Emily Lakdawalla is a scientist, science journalist, and tireless advocate for space exploration. She also does handcrafts, and sells her stuff at her Etsy site called SpaceCraft. This is the MESSENGER which is currently orbiting Mercury and investigating its geologic history in great detail.
I can’t stop watching this.
In case anyone missed this week’s major headline:
After several weeks of neurorehabilitation (intensive training and shocks to the brain and spine), previously paralyzed rats initiated a walking gait and soon began sprinting, climbing stairs and avoiding obstacles. Work to test the techniques in humans is under way. Really cool.
Gay-Dar is real!!
The peer-reviewed journal PLos ONE recently published an experiment in which participants viewed facial photographs of men and women and then categorized each face as gay or straight. The photographs were seen very briefly, for 50 milliseconds, which was long enough for participants to know they’d seen a face, but probably not long enough to feel they knew much more. In addition, the photos were mostly devoid of cultural cues: hairstyles were digitally removed, and no faces had makeup, piercings, eyeglasses or tattoos.
Even when viewing such bare faces so briefly, participants demonstrated an ability to identify sexual orientation: overall, gaydar judgments were about 60% accurate.
The clouds are amazing today.
Obviously not doing a universe webquest.
Lobster and water lilies in a mirror frame, Anton Seder.
A transit of Venus occurs when Venus passes directly between the sun and Earth. This alignment is rare, only having occurred eight times since the invention of the telescope. After June 5th, 2012, the next event occurs in 2117. This will be the last of your lifetime. Do not miss it.
In the run-up to the 2012 Summer Olympics, researchers have created and imaged a five-ringed molecule that mimics the well-known logo of the quadrennial sports spectacular. They call it olympicene.
An historically authentic rebuild of Fort Umpqua in Elkton, OR.
Bandon, OR.
W. Eugene Smith: Anna M. Moses aka Grandma Moses holding kitten, 1947. Source: LIFE Photo Archive, hosted by Google.
All the water on Europa compared to Earth. It makes us look parched!
