Cummingtonite. #geology #chemistry #notwhatyoumightthinkitis
Yup. I did a double take too. Here is the wiki entry for this mineral.
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Category: *
December 15, 2011
God, seriously. Stop with the triangle jokes.
Via somuchpun.com.
December 12, 2011
How a statistician views the world.
From the always great Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
December 12, 2011
Rosalind Franklin in comic form: pretty much perfectly describes the scientific facepalm
“The trouble with reading about a given woman’s history who was born before your mom is that sometimes, they were hilarious, powerful, tough, loud, et cetera et cetera all good comic making material! But then sometimes, man, the main thing about them is that they just got screwed, big time. I think when I read about Rosalind Franklin, or Mary Anning, or whoever, of just how shitty stealing someone else’s ideas really is. If I opened a newspaper and saw my comic in it signed by some random dude who was getting paid for it, I’d lose my cool! Dear readers, I would have an undignified tantrum. Wouldn’t you?” Kate Beaton
By the awesome Kate Beaton.
December 12, 2011
The Newton Digital Library: His “Waste Book.”
I love the back story to this:
“Much of Newton’s important work on calculus is developed in this large notebook, which he began using in 1664 when he was away from Cambridge due to the plague. Newton inherited the book from his stepfather, Rev Barnabas Smith, who used it from about 1612 to record his own theological notes (see, for example, his notes on adultery, in Latin). Newton was not interested in his stepfather’s jottings: its value to him was the large number of blank pages, which he began filling with his mathematical and optical calculations. Although the bulk of his work in this manuscript dates from the mid-1660s, Newton continued to use into the 1680s and possibly even the 1690s.” (link)
More of Newton’s papers at the Cambridge Digital Library
December 9, 2011
Is it really so difficult to believe we came out from the sea millions and millions of years ago?
“With all the recent, fiery controversy between evolution, creationism, intelligent design, science, religion, the political left, right, etc., I thought it might be provocative to throw my visual two-cents into the ring. The images beg the question, is it really so difficult to believe we came out from the sea millions and millions of years ago?”
By Ted Sabarese, via behance.net.
December 8, 2011
BBC’s David Attenborough does a lovely rendition of “What a Wonderful World.” #inspiring #mustsee
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This video is amazing… Come on people, do the right thing…
December 8, 2011
Caused by glaciers, earthquake, wind dynamics, pooling rain water, or very very busy gophers?
This mystery might be cool to use in a class about hypotheses generation.
(Click on image for full size).
Specifically: “Mima mounds ( /ˈmaɪmə/) is a term used for low, flattened, circular to oval, domelike, natural mounds found in the northwestern United States, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, that are composed of loose, unstratified, often gravelly sediment that is an overthickened A Horizon. These mounds range in diameter from 3 to more than 50 m; in height 30 cm to greater than 2 m; and in density from several to greater than 50 mounds per hectare. Within the northwestern United States, they are typically part of what is commonly known as hog-wallow landscape.” (wiki)
See all the hypotheses here. (Admittedly, I’m partial to the thought of busy gophers moving tons and tons of soil!)
December 8, 2011
Nothing exists except for atoms and space: Everything else is opinion.
Cool poster design using quote from Democritus (Greek philosopher, 460-370bc)
By Ger Heffernan, via typographyserved.com.
December 7, 2011
If Disney had made Jaws. #awesome #funny (via @DrMRFrancis)
Shark Song by Whitehouse Content, via @DrMRFrancis.
December 5, 2011
3 month ultraviolet time lapse image of the sun. #amazing
“This video is a complete time-lapse video of the Sun spanning the entire months of September, October and November 2011 as seen through the SWAP ultraviolet instrument onboard the European Space Agency spacecraft Proba-2 (PRoject for OnBoard Autonomy).”
You can also see the slowed down YouTube version (also awesome).
December 5, 2011
Muggle to Wizard/Witch ratio Mendelian genetics question
Photo by Mai Blahg via tumblr.com under “biology” tag.
popperfont.net 
