"We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours." This tumblr's for all the great men and women of science for whom we owe our current understanding of the natural world; their achievements, their failures, and even their quirks, we celebrate them all.
For Science. For Inquiry. For Humanity.
Col. Chris Hadfield: “Safely home - back on Earth, happily readapting to the heavy pull of gravity. Wonderful to smell and feel Spring.”
Read about Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield’s return to Earth following historic five-month mission here: http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/media/news_releases/2013/0513.asp
Photo credits: Mikhail Metzel/AFP/Getty Images/Guardian/space-pics/NASA
(via scinerds)
DNA and RNA have similar structures in that each has a sugar-phosphate backbone with one organic base bound to each sugar. However, there are four differences between RNA and DNA:
- The sugar in RNA is ribose, not deoxyribose
- RNA uses uracil instead of thymine. The common bases in RNA are adenine, uracil, guanine, and cytosine.
- RNA is much smaller than DNA. The molecules of RNA range in molar mass between 20,000 and 40,000 g/mol instead of as much as 109 g/mol.
- RNA is usually single-stranded, not double-stranded
Images taken from wikipedia.org
(via scinerds)
NPR traces views of Earth from the Middle Ages to the Space Age, including the Pale Blue Dot, which celebrates its birthday this week.
Complement with a visual history of humanity’s depictions of the cosmos.
“If ye wish’d to mayke a pye of apple from scratch, one is best sirved to fyrst create the universe.” - Historical dude
Pages from Albert Einstein’s notebook
I want to wad them up and eat them, and absorb every genius nutrient into my own self.
(Source: ludwiggvanlee)
Happy Mother’s Day!
Here’s a great photo of UCLA’s Anna Fisher: the first mother in space.
(via scinerds)
Oh, and one more treat to celebrate the end of the Cmdr. Hadfield era on the ISS as he readies for his return tomorrow.
Here he is singing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, in space.
Your head now has permission to explode.
Col. Chris Hadfield returns to Earth tomorrow after nearly five months in command of the International Space Station. Here are his touching personal reflections on the mission.
His stay on the ISS has captured the imagination and the curiosity of millions of people on Earth, thanks to this wonderfully interconnected world we call social media. Not only do we have the technology to send men to space for months at a time, but they can share that experience so richly with all of us.
I am truly grateful for his hard work, the hard work of people like his son Evan (who managed his dad’s Tumblr and much of his other social media) and the hard work of those who continue to support the mission. He went to space so we could ALL go to space.
Celebrate with the ten best videos from Commander Hadfield’s time aboard the ISS. I know what my favorite was (also in GIF form).
Personal care is big business: Americans spend close to $30 billion annually on shampoos, hair conditioners, skin care and other products to make us look, feel, and smell better. Of this total 40% goes for shampoos, conditioners, and styling gels.
The ingredients in shampoo can appear like hieroglyphics, even to a chemist. Here are some examples: sodium lauryl sulfate, glycol distearate, panthenol, methyl paraben and dimethicone (picture 2). It’s enough to make your scalp itch, but despite their exotic-sounding names, the active ingredients in a shampoo play three fundamental roles. Some ingredients wash away the substances that make hair “dirty”; others adhere to hair to impart a desirable feel and texture, and still others are emulsifiers that keep the mixture from separating into its components.
To accomplish these roles, the components of a hair product must have the right combinations of properties. Some need to have strong attractions to water (hydrophilic), while others must have weak attractions to water (hydrophobic).
Water can wash away hydrophilic substances but cannot remove hydrophilic dirt and grease. Shampoo contains molecules that are simultaneously hydrophilic and hydrophobic, such as sodium lauryl sulfate (picture 3). This molecule contains a hydrophilic sulfate group attached to a hydrophobic hydrocarbon chain. The chain is attracted to grease and dirt, whereas the anionic portion is attracted to water. Molecules like these associate with hydrophobic dirt particles to form hydrophilic clumps that water can wash away.
(via astrotastic)
Richard Feynman, born on May 11, 1918, on the role of scientific culture in modern society – timeless, remarkably timely read.
Pair with how ignorance drives science.
(via explore-blog)
This is my guy. Thanks for the inspiration Dr. Feynman.
(via jtotheizzoe)
(Source: , via jtotheizzoe)
