These are seashells – murexes from the deep waters off Vanuatu called Scabrotrophon inspiratum. Belgian researcher Roland Houart wrote about them (and as far as I can tell photographed… Read the rest “Science Art: Scabrotrophon Species, Roland Houart, 2003.”
This is an illustration of MAGIC telescopes capturing images of very intense gamma rays. “MAGIC” refers to the twin Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescopes… Read the rest “Science Art: MAGIC telescopes detected the highest-energy gamma rays from a Gamma Ray Burst…, 2019.”
This is a likeness of the elephant seals of Baja California, Mexico, as displayed in 1933 in the newly opened Hall of Ocean Life in the American Museum. The seals were at this point already … Read the rest “Science Art: Elephant Seals of Guadaloupe Island”
This is part of a presentation created by physicist Gerard K. O’Neill – one of three “summer studies” he carried out in the 1970s on potential space colony designs… Read the rest “Science Art: Space Colony Interior by Rick Guidice, c. 1975.”
This is a drum. Or a gong. Or maybe a throne. Or a model of the universe with little solar disks around the edge.
It was found in a bog near Balkåkra, Sweden, in 1847, but was made sometime during… Read the rest “Science Art: Balkåkra Ritual Object, Olof Sörling, 1917.”
This is one of the first American spacecraft to land on the moon. We sent machines there before we sent people.
From the Smithsonian Open Access Collection description:
… Read the rest “Science Art: Lunar Lander, Surveyor”The Surveyor series
This is a bunch of smut. Mostly, it’s smut in the genus Ustilago growing on plants in the same genus as knotweed and buckwheat. The long flower in the middle is Polygonum hydropiper… Read the rest “Science Art: Flower of Polygonum persicarium distorted by Utricle smut and following figures, by J.E. Sowerby, 1872.”
A friend of mine clued me into this project. It really works and I encourage you to try it.
Did you know cephalopods have been on Earth for longer than trees? That Hawaiian bobtail squid glow… Read the rest “Science Art: “Get Squid Facts” street art, Philadelphia, 2022.”
This is nerd humor from the dawn of the electric age. The “Phoney Patent Offizz” was apparently a regular column in Hugo Gernsback’s The Electrical Experimenter, a … Read the rest “Science Art: Reducing Apparatus, in “Phoney Patent Offizz,” The Electrical Experimenter, April 1917.”
According to the accompanying text, this illustration depicts a baboon species “easily distinguished by its tail, which is four inches long, slender, and exactly like a pig’s.”… Read the rest “Science Art: Pigtailed Baboon, 1811.”
The flame from a Bunsen burner (a standard piece of chemistry equipment; you might have used one in high school) can change color and height depending on how much air flows into the jet of fuel.… Read the rest “Science Art: Bunsen burner flame types, by Arthur Jan Fijałkowski (WarX).”
Here’s a picture of a distinctive bit of geography. There are hobbits down there, and members of Split Enz and The Chills, and some of Taika Waititi’s relatives too. Here’s… Read the rest “Science Art: New Zealand’s South Island, by Samantha Cristoforetti, 2022.”
This is an ad for a chemical that seemed like a miracle in the 60s (at least to this marketing department), but is one of those things to which people nowadays develop chemical sensitivities.… Read the rest “Science Art: Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP): GAF’s Gift to Women, 1967.”
These are the skulls of two English crocodiles. They were English before the first Anglo-Saxons arrived on that island’s shores. Of course, they also went extinct before the first… Read the rest “Science Art: Anglosuchus, by James Erxleben, c. 1877.”
This is a page of assorted parts – gizmos, “contrivances,” what-have-yous – for doing things in machines. It’s from a catalog of such bits and pieces from… Read the rest “Science Art: Page 219 from The engineer’s sketch-book of mechanical movements, devices, appliances, contrivances and details…, 1890”
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