The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

ex scientia, sono

  • Home
  • Join the Guild
  • The Scientific Troubadour Pledge
  • The SONGS

Science

A remarkable woman, 2,500 years ago.

9 March 2016 grant 0

The Times of Israel reports on an unusual discovery – a small seal (as in wax-and-envelope, not as in hunted-in-Arctic) that belonged to a powerful and influential woman of ancient… Read the rest “A remarkable woman, 2,500 years ago.”

China goes green.

8 March 2016 grant 0

Amid news of massive layoffs and financial uncertainty, New Scientist sheds a ray of hope on the Middle Kingdom, reporting on China’s new five-year plan for a greener tomorrow:

This

… Read the rest “China goes green.”

More orangutans than we thought.

7 March 2016 grant 0

BBC has hope for the wild men of the woods. A new population study has found more than double the number of Sumatran orangutans as expected:

The latest estimate puts the population at about

… Read the rest “More orangutans than we thought.”

Science Art: LEAF Sound Horn, by ESA – A. Le Floc’h

6 March 2016 grant 0

LEAF_sound_horn
Click to embiggen

This is a big horn for making big noise. It’s the way the European Space Agency tests how satellites stand up to the noise of a rocket launch… which, of course,… Read the rest “Science Art: LEAF Sound Horn, by ESA – A. Le Floc’h”

At Marlon Brando’s island, the war on mosquitos is being won.

4 March 2016 grant 0

Stat goes to the front-line laboratories in French Polynesia, where scientists are beating back mosquitos in revolutionary ways:

Hervé Bossin and his team have released more than 1 million

… Read the rest “At Marlon Brando’s island, the war on mosquitos is being won.”

Why are American kids getting so good at higher math?

2 March 2016 grant 0

The Atlantic investigates the social movement behind America’s recent surprise win at the international Math Olympiad:

You wouldn’t see it in most classrooms, you wouldn’t know

… Read the rest “Why are American kids getting so good at higher math?”

Fossilized nerves.

1 March 2016 grant 0

Washington Post reports on an impossible-seeming thing – a fossil that’s not just of hard tissue like teeth and bones (and shells), but that reveals the structures of something… Read the rest “Fossilized nerves.”

So we’ve made sperm. No man necessary.

29 February 2016 grant 0

Nature cuts my last potential for productivity to the quick with news that researchers have made mouse sperm in a dish:

Researchers in China say that they have discovered a way to make rudimentary

… Read the rest “So we’ve made sperm. No man necessary.”

Science Art: Contour plot of Rastrigin’s function in two variables, by Tos

28 February 2016 grant 0

Rastrigin Contour by Tos
Click to embiggen

I don’t have the math language to explain what’s going on here very well. It’s a diagram of the Rastrigin function, which is, ahem, “a typical… Read the rest “Science Art: Contour plot of Rastrigin’s function in two variables, by Tos”

Celebrating happy accidents with The Golden Mole

25 February 2016 grant 0

NPR’s Skunk Bear turns us on (in general, but specifically with this) observing the outsized influence of unanticipated consequences – singling out for awards all the times… Read the rest “Celebrating happy accidents with The Golden Mole”

Modern Milgram Experiments: plumbing the horror of only following orders

22 February 2016 grant 0

Nature reveals a new generation of Milgram experiments – the 50-year-old psychological tests that had subjects electrocute (or believe they were electrocuting) other people … Read the rest “Modern Milgram Experiments: plumbing the horror of only following orders”

Science Art: Figure 4, Neopteroplax conemaughensis, 1963

21 February 2016 grant 0

Boy, is this prehistoric predator happy to see you!
Click to embiggen

Such a winning smile….

Neopteroplax was, at one point, something like a crocodile of salamanders – an amphibian about 3 meters long (that’s nigh onto… Read the rest “Science Art: Figure 4, Neopteroplax conemaughensis, 1963”

Modern humans and Neanderthals go back further together than we thought.

20 February 2016 grant 0

Science Daily talks about our ancient brothers, the Neanderthals who were us, 100,000 years ago:

Today in Nature the team publishes evidence of interbreeding that occurred an estimated

… Read the rest “Modern humans and Neanderthals go back further together than we thought.”

Alien atmospheres

17 February 2016 grant 0

Washington Post unveils our first observations of the atmosphere on an Earth-like planet outside the solar system:

For the first time ever, scientists are sniffing out the secrets of a

… Read the rest “Alien atmospheres”

Coffee (and pepper) of the dinosaurs discovered.

16 February 2016 grant 0

Discovery News hypes the headline a little here (but forgivably) by declaring that a 45-million-year-old prehistoric coffee has been discovered preserved in amber:

Named Strychnos

… Read the rest “Coffee (and pepper) of the dinosaurs discovered.”

Posts pagination

« 1 … 122 123 124 … 284 »

Follow on Bandcamp

Something to Believe In

GRANT: something to believe in

You could write a review of this album here on iTunes.

That would be generous.

Fellow Travelers

  • 314.Action
  • Bioephemera
  • Breakfast in the Ruins
  • Carabus
  • Discover
  • Fluxblog
  • Giant-Killer
  • grant (archive)
  • grant (bandcamp)
  • Hello, Poindexter!
  • ideonexus
  • junior kitchen
  • Keep Your Pebbles
  • LiveScience
  • Mindless Ones
  • Nature
  • New Scientist
  • NIMBioS: Science Songwriters-in-Residence
  • Peculiar Velocity
  • PhysOrg
  • Science Daily
  • Science Magazine
  • Science News
  • Science Writers Daily
  • Scientific American
  • Singing Science Records
  • Songfight!
  • Space.com
  • Stereo Sanctity
  • The Great Beyond
  • The Other Adam Ford
  • The Periodic Table of Poetry
  • Voyages Extraordinaires

Tags

acoustics aeronautics agronomy anatomy anthropology archaeology astronomy biochemistry biology botany chemistry climatology computer science ecology economics electrical engineering electronics engineering entomology epidemiology evolution genetics geology linguistics marine biology mathematics medicine meteorology microbiology microscopy nanotechnology neurology oceanography optics paleontology pharmacology physics psychology quantum physics research robotics sociology space exploration theremin zoology
RSS Help Wanted: ScienceCareers
  • Ellison Institute of Technology: (Senior) Group Leader, Advanced Genome Technologies - Plant Biology Institute
  • University of Minnesota: Dean, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences and Director, MAES
  • NIAID, NIH: Staff Scientist
  • University of California, San Francisco: Faculty Positions - Institute for Human Genetics
  • Boston University - Biology: Lecturer in Cell & Molecular Genetics
  • Lund University: Professor of Epidemiology specialising in cardiovascular diseases
Honorary Troubadours
  • Jonathan Coulton, Contributing Troubadour for Popular Science.
  • Laura Veirs, who knows her way around a polysyllable.
  • Thomas Dolby, godfather of scientific pop.
  • Squeaky, fact-based rock about fusion containment & rocket science.
  • Cosmos II, a.k.a. Boston University astronomer Alan Marscher.
  • Dr. Fiorella Terenzi, astrophysicist who makes music from cosmic radio sources.
  • Dr. Jim Webb, astronomy professor and acoustic guitarist.
  • Artichoke, the band behind 26 Scientists, Vols. I and II.
  • They Might Be Giants, unrelenting proponents of scientific popular song.
  • Symphonies of Science, the people who make Carl Sagan and others sing.
  • Giant Squid, doom metal about the sublime horrors of marine biology.
  • Gethan Dick,6 scientists, 6 musicians, 1 great album
Related Projects
  • Squid Pro Crow
  • Grant Bandcamp
  • Grant Soundcloud
  • Penitential Originals Playlist
https://guildofscientifictroubadours.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/01-gravity-song.mp3

 
"Is it a fact—or have I dreamt it—that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time?"
— Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, 1851

grant balfour made this website.

Member institution: Duct Tape Aesthetic Laboratories
Tools
  • Subscribe via Email
     
  • View as PDF (via FiveFingers)
     
  • Is Facebook Electric?
     
  •   Yes, yes, we RSS!

     
Fields of Inquiry
  • Cold Storage
  • Featured
  • Guild Affairs
  • Music
    • Songs
      • Penitential Covers
  • Science
    • Science Art

Copyright © 2026 | WordPress Theme by MH Themes

Social Media Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com