That scratch going up the left half of the picture might look like an accidental blemish, but it’s actually the first trace of a positron (a fundamental unit of antimatter) ever recorded. That thick line across the middle is a lead barrier. The thing went through it from the bottom to the top, we know, because the top part [...]
Image originally from Suggestions to the keepers of the U.S. life-saving stations, light-houses, and light-ships; and to other observers, relative to the best means of collecting and preserving specimens of whales and porpoises. By Frederick W. True.
It seems like the whales hover courtesy of the Smithsonial Libraries Tumblr, which seems very likely to be an unofficial outlet unaffiliated with [...]
This is one way we might visit that rosy Saturn hurricane from last week.
It’s VASIMR, a rocket engine that uses plasma to go to faraway places without having to haul a bunch of fuel.
Might sound a little science-fictiony, but there are already working models.
Image from Wikimedia Commons.
This is not actually a flower. It’s a giant hurricane – Saturn’s answer to Jupiter’s Big Red Spot.
From the NASA Image of the Day Gallery description:
This image is among the first sunlit views of Saturn’s north pole captured by Cassini’s imaging cameras. When the spacecraft arrived in the Saturnian system in 2004, it was northern winter and the [...]
A medical poster about pulmonary disease. I can’t read all the writing under it (other than “yi” ((one)) and “ren” ((person))), but after the cold I’ve had this week, I think I know just a little about how this guy feels.
“I’m sorry, son. You’ve got tuberculosis.”
OK, maybe not. But I can sympathize.
From the Images from the History [...]
If you’re going to say goodbye to the International Space Station….
“Genre de mollusques gastropodes, renfermant des animaux nus, de touts les mers.”
A popular genre of gastropods. Also the name of a boat (a dory, I reckon) and a mythological personage (daughter of Ocean and Tethys, wife of Neree, have no idea what she’s really known for).
Happy Mother’s Day, little nudibranch.
We’ve had The Larousse For You in these [...]
The robot is in trouble! We’ll have to help the robot breathe!
This educational illustration comes from the National Institutes of Health “History of Medicine” collection. The Red Cross and World Health Organization used it to train people in first aid.
This photograph probably saved lives.
Yes, yes, we RSS!
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