“The very first image of the whole Earth was made in 1966. It was fax quality, sent back by the Lunar Orbit 1. Most remarkable was the ingenious contraption that took a picture, developed the film, scanned it and transmitted it back, all in analog, with mechanical moving parts, in zero gravity and a total vacuum.” - Kevin Kelly

freshphotons:

“To mark the International Year of Chemistry and the hundredth anniversary of the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Marie Curie, this issue features a series of Commentary articles examining broader issues in chemistry beyond the science itself. As part of this collection, Michelle Francl considers how the representation of women in science has changed since Curie’s day. The image on the cover comprises a mosaic of female scientists — many thanks go to them and also to Michelle who suggested the concept and collected most of the pictures.”

ohyeahfacts:

uraniaproject:

(via Infographic: How the New Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Stacks Up)

cookiesandknitting:

Researchers in Japan have made fertile mammalian sperm in a culture dish, a feat long thought to be impossible. The technique, reported today in Nature¹, could help to reveal the molecular steps involved in sperm formation and might even lead to treatments for male infertility.

…

(via diamidinophenylindole-deactivat)

matthen:

When you plot the position of Mars in the sky, you’ll notice that in general it moves from West to East. But when we are closest to Mars, it seems to go backwards for a bit before continuing. This is called retrograde motion, and this challenged early models of the Solar system which had Earth at the centre. The animation shows why Mars appears to go backwards for a bit. [more] [code]

(via uraniaproject)

The 4.5 billion year earth with 

3.8 billion years of simple cells (prokaryotes),

3 billion years of photosynthesis,

2 billion years of complex cells (eukaryotes),

1 billion years of multicellular life,

600 million years of simple animals,

570 million years of arthropods (ancestors of insects, arachnids and crustaceans),

550 million years of complex animals,

500 million years of fish and proto-amphibians,

475 million years of land plants,

400 million years of insects and seeds,

360 million years of amphibians,

300 million years of reptiles,

200 million years of mammals,

150 million years of birds,

130 million years of flowers,

65 million years since the non-avian dinosaurs died out,

2.5 million years since the appearance of the genus Homo,

200,000 years since humans started looking like they do today and

25,000 years since Neanderthals died out.

toknow:

Mother Jones has a great article by Chris Mooney titled “The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science”.

The article provides a frustrating overview of why so many people who hold strong convictions on a particular subject such as climate change deniers, anti-vaxxers or creationists, cannot, and will not be convinced by scientific evidence.

(Hat tip to John Gruber at Daring Fireball.)

(via toknow-deactivated20111201)

A real time recreation of Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering first orbit, shot entirely in space from on board the International Space Station. The film combines this new footage with Gagarin’s original mission audio and a new musical score by composer Philip Sheppard. For more information visit http://www.firstorbit.org