Scientists: The moon was formed when Earth smacked her twin sister.
Nature reports on a new way of looking at lunar formation that almost reads like a myth. The moon came to be when Earth collided […]
Science Art: Jupiter's Family of Comets, 1898
This is a diagram from A New Astronomy For Beginners, a textbook that’s about a century and a quarter old, or a…
Read moreSONG: Your Catalogue
SONG: “Your Catalogue”. (OGG version here.)
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: NBC News, “New wild cat species is ide…
Read moreScience Art: Beebe's Bathysphäre, 1934
This is an image of William Beebe’s bathysphere, as placed on Wikimedia Commons by ETH Bibliothek. It was creat…
Read moreScience Art: Power of RCA Electron Microscope, May 1955
These are diatoms, I think, seen by two different microscopes.
As the caption from Popular Electronics says…
Read moreScience Art: Red Pepper, 1910.
Red pepper (Cayenne pepper) will cure almost any case of la grippe within 24 hours, or so they say. At least no…
Read moreScience 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 moreThe ethics of altering your children’s brains.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience is asking the tough questions about what… and when… we should be doing to kids’ brains with electromagnetism: As the intervention […]
Drones for archaeology
PhysOrg has more on using drones… not just to find priceless historical sites, but to protect them from looters: With aerial photographs taken by a […]
Science Art: Detail from Plate LXVIII from British oology, c. 1835
That’s Anthus aquaticus and Anthus pratensis… the rock lark up top, and the tit lark at the bottom. Stop laughing, you in the back. There […]
Robot feet that don’t need batteries.
Nature studies the beauty of mechanical advantage… in exoskeleton boots that do what feet do just a little bit better, faster, stronger: People walking in […]
Go, little Mars drone! Fly! FLY!
The Atlantic has a heartwarming story about the little flying robot that could (if only we’d let it)…
A new hybrid super-termite… made in Florida.
PopSci reports on the PLOS One study on what happens when two invasive exotic species combine forces: The two termite species, which originated in separate […]
Has your head ever exploded? (Or *sounded* like it?)
Science Daily peeks into the weird world of Exploding Head Syndrome, a surprisingly common condition in which young people are suddenly awoken by an ear-splitting […]
Science Art: Plate XII. An engine of great service to bore elms or other trees to make pipes to conveigh water, and for other uses, 1701
Click to embiggen An illustration from New and rare inventions of water-works; shewing the easiest ways to raise water higher than the spring. By which […]
So, one of the most common household chemicals is killing you. Surprise!
Nature analyzes the new World Health Organization (WHO) determination that Roundup weedkiller causes cancer: The cancer-research arm of the World Health Organization last week announced […]
Here’s a hydrogen-fueled train.
Science Alert reports on a new train in China – not a design, an actual vehicle – that runs on hydrogen and leaves water for […]
SONG: The Waves Around the Women
SONG: “The Waves Around the Women.” ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Based on “Scientists have discovered nature’s newest strongest material“, Washington Post, 18 February 2015,as used in […]
Science Art: NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft as it passes Pluto and Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, in July 2015, by NASA/JHU APL/SwRI/Steve Gribben.
Click to embiggen This is happening now. This summer. A little flying robot is going to Pluto, the planet that wasn’t a planet, then it […]
Compassion pills.
Science Daily reports on UC Berkeley research into a chemical that makes you a nicer person: A new study by UC Berkeley and UC San […]
A new dawn of humankind
A bit of a jawbone (and a bit of computer modeling) has given us a long-awaited glimpse of our new oldest ancestor: On 29 January […]