A bit more evidence that Viking sunstones really worked.
PhysOrg returns to the sunstone – remember the sunstone? the calcite crystal that may have helped the Vikings plot courses at sea? that inspired this […]
Science Art: Ever See This Before?, 1966.
This is an actual image of a cathode-ray tube, “the furthest advance yet made in man/ machine interface,” used …
Read moreScience Art: Sunrise - Philippine Sea, 2017
This is an image from the “Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth” gallery, maintained by the Earth Science …
Read moreScience Art: Égouts de Paris, by Jules Ferat.
There’s a subtitle here that Google Translate renders as “Sewer cleaning wagon. (System of Chief Engineer Mr. B…
Read moreScience Art: Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, by David K. Stone.
I found the image in the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s “Aerophilately Special Collection” on Flickr; this is a…
Read moreSONG: Alone
SONG: “Alone”. (OGG version here.)
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: Based on “What Killed the Neanderthals? A Lack …
Read moreScience Art: Fowler - Coregonus Nelsonii Bean.
This is an Alaska whitefish, a cousin of the salmon whose genus name, Coregonus, means “angle-eyed.”
But th…
Read moreWind and solar (and batteries) could supply all of America’s power: Carnegie Science study
The Guardian looks at the journal Energy and Environmental Science to find out just how well the U.S. could handle switching over power supplies right […]
Take a pill, kill mosquitoes.
NPR recently ran a story on a new use for a fairly well-known drug, ivermectin. If you have a dog or cat (or horse or […]
Science Art: Growth of Egg of Hen, c. 16th century.
From De formatione ovi, et pulli, by Fabricius ab Aquapendente, also known as Hieronymus Fabricius or Girolamo Fabrizio d’Acquapendente. He was an Italian surgeon who […]
Scanner helmet lets brain patients move around. (And look like warriors from Krull.)
The Guardian has a game-changing invention for neurologists and anyone who needs a brain-scan done – a wearable helmet that lets you walk around – […]
Sitting on eggs is only for modern birds. Primeval birds did it differently.
Nature reveals the ins and outs of dinosaur-era reproductive strategies, with research showing that prehistoric birds were too heavy to incubate their own eggs: Most […]
They found Cao Cao’s grave.
South China Morning Post reports on the massive mausoleum of a legendary figure from Chinese history – the general Cao Cao, a character in the […]
Science Art: Kerr-Flaechen.gif (Ergospheres, Event horizons and the ring singularity of a rotating black hole.)
This is an animated gif showing a ring singularity or “ringularity” of a spinning black hole. A black hole that doesn’t spin will collapse into […]
SONG: The Hardest Fact (Considering IMS J2204+0112)
SONG: “The Hardest Fact (Considering IMS J2204+0112)”. ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Science News, 16 Mar 2018, “Astronomers can’t figure out why some black holes got so […]
SONG: Titanium (penitential cover)
SONG: “Titanium” (penitential cover) ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: This has no scientific source; it’s a penitential cover for being late for the February song. (I think […]
Caffeine actually slows some of us down – genetically.
Outside, that paragon of high-performance science, has some interesting findings from the University of Toronto, where researchers found that caffeine regularly boosts athletic performance – […]
Science Art: Accipitres, Osprey, Goshawk, &c., 1889
Click to embiggen Funny I should have found this image today, right after discussing Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk (a book bloody and wonderful, […]
15,000-year-old DNA reveals prehistoric African culture
Science magazine opens a window on the past with DNA samples from Africa’s oldest cemetery: The origins of the ancient Moroccans, known as the Iberomaurusians […]
Outperforming black holes get too big, too fast.
Science News has a metaphor for our times playing out in deep space, where we’ve been watching black holes defy expectations by getting much bigger, […]
80 percent of America is a Third-World Nation: M.I.T. Economist.
The Institute for New Economic Thinking has a rather grim look at America’s economic future (and present), courtesy of an M.I.T. economist, Professor Emeritus Peter […]