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An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump1768, Joseph Wright ‘of Derby’A travelling scientist is shown demonstrating the formation of a vacuum by withdrawing air from a flask containing a white cockatoo, though common birds like sparrows would normally have been used. […] The bird will die if the demonstrator continues to deprive it of oxygen, and Wright leaves us in doubt as to whether or not the cockatoo will be reprieved. The painting reveals a wide range of individual reactions, from the frightened children, through the reflective philosopher, the excited interest of the youth on the left, to...

A second bunch of data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite has been released today and the archive is live now. Gaia creates richest star map of our Galaxy – and beyond A multitude of discoveries are on the horizon after this much awaited release, which is based on 22 months of charting the sky. The new data includes positions, distance indicators and motions of more than one billion stars, along with high-precision measurements of asteroids within our Solar System and stars beyond our own Milky Way Galaxy.Image caption: Gaia’s sky in colour.Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC.h-t Sean M. Carroll Facebook pageComparison between Gaia’s...

Hiya, friend. Earlier this week I talked about turning negatives into positives with a quickness. Well, I’m still working on flipping and reversing it à la Missy Elliott, and the issue I’m dealing with right now is one of the things I find most challenging: setting realistic expectations of what I can accomplish in a set amount of time. I don’t know if it’s the former perfectionist in me (I’m working on it), but I always want to do more, finish more, check more things off my to-do list, and I consistently overshoot and overestimate what I can take on....

Fruit A child is born.*By Lennart Nilsson (wiki, site)ViaMore: Time (from the 1965 Life issue) University of Cambridge, Making visible embryos, The lonesome space traveller * Well, he or she didn’t born, “Nilsson actually photographed abortus material obtained from women who terminated their pregnancies under the liberal Swedish law. Working with dead embryos allowed Nilsson to experiment with lighting, background and positions, such as placing the thumb into the fetus’ mouth.” [check out the Cambridge’s link above]

So…what is the Monday Poll? Excellent question! It isn’t, contrary to its name, an actual poll, like with little clicky buttons. It’s just a list of five more or less random questions I’ve been posting on this blog every Monday morning for the past quadrillion years (since 2007). I love reading your answers, and it helps me get my week off to a good start. 1. What’s your favorite Thanksgiving side dish? Oh, easy question. All of them? I could happily nosh exclusively on the fixin’s and straight-up skip the turkey. But if I have to pick one…it’s mashed potatoes....