#literature science

[dndspellgifs]

look, I know I've talked about this essay (?) before but like,

If you ever needed a good demonstration of the quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", have I got an exercise for you.

Somebody made a small article explaining the basics of atomic theory but it's written in Anglish. Anglish is basically a made-up version of English where they remove any elements (words, prefixes, etc) that were originally borrowed from romance languages like french and latin, as well as greek and other foreign loanwords, keeping only those of germanic origin.

What happens is an english which is for the most part intelligible, but since a lot everyday english, and especially the scientific vocabulary, has has heavy latin and greek influence, they have to make up new words from the existing germanic-english vocabulary. For me it kind of reads super viking-ey.

Anyway when you read this article on atomic theory, in Anglish called Uncleftish Beholding, you get this text which kind of reads like a fantasy novel. Like in my mind it feels like it recontextualizes advanced scientific concepts to explain it to a viking audience from ancient times.

Even though you're familiar with the scientific ideas, because it bypasses the normal language we use for these concepts, you get a chance to examine these ideas as if you were a visitor from another civilization - and guess what, it does feel like it's about magic. It has a mythical quality to it, like it feels like a book about magic written during viking times. For me this has the same vibe as reading deep magic lore from a Robert Jordan book.

[hussyknee]

Vajra Chandrasekera is a Locus and Nebula award-winner and has been short-listed for a Hugo Award this year. You can find his Tumblr here: @adamantine and his twitter here: @_vajra

[luvingsunshine]

sapiens: a brief history of humankind

[quotespile]

I don't miss him anymore. Most of the time, anyway. I want to. I wish I could but unfortunately, it's true: time does heal. It will do so whether you like it or not, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. If you're not careful, time will take away everything that ever hurt you, everything you have ever lost, and replace it with knowledge. Time is a machine: it will convert your pain into experience. Raw data will be compiled, will be translated into a more comprehensible language. The individual events of your life will be transmuted into another substance called memory and in the mechanism something will be lost and you will never be able to reverse it, you will never again have the original moment back in its uncategorized, preprocessed state. It will force you to move on and you will not have a choice in the matter.

Charles Yu, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

[linnytheseagull]

Here's how to spot a Mad Scientist:

Is very smart in a specific field

Probably hasn't slept in the past 4 days

Depressed

Slowly decends into madness/gets obsessed over something to the point where they destroy their lives over it/makes causing general chaos and destruction into their life goal

Here are other minor signs you might want to look out for (doesn't apply to all Mad Scientist):

Very pathetic. A loser, if you will

Is gay

Wears glasses

Has a best friend who is extremely friendly and also a poet

Graying hair despite their relatively youthful appearance

Can be a little bit silly (as a treat)

Note that not all Mad Scientists are actual scientists. The Mad Scientist can be disguised as something else and may try to trick you; do not be fooled. Look for these traits to identify a real wild Mad Scientist.

Now you are ready to go out into the wild and find your very own Mad Scientists to hyperfixate on for the next month! Hope this helped❤️

[lucidloving]

Joshua Moritz, 'Is There a God-Shaped Hole at the Heart of Mathematics?' // Bluepoch Games, Reverse 1999 // Li C. Tien, "Right Triangle" // Proclus Diadochus // @lothmoth // Lisa Rosenberg, "Introduction to Methods of Mathematical Physics" // Wassily Kadinsky, watercolour abstract // Albert Einstein // see 4

[the-cosmic-creature]

Dune lore is fucking insane. I just finished the first book, and have concluded that Frank Herbert is a goddamn genius.

20,000 years in the future.

Matriarchal cult of eugenisist space-nuns with weird psychic powers

Houses that resemble the royalty of medieval earth, all still obsessed with power and profit over everything else

complex religions with clear inspirations of real-world present religions (specifically catholicism and islam)

Human supercomputers?? that are also assassins??

A prison planet that creates supersoldiers by killing the weak to filter out the strongest

the main villain being the physical embodiment of sin (gluttony, lust, greed)

politics. holy war. oppression of native peoples. false prophets. cults. drugs. worms.

and that just scratches the surface. theres five more books…

[marinotcurie]

january this january that

[reasonsforhope]

"To change our relationship to the physical world – to end an era of profligate consumption by the few that has consequences for the many – means changing how we think about pretty much everything: wealth, power, joy, time, space, nature, value, what constitutes a good life, what matters, how change itself happens. As the climate journalist Mary Heglar writes, we are not short on innovation. “We’ve got loads of ideas for solar panels and microgrids. While we have all of these pieces, we don’t have a picture of how they come together to build a new world. For too long, the climate fight has been limited to scientists and policy experts. While we need their skills, we also need so much more. When I survey the field, it’s clear that what we desperately need is more artists.”" -Rebecca Solnit. Emphasis added.

Artists are so so important. I've had people tell me they feel bad because, as an artist, they don't think they can contribute anything worthwhile to climate change. They're wrong.

We cannot build a future we cannot imagine. Artists are so important. Artists show us what could be - what we could be

[mysharona1987]

[explore-blog]

In the autumn of 1883, a paper in the nation's capital reported that "an Iowa woman has spent 7 years embroidering the solar system on a quilt" — to teach astronomy in an era when women could not attend college. Her story.

[sillymachiine]

when you're third wheeling on the date between yourself (uncool version) and her tall girlfriend. weird science is on the brain lol

[prokopetz]

Contemporary Japanese light novels and classic American sci-fi are basically evil opposites when it comes to their titling conventions: both titles will be long and rambling, but the former will be a prosaically descriptive phrase that lays out the story's entire premise, while the latter will be a line from a poem the author liked that tells you absolutely fucking nothing.

[ladyvictoriart]

"The Gom Jabbar test of humanity"

Based on Frank Herberts 'Dune'

[swadloom]

In which a book about fish gets a kid who has a hard time reading to read through it twice (aka READ ELOQUENCE OF THE SARDINE)

It's really telling that this book makes me feel passionately enough to make a post on tumblr recommending it during my second read-through. Even books I've loved, like The Outsiders, I've struggled to get through. I struggle with reading. But I got so absorbed into it that I finished the last half in one night a year ago. I've been handflapping while reading, which I don't even do much otherwise.

^ Excerpts that might help you get the idea of the feel of this book.

Imagine a marine biologist writing an autobiography but 70% of it is him writing the biographies of the fish he's talking about. It's about the inner worlds of creatures that think in wordless language and sharing your existence with them. It's about coping with being apex predator to your favorite species of prey on earth. It's about how human society is volatile to itself and looking to the often unforgiving natural world for release. He talks about fish solving gender issues. FISH LOVERS PLEASE CONSIDER CHECKING IT OUT IF YOU CAN!!

Also it's still really beautifully written after being translated from French, I imagine because the author seems to be bilingual from his insta and he was able to keep his vision in tact. Idk if this book is actually really well known or if it's only well known in France or if I'm alone in this world in loving it but if fish and the ocean are an interest of yours you'll love it I promiseee