Science

Sesame Street’s ‘Big Bird’ Spotted on...

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 12:12:00 -0400

Sesame Street’s ‘Big Bird’ Spotted on Sun’s Surface in Spacecraft Photo

“A new photo from a NASA sun-watching spacecraft highlights a huge solar feature that looks a lot like the beloved Big Bird from the children’s television show “Sesame Street.”

The image, snapped today June 1 by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) probe, actually shows a so-called coronal hole — an area where the sun’s corona, or outer atmosphere, is dark. But the resemblance to Big Bird, or one of his feathered kin anyway, is uncanny.”

Our Cyborg Future: Man Embeds Magnets In Wrist To Make Strapless...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 18:45:27 -0400

Our Cyborg Future: Man Embeds Magnets In Wrist To Make Strapless Watch

“We’ve seen some odd student projects in our time...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 17:57:00 -0400

“We’ve seen some odd student projects in our time here at CR, but this must go down as one of the oddest: two Kingston students created human photograms by swallowing 35mm film, then, erm, expelling it, and recording the results.”

“This guy is a truck driver, 69 years old, who’s...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 17:52:00 -0400

“This guy is a truck driver, 69 years old, who’s been exposed to 25 years of direct sunlight thanks to his job—but only on the left side of his face. So we get a first-hand view at how much more aged human skin looks when bombarded with sunlight over the years.”

40 Of The Most Powerful Photographs Ever Taken A dog named...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 16:53:00 -0400

40 Of The Most Powerful Photographs Ever Taken

A dog named “Leao” sits for a second consecutive day at the grave of her owner, who died in the disastrous landslides near Rio de Janiero on January 15, 2011.

40 Of The Most Powerful Photographs Ever Taken “A...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 16:51:56 -0400

40 Of The Most Powerful Photographs Ever Taken

“A 4-month-old baby girl in a pink bear suit is miraculously rescued from the rubble by soldiers after four days missing following the Japanese tsunami.”

Earth From Space: The Snows Over Southern Patagonia

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:42:22 -0400

Earth From Space: The Snows Over Southern Patagonia

These 100-Year-Old Aerial Photos Were Taken by Pigeons “In...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:54:00 -0400

These 100-Year-Old Aerial Photos Were Taken by Pigeons

“In 1903, a German pharmacist named Julius Neubronner started employing carrier pigeons to receive and fulfill emergency prescriptions from a hospital in the region. One day, after a bird of his mysteriously returned after being lost a month late, Julius began to devise a way to track their flights.

Shortly after, the avid tinkerer and amateur photographer developed a lightweight, timer camera rig that his pigeons could wear in flight to snap rare aerial photos, the likes of which, at the time, could only be captured via balloons or kites.”

In Rat Experiment, New Hope for Spine Injuries After several...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:42:00 -0400

In Rat Experiment, New Hope for Spine Injuries

After several weeks of neurorehabilitation, previously paralyzed rats initiated a walking gait and soon began sprinting, climbing stairs and avoiding obstacles.

7 Things You Didn’t Know About the Golden Gate Bridge

Thu, 31 May 2012 19:44:01 -0400

7 Things You Didn’t Know About the Golden Gate Bridge

Earth From Space: Tropical Storm Beryl Over Florida An early...

Thu, 31 May 2012 18:57:25 -0400

Earth From Space: Tropical Storm Beryl Over Florida

An early tropical storm drenched Florida earlier this week, leaving as much as 10 inches of of rain in some spots. Tropical Storm Beryl has since been downgraded, but continued to bring wet weather to the North Carolina shore on Wednesday. Above, the storm as it appeared around noon on Memorial Day, as captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

THE DRAGON HAS (SPLASH) LANDED SpaceX’s Dragon Spacecraft Safely...

Thu, 31 May 2012 14:54:00 -0400

THE DRAGON HAS (SPLASH) LANDED

SpaceX’s Dragon Spacecraft Safely Completes Historic Mission to the Space Station

“Hawthorne, CA – This morning, at approximately 8:42 AM Pacific/11:42 AM Eastern, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) completed its historic mission when the Dragon spacecraft splashed down safely in the Pacific. The vehicle will now be recovered by boats and start the trip back to land.”

Livermorium and Flerovium join the periodic table of...

Thu, 31 May 2012 14:11:00 -0400

Livermorium and Flerovium join the periodic table of elements

“The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) today officially approved new names for elements 114 and 116, the latest heavy elements to be added to the periodic table.

Scientists of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)-Dubna collaboration proposed the names as Flerovium for element 114, with the symbol Fl, and Livermorium for element 116, with the symbol Lv, late last year.”

Astronaut Don Pettit Plays Space Station Vacuum Cleaner As...

Thu, 31 May 2012 13:51:35 -0400

Astronaut Don Pettit Plays Space Station Vacuum Cleaner As Didgeridoo

Article and video here.

This Photo Uses Every Single Instagram Filter “How many...

Thu, 31 May 2012 13:10:00 -0400

This Photo Uses Every Single Instagram Filter

“How many steps does it take to go from Thomas Kinkade to Mark Rothko?”

SpaceX Dragon Splashes Down “The first private spacecraft...

Thu, 31 May 2012 12:44:18 -0400

SpaceX Dragon Splashes Down

“The first private spacecraft to visit the International Space Station made a dramatic return home to a precise splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the Southern California coast.

Guided by a trio of 116-feet diameter parachutes after a searing re-entry through the atmosphere, the safe descent of Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s unmanned Dragon capsule capped a historic nine-day voyage.”

Here’s another photo from the KQED QUEST team’s...

Wed, 30 May 2012 17:45:41 -0400

Here’s another photo from the KQED QUEST team’s visit to the Berkeley Natural History Museums. This is the world’s heaviest spider species, the Goliath Birdeater!

Learn more here.

Several KQED QUEST folks are visiting the Berkeley Natural...

Wed, 30 May 2012 16:12:16 -0400

Several KQED QUEST folks are visiting the Berkeley Natural History Museums at UC Berkeley today, including the University of California Museum of Paleontology where this Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton resides. It’s the only one you can see in the world for free!

bayareabites: Should Sustainability be a Factor in Restaurant...

Wed, 30 May 2012 15:12:28 -0400

bayareabites:

Should Sustainability be a Factor in Restaurant Food?

Elizabeth Meltz, the director of sustainability for Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich and other chefs shares her thoughts on the subject with Bay Area Bites this week, including her response to a recent NY Post columnist’s opinion that fine dining is “an industry and an art form based on excess and exploitation.”

Transit of Venus: Early ‘tape measure’ for size of...

Wed, 30 May 2012 13:33:02 -0400

Transit of Venus: Early ‘tape measure’ for size of our solar system

“The next transit of Venus occurs June 5. Astronomers once used the transit of Venus across the sun to come up with the ‘astronomical unit’ – the distance from Earth to our sun.”