The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

Science Art: “Rocket Ride Is New Planetarium Exhibit,” Popular Science Monthly, April 1938

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Hey, look! PopSci just put 137 years of back issues on the internet for free. Science-aesthetic treasure!

They’re at Google Books, from whence this striking image came, or accessible through their own archive viewer.

The news spread on the Wired, but I first heard it via ear trumpet.

Entered on 7 March 2010 at 6:09 in the Science Art file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Science Art: Nikola Tesla’s Letterhead

If you’re one of history’s greatest electrical inventors, it is only suitable to have stationery that’s equal to your stature.

The central image is of the unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower; other inventions pictured include the oscillation transformer, steam-and-gas turbine and a telautomaton (that is, a remote-controlled device; this one is a boat).

Found via (where else?) Letterheady.com, an archive of interesting letterheads.

Entered on 28 February 2010 at 6:56 in the Science Art file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Science Art: Gingko bilobe, Dictionnaire encyclopédique Trousset, 1886 – 1891

This is the plant that produces those memory-enhancing extracts you see in the health food aisle of the drug store – the one that long-lived Chinese monks reputedly tended for thousands of years, brought from Japan to Europe by Dutch traders. It grew in Triassic forests when the dinosaurs were young. Whether or not it actually helps fight age-related memory loss is still the subject of some debate, but it certainly is a striking plant.

The picture came from the marvelous Old Book Illustrations site, which is an absolutely gorgeous resource. The encyclopedia engravings are just the beginning.

Entered on 21 February 2010 at 6:53 in the Science Art file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

How Deep the Ocean?

Deep.

Entered on 15 February 2010 at 6:52 in the Science Art file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Science Art: (Loddiges 590) Erigeron alpinum by W. Miller

Another William Miller illustration – this time, a simple flower study in color.

Odd how spending a few moments looking at this Erigeron alpinum leaves me feeling just as mortal as Miller’s skull study. Maybe it’s just me… but the name “erigeron” comes from the Greek, Wikipedia says: “eri” means “early” and “geron” means “old age.” They turn white soon after blooming, like prematurely gray hairs.

It’s a wildflower of the Pyrenees.

Entered on 14 February 2010 at 6:48 in the Science Art file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Science Art: Opportunity at Concepcion Crater.

This image was ganked mercilessly from the brilliant Road to Endeavour blog.

That celebration of the Mars rovers is put together by the same person who appears to do something called Astropoetry which looks very, very intriguing. Must investigate this project.

But for now, I’ll just look at this image, beamed from the surface of Mars. Crusty rocks, facing north into the sun. They have secrets to tell.

[Found via.]

Entered on 7 February 2010 at 6:28 in the Science Art file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Hydrogen: a different perspective.

Yeah, so I kind of really want this poster now.

Entered on 4 February 2010 at 6:20 in the Science Art file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Science Art: Dragon Lake, Siberia

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This is Dragon Lake, a body of very cold water near the city of Bratsk. It’s a reservoir, like Arizona’s Lake Powell, formed by the damming of a river, in this case, the Angara River. Over time, all those intricate white crackles will soften and fade as the lake makes itself comfortable in its banks. But for now, it’s still new and electric.

Image courtesy of USGS National Center for EROS and NASA Landsat Project Science Office, from the wonderful Our Earth As Art gallery.

Entered on 31 January 2010 at 18:51 in the Science Art file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Science Art: The U.S.S. Los Angeles moored on the U.S.S. Pakota, 1924

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This is the US Navy’s airship Los Angeles, the most successful of America’s rigid-body airships, engaging in a maneuver that proved dirigibles like these could be fueled without landing.

It was also designed (sort of) for use as an airborne aircraft carrier. Planes, you see, are awfully vulnerable on the ground, until they actually get up and start flying around. If you can make it so they take off in mid-air, then you don’t have to worry about someone else flying over and dropping bombs on them.

I say “sort of” designed for this because this was a zeppelin, made by the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin engineers for the Allies as part of a reparations deal after World War I – an agreement that stipulated their creations would only be used for civilian purposes. Britain, you see, had too many memories of their airstrips (and everything else) being bombed by German airships like these.

The Germans operated this ship with hydrogen, but the Navy – years before the Hindenburg disaster – thought that was too risky and used more expensive helium instead.

I found the image on Airships.net, which is sort of like a fact-based heaven for the zeppelin-obsessed.

Entered on 17 January 2010 at 6:33 in the Science Art file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Science Art: Cormorant, by Bob Hines.

These are cormorants – the birds that swim underwater to catch fish. I fell in love with cormorants reading Ping as a little boy (on the mighty Yangtse, boat-dwellers put rings around their necks and train them to retrieve fish), and was lucky enough to grow up in an area where cormorants and their cousins, anhingas, were relatively populous. You could see them sunning on the side of the road, drying out before another dive.

I always liked the design of their necks and beaks – sort of Art Nouveau curves, as if they’d been designed by Aubrey Beardsley.

This image, drawn by Bob Hines, comes from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Entered on 10 January 2010 at 6:27 in the Science Art file | Care to make an observation? |  Print