Learning magnets.
PhysOrg makes me fight an overwhelming urge to start raving about “thinking caps” and “memory machines” with their look at how transcranial magnetic stimulation can […]
Science
Science Art: Western Equine Encephalitis Virus Taken With Cryo-Electron Microscope
This is the infectious microbe (alive? not alive? who knows?) that causes Western equine encephalitis. It’s a deadly virus. I can remember when they said […]
Sleeping beneath the ice.
Reuters reports on a Russian mission to reach an oxygen-rich lake that’s been untouched for 15 million years: “It’s minus 40 (Celsius) outside,” [Alex] Turkeyev […]
Violin and quanta.
New Scientist listens to the art of subatomic particles: The performance is the brainchild of composer and computer scientist Alexis Kirke from the University of […]
Sleep reminders.
Discovery makes me want to take a nap. Not because this research is boring, but because it suggests you can sleep your way to better […]
Better solar.
Alternative energy got a big boost from TechEye.net, which reports that a new generation of solar panels could double in efficiency: A team made of […]
Science Art: “Willcox & Gibbs Sewing Machine,” from One Hundred Years’ Progress of the United States, 1871
Click to embiggen Beautiful machine for skilled labor. You can browse the whole illustrated encyclopedia of fin de siecle technology at archive.org. [via Old Book […]
Why thank you, Br’er Fox….
Humans weren’t best friends with dogs first, says the Discoveryon blog. Archaeologists have found evidence that foxes may have been our pets first: Scientists analysing […]
Lotto breaker.
Wired unearths the story of a gold-prospecting math whiz… sorry, geological statistician… who cracked the scratch-off ticket code: The trick itself is ridiculously simple. ([Mohan] […]
Keep looking up. But not THAT high.
I’m sure MSNBC isn’t *trying* to be a downer when they report that too much optimism is bad for cancer patients’ chances of recovery: The […]
Germs against oil.
WaPo and Slate give us the scoop on the Deepwater Horizon aftermath. Why was the Exxon Valdez so much more of a mess? Because the […]
Quantum eyes.
Migrating robins have something better than magnets in their heads, Wired reports. They’ve got quantum sensors in their eyes: European robins may maintain quantum entanglement […]
Science Art: Azerbaijan stamp, 500m – Marine gastropod Corolla spectabilis, May 1995.
The whole collection of Azerbaijan collectors’ stamps is full of scientific illustration treasure – butterflies, dirigibles, mushrooms…. And “treasure” is not an exaggeration. 500 Azerbaijan […]
Mother and child, 100 million B.C.
BBC paints a sweet, fossilized portrait of pterosaur family life: A pterosaur has been found in China beautifully preserved with an egg. The egg indicates […]
Nabokov knew his butterflies.
Vladimir Nabokov. Modern literary genius. Darling of the New York Times. And now, certified brilliant entomological theorist: There were several plausible hypotheses for how the […]