Modern humans and Neanderthals go back further together than we thought.
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 […]
Science Art: Figs. 1315-1333 (Various rotary piston engines), 1890.
This is a page of figures from (deep breath) The engineer’s sketch-book of mechanical movements, devices, appli…
Read moreScience Art: Mirounga leonina 01, by H. Zell
This is a southern elephant seal, the largest marine mammal that isn’t a whale. They’re about twice as weighty …
Read moreScience Art: What can make any tape recorder sound a little more like an Ampex?, 1963.
This is an ad for Ampex tape from the August 1963 edition of Electronics Australia, a magazine (which I found o…
Read moreScience Art: Cygnus region in emission lines, 2025
This is a photo of space with a bit of color amplification so we can tell what we’re looking at. Nebulas on the…
Read moreScience Art: Heart apical two-chamber view myocardial regions, by Patrick Lynch
This is an illustration of a particular perspective in a cardiac echocardiogram. An “apical view” is one of the…
Read moreAlien atmospheres
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 […]
Coffee (and pepper) of the dinosaurs discovered.
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 […]
A new generation of anti-Alzheimer’s drugs
BBC News covers the preventative medicines that act like statins for your brain: Statins are taken by people to reduce the risk of developing heart […]
Science Art: VII. Scientific Literature, by Finnish artists.
Click to embiggen This is a chapter heading from the book Finland in the Nineteenth Century: by Finnish authors, illustrated by Finnish artists, published in […]
*Ants* have the speed… when it comes to boxing.
I’m reading a EurekAlert report on entomologists sitting ringside watching the fastest boxers in the world – trap-jaw ants: In a new study, entomologists at […]
Obama tries to boost science funding on his way out.
Nature reports on the outgoing president’s attempt to boost research & development funding by a mandatory four percent: With less than a year before he […]
Chinese tokamak makes fusion happen – for more than a minute.
Wired reports on the successful ignition of a fire three times hotter than the sun: The march to sustainable nuclear fusion appears to have made […]
SONG: Heavy In My Head
SONG: “Heavy In My Head.” ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Based on “Anxiety can impact people’s walking direction,” Science Daily, 19 Jan. 2016, as used in the […]
Great trumpeting wildebeests!
Science Daily introduces us to a new… or, well, very, very old beast – a prehistoric gnu that trumpeted like a duck-billed dinosaur: By poring […]
Luxembourg prepping for asteroid miners.
BBC has more on the Grand Duchy’s grand plans for exploiting the mineral wealth of outer space: Former European Space Agency boss Jean-Jacques Dordain… told […]
Living at high-altitude reduces lung-cancer risk.
New York Times reports on strange correlations – especially a study that found high-altitude hometowns reduce your risk of lung cancer: A paper published last […]
Science Art: The “Johnson” Bucket Excavator, from American journal of railway appliances, 1886.
Click to embiggen A triumph of engineering. It moves earth! Using “the bucket principle”! As found in The Linda Hall Library.
Science Art: Anyone Can Quantum, by IQIM Caltech
This is far funnier and more exciting than it has any right to be. Stephen Hawking playing chess over a computer with Paul Rudd. For […]
Google can beat a human at go.
The Japanese strategy game, Nature reports, is the latest battlefield on which artificial intelligence has defeated human experts: The best human players of chess, draughts […]