Today’s Google Doodle Celebrates Discoverer of King Tut: Howard Carter
“Can you see anything?”
“Yes, wonderful things.”
That was the exchange between Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter as Carter breached the tomb door for the first time. The discovery of King Tut’s tomb has given scholars and explorers a century of inspiration, and a window into the past.
You may have heard of the “Mummy’s Curse”, the supposed early deaths of many of Howard’s team after entering Tut’s tomb. Don’t worry, science is all over that, debunking the suspicion and burying that rumor deep in the ground.
Bonus: Here’s a replay of a live chat Science magazine did with two mummy experts about the nitty gritty of being a mummy researcher.
also if anyone’s interested, here’s a link to a photographic archive of EVERYTHING found in Tut’s tomb. warning there are 500+ photos, but some are accompanied by Carter’s notes on the objects.
25-Cent Glow-in-the-Dark Dino Coin
Canada, you’ve done it again. If you’re a combination dino-freak/numismatist, then this is the coin for you. It’s a glow-in-the-dark Canadian quarter dollar, showing Albertan dinosaur Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai in full skin by daylight, and fossil skeleton by darkness.
It’s the best $30 25-cent piece that money can buy! Three more coins in this ancient creatures series will be released.
(via Mint.ca)
OMG!!! I hope someone accidentally uses one of these and I find it in my change soon :D
Van Gogh’s Sunflowers Were Genetic Mutants
Sunflowers are a consistent theme in van Gogh’s body of work, some examples of which are today worth tens of millions of dollars. But the flowers he painted often differ from the common gold blooms we are used to seeing. Was this just impressionist license? A result of his dementia?
University of Georgia researchers think they have tracked his “teddy-bear” blooms to a set of genetic mutations that are common in sunflowers. They weren’t able to cross-breed the green-centered, fluffy varieties of van Gogh’s paintings, but they think that all the mutations to do so are out there in the wild.
Bonus: Today, March 30, is Vincent van Gogh’s birthday! He’d be 162. If he weren’t in space, cloned and held prisoner by NASA, animating ocean currents like they were in ”Starry Night”.
(via Wired Science)
Know the Warning Signs of Science
(ᔥLife Technologies)
“How long have you been pipetting?”
hahaha reminds me of gr. 11 chemistry
Petridish.org: Crowdfunded science
Calling all armchair scientists! Petridish.org is a new site that allows you to help fund a science project, then follow along with the project team as it progresses. As with the successful site Kickstarter, which funds arts-related projects, backers reap a multitude of project-related rewards that range from updates and photographs of research in progress, to stones from far-away countries, even the possibility of naming a new species.
(via jtotheizzoe)
invisibility cloak. Invisibility Cloak. INVISIBILITY CLOAK.
SEED Video: Paola Antonelli + Benoit Mandelbrot
Paola Antonelli is senior curator of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art. Benoit Mandelbrot is the father of fractal geometry. They reconnected to discuss fractals, architecture, and the death of Euclid. (transcript here)
Take some time and watch this, in honor of his passing.
