Bees on java.
Scientific American marvels at caffeinated bumblebees, and the researchers who give busy bees caffeine and sugar to make them more focused and efficient:
… Read the rest “Bees on java.”[University of Greenwich ecologist
Science 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 moreScience Art: Azimuth and Altitude Instrument, c. 1876
This is an illustration from the Great Exhibition, 1876, or The great Centennial exhibition critically describe…
Read moreScience Art: Solar Explosions, G79, by Clement Lindley Wragge.
This is a slide from the magic lantern shows of Clement Lindley Wragge, a popularizer of astronomy, a meteorolo…
Read moreSONG: We Ate Each Other's Wings
SONG: “We Ate Each Other’s Wings”. (OGG version here.)
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: Based on “These roaches for…
Read moreScience Art: Mars - Cloudy North Polar Cap, by Andrea Luck
Really, I guess the full title of this should be: Mars – Cloudy North Polar Cap – CNSA Tianwen-1.
“CNSA” is…
Read more
Science Art: Head of Falcon, Showing Beak, Nostril, Eye, and Ear…, 1889
From an impressive page of bird diagrams in the Rand, McNally & Co.’s Encyclopedia and Gazetteer. “Birds are in some ways the highest of vertebrate animals,” … Read the rest “Science Art: Head of Falcon, Showing Beak, Nostril, Eye, and Ear…, 1889”
“Willful” control of the brain’s feel-good chemical.
Science Daily shows how UC-Davis researchers are teaching mice how to consciously control the dopamine in their brains, turning on the reward centers of their brain… in order to … Read the rest ““Willful” control of the brain’s feel-good chemical.”
Why are these Patagonian lakes turning pink?
The only answer is “We don’t really know,” but as Reuters explains, that isn’t really good news however you look at it:
… Read the rest “Why are these Patagonian lakes turning pink?”The lakes, located near an industrial park
Science Art: Black and White Image From Ingenuity‘s Third Flight, April 2021.
This is a photo taken by the Mars helicopter Ingenuity‘s navigational camera. Although it doesn’t say so in the NASA image gallery where I found the photo, I’m pretty… Read the rest “Science Art: Black and White Image From Ingenuity‘s Third Flight, April 2021.”
SONG: Listening
SONG: “Listening”.
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: Scientific American, 13 July 21, “The Neuroscience of Taking Turns in a Conversation,” as used in the post “… Read the rest “SONG: Listening”
Tomato plants have a kind of nervous system.
New Scientist reports on research at the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil, where Gabriela Niemeyer Reissig and colleagues have found that tomatoes being eaten by insects send electrical… Read the rest “Tomato plants have a kind of nervous system.”
A square meter of concrete can store the electricity of two AA batteries.
Scientific American looks at a weird new power source, using probably the most common building material in the modern world as a kind of rechargeable battery:
… Read the rest “A square meter of concrete can store the electricity of two AA batteries.”Experimental concrete batteries
Science Art: Car 5400, where are you?, 1965.
This is an advertisement in the back of the May/June 1965 issue of Information Display, the journal of the Society for Information Display. It’s a technical magazine for computer… Read the rest “Science Art: Car 5400, where are you?, 1965.”
The neurology of conversations, or how our brains know when it’s our turn to speak.
Scientific American turns to chatty songbirds to figure out how it is that our brains process cues telling us when to talk and when to listen to the person we’re talking to:
… Read the rest “The neurology of conversations, or how our brains know when it’s our turn to speak.”We have all
There’s a new branch of psychology dedicated to the study of B.S.
PsyPost, reporting on a study in Psychological Reports, introduces us to the OBPS, a way to scientifically quantify the amount of useless, stupid nonsense we’re exposed to in the… Read the rest “There’s a new branch of psychology dedicated to the study of B.S.”
These drones can be flying grenades.
Popular Science reports on the U.S. Marine Corps’ experimental flying explosive robots:
… Read the rest “These drones can be flying grenades.”What sets the Drone 40 apart from a host of other small drone designs is the long, vertical
Icy expedition hopes to find Shackleton’s Endurance.
LiveScience looks to Antarctica, where a new expedition hopes to find Endurance, the ship which carried polar explorer Ernest Shackleton to the frozen south before sinking in 1915. The… Read the rest “Icy expedition hopes to find Shackleton’s Endurance.”
Science Art: Alvarezsaurus calvoi, Reconstruction, by Karkemish.
A cute little dinosaur, about the size of greyhound and just as much built for speed. Which is strange, because on the other end – the snout and teeth – it seems to have been built… Read the rest “Science Art: Alvarezsaurus calvoi, Reconstruction, by Karkemish.”
Dinosaurs were already in decline before the asteroid.
Britain’s University of Bristol has looked at a few million years of evidence and found that it points to a grim fact about the dinosaurs. Their population was already not doing so … Read the rest “Dinosaurs were already in decline before the asteroid.”