💡 The Force Was with Them

The latest from Nautilus, this week’s Facts So Romantic, and your question of the day. [View in browser](| [Join Nautilus]( Together with Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here.]( Hello there Nautilus readers, and thanks for popping in. Today we have a personal take on the generation of filmmakers that shook up cinema forever (“the force was with them”) and where our creativity could lead. Plus, we hear from Ferris Jabr about how life made our Earth. And in this week’s Facts So Romantic—the first photograph, ultra-deep gold mines, and more. What a delight it was reading your responses about the imaginary friends you used to have! Your question today is on one meaning of life. Find today’s free story (on undoing Jaws’ legacy) below. Be well! —Brian Gallagher The latest in Nautilus HISTORY The Force Was with Them My generation of filmmakers shook up cinema forever. Where are history’s periodic surges of creativity taking us? BY WALTER MURCH September 1965. Eighty eager young faces are assembled for the first day of orientation at USC School of Cinema. [Continue reading→]( The Smarter Way to Water Your Lawn The [Rachio Smart Hose Timer]( lets you control how much water your lawn and garden gets from a streamlined app on your smartphone. You can manually run your sprinklers from anywhere in the world or schedule irrigation so you can enjoy summer travel without worrying about your plants. The [Rachio Smart Hose Timer]( is so smart, it can watch the weather for you and skip a scheduled run if it looks like rain. [Get yours today]( and simplify your lawn care routine. [BUY ON AMAZON]( More from Nautilus [ENVIRONMENT]( How Life Made Our Earth Ferris Jabr’s 3 greatest revelations while writing his book, Becoming Earth. BY FERRIS JABR [Continue reading→]( Animals Get a Glow-up In her upcoming exhibition [A Collective Glow](, surreal artist Gigi Chen explores the emotional ties between animals and the environment. Visit [Colossal]( to see more. [Visit Colossal]( FACTS SO ROMANTIC The 5 Best Things We Learned Today The very first photograph was taken in 1827: Joseph Niépce’s view from his attic window. [Nautilus→]( Ultra-deep gold mines harbor a variety of microbes living within tiny fluid-filled crevices nearly two miles underground in the planet’s deep crust. [Nautilus→]( Pee droplets accelerate out of the glassy-winged sharpshooter’s rear at speeds that are 40 times faster than a cheetah sprinting across the African savannah. [Nautilus→]( The oldest wine preserved in liquid form—a white that turned reddish-brown—was found 2,000 years after it was poured into a Spanish funeral urn in an underground tomb that went undisturbed for millennia. [Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports→]( During the summer melt season, as liquid water forms on glaciers, blooms of purple algae darken the surface of the ice, accelerating the rate of melt. [Phys.org→]( WE'RE CURIOUS TO KNOW... Has the impact of life on Earth brought Earth itself to life? Let us know! Reply to this newsletter with your response, briefly explaining your choice, and we’ll reveal the top answers. (This question was inspired by“]([How Life Made Our Earth]([”]([)]( Top Answers to Our Previous Question(On Having an Imaginary Friend) • I had four imaginary friends as a small child. Their names were Hanch, Hocket, Chalky, and Ditter-Ditter. I don’t remember them; I was told about them by family members. I could be rather violent when someone dared to sit on a swing occupied by one of them. – John P. • I had two imaginary friends, Didi and Donny Rio. Don’t remember much about them. I was an only child until I was seven, and we lived in a neighborhood with no other young girls for me to play with. Maybe I was just lonely. – Dorothy L. • There was a little orchard in our backyard, watered by a small ditch. I was often sent out to play alone, and I decided to build a mud village by this “river.” I had made a couple of roofless houses, three or four inches square, when a yellow-jacket took up residence in one of them. I decided he was a prince in disguise and had long conversations with him. – Marijane O. • The imaginary friend I remember the most I materialized by drawing its faces on a paper—a good side smiling and a dark side drooling with wrath. – Vittorio B. QUOTE OF THE DAY “A tourist bus in the guise of a cable car drove past with its loudspeaker blaring, ‘Francis Coppola, creator of The Godfather series …’ Francis waved amiably at the tourists, who—startled—waved back.” [Walter Murch writes about cinema and the mysterious surges of creativity in history.]( Your free story this Thursday! ZOOLOGY The Shark Whisperer Donald Nelson spent his life undoing the damage that Jaws did to the perception of sharks. BY KATHARINE GAMMON In the 1970s, when a young filmmaker named Steven Spielberg was researching a new movie based on a novel about sharks, he returned to his alma mater, California State University Long Beach. [Continue reading for free→]( Sometimes You Just Click Culture is what connects us. No one knows that better than childhood friends Olu and WowGr8 of the experimental hip hop duo EarthGang. That’s why they were the perfect choice to read Claudia Geib’s [story]( “Clicking with Your Kin” about the special sounds sperm whales use to identify their clans. “Music is one of the characteristics that distinguishes different cultural groups amongst us humans, and helps us to identify ourselves — a trait that, as this research suggests, we seem to share with sperm whales,” Geib told us. “As such, it feels particularly appropriate to have a musical duo reading this story. Thanks to EarthGang for this fantastic reading. I'd love to see your collab with the whales themselves next!” You can now [watch]( or [listen]( to EarthGang read Geib’s story on [YouTube]( or [Spotify](. P.S. Steven Spielberg’s film Jaws was released on this day in 1975. “The opening lines alone, backed by that daggered two-note musical score, gave a sense that [sharks were a nearly demonic force](,” wrote Katharine Gammon. “It lives to kill. A mindless eating machine. It will attack and devour anything. It is as if God created the devil, and gave it … jaws.” David Shiffman, a marine biologist and author of Why Sharks Matter, told Gammon, “Jaws made a generation absolutely terrified of sharks.” Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher Thanks for reading. [Tell us](mailto:brian.gallagher@nautil.us?subject=&body=) your thoughts on today’s note. Plus, if you find our content valuable, consider [becoming a member]( to support our work, and inspire a friend to sign up for [the Nautilus newsletter](. Copyright © 2024 NautilusNext, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from [nautil.us](. Our mailing address is: NautilusNext 360 W 36th Street, 7S, New York, NY 10018 Don't want to hear from us anymore? [Unsubscribe](