The baobabs are dying.
No, this isn’t a heart-wrenching sequel to The Little Prince. It’s a report in Nature on a baffling illness striking down some of Africa’s most […]
Articles by grant
About those sonic weapon attacks on American embassies….
Science News tries to get to the bottom of the weird symptoms that American diplomatic workers experienced in China and Cuba recently… and can’t. A […]
Science Art: Fall des Meteors am 9 Juni 1866, by Wilhelm Ritter von Haidinger
Click to embiggen Wilhelm Ritter von Haidinger was an Austrian mineralogist who during his career helped mining engineers dig better mines and looked at rocks […]
Researchers reverse dementia.
Science Daily has (rather densely written) research showing how specific drugs could not only stop dementia but reverse its effects: A lack of knowledge about […]
What the last eclipse taught us.
Science News looks back at last year’s dramatic solar eclipse and shows us why it was a big deal research-wise, too: While thousands of eclipse […]
DNA research shows smart people really do wear glasses.
As somebody who only recently started wearing glasses only sometimes, I shouldn’t really celebrate this, but – The Guardian has Scottish research that shows a […]
Science Art: Marconi Photo-Cell for Transmitter from Television Optics, 1938.
Embryonic television. I like how this device has an almost Lovecraftian vibe, as if sending moving pictures was a thing that involved mystical processes. What’s […]
Researchers: The death toll from Hurricane Maria is 72 times higher than the official figure.
Scientific American has some unpleasant statistics emerging from a study of how many people have really died in Puerto Rico in the wake of last […]
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 […]
Exploring a Lost World
The New Yorker leaves their modern city to plunge into a genuine wilderness on an expedition into La Mosquitia, a long-abandoned settlement in the jungles […]
Science Art: Cross-Section of a Typical Volcano, from Minor Mining Encyclopedia
Click to embiggen What’s inside a Ukranian volcano. Or most volcanoes, wherever the are. From a Ukranian encyclopedia for Ukrainian miners (ISBN 966-7804-14-3).
SONG: The Russian Cuckoo Reproduces in the Midnight Sun
SONG: “The Russian Cuckoo Reproduces in the Midnight Sun”. ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Popular Science, 7 May 2018, “Russian cuckoos are taking over Alaska”, as used […]
Ship-exhaust power: making batteries from soot.
Nature reports on a new way to turn ship exhaust into an energy source. Dr. Jun Kang at the Korea Maritime and Ocean University in […]
Science Art: Mercury Spacecraft Main Instrument Panel, 1959.
Click to embiggen Just in case you have to drive one of these, now you know where the controls are. I like that there’s a […]
Bio-material stronger than steel… and spider silk.
Science Daily looks at a form of cellulose – that is, like, wood, you know? – that’s been remade at the nano-level to be stronger […]