Ice-9 saves lives!
Or, well, something like Ice-9. At least, so says New Scientist: Layers of ice of few nanometres thick can remain frozen at human body temperature […]
Science 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 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 moreNo more batteries.
Check out what Scientific American has to say about these gizmos called “ultracapacitors” that could soon fuel cars without gasoline… and without chemical batteries: Ultracapacitors […]
Cute: Apple ][ and the first computer viruses.
PhysOrg has a sweet little story about the jokey birth of what could be the earliest computer virus: He developed what is now known as […]
Science Art: Exterior View of a Double Cylinder Colony
From NASA’s collection of 1970s space colony art. There are much larger versions available in their archive. —- Bonus link: the Living Room of the […]
Stowaway Genes
Science Daily reports on some very strange behavior found in bacterial DNA – one parasite’s entire genome is replicated by the host’s body. And, the […]
Star Trek medical scanner is GO!
Experts at Harborview Medical Center and the University of Washington are refining an ultrasound device that seals punctured lungs without invasive surgery, reports Science Daily. […]
When ORCHIDS ruled the Earth!
New Scientist confirms the fever-dreams of many a fanatic gardener with the discovery that mammals didn’t take over right after the death of the dinosaurs […]
Psychedelic Paintball
Wired‘s “Danger Room” reports on like, wow, man, that’s one *TRIPPY* gun: Paintballs laced with mind-altering drugs and drug-spraying robots sound like something for The […]
T. rex could have caught us.
New Scientist strikes fear into the hearts of time travelers everywhere with a report that T. rex could have caught humans. Easily. Which is kind […]
Science Art: Compact Muon Solenoid of the Large Hadron Collider
This is how CERN is hoping to find the Higgs Boson. At 40 feet long, it is the biggest superconducting solenoid ever made, costing $65 […]
You’ll put an eye out.
Behold the science of engineering. LEGO engineering.
Giant “living fossil” fish on the brink
National Geographic reports on another Chinese river-dweller struggling to survive – the giant sturgeon, also known as the “underwater panda”: Adult sturgeons, which can measure […]
SONG: Beautiful (Have Another Plum)
SONG: “Beautiful (Have Another Plum)” (To download: right-click & “Save As”) ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: “Baboon Birth Control” entry, from “Primates on the Pill”, New Scientist, […]
Mira, The Tail Star
We’ve been watching this thing for four centuries, and we only now noticed it had a tail, as Nature reports. A really long tail: Astronomers […]
Baby powder soothes earthquakes
Nature eases chafing on a tectonic level: Researchers drilling deep into the San Andreas fault in California report in today’s Nature the presence of talc […]