Spaceport Cornwall?
In some ways, Cornwall seems to me like Britain’s Florida – a peninsula that juts into the Gulf Stream, with water warm enough that they’ve got populations of palm trees… Read the rest “Spaceport Cornwall?”
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 moreLight-loving algae survive, trapped under dark Arctic ice.
Science News plunges into the dark, icy depths to discover how it is that phytoplankton, which convert sunlight to energy, survive and even thrive under the ice in the long, lightless Arctic… Read the rest “Light-loving algae survive, trapped under dark Arctic ice.”
Science Art: Escut del Marquès d’Oró (Escutcheon of the Marquis d’Oró)
The Marquis d’Oró (without that accent mark, he’d be the Marquis of Gold) has a coat of arms with a diagram of the molecule adenine in it, on the sinister side… Read the rest “Science Art: Escut del Marquès d’Oró (Escutcheon of the Marquis d’Oró)”
Artificial intelligence is being programmed to spot disinformation – by the military.
Defense One reports on a new U.S. Air Force and Special Operations Command (SOCOM) program, using artificial intelligence to counter “information space” pollution –… Read the rest “Artificial intelligence is being programmed to spot disinformation – by the military.”
They’ve mapped the part of a bird’s brain that gives them consciousness like ours.
Science magazine shares an anatomical survey of birds’ brains that reveals details of the brain section that appears to function like our cerebral cortex – giving birds a … Read the rest “They’ve mapped the part of a bird’s brain that gives them consciousness like ours.”
Now America is being invaded by jumping worms.
Science News checks out yet another disaster, though one on a smaller scale and a bit closer to the ground than most, as armies of Asian jumping worms are suddenly exploding across America’s… Read the rest “Now America is being invaded by jumping worms.”
Can you hold your breath for more than 3 1/2 hours? This guy can.
Science News reports on a new record – three hours and 42 minutes underwater without coming up for air – set by a Cuvier’s beaked whale:
… Read the rest “Can you hold your breath for more than 3 1/2 hours? This guy can.”Cuvier’s beaked whales (Ziphius
Science Art: Single-Acting Force Pump with Ball Valves, 1903.
Among all the diagrams of force-vectors, there’s this wonderful illustration of a well-made machine in A Text-Book of Applied Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering, on archive.org… Read the rest “Science Art: Single-Acting Force Pump with Ball Valves, 1903.”
SONG: Collisions
SONG: “Collisions”
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: Based on BBC, 2 Sep 2020, “Black holes: Cosmic signal rattles Earth after 7 billion years”, as used in the post “A… Read the rest “SONG: Collisions”
We’ve found the world’s oldest sperm. And it’s big.
Science News reports on an ostracod fossil that’s 100 million years old – and contains a a recognizable sample of its giant sperm:
… Read the rest “We’ve found the world’s oldest sperm. And it’s big.”A single piece of amber from Myanmar held 39
Science Art: Roseate Spoonbill, study for Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom, by Abbot Handerson Thayer
As its Smithsonian Museum page explains, this painting is from a book that hoped to prove a slightly odd hypothesis: that even brightly colored animals would blend into… Read the rest “Science Art: Roseate Spoonbill, study for Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom, by Abbot Handerson Thayer”
The rhythm of an out-of-body experience.
Nature looks at dissociative states, and the specific rhythm in a single layer of neurons that can make everything around you seem unreal:
… Read the rest “The rhythm of an out-of-body experience.”The neurological basis of dissociation has been
DNA study confirms: “Viking” was a job, not an ethnicity.
Science reveals the results of a massive genetic study of Viking remains across Europe, which found that people from all genetic backgrounds took up the Viking way:
… Read the rest “DNA study confirms: “Viking” was a job, not an ethnicity.”Over the course of almost
Phosphine gas means there might be life on Venus.
Science News explains the strange chemistry that’s behind the new discovery, and why it means that Venus can get added to the same list as Mars and the Jovian moon Europa as a possible… Read the rest “Phosphine gas means there might be life on Venus.”
Science Art: Last Test Article for NASA’s SLS Rocket Departs Michoud Assembly Facility, 2019 – by NASA/Jude Guidry.
A big part of a big rocket, loading onto a big barge in a big facility in Louisiana. As the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility image library description says:
… Read the rest “Science Art: Last Test Article for NASA’s SLS Rocket Departs Michoud Assembly Facility, 2019 – by NASA/Jude Guidry.”The last of four