Science Art

A trepanned skull, from Nordisk Familjebok Encyclopedia, found in a very special category on Wikimedia Commons. Trepanation is a bit of an archaeological mystery, apparently […]

Click to embiggen. The Phoenix landed on May 25, 2008, and promptly took a picture of its own leg. It’s a tradition. Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, […]

Stolen shamelessly from Wikipedia’s “Fourth Dimension” article, where it illustrates a four-dimensional object rotating on one axis. The graphic was orginally uploaded by Jason Hise, […]

There it is – the key that unlocked ancient Egypt. One message in three alphabets. From the Library of Christian Theological Seminary, found on Wikimedia […]

The Death’s Head Hawkmoth. There’s a more recent photograph of one here; the first time I remember learning this beauty’s name was in a brilliantly […]

Sixteen Black Dot Tentacles by Ernst Haeckel. This may look like an abstract or a mathematical exercise; it’s not. It’s an illustration of a microscopic […]

Astronomical charts from Gujin Tushu Jicheng, a Qing dynasty Chinese encyclopedia.

Click to embiggen A dicey bit of racial taxonomy from The New Students Reference Work (1914), edited by Chandler B. Beach, associate editor Frank Morton […]

Diagram from Wikimedia Commons. It’s like op art.

Click to embiggen Photo by NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). You can read more about V838 Monocerotis exploding and swallowing nearby planets […]

Click to embiggen This is an image from an old Norwegian encyclopedia, the “Norwegian Familybook” published sometime from 1904 to 1926. In Norwegian, the animals […]

A microscopic image of liquid crystal by Wikimedia Commons user "Minutemen." Happy Easter.

Click for larger image This is a visible-light image of M-104, the Sombrero Galaxy, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. If our eyes were sharp […]

The Guardian is featuring an incredible slideshow of the Wellcome Image Awards 2008. Go, look, be awed.