for a loved one would also be covered under a comprehensive paid leave policy. “The reality is that almost every worker will need time away from their job at some point in their working career,” report co-author and Director of Women’s Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress Sarah Jane Glynn said in a release. “But few workers can afford to take unpaid leave, putting workers who are facing caregiving responsibilities or a serious illness in an impossible bind.”

A lack of affordable childcare is also hurting U.S. families. The report estimates that this costs Americans an additional $8.3 billion a year. When workers are forced to quit their jobs or reduce their hours because their employers won’t accommodate their needs, the effects are felt beyond individual families. According to Glynn, local businesses and communities can also suffer. “Critics often argue that establishing a national paid family leave program or investing in affordable child care is too expensive, but in fact, the cost of failing to make such investments presents a substantial burden on the nation’s economy,” she says.

Paid leave is becoming a priority for both men and women entering the workforce. When family leave is offered across the board it can beneficial to the whole family. One Swedish study [PDF] found that a woman’s future earnings increase by 7 percent for every month of paternity leave taken by her spouse.

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In 1977, NASA sent the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes off into the cosmos with no particular destination in mind. Their objective was to travel and explore, relay messages back to us on Earth, and, perhaps, deliver a message from us, should they encounter any extraterrestrial life.

Nearly 40 years later, Voyager 1 is now in interstellar space. Both probes are still in communication with us back at home, and they still carry those carefully curated sounds of life here on Earth on the Golden Records. Now you too can listen to—and own—the only government-authorized alien playlist in history.

The Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition is a Kickstarter campaign that has more than doubled its fundraising goal in just a few days’ time. The box set is a reproduction of the original phonograph records, which were selected by a team headed by Carl Sagan, and include audio of the human experience that ranges from Beethoven to birds. (As The New York Times reports, not even Sagan himself got a copy.) The audio—about two hours in all—is even being remastered by the original producer, Timothy Ferris, for optimal sound preservation and quality.

For $98 you can get a copy of the set, which includes three heavyweight translucent gold vinyl LPs, a hardbound book with images from the original Golden Records, along with photos taken by the probes, essays, and other project-related material. There’s also a digital download card and a lithograph of the iconic Golden Record cover diagram, printed with gold metallic ink on archival paper.

You have until October 20 to contribute to the campaign and secure one of the box sets for yourself. As you can imagine, production costs for the reissue are high, and the team writes on the Kickstarter page that the “overwhelming majority” of funds raised will go to that, along with licensing and royalties incurred.

For a better look at the set, and to learn more, check out the video below.

[h/t The New York Times]

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Thanks to Ivan Pavlov, we’re all familiar with classical conditioning and the Pavlovian response (ring a bell before giving a dog a plate of food enough times and he’ll eventually begin to salivate at the sound of the bell rather than the sight of the meal itself). But if you want to know more about the man himself, from his side gig selling canine gastric juice to his couchsurfing days, it’s time to examine these 12 facts about Ivan Pavlov (who was born 167 years ago).

1. A LOT OF WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW ABOUT HIM IS WRONG.

Pavlov’s biographers point out that most people have misconceptions about the Russian physiologist. For example, instead of ringing a bell to train dogs, Pavlov actually used a variety of tools such as a metronome, buzzer, whistle, light, harmonium, and even electric shock. And Pavlov’s concept of the conditioned response is, in reality, not exactly what he pioneered. He discussed the conditional response, but a mistranslation of the original Russian word uslovnyi gave us the phrase conditioned response, which is still used today.

2. HE PLANNED TO BECOME A PRIEST.

Pavlov was born in Ryazan, Russia in 1849. His father was a priest, and Pavlov enrolled in a theological seminary. But after reading the works of Russian physiologist Ivan Sechenov, Pavlov decided to change course. In 1870, he left the seminary and enrolled at what is now known as St. Petersburg University to study natural science, physics, and math.

3. HIS CHEMISTRY PROFESSOR WAS A BIG DEAL.

During Pavlov’s first year of university, one of the classes he took was inorganic chemistry. His professor, Dmitri Mendeleev, was a big deal in the world of science. In 1869, Mendeleev published the first periodic table of elements and is credited as the father of the periodic table. Not too shabby.

4. HIS EARLY WORK DEALT WITH PANCREATIC NERVES AND ANIMAL DIGESTION.

Throughout the 1870s and early 1880s, Pavlov studied the natural sciences and physiology, conducting research and working on his doctorate thesis. Specifically, he wrote about the function of the nerves in the pancreas and the heart. In 1890, Pavlov was asked to develop and direct a physiology department at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, where he studied the interplay between the nervous system and digestion.

5. HE WAS SO POOR THAT HE COUCHSURFED FOR A FEW MONTHS.

Russian scientists worked in modest labs and were paid very little, so Pavlov struggled with finances. In 1887 he couldn’t afford his apartment anymore, so he spent a few months away from his wife (Serafima, or Seraphima, Karchevskaya) and young son. Pavlov crashed with friends or slept in his lab, and he took on extra jobs; he taught physiology and worked on a medical journal to earn more money.

6. HE FINANCED HIS LAB BY SELLING CANINE GASTRIC JUICE AS A CURE FOR INDIGESTION.

Pavlov kept his physiology lab running by selling something that he had easy access to: canine gastric juice. While conducting experiments on dogs’ digestive systems, Pavlov collected gastric juice from hungry dogs that stared at a big bowl of meat all day. Pavlov paid an assistant to run the gastric juice collection operation, and he sold thousands of containers of the juice each year to people around Europe, who drank it daily to treat dyspepsia (indigestion). Yum!

7. AFTER HIS FIRST SON DIED, HE NAMED ALL HIS FUTURE CHILDREN WITH “V” NAMES.

If you think Pavlov and the Kardashians have nothing in common, think again. After the sudden death of their first child, Wirchik, at a very young age, the Pavlovs had four more children: three sons and a daughter, whom they named Vladimir, Victor, Vsevolod, and Vera.

8. HE WON A NOBEL PRIZE FOR REMOVING DOGS’ ESOPHAGI.

Although Pavlov’s most well-known work—showing how an environmental stimulus can influence a behavioral response—was groundbreaking, he won a Nobel Prize in 1904 for something different. He earned his Nobel Prize for his research into the animal digestive system. After surgically removing a dog’s esophagus, Pavlov fed the animal and observed how the process of digestion worked, measuring the digestive secretions of the stomach and pancreas.

9. H.G. WELLS WROTE ABOUT PAVLOV FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE.

In November 1927, science fiction writer H.G. Wells wrote an essay about Pavlov for The New York Times Magazine. Because Wells didn’t fully understand the science behind one of Pavlov’s articles about reflexes, he ignored the heavy-duty science and focused on Pavlov the man. Wells wrote about Pavlov’s “vastly heroic” nature and devotion to advancing science in the face of poverty, war, and revolution. After a 23-year-old B.F. Skinner read Wells’s article on Pavlov, he became a fan and grew up to be one of the most influential behavioral psychologists.

10. HE HAD A BAD TEMPER.

According to his biographer, Daniel Todes, Pavlov had issues with anger management. Beginning in childhood, his mood could change suddenly, and as an adult, he hit aggressive dogs in his lab and was known for his uncontrollable outbursts of anger. Pavlov himself described his angry outbursts as “morbid, spontaneous paroxysms.”

11. HE SPOKE OUT AGAINST SOVIET COMMUNISM.

In 1921, Vladimir Lenin publicly praised Pavlov for his scientific contributions, and the Soviet government funded his research and offered him increased food rations (he didn’t accept). But Pavlov spoke out against communism, requesting in 1922 that he be allowed to move his lab to another country. Lenin refused. Pavlov said: “For the kind of social experiment that you are making, I would not sacrifice a frog’s hind legs!” Pavlov also decried his government’s persecution of political dissidents and clergymen; in a letter, Pavlov told Joseph Stalin that he was “ashamed to be called a Russian!” Surprisingly, Pavlov wasn’t killed for his contrarian views because the government determined that his scientific work was too valuable for Russia.

12. HIS HOME AND APARTMENT WERE CONVERTED TO MEMORIAL MUSEUMS.

Pavlov’s estate in Ryazan, Russia is now a museum where visitors can explore his life and achievements. If you visit, be prepared to see stuffed dogs (and even a monkey) that Pavlov used in his experiments. And if you find yourself in St. Petersburg, you can check out The Pavlov Memorial Museum, where Pavlov lived for almost two decades before he died on February 27, 1936.

Filmmaker and scientist Yan Liang wants to show students that learning science is about more than lab reports, tedious measurements, and complex calculations. He recently founded the education company Beauty of Science which will produce books, apps, and videos that focus on the beauty and wonder of science.

His first project is a timelapse video called “Crystallization2” that reveals how different salt molecules crystallize when water evaporates. Though it doesn’t really explain the scientific processes at work, the video showcases the breathtaking beauty of the microscopic world and is designed to inspire viewers to learn more about the crystallization process on their own.

“The subjects of this project were droplets of saturated aqueous solutions containing various inorganic salts (e.g.table salt, sodium sulfate etc.). The evaporation of water initiated the crystallization processes inside the droplets, which were captured by time-lapse photography,” Liang explains. “A single droplet contains the wonders of nature.”

[h/t Gizmodo]

Banner image credit: Yan Liang, Vimeo

 
Most fish aren’t prized for their musical talents, but vocalization is an important tool used by many species. Chirps, hums, and croaks can help fish attract mates or keep track of one another when hunting in the dark. According to a recent study published in Bioacoustics, some fish may share even more in common with songbirds than we previously thought. Researchers at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, have recorded seven unique fish choruses ringing out off the west Australian coast at dusk and dawn, New Scientist reports.

The overlapping calls were recorded over an 18-month period in the waters off Port Hedland. You can listen to an example of three of the fish choirs below. The bullfrog-like call comes from the Black Jewfish, the buzzing from a member of the Terapontid family, and the softer “ba-ba-ba” noise from the batfish.

As is the case with many bird species, the fish choruses followed distinct diurnal patterns, swelling at sunrise and sunset. The fish recorded by the team represent a small fraction of the 800 fish species known to produce sound. Such adaptations can proves useful for researchers: Scientists sometimes use fish calls to monitor underwater ecosystems when water visibility is low.

[h/t New Scientist]

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