Ancient stash of hallucinogenic medicine discovered.
Science magazine reports on the Dutch discovery of, basically, Roman-era drugs hidden inside a hollow bone. The black henbane seeds could have been used to […]
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 moreHow the Bigfoot candidate went extinct.
Triops Galaxy reports on paleontological research into the biggest primate ever to walk the planet, the 600-pound Gigantopithecus blackii… without mentioning Bigfoot. Instead, they focus […]
Science Art: Fluorescence and birefringence of 445 nm blue laser in calcite crystal, Jan Pavelka, 2011.
Calcite refracts light in a linear way – it’s why (as previous songs have discussed) it may have been used as a navigational tool by […]
“MouthPad” lets you scroll with your tongue.
NBC reports on a digital device that’s just on the tip of your tongue… where it acts like a trackpad on the roof of your […]
AI stocks take a dive.
The Futurist calls the latest wave of the hype-cycle over for artificial intelligence, with news of AI companies losing an impressive $190 billion in stock […]
Secretly sick.
University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Reporting and Policy (CIDRAP) has some scientific findings from colleagues at U Michigan that will surprise no one […]
Science Art: Nyctodactlyus, by F. John, c. 1915
This glimpse into a prehistoric world (which we now know should probably have at least a few more feathers in it) is part of the […]
Hacking the train.
Ars Technica recently reported on a new front in the “right to repair” war. A group of hackers broke into a Polish train system in […]
No song for January
I am currently unable to record, or at least to play a guitar. Song will appear shortly.
Science Art: He2-104: The Southern Crab Nebula, 1999.
This is a nebula inside a nebula, caused by two stars pulling each other apart, as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. From the description […]
Locusts raised in a centrifuge have stronger skeletons.
Science Magazine gets heavy with insects that, when brought up in the “hypergravity” of a spinning centrifuge, grow stronger exoskeletons as a result: When a […]
A magnetic galactic map in three dimensions.
The University of Tokyo might have solved some riddles about the formation of stars by creating the world’s first 3D map of the galaxy’s own […]
A white-blood-cell genetic therapy can cure lupus.
The American College of Rheumatology publishes a study about a new way to treat a famously slippery autoimmune disease, using CAR-T therapy to successfully put […]
Science Art: Mouchot’s solar thermal collector from 1860, from Nordisk Familjebok, 1917.
This is a solar-powered generator. A funnel with sides angled at 90 degrees is pointed at the sun to catch its radiation, and those rays […]
SONG: Hymn of Acxiom (a penintential cover)
SONG: “Hymn of Acxiom” (a penitential cover). (available as .ogg here) ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: This isn’t based on research. It’s a cover of “Hymn of […]