“Lays eggs on larva boring in wood.” Add just one comma and that comes across as harsh criticism, but it’s really meant as a compliment.
This is from … Read the rest “Science Art: Ichneumon Fly, from the USDA’s Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, 1941”
Science News has a fricative breakthrough – biting off a bit of linguistic evolution that took place when we started growing our own food rather than hunting and gathering whatever… Read the rest “Farming gave our languages “f” and “v” – because it altered the way we bite.”
New Scientist reports on a novel possible treatment for PTSD – a common anesthetic that helps take the sting out of painful memories:
… Read the rest “Anesthetic kills the pain … of traumatic memories.”Bryan Strange at the Technical University of
But can we navigate by it? Science News reports on the new finding that, like birds, humans appear to have “magnetoreception abilities,” sensing directions by detecting … Read the rest “People can sense the Earth’s magnetic field.”
The Guardian explains how a newly discovered shipwreck finally gives proof that the Greek historian wasn’t making up what he wrote about an unknown type of Egyptian watercraft called… Read the rest “Herodotus proved right about Egyptian boats – more than 2,000 years after the fact.”
An ancient Roman central heating system – hot water would be flooded through the basement, and the floors would warm up. “Hypocaust” was the name of… Read the rest “Science Art: Hypocaustum excavated behind the old city of Rottenburg am Neckar , by Eduard von Kallee.”
MIT News has the (low-pitched) buzz on how listening to 40 Hz sounds have cured mice of Alzheimer’s symptoms by changing their brainwaves:
… Read the rest “A certain frequency of sound can alter your brain. And maybe fight Alzheimer’s?”This noninvasive treatment, which works
Nature reports on a new agricultural practice that has some weird ramifications for humans – a genetics process for making one male create sperm cells carrying another male’s… Read the rest “Someone else’s DNA got in there: Engineering a bull to create another bull’s semen.”
Science Daily shouts about a Washington State University team that headed out to the geysers and hot springs of Yellowstone to cultivate a relationship with bacteria that might be able … Read the rest “Harvesting the hot-water bacteria that “eat and breathe” electricity.”
Here, an astronomical family is building a 36-inch refractor telescope known as the Great Lick Refractor in the 1880s. It’s named for James Lick, an eccentric entrepreneur who financed… Read the rest “Science Art: Four views of the Alvan Clark & Sons workshop…, from Scientific American, Sep. 24, 1887”
Inhabitat talks up a pretty cool design project that’s taking shape off Copenhagen, where the government has announced plans to build Holmene, a complex of nine islands that will… Read the rest “Denmark to build energy-producing islands (that you can live on).”
Science News reports on the historic find of skin-art tools from the American West … a discovery made by looking through some excavated artifacts that have been in storage since 1972… Read the rest “2,000-year-old tattoo needles (made from cactus spines) found in an old drawer.”
A bird in its home (grown on a vine, fashioned by humans).
Cute little guy, too.
I found this on the Scientific Illustration tumblr, which got it from the Cincinnati Public… Read the rest “Science Art: Progne purpurea. Purple martin, by Howard Jones, 1886”
Nature has some, uh, heady science in the form of brewer’s yeast genetically modified to produce chemicals usually found in marijuana – the healthy ones *and* the fun ones… Read the rest ““Hacked” yeast used to brew THC and other cannabis compounds.”
Science Daily passes the word from Wake Forest about medical engineers who’ve come up with a functional bioprinter that can replace real skin layer by layer by the patient’s… Read the rest “We’ve got a bedside bioprinter to replace your injured skin directly on you.”
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