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Dive, he “takes us on a sensory-filled ad- President Eric D. Isaacs. “The VizLab will be an extraordinary
venture, from the sulfurous nascent earth facility that will enable them to lead the next great leap for-
more than four billion years ago, to the ward in astronomy.”
sweetly fragrant Tian Shan mountain range
north of the Himalayas, to the keyboard of “It has been an honor to work with Dr Kollmeier and the bril-
your laptop, where trace notes of formal- liant team at the Carnegie Observatories,” said Chad Kickbush,
dehyde escape between the keys. We’ll sniff general manager of Mechdyne’s AV and Virtual Reality Busi-
the ordinary (wet pavement and cut grass) ness Unit. “We knew that we could deliver the pixel density
and extraordinary (fresh bread and chocolate), the delightful needed for these detailed datasets to be explored, but it was
(roses and vanilla) and the unpleasant (spoiled meat and rot- only through a very collaborative process that we designed this
ten eggs). We’ll smell each other. We’ll smell ourselves.” unique configuration that allows the user to look up into im-
mensity of the universe. That is our goal at Mechdyne, to enable
McGee familiarizes us with the molecules that trigger our per- discovery by removing obstacles to insight and understanding.”
ceptions, that prompt the “citrusy smells of coriander and beer Mechdyne has been an incredible partner to Juna and her team
and the medicinal smells of daffodils and sea urchins. And from this project’s conception,” said Observatories Director
like everything in the physical world, molecules have histo- John Mulchaey. “Their collaborative approach at every level
ries. Many of the molecules that we smell every day existed enabled Carnegie to make our vision for this groundbreaking
long before any creature was around to smell them—before apparatus a reality.”
there was even a planet for those creatures to live on. Begin-
ning with the origins of those molecules in interstellar space,
McGee moves onward through the smells of our planet, the
air and the oceans, the forest and the meadows and the city,
all the way to the smells of incense, perfume, wine, and food.” Not just for analyzing data and
“A work of astounding scholarship and originality, Nose Dive simulations, the VizLab can also
distills the science behind the smells and translates it, as only allow for “tours” of space imagery
during outreach activities. It is
McGee can, into an accessible and entertaining guide. Incor- shown here under construction at
porating the latest insights of biology and chemistry, and in- Mechdyne’s facility in Iowa.
terwoven with personal observations, McGee reveals how our Photo credit: Tyler O’Donnell,
sense of smell has the power to expose invisible, intangible Mechdyne.
details of our material world and life, and trigger in us feelings
that are the very essence of being alive.”
Mapping the Cosmos
In a refurbished Southern California garage, Carnegie astro- Military Working Dogs Now Have Their Own
physicists are creating the virtual reality–enabled scientific “Walking Blood Bank” in Iraq
workspace of the future where they will “unlock the mysteries 24 October 2020, Military.com, by Richard Sisk
of the cosmos. Imagine probing the mysteries of the universe’s US troops have drawn blood from the military working dogs
most-ancient galaxies side-by-side with swirling, colorful sim- in Iraq, tested it and determined their blood type. That sets up
ulations of galaxy formation—seeing what aligns with expec- a “walking blood bank” for dogs injured in the line of duty,
tations and what needs further interrogation.” A portal to such as Conan, the Belgian Malinois who participated in the
fake universes may sound like science fiction, but it is now raid last year that resulted in the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr
a reality at the Carnegie Observatories. The campus has just al Baghdadi in Syria.
undertaken its new experiential installation for visualizing da-
ta—a “VizLab”—which will enable bleeding-edge discoveries “Military working dog handlers in Iraq recently started a mo-
that reveal how our universe works. bile blood bank for working dogs,” Operation Inherent Re-
solve, the US-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq
“Science is collaborative and multi-disciplinary,” said Juna and Syria, said Wednesday in a Twitter post.
Kollmeier, director of the Carnegie Theoretical Astrophysics
Center. “But our workspaces are often solitary and siloed. I The prescreened donors, first reported by Stars & Stripes, are
envisioned a space where teams could work together as they believed to be a first for the dog handlers and their K9s in the
synthesize an unprecedented amount of data. 21st century region.
data require 21st century laboratories.” Army Sgt Jason Salazar, a
military working dog handler
The Observatories’ former garage is now a sleek, modern assigned to the K9 Task Force
space filled with glass, metal, polished concrete, and cus- at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq,
tom-designed, first-of-its-kind technology. Custom designed prepares to draw blood from
by Mechdyne Corporation, the lab includes an immersive vi- Bubo, a patrol explosive
detector dog, via the canine
sualization display system with 35 2D- and 3D-capable flat cephalic vein blood collection
panels in the shape of a cresting wave—a useful configuration process, while Staff Sgt Michael
and an artful representation of the tsunami of data rushing Jorgensen, a veterinarian
into the astronomical field. technician with the 994th Medical Detachment Veterinary Service,
restrains the dog at the veterinary clinic at Role II here on 8 October
“This new ultra-high-resolution virtual reality lab will 2020. Bubo, a German Shepherd, was scheduled to have blood
give Juna and her team an advantage in harnessing massive drawn so that the veterinary clinic can identify his blood type and
initiate a walking blood bank for military working dogs (Armando
amounts of both simulated and observed data,” said Carnegie Vasquez/US Army National Guard).

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