See tagged statuses in the local Rambling Readers community
Lovely conjunction between the #Moon and Venus after #sunset! Saturn, Jupiter and Mars are also visible at the same time. Uranus is up there too, but it's not visible without a telescope.
If you're in a dark enough location to see the #MilkyWay, this is a nice chance to notice that the plane of our Solar System is inclined about 60º with respect to the disc of the Milky Way.
Screenshot from https://stellarium.org/
Cette nouvelle mission (à ne pas confondre avec une célèbre danse 😅) prévoit d’envoyer un accéléromètre quantique dans l’espace. Cette technologie de rupture présenterait une stabilité de mesure exceptionnelle, en utilisant les propriétés internes des atomes à l’instar des horloges atomiques.
In the vast ocean they roam,
Great whales find a peaceful home,
With extraordinary longevity,
Living happily, so strong and free,
Let's protect them and let them alone.
#GuardianLimerick #Oceans #Cetaceans #Whales #Environment #Wildlife #Iceland #Japan #Europe #Zoology #Biology #Science #Coastlines
'Modern medicine has saved the lives of countless children. But anti-science sentiments could set us back.'
https://www.inverse.com/health/victorian-child-mortality-rate-vaccines
'In the first half of the 19th century, between 40% and 50% of children in the U.S. didn’t live past the age of 5. While overall child mortality was somewhat lower in the U.K., the rate remained near 50% through the early 20th century for children living in the poorest slums.'
Scandinavians came to Britain long before Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, finds study https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jan/01/scandinavians-came-to-britain-long-before-vikings-and-anglo-saxons-finds-study #RomanBritain #Archaeology #Science #UKnews #Europe
Tired of #NewYear celebrations? It could be worse: on Mercury you'd have to celebrate it twice per day!
After one orbit around the Sun, Mercury has rotated 1.5 times around its axis (relative to distant stars). So it takes another orbit for the Sun to be back again at the same position on the sky. One solar day --> two Mercury years!
📷 Tos
#PPOD: This image from ESA’s #Mars Express shows a beautiful slice of the #RedPlanet from the northern #polarcap downwards, and highlights cratered, pockmarked swathes of the Terra Sabaea and Arabia Terra regions. It comprises data gathered on 17 June 2019 during orbit 19550. This image was created using data from the nadir and color channels of the High-Resolution Stereo Camera. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
The long-tailed C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS).
📸 Petr Horálek, @petrhoralek /IG
Well, this is fascinating! The city of Poznan, Poland uses eight clams to control their water supply. When the water is clean, they remain open, but close when contaminated, closing a sensor harmlessly glued to their shell. Computers do the rest. After three months, the clams are returned to their original home and replaced with new clams. #science #health #clever https://kottke.org/24/12/eight-clams-control-this-polish-citys-water-supply
Of all the planets, Venus does the best job hiding its secrets. No clear view of the surface. No stripes or storms or spots. Just a thick veil obscuring an enigmatic, Earth-size world right next door.
(Natural-color image taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft on June 5, 2007.)
https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10124 #science #nature #astronomy
#OTD in 1959.
American physicist Richard Feynman gave a speech entitled "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" at Caltech, anticipating the field of nanotechnology. Feynman considered the possibility of direct manipulation of individual atoms as a more robust form of synthetic chemistry than those used at the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_Plenty_of_Room_at_the_Bottom
"As I have pointed out already in my general exposition of the constitution of line spectra, and have afterwards tried further to confirm, there can be no doubt that these series are really parts of a single group of lines with two variable integral parameters, the general formula of which can be written approximately."
Lines in the Hydrogen Spectrum (1897)
~Johannes Rydberg (8 November 1854 – 28 December 1919)
Johannes Rydberg , who died #OTD in 1919, was a Swedish physicist mainly known for devising the Rydberg formula, in 1888, which is used to describe the wavelengths of photons (of visible light and other electromagnetic radiation) emitted by changes in the energy level of an electron in a hydrogen atom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Rydberg
Photos: Top #NewSpecies from 2024 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2024/
"#Scientists described numerous new species this past year, the world’s smallest #otter in #India, a fanged #hedgehog from #SoutheastAsia, tree-dwelling #frogs in #Madagascar, and a new family of African #plants... Although species may be new to #science, many are already known to local and #Indigenous peoples and have traditional names and uses."
