DNA research shows smart people really do wear glasses.
As somebody who only recently started wearing glasses only sometimes, I shouldn’t really celebrate this, but – The Guardian has Scottish research that shows a […]
Science
Science Art: Marconi Photo-Cell for Transmitter from Television Optics, 1938.
Embryonic television. I like how this device has an almost Lovecraftian vibe, as if sending moving pictures was a thing that involved mystical processes. What’s […]
Researchers: The death toll from Hurricane Maria is 72 times higher than the official figure.
Scientific American has some unpleasant statistics emerging from a study of how many people have really died in Puerto Rico in the wake of last […]
De Beers sells synthetic diamonds.
The Guardian reveals that De Beers, the monolithic diamond firm (which has made artificial scarcity its business model for the better part of a century […]
Exploring a Lost World
The New Yorker leaves their modern city to plunge into a genuine wilderness on an expedition into La Mosquitia, a long-abandoned settlement in the jungles […]
Science Art: Cross-Section of a Typical Volcano, from Minor Mining Encyclopedia
Click to embiggen What’s inside a Ukranian volcano. Or most volcanoes, wherever the are. From a Ukranian encyclopedia for Ukrainian miners (ISBN 966-7804-14-3).
Ship-exhaust power: making batteries from soot.
Nature reports on a new way to turn ship exhaust into an energy source. Dr. Jun Kang at the Korea Maritime and Ocean University in […]
Science Art: Mercury Spacecraft Main Instrument Panel, 1959.
Click to embiggen Just in case you have to drive one of these, now you know where the controls are. I like that there’s a […]
Bio-material stronger than steel… and spider silk.
Science Daily looks at a form of cellulose – that is, like, wood, you know? – that’s been remade at the nano-level to be stronger […]
Trained rats can detect tuberculosis.
Nice when they’re fighting the spread of disease rather than the other way around. Science News looks into how to train giant, explosive-sniffing rats to […]
Finns aren’t happy about being named the happiest country on Earth.
Scientific American recently ran a blog by Finnish psychologist and philosopher Frank Martela, who explains why Finland’s national skepticism about happiness might make them, according […]
Russian cuckoos are taking over Alaska.
Seems a little metaphorical, but it’s really happening. Popular Science reports on a rapid influx of cuckoos from Russia literally taking over American bird populations […]
Science Art: Ptychogena Pinnulata, 1882.
Click to embiggen Jellyfish. Deep sea medusae. By Ernst Haeckel and A. Giltsch. From Vol. 4, pt.11-13 of Report on the scientific results of the […]
Countries in the Eurovision contest are happier overall.
Science Daily finds a correlation between national satisfaction and participation in the Eurovision song contest. Even if your country loses, you and your neighbors will […]
Alan Turing’s idea makes water three times cleaner.
Nature reports on a water filter based on computer pioneer Alan Turing’s only biology paper that appears to clean salt out of water three times […]