Ok, this is amazing.
And if you wired other nearby plants and trees, would they all play in synchrony?
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Posts Tagged ‘science’
Baddaboom, Shroom
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, inspiration, music, nature, science on October 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Curiosity Knows
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, MarsCuriosity, NASA, science, space, Thoughts on September 18, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Some days the day job is a little hectic, and what I’d really like is a moment to get away from it all, you know?
Curiosity knows. The intrepid rover has been on Mars since 2012 and is still very much out of the office.
In fact, let’s check in. Where is that little bundle of human ingenuity is now?
Curiosity Rover Location Map – NASA Science
And what has it seen? So much!
Being away from the rest of us doesn’t mean Curiosity isn’t getting the best dirt. In fact, its latest discovery has the potential to stir up what we know about life on Mars!
Here’s Neil deGrasse Tyson to break it down for us:
As Neil asks, “Could we have Martian neighbors?” If yes, would they fancy a mid-afternoon coffee break?
I know I could use one.
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For Thee, If Not For Me
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, astronomy, lunar eclipse, planetary stuff, science on September 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Tonight there will be a total lunar eclipse visible for most of humanity (just not for we Western Hemispherians; here’s a map of viewing locations). The moon has been very bright the past few days, and tonight it will be full. As the Earth’s shadow blocks the sun, the moon will turn red.
What to expect during the ‘blood moon’ total lunar eclipse on Sept. 7-8 | Space
The Sept. 7-8 total lunar eclipse will be visible to over 7 billion people in Asia, Australia, Africa and eastern Europe.
Not in a region that will see the full eclipse? Enjoy the power of modern technology and livestream it:
LIVE: Total Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon) – September 7–8, 2025
Looking forward to it!
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Flying in the Face of Science
Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, science, sorry!, Thoughts, writing on August 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »
/with apologies to the Lepidoptera experts among us…
Ok, so here’s the thing:
— I like moths and butterflies but there’s a lot about the evolution of the family Lepidoptera that I don’t know;
— the idea that moths evolved from butterflies is, as far as I can tell, bunk;
— also, moths come out during the day, too;
— but sometimes a thought / idea / feeling flutters my way and sticks around long enough to inspire, even when I regretfully inform said idea that it is probably flying in the face of science.
And so, that’s how this most certainly unscientific poem about moths dreaming about sunshine came to be.
Some days you just go with it.
Do moths love the moon
because they remember
being butterflies?
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Andromeda Revealed!
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, astronomy, inspiration, JWST, NASA, science on August 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Sometimes a picture is worth much more than a thousand words:
Andromeda Galaxy Panorama Features Over 200 Million Stars
Stitching together more than 600 overlapping snapshots, the panorama serves as the largest photomosaic ever assembled from Hubble Space Telescope observations. Across its 2.5 billion pixels are a vast and vibrant assortment of 200 million stars, a mere fraction of Andromeda’s entire population. Taken in its entirety, the panorama is not only a technological or photographic achievement, it’s also a critical glimpse into the Andromeda galaxy itself.
And here’s the video version.
Andromeda revealed!
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Real Life Dune
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, inspiration, ISS, NASA, science, space, technology, Thoughts, Writers on August 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I have a folder of interesting articles, quotes, and ideas. When the cicadas are buzzing and the temperature is too hot to think of anything particularly timely, I search that folder for stories that might interest you.
Today, this treasure trove of ideas wants you to know about a critical space station issue: water.
When you’re on a camping trip, you might have to pack your own food and maybe something to filter or treat water that you find. But imagine your campsite is in space, where there’s no water, and packing jugs of water would take up room when every inch of cargo space counts. That’s a key challenge engineers faced when designing the International Space Station.
Real life Dune! Ok, not really, but kind of! And this is exactly the sort of technology that can benefit the Earth-bound among us too.
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To the Stars? To the Stars!
Posted in Other, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, innovation, inspiration, science, science fiction, Thoughts on August 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Here’s a fun and productive use of the internet that answers a very important question: How close are we to living in the Star Trek universe?
Check it out and see!
This guide is intended to be a comprehensive look at the tech that Star Trek suggested to drive humanity forward ad astra per aspera. The emphasis is on innovations that don’t violate physics according to present consensus understanding. Go ahead and explore boldly… Just don’t waste too much time on idle speculation: there’s a whole lot to do if we’re going to get to Trek, and it’s going to take all of us.
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From the Surface of the Sea
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, oceans, science, Thoughts on July 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »
If you’ve ever wondered what’s down in the ocean deeps, the funnest version of the answer is that we mostly don’t know!
Here’s an interesting article featuring graphic illustrations by Angela Hsieh, showing what we know about the ocean, its depths, the differences between the Sunlit, Midnight, and other zones, and the many (many) things we have yet to discover about the oceans that surround us.
Why researchers are racing to study the world’s ocean – NPR
Did you know that the ocean produces approximately half of the world’s oxygen? Or that key medicines have come from ocean discoveries, like a painkiller found in a sea snail?
It’s all true! And so is this fact: Scientists know more about space than Earth’s ocean. Seriously, humans haven’t seen 99.999% of the deep sea floor.
So cool!
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Enjoy the Ride
Posted in Other, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, aphelion, astronomy, science, space on July 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Whoops, I forgot to mention a recent solar system milestone. Two days ago, the Earth (that’s you and that’s me!) reached aphelion, or the point in our orbit at which we’re the farthest distance away from the Sun. That puts us at approximately (give or take the distance we’ve traveled in the past two days) about 3 million miles farther away from the sun than we are at perihelion.
It also raises a funny question:
Aphelion: Earth is as far away from the sun as it ever gets. So why is it so hot?
This happens every year in early July, which might sound backward. If we’re farthest from the sun, shouldn’t it be cooler?
The answer lies in the fact that the Earth gets closer to and farther away from the Sun, but it’s also tilted.
Our planet spins at an angle — about 23.5 degrees — which means different parts of the globe receive more (or less) sunlight depending on the time of year. In July, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, bringing longer days and higher sun angles that lead to more direct sunlight — all of which produce summer-like heat.
And as this Space.com article details, we’re also moving at our slowest:
Since Kepler’s laws of motion dictate that celestial bodies orbit more slowly when farther from the sun, we are now moving at our slowest pace in orbit, slightly less than 18 miles per second (29 kilometers per second) compared to just over 19 at perihelion.
Given that, today might be a good time to relax, and enjoy the ride.
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Adventure! Discovery! Secrets of the Universe!
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, astronomy, discrovery, female scientists, inspiration, science, space, Thoughts, universe on June 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »
If you don’t track space news or astronomy news or science news, you may not have seen the announcement about the debut of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s recent drop of galactically cool imagery.
Even if you have seen the announcements, you may not know the story behind the observatory, its world-beating telescope, or the woman it’s named after. Here’s a quick orientation and of course, a look at some of that amazing imagery.
World’s largest telescope debuts
The Legacy Survey of Space and Time camera is expected to capture more information about the universe than all optical telescopes throughout history combined.
What is the observatory observing from its perch on Cerro Pachón in Chile? All the things!
Ever-changing Universe Revealed in First Imagery From NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory
In just over 10 hours of test observations, NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory has already captured millions of galaxies and Milky Way stars and thousands of asteroids. The imagery is a small preview of Rubin Observatory’s upcoming 10-year scientific mission to explore and understand some of the Universe’s biggest mysteries.
Here are just some of the first images: Rubin Observatory.
Vera Rubin: First celestial image from revolutionary telescope
It should detect killer asteroids in striking distance of Earth and map the Milky Way. It will also answer crucial questions about dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up most of our universe.
Exactly who was Vera C. Rubin? Just a girl who dreamed of space, ignored the haters, and grew up to be a world-class scientist.
The Woman Behind the World’s Biggest Camera
But who is the observatory’s namesake astronomer?
Vera Rubin is best known for presenting the first sound evidence of dark matter—an elusive substance that makes up more than 80 percent of our universe, yet doesn’t interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation, making it impossible to glimpse directly through a telescope. Her central scientific accomplishment involved discovering a mismatch between the predicted angular motion of galaxies and the observed motion of galaxies. Rubin’s calculations offered a solution to this so-called “galaxy rotation problem” by suggesting that galaxies must contain at least 10 times as much mass as can be accounted for by the visible stars. This invisible mass constituted evidence for what astronomers had earlier proposed to be dark matter.
Rubin became a cosmological giant against the odds, illuminating a path for future female astronomers.
(And, I’d like to add, becoming a role model for kids of all shapes and sizes!) Want even more in-depth info about telescope and its capabilities?
First Data from Vera Rubin Observatory Rewrites Astronomy (Starting Now) – YouTube
In this exclusive interview, Professor Mario Jurić reveals how the Vera Rubin Observatory accidentally discovered 2,000 asteroids in just 10 hours while testing its capabilities on the distant Virgo Cluster—transforming humanity’s asteroid discovery rate from 20,000 per year globally to potentially over one million annually with a single telescope.
Short and very cool video of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulae, compiling more than seven hours of observing time: Trifid and Lagoon Nebulas (Video-ES).
And sure, why not, a space game!
Space Surveyors is a fun, interactive game where YOU move the Rubin telescope around the sky. How many stars, galaxies, supernovae, comets, and asteroids can you catch in one minute, before the sun rises?
While players aren’t moving the *real* telescope around, it’s still fun to play. (I discovered 22 objects before the clouds rolled in and the sun came up. Bet you can do better:)
Adventure! Discovery! Secrets of the universe! This, kids, is why math is important.*
* I mean, sure, also to figure out if you have enough money to pay rent and still buy ice cream, but also this!
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