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 […]
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, …
Read morePhosphine 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 […]
Science Art: Last Test Article for NASA’s SLS Rocket Departs Michoud Assembly Facility, 2019 – by NASA/Jude Guidry.
Click to embiggen A big part of a big rocket, loading onto a big barge in a big facility in Louisiana. As the NASA Michoud […]
The science of the will to fight.
The Economist has an interesting piece on military psychology – specifically, the research going into predicting when an opponent who is outgunned and outmanned will […]
Puberty can erase childhood trauma’s brain effects
Science News has some optimistic news about the long-term neurological effects of childhood trauma. We know that they can create lasting physical changes inside the […]
Science Art: Gold plaques (items 9-14 in catalogue), by Ian Richardson, The British Museum, 2012
Click to embiggen Treasure! Literally! A hoard of Roman gold and silver, including jewelry, figurines, and a lot of these votive “leaf” plaques. A votive […]
New coffee-based technique promises to rebuild nerves damaged by MS, injuries.
HealthEuropa reveals new research into myelin sheaths, the “insulation” around nerve cells that gets damaged by multiple sclerosis and some kinds of traumatic injuries. Swiss […]
A black hole bigger than a hundred suns.
BBC peers into deepest space to find the origins of a gravity “shockwave” from 7 billion years ago that was still strong enough to shake […]
Flying taxi by Toyota
Endgadget (yes, I know) enthuses over the Toyota-backed SkyDrive flying car, tested with a pilot at a Toyota facility: The SD-03 is billed as the […]
Social isolation damages this brain circuit in kids. And we can fix it with light.
Science Daily has a Mt. Sinai School of Medicine study that isolates a specific cluster of brain cells that regulate social behavior – and that […]
Science Art: Dynamometer, 3 Feb 1865
Click to embiggen A dynamometer, illustrated by (or for) the United States Sanitary Commission in 1865. A dynamometer measures power output. For an engine, it […]
Why can’t pharma companies afford to make life-saving drugs?
Nature asks a disturbing question about how we create and distribute what are arguably the most important scientific projects of all – the antibiotics and […]
SONG: All I See
SONG: “All I See” ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Based on Scientific American, 28 July 2020, “The Brittle Star That Sees with Its Body”, as used in […]
We just had the closest asteroid fly-by ever.
Space.com shares what we learned about how Earth’s gravity has affected 2020QG, a car-sized asteroid that became the closest to approach Earth without slamming into […]