Science Art: Xylophylla, by Olof Swartz, 1791 (detail)
Click to embiggen From a page of botanical babies drawn by Swedish botanist Olof Swartz just before the dawn of the 19th century. Swartz was […]
Science Art: Rudimentary Simulator, 1963.
This is Figure 3 from “Man-Machine System Simulation for Flight Vehicles” by Steven Belsley, an article which w…
Read moreScience Art: Astrapia Splendidissima, 1895
This is the first illustration in the article “A New Bird of Paradise” by the Hon. Walter Rothschild, published…
Read moreScience 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 moreFound: God of silence. Slightly used. Won’t talk.
The (not exactly) god of silence and secrecy, Discovery reports, is at the heart of a new Egyptian antiquities mystery. Of four statues recovered by […]
Robot buddies.
Science Mag produces proof – actual, empirical proof – that nice guys really can finish first and that even killer robots can learn to care […]
Words on sling stones can SO hurt me.
That’s the gist of an AFP report on the messages ancient soldiers carved into their ammunition: Slingers, also known as sphendonetai, have been used in […]
Truck stop life.
Scientific American has a great guest post about a driven entomologist who discovered a new order of life… one that had eluded discovery by hanging […]
Viral solar.
PhysOrg brings us a teeny tiny bit closer to going green with an MIT project that offers solar power that reproduces virally: This dramatic improvement […]
Helicoma spp + rhinoceros beetle, from Insecten-Belustigung, by AJ Rösel von Rosenhof, 1700s.
Click to embiggen From Insecten-Belustigung (Insect Amusements), a three-volume encyclopedia by 18th century German illustrator AJ Rösel von Rosenhof. [via Bibliodyssey, via Keep Your Pebbles.]
I, for one, welcome our new astronauts.
They’re squid. No, really. Science 2.0 has blown the whistle on the final Space Shuttle mission – the one that finally brings squid back to […]
Precious beetles.
It shouldn’t be surprising that The Optical Society likes getting a little flashy… but their beetle test subjects take things a little too far: Costa […]
Neanderthal Heaven.
Discovery News unveils the religious life of Neanderthals: The Neanderthals were found covered together with rocks burying their remains. The researchers believe it’s likely that […]
Science Art: Total Eclipse of the Sun, by E.L. Trouvelot, 1881-1882
Click to embiggen From the description at the New York Public Library Digital Gallery page: Total eclipse of the sun. Observed July 29, 1878, at […]
SONG: Grains of Aragonite
SONG: “Grains of Aragonite.” (To download: double right-click & “Save As”) ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Based on Primitive sea creature sports eyes made of rock, LiveScience, […]
NIMBioS: Science Songwriter Residency
I doubt I could skip out of my non-scientific day job for a month, but man, I sure want to now: NIMBioS is sponsoring the […]
Light batteries
University of Michigan engineers are taking a bright new approach to solar power: The researchers found a way to make an “optical battery,” said Stephen […]
“Cute” don’t pay.
At least not when it comes to dates. Evolutionary Psychology finds that pretty people expect free rides: [St. Andrews psychologists] set up hypothetical blind dates […]