Alright, just when I think there is little that surprises me anymore. Dead spiders as grippers. I’ll not sleep tonight…
Category Archives: Science
How a Jellyfish and a Sea Slug Illuminate the Mystery of the Self
“A humbling evolutionary antidote to the hubris of exceptionalism, with a side of etymology.”
https://www.themarginalian.org/2018/10/25/lewis-thomas-the-medusa-and-the-snail-self/
Ernst Haeckel’s Sublime Drawings of Flora and Fauna: The Beautiful Scientific Drawings That Influenced Europe’s Art Nouveau Movement (1889)
“Haeckel published 100 fabulous prints beginning in 1889 in a series of ten books called Kunstformen der Natur (“Art Forms in Nature”)…”
https://www.openculture.com/2017/11/ernst-haeckels-sublime-drawings-of-flora-and-fauna.html
2021 Nikon Smallworld Photomicrography Competition Winners
Hidden wonder and beauty in the microscopic world around us…
https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2021-photomicrography-competition
Trandscending Culture
New research reveals that emotional states are universally associated with certain bodily sensations, regardless of individuals’ culture or language.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/body-atlas-reveals-where-we-feel-happiness-and-shame
New Book Launches
Pleased so see my book on my friend, Harold Denton, released in print by the American Nuclear Society.
https://www.ans.org/store/item-690100/
During the fear-filled days of the Three Mile Island accident, Harold Denton’s voice was one of reassuring and convincing comfort to the American people. Three Mile Island and Beyond interweaves Denton’s retelling of the accident with chapters conveying his career-long message of safety being the paramount factor in the use of nuclear technology.
This Soft Robot Stingray Just Explored the Deepest Point in the Ocean
While all eyes were on the dramatic descent of NASA’s Perseverance rover last month, a team sent a robot into another alien world, one closer to home: the deep sea….
Leonardo’s Brain: What a Posthumous “Brain Scan” Six Centuries Later Reveals about the Source of Da Vinci’s Creativity
Using a wealth of available information from Leonardo’s notebooks, various biographical resources, and some well-reasoned speculation, Shlain sets out to perform a “posthumous brain scan” seeking to illuminate the unique wiring of Da Vinci’s brain and how it explains his unparalleled creativity.
https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/11/17/leonardos-brain-leonard-shlain/
Seven Things you should Know about Ingenuity
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is small but mighty. In a mere six years, it went from being an implausible prospect to a 4-pound (1.8-kg), space-certified companion to Mars aboard the Perseverance rover. And when Ingenuity arrives at Mars, it will aim to push the limits of flight. Here are seven things you should know about Ingenuity:
WHAT IF YOUR CLOTHES WERE SMART ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND THE WEATHER OR YOUR EMOTIONS?
KnitX is a set of functional textiles computationally-integrated with digital knitting. The use of active and electronic fibers in the design enables garment and interior fabrics that dynamically respond to gesture and sunlight, change their appearance, and provide thermoregulation…
What if your clothes were smart enough to understand the weather or your emotions?
This Random Sense of Wonder 