Bored Aliens.
New Scientist reports on a problem facing the researchers with the SETI project. It’s not a technological issue, really. Intelligent alien civilizations are probably already […]
Science 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 moreScience Art: Paraboloide Circular 02, by Rodrigo Argenton
This is a circular paraboloid, a shape with “one axis of symmetry and no center of symmetry,” according to Wiki…
Read moreCooking up intelligence.
Scientific American interviews a primatologist – well, a biological anthropologist named Richard Wrangham – who believes humans evolved big brains because of cooking: Your theory […]
Quiet loudspeakers.
LiveScience.com is spreading the word on speakers that don’t spread much of anything – except precisely where they’re pointed. Think of them as being like […]
Powered by toxic waste.
LiveScience.com reports on a new power source from old coal mines – a device that makes electricity from seeping pools of toxic waste: The researchers […]
SONG: First Man in Space (penitential cover version)
SONG: “First Man in Space” (cover) (To download: right-click & “Save As”) ARTIST: grant. Originally by Jarvis Cocker (of Pulp) and Phil Oakey (of the […]
Sorry, our comet is missing.
Astronomers at the University of Hawaii recently had to make a strange correction to the Deep Impact mission. The ship, which thrilled scientists in 2005 […]
Science Art: Ptolemaic System, from Andreas Cellarius’ Harmonia Macrocosmica
This chart shows the universe as understood in 1660 – a solar system with a giant Earth at its center.
Cell phone gourmand.
New Scientist unveils yet another thing Nokia is designing cell phones to do – read the menu for you: Snap a picture of, say, a […]
Burning coal creates nuclear waste.
Scientific American reports on a series of studies that mess with our sense of common sense. Nuclear power plants should be creating nuclear waste, and […]
Songs for Giant Isopods
[n.b.: Subsequent to writing this post, I wound up writing a song about isopods myself. I think it’s one of my better ones; check it […]
Burning Man’s Gift: Solar Cities.
The Burning Man festival is a bit of a hassle for folks in rural Nevada, who once a year get overrun by thousands of freaks, […]
Henry Gray, Human ovum examined fresh in the liquor folliculi.
A drawing of a human egg cell, from Gray’s Anatomy (the book, not the TV show). From its description quoted on Wikipedia: Human ovum examined […]
Bad Astronomer’s Top 10
The so-called Bad Astronomer picked the top 10 astronomy pictures of 2007. Go and see them. They’re beautiful.
SONG: Jaekelopterus!
SONG: “Jaekelopterus!” (To download: right-click & “Save As”) ARTIST: grant. Dui, shi wo. (Oui, c’est moi.) SOURCE: ““Giant Claw Points to Monster Sea Scorpion”, New […]
Science Art: The Helix Nebula
At the very center of this giant, staring eye is a white dwarf star. It’s located about 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. The […]