sciencepunk | March 5, 2010Thanks to Emilia for showing me this awesome post on the Synthgear website which shows what record grooves look like under an electron microscope. Here's a line of disco magnified 500 times:
Researcher Chris Supranowitz at the University of Rochester's The Insitute of Optics took the images, one assumes for his own nerdy amusement.
Be sure to check out the full set, which includes an image in eye-popping 3D!
sciencepunk | March 1, 2010Graphic artist Philip Bond drew this awesome set of female astronauts.
You can see the whole collection on his Flickr page.
sciencepunk | February 25, 2010A set of special commemorative stamps is being launched today to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society. The stamps feature ten of the most prominent historical fellows, as chosen by leading figures in the society today.
How many can you name? Answers below the fold!
Each scientist is displayed with an image representing their contribution to the world. The fellows, and the field of their acheivement, are as follows:
Robert Boyle - Chemistry
Sir Isaac Newton - Optics
Benjamin Franklin - Electricity
Edward Jenner - Vaccination
Charles Babbage - Computing
Alfred Russell…
sciencepunk | February 23, 2010For my birthday I was given a vintage Super Baldina camera. A German model first manufactured in 1938, it has a coupled rangefinder and pop-out lens. At the time it cost an impressive $58 dollars, around $900 in today's money. Wow! It's very pretty.
My flatmate picked it up in an antiques store for £25. That's about £25 in today's money. When I opened it to put in some film, however, I discovered a secret surprise! There was a roll of film already in the camera! Winding it up, I realised that near enough the whole film had been exposed. What could possibly be on there?
The film is…
sciencepunk | February 19, 2010Researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign have developed a way to compare aromas visually using specially developed inks.
Kenneth Suslick and his colleagues used tiny squares of polymer film that hold 36 drops of carefully designed dyes. These pigments change colour when exposed to various chemicals. The result is a cheap system for detecting very low concentrations of gaseous compounds. The cards can be used like a physicist's radiation dose badge to alert lab workers when they have been exposed to toxic gases.
As shown above, the cards can be used to give each…
sciencepunk | February 17, 2010Flickr user robherr created this fantastic image, summing up life, death, beauty, youth, age and decay in a handful of leaves.
sciencepunk | February 15, 2010Neatorama reports the discovery of a real life (albeit tiny) dragon!
While participating in a herpetology study we stumbled across this female laying eggs in a nest. She was found in the Lambusango Forest reserve and was immediately released after this photograph was taken.
Neatorama notes it could be related to Draco volans. No word yet on whether it breathes fire, hoards gold, or kidnaps fair maidens.
sciencepunk | February 14, 2010Valentines is a time to pronounce your undying love to the geek in your life, and what better way than through the medium of maths and science?
A true geek knows that Texas Instruments says more than Hallmark ever could. Plotting a heart is a great trick if you're not good with words, or would rather let that special someone connect the dots. The Wolfram Alpha team have the formula for love right here.
If you'd prefer to express your feelings in three dimensions, Matt Parker reveals how to make a Möbius strip Valentines Card. Weird fact: It can't be cut into two halves - a delightful…
sciencepunk | February 9, 2010Looking every bit like the mythical Silver Power Ranger, the guy in this video is bestowed with similarly impressive powers - the ability to shoot lightning from his hands!
So what's really happening here? The lightning is actually being generated by the huge Tesla coil in the background, and flowing through the figure into a ground point near the camera. The chain mail suit protects the guy as the electricity flows around him rather than through him.
The video was shot in Austin, Texas, as part of a documentary for German television. Producer Johannes Wiebus says:
A guy in a chain mail…
sciencepunk | February 9, 2010Artist Kevin Van Aelt makes lots of biology-inspired art, including this delicious-looking chromosome chart made out of jelly worms. NOM NOM NOM!
Via Serious Eats
sciencepunk | February 7, 2010Some time back I wrote to my MP, Lib Dem Richard Younger-Ross, to ask why he hadn't signed up to Early Day Motion 423 for libel law reform. I'm please to say I've received a reply in a bundle of forwarded mail. The news in a nutshell: Richard Younger-Ross wholeheartedly supports the campaign for libel reform!
"As a nation we have found ourselves in the position where doctors who criticise heart implants and journalists who expose corporate cynicism are being sued in our courts for libel, rather than being congratulated for trying to save lives. This has to change. While individuals need a…
sciencepunk | February 7, 2010Thanks to Greg Foot for leading me to this delightful gallery of couture space fashion circa 1959 - present. I'd love to know more about the team behind each of these - did they employ seamstresses and tailors as well as materials scientists and flight suit technicians?
One of NASA's seven original astronauts, Gordon Cooper modelling the Mercury flight suit developed by B. F. Goodrich in 1959. I love how Cooper looks every inch the dashing hero - the pose, the athletic figure, the rich Kodachrome(?) colours. He lived out that image too - after a power failure onboard one spaceflight…
sciencepunk | February 1, 2010I discovered these symbols hidden underneath my TV. Does anyone know what they mean?
sciencepunk | January 26, 2010Today I got a tip off from science comms lecturer Alice Bell about a growing revolt amongst biology students in response to what they believe is an unfair exam paper.
BBC News reports on a Facebook 'campaign' launched against yesterday's A level biology exam. Students are apparently unhappy about the question posed by the AQA paper, citing that few had any relevance to the material they'd studied. Something to do with shrews, apparently.
These complaints have predictably found little support amongst those of us who've been there and soldiered though years of science education.…
sciencepunk | January 11, 2010Inspired by this post, I thought I'd see what else Google knows about our collective psyche, based on its suggested searches. Result? Google knows you're scared of Chinese people.
At first I thought it was a one-off, but then I found this, dating back to February 2009.
Ironic, really, as the Chinese are afraid of Google.
sciencepunk | January 9, 2010The UK is currently in the grip of the longest period of sub-zero weather in thirty years, and it looks set to stay cold for another week. Rather than get hysterical about the lack of grit on our roads, I thought about all the fun science opportunities the arctic weather has on offer!
Supercooling
Everyone knows that water freezes at zero degrees celsius, but not many people know that ice crystals need a small imperfection or "seed" to grow from. This can be impurities in the water or microscopic imperfections in the container holding them. Without these, water will stay liquid well below…
sciencepunk | January 7, 2010Just before Christmas I was sent a copy of the rather splendid Life Ascending by Nick Lane (author of Power, Sex, Suicide).
Over the last decades, groundbreaking new research has provided vivid insights into the molecular makeup of life. These discoveries have helped explain the evolution of life on earth in unprecedented detail.Lane uses this new knowledge to describe the ten greatest inventions of life, based on their historical impact, their importance in living organisms today, and their iconic power. In ten chapters, he explains the origin of life itself, the formation of DNA, the…
sciencepunk | January 4, 2010
Sense About Science have published their annual roundup of the worst science howlers emanating from the pages of Hello! magazine, and it's a bumper crop. From horse placenta to homeopathy, celebrities love their bogus science. Among the more LOL-worthy comments featured:
Having dodged poison daggers and golden guns, Roger Moore reveals an even more nefarious tool for assassinating the world's elite: namely that foie gras causes Alzheimer's.
Beatle-baiter and professional wingnut Heather Mills insists meat hides inside your body for 40 years while it "gives you the illness you die of. And…
sciencepunk | December 15, 2009Last week I attended the launch of the Campaign for Libel Reform, a coalition of Index on Censorship, English Pen, and Sense About Science. Editors, writers, journalists, scientists and comedians came together to sign a petition demanding that Government address the problem of libel laws in this country, which stifle free speech, suppress research findings, gag journalists and silence critics. You can read their report describing how libel laws damage free speech here. The coalition is expected to grow to include human rights groups and other interested parties over the next year, but in…
sciencepunk | December 4, 2009New Scientist has a round up of the year's most amazing scientific images. A mighty 62 to choose from! Click here to see the slide show.