Science Art: Verge Watch Escapement, from The Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary, Vol. 2, 1820.
A horological device called a “verge escapement” (on the bottom) with a balance wheel (on the top) from a pocketwatch. An “escapement” is the thing […]
engineering
Denmark to build energy-producing islands (that you can live on).
Inhabitat talks up a pretty cool design project that’s taking shape off Copenhagen, where the government has announced plans to build Holmene, a complex of […]
MIT shrinks objects to the nano-scale.
MIT researchers have devised a technique to create a solid, 3D structure and then reduce it to one-thousandth its original volume: “It’s a way of […]
Science Art: Storage and Launching of A.4. Rocket Projectile, 1940s.
Click to embiggen This is how Allied intelligence pictured German V2 rockets being used during World War II. A decade and a half later, this […]
Meat by law, not by lab.
Not the usual science-mag fare, but yesterday USA Today had a story that’s sort of about business and sort of about unintended consequences of cutting-edge […]
SONG: One of Our Submarines (a penitential Thomas Dolby cover)
SONG: “One of Our Submarines” [Download] (penitential cover) ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: This has no scientific source; it’s a penitential cover for being late for the […]
De Beers sells synthetic diamonds.
The Guardian reveals that De Beers, the monolithic diamond firm (which has made artificial scarcity its business model for the better part of a century […]
Science Art: Bearing Fault Detector, 1975
Click to embiggen NASA wants you to know they’re pretty handy here on Earth, too. This here shows a way to make trains and other […]
Wind and solar (and batteries) could supply all of America’s power: Carnegie Science study
The Guardian looks at the journal Energy and Environmental Science to find out just how well the U.S. could handle switching over power supplies right […]
Science Art: Chain Saw, US 1655856 A, Jan. 10, 1928.
Click to embiggen A patent for a device putting wood-cutting blades on a chain, so that people can cut down trees – or, in the […]
Science Art: The Triumph Lathe, from The Watchmaker & Jeweller, Silversmith & Optician, Nov. 1, 1887.
Click to embiggen It spins, you know. This jewelry-making tool was once available from Messrs. H.J. Cooper & Company, on Oxford Street West. I found […]
Science Art: Torpille Moderne/Torpille Ancienne from Dreadnought ou submersible by Olivier Guihéneuc, 1916
Click to embiggen Two torpedoes, modern (as of 1916) and ancient. That’s about the limit of my French. The book is about naval warfare, and […]
Plasma jet engines: Taking us to space without burning fuel
New Scientist is launching our hopes higher than ever with a report on a whole new electric engine that can carry a plane to space: […]
We’ll build skyscrapers out of wood. And do the planet some good….
Nature reveals the new growth of ambitious plans to cool the planet with wooden skyscrapers: Constructed almost entirely from timber in 2014, the 8-storey, 30-metre […]
Science Art: Head Frames, Figs. 3-6, from The Design of Mine Structures, 1912.
Types of head works for mines. These frames helped draw out the rocks that the miners were busy breaking up deep underground. At the time […]