Science Art: The “Johnson” Bucket Excavator, from American journal of railway appliances, 1886.
A triumph of engineering. It moves earth! Using “the bucket principle”!
As found in The Linda Hall Library.
Month: January 2016
Science Art: Anyone Can Quantum, by IQIM Caltech
This is far funnier and more exciting than it has any right to be.
Stephen Hawking playing chess over a computer with Paul Rudd.
For the fate of the future.
… Read the rest “Science Art: Anyone Can Quantum, by IQIM Caltech”Caltech’s Institute for Quantum
Google can beat a human at go.
The Japanese strategy game, Nature reports, is the latest battlefield on which artificial intelligence has defeated human experts:
… Read the rest “Google can beat a human at go.”The best human players of chess, draughts and backgammon
Awfullest science headline of the month: “The aliens are silent because they’re dead.”
Science Daily clinches it – not because of inaccuracy, but because of the sheer despair in considering that we’re not hearing anyone in our galaxy because everyone else has… Read the rest “Awfullest science headline of the month: “The aliens are silent because they’re dead.””
Jeff Bezos launches and lands the same rocket twice in a row.
Popular Mechanics celebrates a milestone for corporate spaceflight:
… Read the rest “Jeff Bezos launches and lands the same rocket twice in a row.”The rocket once again passed through the Karman Line, a distance 100 kilometers (or 62 miles) above the Earth that’s
Science Art: PIA18353: Janus and Tethys by Cassini (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)
A big moon and a little moon, orbiting Saturn.
… Read the rest “Science Art: PIA18353: Janus and Tethys by Cassini (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)”Moons like Tethys (660 miles or 1,062 kilometers across) are large enough that their own gravity is sufficient to overcome
Nervous people walk to the left.
Science Daily reveals the unbalancing news that if you’re worried, you’re more likely to veer leftward while walking:
… Read the rest “Nervous people walk to the left.”New research led by Dr Mario Weick of the School of Psychology
Not exactly Nibiru, but… Planet Nine?
Nature surveys the growing body of evidence of *something* very big orbiting at the fringes of the solar system:
… Read the rest “Not exactly Nibiru, but… Planet Nine?”“If I read this paper out of the blue, my first reaction would be that it was
Wireless brain implants that melt away.
The Guardian gives my inner paranoid schizophrenic ever more powerful wings to soar with news of a brain-monitoring implant that tracks your nerve impulses for a while and then dissolves… Read the rest “Wireless brain implants that melt away.”
Beyond “We can all agree on cheese”: Higher pizza-cutting mathematics.
New Scientist delves into the advanced mapping of pizza slicing for *everyone’s* preferences:
… Read the rest “Beyond “We can all agree on cheese”: Higher pizza-cutting mathematics.”Most of us divide a pizza using straight cuts that all meet in the middle. But what if
Science Art: Rhombic Dodecahedron, Figs. 44 and 45 from “Crystalline Forms,” G.F. Richardson, 1842
Click to embiggen
This is a detail of a page from Geology for Beginners, comprising a familiar explanation of geology, and its associate sciences, an 1842 introduction to stones and mountains… Read the rest “Science Art: Rhombic Dodecahedron, Figs. 44 and 45 from “Crystalline Forms,” G.F. Richardson, 1842”
A really, really big black hole.
Science Daily reports that Japanese observers have just found the second-largest black hole in the Milky Way – by looking at clouds of gas:
… Read the rest “A really, really big black hole.”Astronomers using the Nobeyama 45-m Radio
Like Google Glass, but invisible.
Wired reveals a pair of smart glasses that don’t look any different than any other pair of prescription frames – wearable computers just the way Zeiss (and maybe the rest of … Read the rest “Like Google Glass, but invisible.”
Needed: a silent sea sanctuary.
Science Direct has a copy of the study recommending a soundproofed sanctuary for dolphins and other sonar-using marine life:
… Read the rest “Needed: a silent sea sanctuary.”Many marine organisms, from invertebrates to fish to marine
Is this safe? We know how how to turn off our sense of danger now.
Science Daily reports on the discovery of the brain circuit that recognizes danger:
… Read the rest “Is this safe? We know how how to turn off our sense of danger now.”Researchers at Columbia University’s Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute