The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

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engineering

Scientific illustration of machines for moving water. Ducts, pumps, pistons, turbines.

Science Art: Turbines and Pumps, Manchester, 1882.

26 May 2025 grant 0

This is a waterwork as the Industrial Revolution hit full swing.

It’s the final image in a book I’ve used here before, A practical treatise on hydraulic and water-supply engineering:… Read the rest “Science Art: Turbines and Pumps, Manchester, 1882.”

SONG: Titanium Heart

24 April 2025 grant 0

SONG: “Titanium Heart”. (OGG version here.)

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: Based on “Man survives with titanium heart for 100 days — a world first,” Nature, 13 March… Read the rest “SONG: Titanium Heart”

scientific illustration of the propeller, gears, and supporting rod of a device meant to measure the flow of water (or any other fluid).

Science Art: Woltmann’s Tachometer, 1882

21 April 2025 grant 0

Oh, hydrology.

This is a device to measure the speed of water flow, as described in A practical treatise on hydraulic and water-supply engineering: relating to the hydrology, hydrodynamics,… Read the rest “Science Art: Woltmann’s Tachometer, 1882”

SONG: They Can Make It Rain Bombs (a penitential Camper Van Chadbourne cover)

24 January 2025 grant 0

SONG: “They Can Make It Rain Bombs” . (OGG version here.)

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: This isn’t based on any recent research. It’s a penitential cover for being late… Read the rest “SONG: They Can Make It Rain Bombs (a penitential Camper Van Chadbourne cover)”

Scientific illustration, or photograph, really, of the green-and-black geometry of a WWII fighter plane cockpit, with an angled canopy above and a steering yoke in center of a small array of dials and indicators.

Science Art: Cockpit view of the Macchi MC.200 Saetta, 2009

18 November 2024 grant 0

This image came from the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force with the less-easy-to-understand name (or “designation”) “210921-F-AU145-2009.” But it’s… Read the rest “Science Art: Cockpit view of the Macchi MC.200 Saetta, 2009”

Using rocket science to make “carbon-negative” energy.

2 November 2024 grant 0

Heatmap reports on some SpaceX alums — that is, former employees of the space corporation — who gave up on astronauting in favor of making some things work better down here/ … Read the rest “Using rocket science to make “carbon-negative” energy.”

scientific illustration of a series of hooks for lifting things.

Science Art: Hooks, Swivels, &c.

28 October 2024 grant 0

Need a lift? These are hooks designed for lifting … well, whatever you need picked up.

I found them in (deep breath): The engineer’s sketch-book of mechanical movements, devices,… Read the rest “Science Art: Hooks, Swivels, &c. ”

Scientific illustration of factories spreading smoke and soot into the air 100 years ago, with a warning from the early 20th century about carbon dioxide levels having climate effects.

Science Art: The Furnaces of the World…., 1912

23 June 2024 grant 0

This is a Popular Mechanics illustration from 102 years ago that sounds like it could have been written today. Warnings about industrial pollution increasing air temperature are nothing… Read the rest “Science Art: The Furnaces of the World…., 1912”

Scientific illustration of an early industrial machine used to detach cotton. Wheels, gears, and circular casings, all precisely fitting together.

Science Art: Detaching Roll Mechanism, 1912.

16 June 2024 grant 0

This is a device from Cotton Card-Room Machinery, a catalog published by Whitlin Machine Works.

I can’t say much about how it works because I’ve never been in a cotton card-room.… Read the rest “Science Art: Detaching Roll Mechanism, 1912.”

Scientific illustrations of rows of radio telescopes

Science Art: MeerKAT telescopes, 2018

29 April 2024 grant 0

They do look a little like meerkats, these big African satellite dishes. This is a photo from the Square Kilometre Array Organisation (SKAO) / South African Radio Astronomy Observatory… Read the rest “Science Art: MeerKAT telescopes, 2018”

Scientific illustration of Victorian plumbing, a check valve from a 19th century guide to hydraulic fixtures by J.T. Fanning.

Science Art: Check Valve, 1882.

12 February 2024 grant 0

A valve to prevent backflow… so the river doesn’t wind up in the reservoir, or the effluent in the shower pipes.

From A practical treatise on hydraulic and water-supply engineering:… Read the rest “Science Art: Check Valve, 1882.”

Hacking the train.

27 January 2024 grant 0

Ars Technica recently reported on a new front in the “right to repair” war. A group of hackers broke into a Polish train system in order to overcome software that kept anyone … Read the rest “Hacking the train.”

Scientific illustration of a solar collector, a device used to capture energy (light or heat) from the Sun. Arrows show the direction of rays that bounce off angled reflectors toward a bulb that collects them, apparently heating a coil probably filled with fluid. There are no labels on this diagram.

Science Art: Mouchot’s solar thermal collector from 1860, from Nordisk Familjebok, 1917.

15 January 2024 grant 0

This is a solar-powered generator. A funnel with sides angled at 90 degrees is pointed at the sun to catch its radiation, and those rays are bounced by the funnel’s mirrored walls toward… Read the rest “Science Art: Mouchot’s solar thermal collector from 1860, from Nordisk Familjebok, 1917.”

Dry canal costs billions.

5 January 2024 grant 0

Forbes covers a climate-change story about global trade and supply chains (something the pandemic taught the world about), focused on that thin isthmus between the Atlantic and Pacific… Read the rest “Dry canal costs billions.”

Cicadas are so loud, they cause fiberoptic-cable interference.

3 December 2023 grant 0

Wired reveals a very strange insect-monitoring device called DAS, or “distributed acoustic sensing,” normally used to track vibrations made by seismic shifts and volcanic… Read the rest “Cicadas are so loud, they cause fiberoptic-cable interference.”

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Honorary Troubadours
  • Jonathan Coulton, Contributing Troubadour for Popular Science.
  • Laura Veirs, who knows her way around a polysyllable.
  • Thomas Dolby, godfather of scientific pop.
  • Squeaky, fact-based rock about fusion containment & rocket science.
  • Cosmos II, a.k.a. Boston University astronomer Alan Marscher.
  • Dr. Fiorella Terenzi, astrophysicist who makes music from cosmic radio sources.
  • Dr. Jim Webb, astronomy professor and acoustic guitarist.
  • Artichoke, the band behind 26 Scientists, Vols. I and II.
  • They Might Be Giants, unrelenting proponents of scientific popular song.
  • Symphonies of Science, the people who make Carl Sagan and others sing.
  • Giant Squid, doom metal about the sublime horrors of marine biology.
  • Gethan Dick,6 scientists, 6 musicians, 1 great album
Related Projects
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