James Webb Space Telescope ready for launch.
The BBC reports that, after overcoming plenty of obstacles, the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope is ready to get into orbit and start gazing […]
Science 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 moreScience Art: Heart apical two-chamber view myocardial regions, by Patrick Lynch
This is an illustration of a particular perspective in a cardiac echocardiogram. An “apical view” is one of the…
Read moreSONG: Sleeping Cathedrals
SONG: “Sleeping Cathedrals”. (OGG version here.)
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: Based on “World’s biggest whale g…
Read moreScience Art: Build Your Own Lie Detector, 1955
This is the opener for an article in the May 1955 issue of Popular Electronics. You can read the article here, …
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Science Art: Skull of Dolichorhinus cornutus (Osborn),
This is the skull of a creature with lots of scientific names, but in “Osteology of Dolichorhinus longiceps Douglass, with a review of the species […]
Change your voice, change your identity.
Scientific American published an interview from sister publication Cerveau & Psycho with Jean Abitbol, a Paris-based ear, nose and throat physician, phoniatrician, and craniofacial surgeon. […]
Autonomous firefighting robots ready for duty.
Scientific American reports on a growing number of firefighters who don’t have to worry about smoke inhalation or blistering heat – because they’re self-steering robots, […]
Barnacle glue saves lives.
Science magazine offers a briefing on a paste modeled on barnacle glue that sticks to wet surfaces within 15 seconds – making it a perfect […]
Science Art: Schematic Drawing Showing (Left) Normal Origin and Distribution of the Coronary Arteries…, 1943.
This diagram came from an article called “Anomalous Origin of Left Coronary Artery” by John C. Ruddock, a Naval Reserve Medical Corps commander, and Charles […]
It’s possible to recycle concrete, and this Swiss bridge proves it.
Popular Science takes us over a bridge built inside a Fribourg, Switzerland, laboratory entirely out of re-used concrete – a thrifty construction technique that could […]
SONG: Rocks in the Sky
SONG: “Rocks in the Sky”. ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: NASA Press Release, 16 Oct 21, “NASA, ULA Launch Lucy Mission to ‘Fossils’ of Planet Formation,” as […]
Science Art: Magpie on the Gallows, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1568
Oh, a beautiful Renaissance landscape by one of those Lowland masters, a naturalistic scene of people meeting merrily on a wooded path between the village […]
No song today
I’ve got a melody, I’ve got a subject, but the words aren’t here yet. Mea maxima culpa. A song and two penitential covers shall arrive.
SciAm considers ways to make magic mushrooms, if not legal, at least less illegal.
Scientific American commentator Mason Marks, a law professor, examines three roads to making psilocybin easier for researchers – and people who need clinical help – […]
Lucy is NASA’s mission to find “fossils” in space.
NASA has launched a probe named Lucy, after the Australopithecus fossil that rewrote the story of human origins. This Lucy’s job is to check out […]
African farmers use bee hives as elephant-proof fences.
Scientific American looks at scientific Kenyans, who have taken advantage of one of the few things elephants are actually afraid of – stinging honeybees – […]
Science Art: Caméleon, Sébastien Le Clerc, 1676
This is a chameleon seen inside and out in Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire naturelle des animaux, by Claude Perrault, an early text on natural […]
Singapore robots patrol against “anti-social behavior.”
Euronews.com reports on a new use for robots, to enforce social mores and good citizenship. Citizens seem less than pleased with the artificial politeness police, […]