Scinerds

ucresearch: A view of Halley’s Comet from the Lick Observatory...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 04:06:07 -0400

ucresearch:

A view of Halley’s Comet from the Lick Observatory on June 6, 1910

scienceisbeauty: Tûranor PlanetSolar, the world’s largest fully...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 04:05:23 -0400

scienceisbeauty:

Tûranor PlanetSolar, the world’s largest fully solar-powered boat, docked in New York.

Via Phys.org

jtotheizzoe: This is the clearest lake in the world. And a very...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:52:09 -0400

jtotheizzoe:

This is the clearest lake in the world. And a very fine lake it is. Klaus Thymann captured this and other stunning photos of New Zealand’s Blue Lake, 95% as clear as distilled water. Its source is filtered by mountain rocks and it’s above the treeline, so it misses out on most runoff.

Via The Guardian

kenobi-wan-obi: Green and Blue Flashes The flashes result...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:11:52 -0400

kenobi-wan-obi:

Green and Blue Flashes

The flashes result from atmospheric refraction when the Sun is low in the sky.

Photography by Oliver Stiehler

Summary by Oliver Stiehler; Jim Foster

But the refraction must be sufficiently strong, through atmospheric temperature gradients, that a mirage occurs. When this happens there’s a marked vertical magnification of the images for parts of the mirage.

Then, and only then, will color separation produced by differential refraction be visible to the eye or camera. Of course, always use extreme caution when looking toward the Sun.

"Knowledge has a way of moving our minds to places we never thought existed or only suspected of. The..."

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:57:22 -0400

“

Knowledge has a way of moving our minds to places we never thought existed or only suspected of. The more you seek it and stumble, the curiouser you become because it makes you feel human to make mistakes while genuinely yearning to find out.

It makes your time here all the worthwhile to know that what you know will not always be true or that the more you push forward the more you find out, should you choose to accept the curious tendencies built inside you — Should you listen to the saner you that questions your motives every time you decide to take the path that leads to least resistance and little searching.

”

- (via kenobi-wan-obi)

On TV and the Lecture Circuit, Bill Nye Aims to Change the World

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 23:16:27 -0400

On TV and the Lecture Circuit, Bill Nye Aims to Change the World:

climateadaptation:

Trigger warning: NYTimes goofily portrays Bill Nye the science guy as an anomaly. Science reporting still has a lonnnng way to go…

William Sanford Nye, better known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, has gone from TV host to fierce defender of scientific issues that have been polemicized for religious, political and even economic reasons.

emilyfrew: Chimpanzee’s skullEmily Frew

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:01:30 -0400

emilyfrew:

Chimpanzee’s skull
Emily Frew

Keeping TEMPO: Monitoring air pollution in space with the Smithsonian and NASA

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:23:20 -0400

Hi all -

The Smithsonian & NASA are coming together to monitor North American air pollution in space - here’s a chance to learn more about this project with a webcast lecture.

Senior Physicist Dr. Kelly Chance, from Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, will give a live talk - webcast here - at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, 19 June (tomorrow!).

Some details about the project:

Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) has been selected by NASA as the first Earth Venture Instrument. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory will build an instrument to measure atmospheric pollution for greater North America from space. On an hourly basis TEMPO will measure atmospheric pollution from Mexico City to the Canadian tar/oil sands, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. TEMPO will provide measurements that include the key elements of air pollution chemistry, such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide, in the lowest part of the atmosphere. Measurements will be from geostationary (GEO) orbit, to capture the inherent high variability in the daily cycle of emissions and chemistry. Measuring across both time and space will improve emission inventories, monitor population exposure, and enable effective emission-control strategies.

The talk is part of the Smithsonian Institution Grand Challenges Consortia Castle Lecture Series. Learn more about TEMPO and atmospheric measurements here.

Can’t watch it live? No worries! The talk will be archived at the lecture page and you can watch it on your own time.

kenobi-wan-obi: Exploring the Universe by Babak Tafreshi ...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:19:47 -0400

kenobi-wan-obi:

Exploring the Universe by Babak Tafreshi

Stars and nebulae of constellations Orion and Monoceros are photographed above the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) on Mt. Graham in the southern Arizona, United States. The giant observatory combines two side-by-side 8-meter telescopes, make it one of the world’s largest telescopes.

kenobi-wan-obi: V838 Mon by Delio Tolivia Cadrecha V838...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:33:49 -0400

kenobi-wan-obi:

V838 Mon by Delio Tolivia Cadrecha

V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon) is a red variable star in the constellation Monoceros about 20,000 light years (6 kpc) from the Sun.

The previously unknown star was observed in early 2002 experiencing a major outburst, and was possibly one of the largest known stars for a short period following the outburst. Originally believed to be a typical nova eruption, it was then realized to be something completely different.

The reason for the outburst is still uncertain, but several conjectures have been put forward, including an eruption related to stellar death processes and a merger of a binary star or planets. [**]

FITS data obtained from Hubble Legacy Archive (HLA).

kenobi-wan-obi: NGC 7635: Bubble Nebula The Bubble Nebula...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:01:27 -0400

kenobi-wan-obi:

NGC 7635: Bubble Nebula

The Bubble Nebula is located 7,800 light-years from Earth towards the constellation Cassiopeia.

NGC 7635 is surrounded by a vast HII molecular cloud that glows red as hydrogen atoms are ionized. Young stars are forming in some of the globules depicted in this image. These globules form as parts of the molecular cloud collapse and continue to contract under their own gravitational force. — Ryan Hannahoe and Salvatore Grasso

scienceisbeauty: Newton’s cannonball was a thought experiment...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:58:28 -0400

scienceisbeauty:

Newton’s cannonball was a thought experiment Isaac Newton used to hypothesize that the force of gravity was universal, and it was the key force for planetary motion. It appeared in his 1728 book A Treatise of the System of the World.

kenobi-wan-obi: Rho Ophiuchi Nebula by Lee Buck The Rho...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:52:45 -0400

kenobi-wan-obi:

Rho Ophiuchi Nebula by Lee Buck

The Rho Ophiuchus Nebula Complex (IC4604) and the surrounding area lies within the Ophiuchus Constellation, and is one of the most interesting and beautiful areas in the entire sky.

Featuring the bright star Antares, the Ophiuchi Triple Star and surrounding IC4604 Reflection Nebula, M4 Globular Cluster, and the smaller NGC 6144 Globular Cluster, as well as various dark nebula, this area holds something of interest for any astronomer or deep space imager.

The beautiful blue IC 4604 reflection nebula surrounding the Rho Ophiuchi Triple Star is one of the standout features in this area. It is a result of interstellar dust that is illuminated by nearby stars.

astronomy-to-zoology: Hawaiian Bobtail Squid (Euprymna...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:49:04 -0400

astronomy-to-zoology:

Hawaiian Bobtail Squid (Euprymna scolopes)

…a small species of bobtail squid native to the waters of the central Pacific, and is most common off of the Hawaiian and Midway islands. Hawaiian bobtail squid are usually found near the bottom where they hunt and feed on a myriad of shrimp species. Like other bobtail squid E.scolopes has a light organ which functions due to a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria A.fischeri, the bacteria are fed on a solution by the squid and in turn help hide the squids silhouette with light. The squid are not born with these bacteria and must acquire them directly from the environment by using a mucus. Once the bacteria is inside the squid the bacteria is fed and helps the squid stay hidden via counter-illumination. Despite all the effort that the squid goes through to collect the bacteria it jettisons most of them daily, via a process called venting. This is done because being bioluminescent is costly and it is far more efficient to simply expel the bacteria when the squid is resting and does not need them.

Phylogeny

Animalia-Mollusca-Cephalopoda-Sepiolida-Sepiolida-Sepiolidae-Sepiolinae-Euprymna-scolopes

Image Source(s)

I Left Academia Because I Didn't Think It Was Worth All The Trouble -- Apparently Other Women Feel The Same

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:46:21 -0400

I Left Academia Because I Didn't Think It Was Worth All The Trouble -- Apparently Other Women Feel The Same:

thatssoscience:

I’m not PhD material. Not because I’m not smart enough, but because I am simply unwilling to toil away for five years to eventually maybe get a job that I probably won’t enjoy a whole heck of a lot.

One of the most honest descriptions of leaving academia. I loved this paragraph :

”But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “Oh, you think I’m bad? You should see how my Professor treated me! I’m nice!” as if that excuses any behavioral transgression. It’s a vicious, stupid, self-perpetuating cycle that reduces scientific research to some sort of hazing ritual. And, once your tenured, you can really start being a dick in earnest, because why be nice if there are no repercussions to being mean?”

Let’s bring some humanity back to the sciences.

laboratoryequipment: Robot Runs Like a CatThanks to its legs,...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:45:21 -0400

laboratoryequipment:

Robot Runs Like a Cat

Thanks to its legs, whose design faithfully reproduces feline morphology, EPFL’s four-legged “cheetah-cub robot” has the same advantages as its model: it is small, light and fast. Still in its experimental stage, the robot will serve as a platform for research in locomotion and biomechanics.

Even though it doesn’t have a head, you can still tell what kind of animal it is: the robot is definitely modeled upon a cat. Developed by EPFL’s Biorobotics Laboratory (Biorob), the “cheetah-cub robot,” a small-size quadruped prototype robot, is described in an article appearing today in the International Journal of Robotics Research. The purpose of the platform is to encourage research in biomechanics; its particularity is the design of its legs, which make it very fast and stable. Robots developed from this concept could eventually be used in search and rescue missions or for exploration.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/videos/2013/06/robot-runs-cat

medicalschool: Visualizing the major causes of death in the...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:41:45 -0400

medicalschool:

Visualizing the major causes of death in the 20th Century (Click to view bigger)

othergeeks: Adam Brown, The Great Work of the Metal Lover...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:41:28 -0400

othergeeks:

Adam Brown, The Great Work of the Metal Lover (SEM), 2012, scanning electron micrograph

In this project Adam Brown uses anaerobic bacteria to extract pure gold from a gold chloride solution. He says: “[it] is an artwork that sits at the intersection of art, science and alchemy, re-examining the problem of transmutation through the use of modern microbiological practice and thus solving the ancient riddle.” This scanning electron micrograph shows the bacteria in the process of synthesizing gold.

kenobi-wan-obi: Radio Telescope and Southern Sky A radio...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:30:38 -0400

kenobi-wan-obi:

Radio Telescope and Southern Sky

A radio telescope of the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) under the starry sky of the Western Australia.

ASKAP comprises 36 radio dishes, each with a diameter of 12 meters, making the telescope sensitive to faint radiation from the Milky Way and giving it the ability to detect very distant galaxies. — Alex Cherney

woops the brazil post was an error post my bad guys!

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:27:13 -0400

woops the brazil post was an error post my bad guys!