Science Art: Earth’s Shadow and Penumbra in Sections, 1898.
This delightful diagram appears on a page of A New Astronomy For Beginners that also has an almanac of “Important Future Eclipses” from 1898 (January […]
Articles by grant
You are what your great-grandparents didn’t eat
Nautilus looks at the long-term effects of famine — and finds that extreme hunger can affect the bodies of future generations: To conduct their research, […]
Sparse but robust: Brains are wired to maximize memory.
Science News shares an analysis of the human hippocampus from a computer-designer’s standpoint, finding that though the network of brain-cell connections are relatively sparse, those […]
The first American to die of H5N1 avian flu
Science News puts some important context around the January 6 death of a 65-year-old Louisiana man who caught the virus from his backyard chickens: Since […]
Roman battlefield (probably) discovered in the U.K.
BBC has news of a discovery (yet to be confirmed, likely accurate) made using a combination of historical knowledge and ground-penetrating radar that shows how […]
Science Art: Kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon Boie), 1898
The word “halcyon,” meaning “calm, idyllic, happy times” came from the Greek name for these little guys, who were said to bring, well, halcyon days. […]
Cheaper sodium batteries are getting better.
Notebook Check reports optimistically on a vanadium battery breakthrough that stands to make sodium-ion batteries, which rely on cheap minerals, a real competitor for the […]
Ready for the next pandemic? Check with your local farmers.
KFF Health News has a not-so-cheerful outlook on the US national health services in an article about livestock farms with a headline that starts “How […]
Science Art: Andromeda Galaxy, by Isaac Roberts, 1888.
It was this photograph’s anniversary today, or so said Robert McNees, posting on Bluesky’s science-communication feed. On the 29th of December, 1888, a Welsh businessman, […]
There are amphibious mice in the Amazon.
Reuters reveals the discovery of 27 new species in the Peruvian Amazon, including a strange species of amphibious mice: Scientists also discovered a spiny mouse, […]
Mars lander following its nose
Advances in Space Research has a novel idea for a Martian lander. Instead of mapping out the likeliest landing spot from way down here on […]
SONG: Two Wolves Inside Us
SONG: “Two Wolves Inside Us” . (OGG version here.) ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Based on Ecology, 14 Nov 2024, “Canids as pollinators? Nectar foraging by Ethiopian […]
Science Art: Cross Section of a Young Root, by Roman Vishniac, c. 1978.
This is an image from “the birth of photomicrography.” It’s also an image from the fondly remembered Omni magazine, an issue from 1978 which I […]
Lucid dreaming by phone
Science News shares an app created by Northwestern University neuroscientists that’s designed to cue your almost-sleeping brain to launch you into a lucid dream: Before […]
Farewell, murder hornets. We got you.
AP News reports that a particularly dramatic “invasive exotic” species – Vespa mandarinia, the Asian giant hornet, better known as the “murder hornet” – has […]