#fun with science

[nando161mando]

[protectoursharks]

The shape of a fish's caudal tail can tell you a lot about how fast the fish moves! A rounded tail is the slowest and a lunate tail is the fastest! The lunate tail has the most optimal ratio of high thrust and low draw, making it the fastest.

Ichthyology Notes 2/?

[presswoodterryryan]

Alice’s Electrifying Guide to Big Sister Ariel’s AWESOME Paper on Electricity! ⚡🔋💡

By Alice Hi, friends! It’s me, Alice! 🐰💡 And guess what? My super-brilliant big sister Ariel wrote another AMAZING paper—this time, it’s all about ELECTRICITY! ⚡✨ At first, I was like, “Wait… isn’t electricity just the thing that makes my tablet work?” But then Ariel explained it to me, and WOW, it’s SO MUCH COOLER THAN THAT! 🤯💡 She told me that electricity is a form of energy that can create…

[ouruncriticalmess]

Daniel Arasse | Die Guillotine. Die Macht der Maschine und das Schauspiel der Gerechtigkeit | 1988

I Die Guillotinierung

II Die Maschinisierung

III Die Theatermaschine

"Von überall her kommen schrenweise revolutionäre Apostel zu uns, echte Sansculotten; die heilige Guillotine befinder sich in der glänzendsten Aktivität, und der wohltuende Schrecken bewirkt, was Vernunft und Philosophie nicht in hundert Jahren erreicht hätten." Bürger Gateau, Heeresintendantur 27. Brumaire II

"Revolutionary apostles are coming to us from everywhere, true sans-sculottes; the holy guillotine is in the most brilliant activity, and the pleasant terror accomplishes what reason and philosophy would not have achieved in a hundred years.” Citizen Gateau, Army Intendant 27th Brumaire II

[nasa]

Seeing the Invisible Universe

This computer-simulated image shows a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. The black region in the center represents the black hole’s event horizon, beyond which no light can escape the massive object’s gravitational grip. The black hole’s powerful gravity distorts space around it like a funhouse mirror. Light from background stars is stretched and smeared as it skims by the black hole. You might wonder — if this Tumblr post is about invisible things, what’s with all the pictures? Even though we can’t see these things with our eyes or even our telescopes, we can still learn about them by studying how they affect their surroundings. Then, we can use what we know to make visualizations that represent our understanding.

When you think of the invisible, you might first picture something fantastical like a magic Ring or Wonder Woman’s airplane, but invisible things surround us every day. Read on to learn about seven of our favorite invisible things in the universe!

1. Black Holes

This animation illustrates what happens when an unlucky star strays too close to a monster black hole. Gravitational forces create intense tides that break the star apart into a stream of gas. The trailing part of the stream escapes the system, while the leading part swings back around, surrounding the black hole with a disk of debris. A powerful jet can also form. This cataclysmic phenomenon is called a tidal disruption event.

You know ‘em, and we love ‘em. Black holes are balls of matter packed so tight that their gravity allows nothing — not even light — to escape. Most black holes form when heavy stars collapse under their own weight, crushing their mass to a theoretical singular point of infinite density.

Although they don’t reflect or emit light, we know black holes exist because they influence the environment around them — like tugging on star orbits. Black holes distort space-time, warping the path light travels through, so scientists can also identify black holes by noticing tiny changes in star brightness or position.

2. Dark Matter

A simulation of dark matter forming large-scale structure due to gravity.

What do you call something that doesn’t interact with light, has a gravitational pull, and outnumbers all the visible stuff in the universe by five times? Scientists went with “dark matter,” and they think it's the backbone of our universe’s large-scale structure. We don’t know what dark matter is — we just know it's nothing we already understand.

We know about dark matter because of its gravitational effects on galaxies and galaxy clusters — observations of how they move tell us there must be something there that we can’t see. Like black holes, we can also see light bend as dark matter’s mass warps space-time.

3. Dark Energy

Animation showing a graph of the universe’s expansion over time. While cosmic expansion slowed following the end of inflation, it began picking up the pace around 5 billion years ago. Scientists still aren’t sure why.

No one knows what dark energy is either — just that it’s pushing our universe to expand faster and faster. Some potential theories include an ever-present energy, a defect in the universe’s fabric, or a flaw in our understanding of gravity.

Scientists previously thought that all the universe’s mass would gravitationally attract, slowing its expansion over time. But when they noticed distant galaxies moving away from us faster than expected, researchers knew something was beating gravity on cosmic scales. After further investigation, scientists found traces of dark energy’s influence everywhere — from large-scale structure to the background radiation that permeates the universe.

4. Gravitational Waves

Two black holes orbit each other and generate space-time ripples called gravitational waves in this animation.

Like the ripples in a pond, the most extreme events in the universe — such as black hole mergers — send waves through the fabric of space-time. All moving masses can create gravitational waves, but they are usually so small and weak that we can only detect those caused by massive collisions.  Even then they only cause infinitesimal changes in space-time by the time they reach us. Scientists use lasers, like the ground-based LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) to detect this precise change. They also watch pulsar timing, like cosmic clocks, to catch tiny timing differences caused by gravitational waves.

This animation shows gamma rays (magenta), the most energetic form of light, and elusive particles called neutrinos (gray) formed in the jet of an active galaxy far, far away. The emission traveled for about 4 billion years before reaching Earth. On Sept. 22, 2017, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole detected the arrival of a single high-energy neutrino. NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope showed that the source was a black-hole-powered galaxy named TXS 0506+056, which at the time of the detection was producing the strongest gamma-ray activity Fermi had seen from it in a decade of observations.

5. Neutrinos

This animation shows gamma rays (magenta), the most energetic form of light, and elusive particles called neutrinos (gray) formed in the jet of an active galaxy far, far away. The emission traveled for about 4 billion years before reaching Earth. On Sept. 22, 2017, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole detected the arrival of a single high-energy neutrino. NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope showed that the source was a black-hole-powered galaxy named TXS 0506+056, which at the time of the detection was producing the strongest gamma-ray activity Fermi had seen from it in a decade of observations.

Because only gravity and the weak force affect neutrinos, they don’t easily interact with other matter — hundreds of trillions of these tiny, uncharged particles pass through you every second! Neutrinos come from unstable atom decay all around us, from nuclear reactions in the Sun to exploding stars, black holes, and even bananas.

Scientists theoretically predicted neutrinos, but we know they actually exist because, like black holes, they sometimes influence their surroundings. The National Science Foundation’s IceCube Neutrino Observatory detects when neutrinos interact with other subatomic particles in ice via the weak force.

6. Cosmic Rays

This animation illustrates cosmic ray particles striking Earth's atmosphere and creating showers of particles.

Every day, trillions of cosmic rays pelt Earth’s atmosphere, careening in at nearly light-speed — mostly from outside our solar system. Magnetic fields knock these tiny charged particles around space until we can hardly tell where they came from, but we think high energy events like supernovae can accelerate them. Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from cosmic rays, meaning few actually make it to the ground.

Though we don’t see the cosmic rays that make it to the ground, they tamper with equipment, showing up as radiation or as “bright” dots that come and go between pictures on some digital cameras. Cosmic rays can harm astronauts in space, so there are plenty of precautions to protect and monitor them.

7. (Most) Electromagnetic Radiation

The electromagnetic spectrum is the name we use when we talk about different types of light as a group. The parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, arranged from highest to lowest energy are: gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, infrared light, microwaves, and radio waves. All the parts of the electromagnetic spectrum are the same thing — radiation. Radiation is made up of a stream of photons — particles without mass that move in a wave pattern all at the same speed, the speed of light. Each photon contains a certain amount of energy.

The light that we see is a small slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, which spans many wavelengths. We frequently use different wavelengths of light — from radios to airport security scanners and telescopes.

Visible light makes it possible for many of us to perceive the universe every day, but this range of light is just 0.0035 percent of the entire spectrum. With this in mind, it seems that we live in a universe that’s more invisible than not! NASA missions like NASA's Fermi, James Webb, and Nancy Grace Roman  space telescopes will continue to uncloak the cosmos and answer some of science’s most mysterious questions.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[amnhnyc]

Imagine a pinecone as heavy as a bowling ball and the size of a chihuahua. Believe it or not, such pinecones exist—and they belong to the coulter pine (Pinus coulteri), a conifer that can be found in parts of North America including California and Mexico. Infamous among loggers and foresters, this tree is nicknamed "the widowmaker" because of the unlucky individuals who met their fate as a result of its falling pinecones. This species produces some of the largest pinecones on the planet, weighing up to 11 lbs (5 kg).

Photo: damontighe, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

[pickerwheelpolls]

You are forced to live in only one type of biome for the rest of your life, how do you react? You can leave and visit other countries or places, but only if they are in the same biome:

Spin the wheel to find out your biome.

[geek-22]

I cannot for the life of me find the OG post, if anyone knows what these accounts are called now I will cry (positive)

[beroebluejeans]

Whenever I am thinking very hard about The Locked Tomb, I find it important to remind myself Tamsyn Muir did compare the series to the KFC Double Down.

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/muir_interview/

[alithographica]

Museum SOS

I just saw the news that the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, NY is facing foreclosure after a group of donors failed to produce about $30 million USD that they had promised.

The museum is run by the Paleontological Research Institution, whose collection has about 7 million fossil specimens—one of the largest in the US—and is one of only a few natural history museums in upstate NY. PRI runs both the Museum and the Cayuga Nature Center, which is also dealing with the budget shortfall.

The organization is working on restructuring (namely downsizing) to improve their financial sustainability but they still need funds, and one thing they've said could help is if people shop at their store!

The foreclosure news broke like two days ago and their shop is already selling fast (testament to how many people want them to survive!) but there are a few items left in stock, including some prehistoric plushies. If you want to make a purchase to help maybe keep them afloat, their online gift shop is here and is honestly extremely reasonably priced.

so how about a FOOT LONG TULLY MONSTER

OR A DUNKLEOSTEUS

OR SOME

TRILOBITE SLIPPERS

They've also got some books, shirts, toys, etc. and I'm sure those sales numbers will help the authors/artists as well.

(Regular donations are also welcomed)

[datcravat]

SCIENCE BEGETS TRUTH✨

[protectoursharks]

There are four types of fish scales!

Cycloid scales are thin, overlap, and flexible. They're found on primitive teleosts (like minnows and carp).

Ctenoid scales have small, backwards pointed scales (known as cterns) make the fish more hydrodynamic and faster. They're found on Advanced Ctenoids (like perch and sunfish).

Ganoid scales are thick, diamond-shaped, and mostly non-overlapping. They're found on Chondrostei (like sturgeons and paddlefish).

Placoid scales are spikey and tooth-like with nerves. These are found on Chondrichthyes (like sharks and rays).

Ichthyology Notes 3/?

[presswoodterryryan]

Alice’s Wild and Wacky Adventure into the Three States of Matter! ✨🌎💨

By Alice Hi, everyone! It’s me, Alice! 🐰💡 And guess what? My big sister Ariel wrote another AMAZING paper—this time, it’s all about the Three States of Matter! You know… solid, liquid, and gas! 😲💨 At first, I was like, “Umm… what does that even mean?!” But then Ariel explained it in the coolest way, and now I see matter is EVERYWHERE! 🌍✨ Let me tell you, each state of matter has its own unique…

[ouruncriticalmess]

John Clarke u.a. | Jugendkulturen als Widerstand. Milieus, Rituale, Provokationen [Youth Cultures as Resistance] | 1981

I. Theoretische Grundannahmen

Graham Murdock, Robin McCron: Klassenbewußtsein und Generationenbewußtsein

John Clark, Stuart Hall, Tony Jefferson, Brian Roberts: Subkulturen, Kulturen und Klasse

II. Über den Stil von Subkulturen

John Clark: Stil

Dick Hebdidge: Die Bedeutung des Mod-Phänomens

John Clarke: Die Skinheads und die magische Rückgewinnung der Gemeinschaft

Paul Corrigan: Nichts tun

III. Perspektiven

Howard Parker: Aus Jungen werden Männer. Kurze Adoleszenz in einem innerstädtischen Wohnbezirk

Angela McRobbie, Jenny Garber: Mädchen in den Subkulturen

Phil Cohen: Territorial- und Diskursregeln bei der Bildung von "Peer-Groups" unter Arbeiterjugendlichen