The Discovery Channel had a special on this past Sunday that brought reality television to a new low.

Naturalist Paul Rosolie announced on his two-hour special "Eaten Alive" that he would be eaten by a 20-foot anaconda on television.He supposedly had a specially made suit and helmet to withstand the reptile's force. Apparently there was a large buildup to the climax. He ended up in the snake's coils, and as the snake started to suck in the helmet-covered head of Rosolie, the naturalist called it quits.According to one source, Rosolie said the snake maneuvered one arm into the full force of her coils, and he could feel the bone start to flex. Just as it seemed he was about to break, he called it quits. Rosolie claimed afterward the whole purpose of this publicity stunt was to do something "crazy" to draw attention to the plight of the rain forests.Maybe a publicity stunt is what is needed once in a while to draw attention to a plight or a cause, but in my opinion this type of exploitation is foolhardy and abuse of a wild animal.Common sense would dictate this probably was never serious, because if this naturalist truly cared about the animals he claims to want to protect, he would have never gone through with it.If he had, the animal's life would have truly been in jeopardy since the only way to retrieve Rosolie would have been to cut the animal open.It is probably a logical conclusion that the stunt only went as far as he planned. One would think there would be more protests about such a stunt, but other than some news stories, this stunt appeared to escape the brunt of PETA's wrath. One has to wonder why?There is an interesting story I came across in Physics World this week in which two physicists looked at using pasta to model ring-shaped polymers to gain an understanding of how these complex and interesting polymers might work in the real world.Polymers are the molecules that form the plastics we have grown accustomed to using in the modern world.Physicists Davide Michieletto and Matthew Turner explored this subject by crafting a ring pasta they dubbed "anelloni."What they discovered is that ring-shaped pasta is harder to separate from each other, mirroring how ring-shaped polymers might work in the physical world.The idea is that spaghetti, which are long strands of pasta, easily separate from each other as one twirls a strand on a fork.Polymer materials like polystyrene and polyethylene are used in many of our plastics today. Both polymers are used for everything from plastic bags used for packaging food to rock-hard plastics used in artificial limbs and pipelines. Even though these chains of molecules that form dense strands to create these plastics are strong, they can be separated under the right conditions, much like the spaghetti.Ring polymers though, depending on the size of the ring, can become intertwined without being knotted and wrap themselves into complex configurations.The longer the rings are that comprise the polymer, the more complicated their structure becomes. These complex configurations can create substances that we have only dreamed about to date, according to these scientists.By using pasta, Turner and Michieletto hoped to gain a better understanding of how ring polymers work.To make this anelloni pasta, they took rectangular sheets of pasta and joined them along the long side with water to form a cylinder.They cut the pasta with scissors into thin rings and then cooked them in boiling water for three to five minutes. When the cooked pasta is served, unlike spaghetti it becomes intermingled and intertwined among the rings and it becomes more of a challenge to eat than swirling a strand on your fork.The rings will be much more difficult to get apart. This has the added benefit of making your pasta dinner more challenging to eat. According to the physicists, these complex arrangements can be so difficult to unravel that the rings may only separate in a specific order.This would be like eating an entanglement puzzle. If you are a curious pasta maker, try prepping a batch and let me know how it actually works for you.Finally, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has shifted from outer space to the terrestrial world as he issued a warning to society that we should take care to be wary about the creation of machines that are truly artificially intelligent.Machine learning and artificial intelligence is an entire branch of computing that seeks to make computers think and reason to aid us in solving some of the most complex problems.Artificial intelligence has been studied for decades in many areas.One area with which you might be familiar is chess. Scientists used computerized chess players as one way to learn about artificial intelligence and developing algorithms.Hawking's concern is that mankind might pave the way for computer dominance and the subversion of the human species to computers affording them the opportunity to take control of our society. Most scientists believe it will take decades if not longer for this level of artificial intelligence to be achieved. Hopefully scientists will consider the ramifications along the way.At least we will know how to make a more challenging pasta dish by then.Till next time …