Science Art: Plate VI, from Monograph on the Aye-aye, by Richard Owen, 1863
In 1863, naturalist Richard Owen published 72 pages of joy.
Is it related to the lemur? Aye.
Does it climb through the jungle at night? Aye.
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Month: March 2013
Psychedelic sponges. Why?
Vice, of all publications, examines the strange chemistry of the first-known psychedelic sponges… trying to figure out why sponges would make something as potent as DMT anyway… Read the rest “Psychedelic sponges. Why?”
After everything, the Higgs boson still dooms us all. In a few billion years.
Scientific American crunches the numbers that show how the mass of the Higgs boson spells the end of the universe… eventually:
… Read the rest “After everything, the Higgs boson still dooms us all. In a few billion years.”“If you use all the physics that we know now and
The power of diagrams. The beauty of diagrams.
SciAm blogger Clarissa Ai Ling Lee reflects on the science and art of visualizing information:
… Read the rest “The power of diagrams. The beauty of diagrams.”Of course, there were records of politics, observations of particular traditions, and stories
Lockheed Martin’s quantum computer steps into the limelight.
New York Times has a pretty good profile of what could be the next big breakthrough in computing – the chips that understand “maybe”:
… Read the rest “Lockheed Martin’s quantum computer steps into the limelight.”[A] powerful new type of computer
Science Art: Plate 2527 Guarda (a mechanism for protecting airships), by Charles A.A. Dellschau, 1912.
This may be an important historical record of the early days of aeronautics, or it may be a vivid fantasy by a lonely, old man.
Either way, it’s beautiful.
The notebooks… Read the rest “Science Art: Plate 2527 Guarda (a mechanism for protecting airships), by Charles A.A. Dellschau, 1912.”
SONG: “So Heavy”
SONG: “So Heavy” (To download: double right-click & “Save As”)
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: Based on “Super-dense celestial bodies could be a new kind… Read the rest “SONG: “So Heavy””
Earthquakes make instant gold.
OK, well, instant veins of gold, at least. The gold, Nature says, is in the ground already. But it takes an earthquake to make it mine-able in a flash:
… Read the rest “Earthquakes make instant gold.”Scientists have long known that veins
Cars shape sparrows’ evolution.
Nature demonstrates how (possibly) our machines are transforming birds’ whole existence:
… Read the rest “Cars shape sparrows’ evolution.”Roadside-nesting cliff swallows have evolved shorter, more manoeuvrable wings, which
Giant squid CLONE ARMY. Or, well, at least a tight family.
BBC reveals that giant squid, no matter where they’re found or how different from each other they look, are all genetically really close to one another:
… Read the rest “Giant squid CLONE ARMY. Or, well, at least a tight family.”An international team of researchers
Artificial stem cells make new blood.
One step closer to androids. That’s where scilogs is bringing us. Making a blood supply for bioengineered organs from scratch:
… Read the rest “Artificial stem cells make new blood.”Starting off with fibroblasts…, widespread
Lasers made of sound. Call them… phasers.
Wired reveals the weird ways nanotechnologists are making sound behave like light… this time, by creating a Star Trek weapon in the lab:
… Read the rest “Lasers made of sound. Call them… phasers.”Because laser is an acronym for “light amplification
Science Art: Frutti di Mare, by W.F. Phillips, 1974.
I couldn’t resist this when I saw the name of the book it came from: Italian Food, by Elizabeth David. It’s an improbable English cookbook from the 1950s:
… Read the rest “Science Art: Frutti di Mare, by W.F. Phillips, 1974.”…David
Blowing up the Hindenburg again. For good.
San Antonio Express-News finds the greatest way to spend a weekend, figuring out what went wrong in the worst explosion in history:
… Read the rest “Blowing up the Hindenburg again. For good.”Most historians and scientists have always subscribed
Super-dense… *things*… are a new kind of planet
Nature calls them, poetically enough, the skeletons of “wandering ice giants”:
… Read the rest “Super-dense… *things*… are a new kind of planet”Among the most puzzling finds of NASA’s Kepler space mission to find exoplanets, which launched