The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

ex scientia, sono

  • Home
  • Join the Guild
  • The Scientific Troubadour Pledge
  • The SONGS

physics

Scientific illustration of early X-ray equipment, including induction coil, battery, X-Ray tube, and fluorescent screen.

Science Art: Apparatus Arranged for Taking a Radiograph, 1894.

29 September 2024 grant 0

This illustration is from an article in Science Gossip on how to set up your own “X-Ray Outfit.” As the author, James Quick, explains: “The four chief items comprising… Read the rest “Science Art: Apparatus Arranged for Taking a Radiograph, 1894.”

Scientific illustration by Jan Pavelka showing a blue laser creating a fluorescent glow inside a cube of calcite.

Science Art: Fluorescence and birefringence of 445 nm blue laser in calcite crystal, Jan Pavelka, 2011.

4 February 2024 grant 0

Calcite refracts light in a linear way – it’s why (as previous songs have discussed) it may have been used as a navigational tool by Vikings. It tends to make light that passes… Read the rest “Science Art: Fluorescence and birefringence of 445 nm blue laser in calcite crystal, Jan Pavelka, 2011.”

Locusts raised in a centrifuge have stronger skeletons.

20 January 2024 grant 0

Science Magazine gets heavy with insects that, when brought up in the “hypergravity” of a spinning centrifuge, grow stronger exoskeletons as a result:

When a person exercises

… Read the rest “Locusts raised in a centrifuge have stronger skeletons.”

Roman glass became photonic crystal

4 November 2023 grant 0

Physics Magazine joins Tufts University researcher Giulia Guidetti who has studied a glass shard that was broken and buried shortly after 100 B.C.E. that over 2,000 years gained the iridescent… Read the rest “Roman glass became photonic crystal”

Baseball hitters are getting more home runs, thanks to climate change.

9 April 2023 grant 0

Science reports on some unexpected consequences of a slightly warmer planet. In the statistics-heavy game of baseball, hitters have been averaging more home runs than ever for a lot of … Read the rest “Baseball hitters are getting more home runs, thanks to climate change.”

A bee swarm can generate 8 times more electricity than a storm cloud.

2 November 2022 grant 0

New Scientist reveals an accidental discovery that happened when a passing swarm of bees got close to a weather station on a clear day – and the sensors noted a jump in atmospheric electricity… Read the rest “A bee swarm can generate 8 times more electricity than a storm cloud.”

One step closer to a laser-powered fusion reactor.

20 August 2021 grant 0

Science magazine celebrates a test result from the National Ignition Laboratory that brings us all one step closer to cheap, clean energy by using lasers to compress a “fuel capsule”… Read the rest “One step closer to a laser-powered fusion reactor.”

Scientific illustration of a cannonball trajectory, showing the arc of flight.

Science Art: Flight Trajectory by Walther Hermann Ryff, 1582.

9 August 2021 grant 0

An illustration from a book the title of which begins Bawkunst Oder Architectur aller fürnemsten/ Nothwendigsten/ angehœrigen Mathematischen vnd Mechanischen Kuensten/ eygentlicher… Read the rest “Science Art: Flight Trajectory by Walther Hermann Ryff, 1582.”

Scientific illustration of a vivid sunrise caused by the explosive eruption of Krakatoa.

Science Art: Circular Twilight Halo at Sunrise (Kreisförmiger Dämmerungsschein Bei Sonnenaufgang) by Eduard Moritz Pechuël-Loesche, 1884

30 May 2021 grant 0

A soft and beautiful drawing of distant, unimaginable destruction. Eduard Moritz Pechuël-Loesche was a naturalist in Hereroland (now Namibia) when he painted this watercolor in late… Read the rest “Science Art: Circular Twilight Halo at Sunrise (Kreisförmiger Dämmerungsschein Bei Sonnenaufgang) by Eduard Moritz Pechuël-Loesche, 1884”

The mystery of sand.

10 November 2020 grant 0

XKCD’s Randall Munroe, writing now for The New York Times, explores a scientific mystery more baffling than quantum physics – what makes sand feel softer or harder:

If you

… Read the rest “The mystery of sand.”

The UK has powered up an unusual fusion reactor.

5 November 2020 grant 0

Science magazine takes us inside the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) Upgrade, an experimental fusion reactor which has been switched on after a 7-year build and revamping. Ultimately,… Read the rest “The UK has powered up an unusual fusion reactor.”

CERN is building a supercollider 100 km around.

27 June 2020 grant 0

Nature looks into a new push to build a really big (and really expensive) machine to work with really small particles:

CERN has taken a major step towards building a 100-kilometre circular

… Read the rest “CERN is building a supercollider 100 km around.”
Scientific illustration of a fusion reactor, more efficient (and smaller) than a tokamak

Science Art: Quasi-Poloidal Stellarator (QPS), 2007

19 January 2020 grant 0

Scientific illustration of a fusion reactor, more efficient (and smaller) than a tokamakClick to embiggen

This is a fusion reactor that was never built, a small power plant that takes the principles of a tokamak (use super-heated plasma to generate more power than you put into… Read the rest “Science Art: Quasi-Poloidal Stellarator (QPS), 2007”

Squeezing lead makes it stronger than steel.

25 November 2019 grant 0

Science News proves that there’s always something new to figure out – in this case, with one of the most common and worked-with metals we know: lead. New research shows after… Read the rest “Squeezing lead makes it stronger than steel.”

How the zebra got its stripes. (An 85-year-old researcher’s first published study!)

14 June 2019 grant 0

Popular Science thinks they know – and the answer is literally cool:

Now the 85-year-old amateur scientist [Allison Cobb] has published her first scientific study [in the Journal

… Read the rest “How the zebra got its stripes. (An 85-year-old researcher’s first published study!)”

Posts pagination

1 2 … 6 »

Follow on Bandcamp

Something to Believe In

GRANT: something to believe in

You could write a review of this album here on iTunes.

That would be generous.

Fellow Travelers

  • 314.Action
  • Bioephemera
  • Breakfast in the Ruins
  • Carabus
  • Discover
  • Fluxblog
  • Giant-Killer
  • grant (archive)
  • grant (bandcamp)
  • Hello, Poindexter!
  • ideonexus
  • junior kitchen
  • Keep Your Pebbles
  • LiveScience
  • Mindless Ones
  • Nature
  • New Scientist
  • NIMBioS: Science Songwriters-in-Residence
  • Peculiar Velocity
  • PhysOrg
  • Science Daily
  • Science Magazine
  • Science News
  • Science Writers Daily
  • Scientific American
  • Singing Science Records
  • Songfight!
  • Space.com
  • Stereo Sanctity
  • The Great Beyond
  • The Other Adam Ford
  • The Periodic Table of Poetry
  • Voyages Extraordinaires

Tags

acoustics aeronautics agronomy anatomy anthropology archaeology astronomy biochemistry biology botany chemistry climatology computer science ecology economics electrical engineering electronics engineering entomology epidemiology evolution genetics geology linguistics marine biology mathematics medicine meteorology microbiology microscopy nanotechnology neurology oceanography optics paleontology pharmacology physics psychology quantum physics research robotics sociology space exploration theremin zoology
RSS Help Wanted: ScienceCareers
  • Cleveland Clinic, Lerner Research Inst: Open Rank Faculty Positions (Assistant, Associate, Full Professor) in Antimicrobial Resistance
  • Cleveland Clinic, Lerner Research Inst: FACULTY POSITION
  • University of Central Florida - Department of Biology: Assistant Professor positions
  • University of Massachusetts Boston: Assistant Professor- Biology
  • University of Massachusetts Boston: Assistant Professor - Biology Education
RSS Help Wanted: Indeed Scientist
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
  • Squid Pro Crow
  • Grant Bandcamp
  • Grant Soundcloud
  • Penitential Originals Playlist
https://guildofscientifictroubadours.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/01-gravity-song.mp3

 
"Is it a fact—or have I dreamt it—that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time?"
— Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, 1851
Tools
  • Subscribe via Email
     
  • View as PDF (via FiveFingers)
     
  • Is Facebook Electric?
     
  •   Yes, yes, we RSS!

     
Fields of Inquiry
  • Cold Storage
  • Featured
  • Guild Affairs
  • Music
    • Songs
      • Penitential Covers
  • Science
    • Science Art

Copyright © 2025 | WordPress Theme by MH Themes