via erinkilkenny: 17 year Cicada emergence GIF, because I had to see it animate. The Brood II 17-year cicadas are up and poppin’ along the east coast of the US, according to WNYC’s citizen-science Cicada Tracker map. Want to know more about these rarely seen prime number nomads? Your humble blogger talked to New Hampshire Public Radio about cicada science. Give it a listen, they say my voice is soothing* *No one has actually said that yet.
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via erinkilkenny:

17 year Cicada emergence GIF, because I had to see it animate.

The Brood II 17-year cicadas are up and poppin’ along the east coast of the US, according to WNYC’s citizen-science Cicada Tracker map.

Want to know more about these rarely seen prime number nomads? Your humble blogger talked to New Hampshire Public Radio about cicada science. Give it a listen, they say my voice is soothing*

*No one has actually said that yet.

The Evolution of Tyrannosaurus rex The terrible lizards of your childhood have changed quite a bit, despite having been dead for millions of years. Perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in ol’ Sharptooth: T. rex Many folks without strong paleontology backgrounds (which, let’s face it, includes most people … including me) don’t appreciate how little we really know for sure about these prehistoric forms. We go to a museum, we see a fossil reconstruction of an immense dinosaur, and we assume that’s how it came out of the ground. That’s not the case. While the Field Museum’s famous T. rex ”Sue” was 80% complete upon excavation, the first specimen ever constructed was done so with just a suitcase’s worth of bones. See the shaded regions in the upper left drawing? That’s the 108-year-old first reconstruction of T. rex done by W.D. Matthew. And it’s very wrong. Even into the 1940’s, when Rudolph Zallinger painted The Age of Reptiles mural (top right) for Yale’s Peabody Museum, T. rex was still a clumsy, chubby, upright tail-dragger that looked more like a drunk Godzilla than king of the dinosaurs. By the 1970’s it was clear to scientists that T. rex could not have have held its body that way, and instead moved holding its head and tail nearly parallel to the ground. But the tail-dragger myth persisted, and in 1988’s The Land Before Time (which, let’s face it, is where most of us first formed our images of dinosaurs) Sharptooth was frustratingly upright (see middle left). Combine that with the ridiculously impossible, ninja-like aerial assault on Littlefoot’s mom, and we have a real dino science stinker on our hands. Stan Winston’s Jurassic Park finally got the head-down pose right (middle right). Yet children and college students still overwhelmingly draw T. rex as upright. Modern paleoartists (like Raul Martin, lower left) get it consistently right, but the public doesn’t. It shows you just how important it is to deliver good science to kids, because even today I can feel the upright pose of my T. rex dinobot calling me back to wrongville. And as we continue to learn more about Tyrannosaur relatives and the feathery frills they sported, we are beginning to see many artists add them to the great hunter (lower right, by pheaston). Plumage rarely shows up in fossils, and scientists and artists have to be careful not to make errors of incompleteness like we saw 108 years ago. But considering how good Velociraptor looks with that fancy outfit on, I think we’ll see more and more feathery fury on T. rex in the future. At least none of YOU will ever draw it incorrectly again, right? :) For more cool dino illustration, check out Fuck Yeah Dino Art.
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The Evolution of Tyrannosaurus rex The terrible lizards of your childhood have changed quite a bit, despite having been dead for millions of years. Perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in ol’ Sharptooth: T. rex Many folks without strong paleontology backgrounds (which, let’s face it, includes most people … including me) don’t appreciate how little we really know for sure about these prehistoric forms. We go to a museum, we see a fossil reconstruction of an immense dinosaur, and we assume that’s how it came out of the ground. That’s not the case. While the Field Museum’s famous T. rex ”Sue” was 80% complete upon excavation, the first specimen ever constructed was done so with just a suitcase’s worth of bones. See the shaded regions in the upper left drawing? That’s the 108-year-old first reconstruction of T. rex done by W.D. Matthew. And it’s very wrong. Even into the 1940’s, when Rudolph Zallinger painted The Age of Reptiles mural (top right) for Yale’s Peabody Museum, T. rex was still a clumsy, chubby, upright tail-dragger that looked more like a drunk Godzilla than king of the dinosaurs. By the 1970’s it was clear to scientists that T. rex could not have have held its body that way, and instead moved holding its head and tail nearly parallel to the ground. But the tail-dragger myth persisted, and in 1988’s The Land Before Time (which, let’s face it, is where most of us first formed our images of dinosaurs) Sharptooth was frustratingly upright (see middle left). Combine that with the ridiculously impossible, ninja-like aerial assault on Littlefoot’s mom, and we have a real dino science stinker on our hands. Stan Winston’s Jurassic Park finally got the head-down pose right (middle right). Yet children and college students still overwhelmingly draw T. rex as upright. Modern paleoartists (like Raul Martin, lower left) get it consistently right, but the public doesn’t. It shows you just how important it is to deliver good science to kids, because even today I can feel the upright pose of my T. rex dinobot calling me back to wrongville. And as we continue to learn more about Tyrannosaur relatives and the feathery frills they sported, we are beginning to see many artists add them to the great hunter (lower right, by pheaston). Plumage rarely shows up in fossils, and scientists and artists have to be careful not to make errors of incompleteness like we saw 108 years ago. But considering how good Velociraptor looks with that fancy outfit on, I think we’ll see more and more feathery fury on T. rex in the future. At least none of YOU will ever draw it incorrectly again, right? :) For more cool dino illustration, check out Fuck Yeah Dino Art.
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The Evolution of Tyrannosaurus rex The terrible lizards of your childhood have changed quite a bit, despite having been dead for millions of years. Perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in ol’ Sharptooth: T. rex Many folks without strong paleontology backgrounds (which, let’s face it, includes most people … including me) don’t appreciate how little we really know for sure about these prehistoric forms. We go to a museum, we see a fossil reconstruction of an immense dinosaur, and we assume that’s how it came out of the ground. That’s not the case. While the Field Museum’s famous T. rex ”Sue” was 80% complete upon excavation, the first specimen ever constructed was done so with just a suitcase’s worth of bones. See the shaded regions in the upper left drawing? That’s the 108-year-old first reconstruction of T. rex done by W.D. Matthew. And it’s very wrong. Even into the 1940’s, when Rudolph Zallinger painted The Age of Reptiles mural (top right) for Yale’s Peabody Museum, T. rex was still a clumsy, chubby, upright tail-dragger that looked more like a drunk Godzilla than king of the dinosaurs. By the 1970’s it was clear to scientists that T. rex could not have have held its body that way, and instead moved holding its head and tail nearly parallel to the ground. But the tail-dragger myth persisted, and in 1988’s The Land Before Time (which, let’s face it, is where most of us first formed our images of dinosaurs) Sharptooth was frustratingly upright (see middle left). Combine that with the ridiculously impossible, ninja-like aerial assault on Littlefoot’s mom, and we have a real dino science stinker on our hands. Stan Winston’s Jurassic Park finally got the head-down pose right (middle right). Yet children and college students still overwhelmingly draw T. rex as upright. Modern paleoartists (like Raul Martin, lower left) get it consistently right, but the public doesn’t. It shows you just how important it is to deliver good science to kids, because even today I can feel the upright pose of my T. rex dinobot calling me back to wrongville. And as we continue to learn more about Tyrannosaur relatives and the feathery frills they sported, we are beginning to see many artists add them to the great hunter (lower right, by pheaston). Plumage rarely shows up in fossils, and scientists and artists have to be careful not to make errors of incompleteness like we saw 108 years ago. But considering how good Velociraptor looks with that fancy outfit on, I think we’ll see more and more feathery fury on T. rex in the future. At least none of YOU will ever draw it incorrectly again, right? :) For more cool dino illustration, check out Fuck Yeah Dino Art.
Zoom Info
The Evolution of Tyrannosaurus rex The terrible lizards of your childhood have changed quite a bit, despite having been dead for millions of years. Perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in ol’ Sharptooth: T. rex Many folks without strong paleontology backgrounds (which, let’s face it, includes most people … including me) don’t appreciate how little we really know for sure about these prehistoric forms. We go to a museum, we see a fossil reconstruction of an immense dinosaur, and we assume that’s how it came out of the ground. That’s not the case. While the Field Museum’s famous T. rex ”Sue” was 80% complete upon excavation, the first specimen ever constructed was done so with just a suitcase’s worth of bones. See the shaded regions in the upper left drawing? That’s the 108-year-old first reconstruction of T. rex done by W.D. Matthew. And it’s very wrong. Even into the 1940’s, when Rudolph Zallinger painted The Age of Reptiles mural (top right) for Yale’s Peabody Museum, T. rex was still a clumsy, chubby, upright tail-dragger that looked more like a drunk Godzilla than king of the dinosaurs. By the 1970’s it was clear to scientists that T. rex could not have have held its body that way, and instead moved holding its head and tail nearly parallel to the ground. But the tail-dragger myth persisted, and in 1988’s The Land Before Time (which, let’s face it, is where most of us first formed our images of dinosaurs) Sharptooth was frustratingly upright (see middle left). Combine that with the ridiculously impossible, ninja-like aerial assault on Littlefoot’s mom, and we have a real dino science stinker on our hands. Stan Winston’s Jurassic Park finally got the head-down pose right (middle right). Yet children and college students still overwhelmingly draw T. rex as upright. Modern paleoartists (like Raul Martin, lower left) get it consistently right, but the public doesn’t. It shows you just how important it is to deliver good science to kids, because even today I can feel the upright pose of my T. rex dinobot calling me back to wrongville. And as we continue to learn more about Tyrannosaur relatives and the feathery frills they sported, we are beginning to see many artists add them to the great hunter (lower right, by pheaston). Plumage rarely shows up in fossils, and scientists and artists have to be careful not to make errors of incompleteness like we saw 108 years ago. But considering how good Velociraptor looks with that fancy outfit on, I think we’ll see more and more feathery fury on T. rex in the future. At least none of YOU will ever draw it incorrectly again, right? :) For more cool dino illustration, check out Fuck Yeah Dino Art.
Zoom Info

The Evolution of Tyrannosaurus rex

The terrible lizards of your childhood have changed quite a bit, despite having been dead for millions of years. Perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in ol’ Sharptooth: T. rex

Many folks without strong paleontology backgrounds (which, let’s face it, includes most people … including me) don’t appreciate how little we really know for sure about these prehistoric forms. We go to a museum, we see a fossil reconstruction of an immense dinosaur, and we assume that’s how it came out of the ground. That’s not the case.

While the Field Museum’s famous T. rex ”Sue” was 80% complete upon excavation, the first specimen ever constructed was done so with just a suitcase’s worth of bones. See the shaded regions in the upper left drawing? That’s the 108-year-old first reconstruction of T. rex done by W.D. Matthew. And it’s very wrong.

Even into the 1940’s, when Rudolph Zallinger painted The Age of Reptiles mural (top right) for Yale’s Peabody Museum, T. rex was still a clumsy, chubby, upright tail-dragger that looked more like a drunk Godzilla than king of the dinosaurs. By the 1970’s it was clear to scientists that T. rex could not have have held its body that way, and instead moved holding its head and tail nearly parallel to the ground.

But the tail-dragger myth persisted, and in 1988’s The Land Before Time (which, let’s face it, is where most of us first formed our images of dinosaurs) Sharptooth was frustratingly upright (see middle left). Combine that with the ridiculously impossible, ninja-like aerial assault on Littlefoot’s mom, and we have a real dino science stinker on our hands. Stan Winston’s Jurassic Park finally got the head-down pose right (middle right). Yet children and college students still overwhelmingly draw T. rex as upright.

Modern paleoartists (like Raul Martin, lower left) get it consistently right, but the public doesn’t. It shows you just how important it is to deliver good science to kids, because even today I can feel the upright pose of my T. rex dinobot calling me back to wrongville.

And as we continue to learn more about Tyrannosaur relatives and the feathery frills they sported, we are beginning to see many artists add them to the great hunter (lower right, by pheaston). Plumage rarely shows up in fossils, and scientists and artists have to be careful not to make errors of incompleteness like we saw 108 years ago. But considering how good Velociraptor looks with that fancy outfit on, I think we’ll see more and more feathery fury on T. rex in the future.

At least none of YOU will ever draw it incorrectly again, right? :)

For more cool dino illustration, check out Fuck Yeah Dino Art.

The First Book of Space Travel: Getting Kids Inspired in Space, Circa 1953 Prolific children’s book author and illustrator Jeanne Bendick penned a vision of the future intended to inspire the minds of children to create the world of tomorrow. In 1953, when she wrote The First Book of Space Travel, that world was one  where the stars would one day be within reach, despite preceding the space race by nearly a decade. Maria Popova has collected many of the pages from this out-of-print book at Brain Pickings, and they are equal parts wonderful and sad (I seriously recommend checking them out). They painfully remind us that we have fallen short of these dreams, but maybe we can find hope in Jeanne’s words below:  Questions are more important than answers… If I were a fairy godmother, my gift to every child would be curiosity. These visions are not yet out of reach. Let’s all exchange more of this gift. Here’s a little curiosity, with a bow on top. Because that’s the best kind of rocket fuel. (via Brain Pickings)
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The First Book of Space Travel: Getting Kids Inspired in Space, Circa 1953

Prolific children’s book author and illustrator Jeanne Bendick penned a vision of the future intended to inspire the minds of children to create the world of tomorrow. In 1953, when she wrote The First Book of Space Travel, that world was one  where the stars would one day be within reach, despite preceding the space race by nearly a decade.

Maria Popova has collected many of the pages from this out-of-print book at Brain Pickings, and they are equal parts wonderful and sad (I seriously recommend checking them out). They painfully remind us that we have fallen short of these dreams, but maybe we can find hope in Jeanne’s words below: 

Questions are more important than answers… If I were a fairy godmother, my gift to every child would be curiosity.

These visions are not yet out of reach. Let’s all exchange more of this gift. Here’s a little curiosity, with a bow on top. Because that’s the best kind of rocket fuel.

(via Brain Pickings)

Source: brainpickings.org

Fellow Travelers - Our Microbiome Illustrated A little art to go with the latest episode of the YouTube show. The human microbiome (and microbiomes in general) may just be my favorite subject in biology. This intricate, and in many ways still-mysterious, microbial ecosystem that each of us carry in and on our bodies affects so much of our life! Are we humans, or super-organisms? And to think that we have been completely ignorant of it for so long… Here’s some of my favorite impressions of human microbiome science as captured through the eyes of artists. Links for each: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
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Fellow Travelers - Our Microbiome Illustrated A little art to go with the latest episode of the YouTube show. The human microbiome (and microbiomes in general) may just be my favorite subject in biology. This intricate, and in many ways still-mysterious, microbial ecosystem that each of us carry in and on our bodies affects so much of our life! Are we humans, or super-organisms? And to think that we have been completely ignorant of it for so long… Here’s some of my favorite impressions of human microbiome science as captured through the eyes of artists. Links for each: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Zoom Info
Fellow Travelers - Our Microbiome Illustrated A little art to go with the latest episode of the YouTube show. The human microbiome (and microbiomes in general) may just be my favorite subject in biology. This intricate, and in many ways still-mysterious, microbial ecosystem that each of us carry in and on our bodies affects so much of our life! Are we humans, or super-organisms? And to think that we have been completely ignorant of it for so long… Here’s some of my favorite impressions of human microbiome science as captured through the eyes of artists. Links for each: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Zoom Info
Fellow Travelers - Our Microbiome Illustrated A little art to go with the latest episode of the YouTube show. The human microbiome (and microbiomes in general) may just be my favorite subject in biology. This intricate, and in many ways still-mysterious, microbial ecosystem that each of us carry in and on our bodies affects so much of our life! Are we humans, or super-organisms? And to think that we have been completely ignorant of it for so long… Here’s some of my favorite impressions of human microbiome science as captured through the eyes of artists. Links for each: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Zoom Info
Fellow Travelers - Our Microbiome Illustrated A little art to go with the latest episode of the YouTube show. The human microbiome (and microbiomes in general) may just be my favorite subject in biology. This intricate, and in many ways still-mysterious, microbial ecosystem that each of us carry in and on our bodies affects so much of our life! Are we humans, or super-organisms? And to think that we have been completely ignorant of it for so long… Here’s some of my favorite impressions of human microbiome science as captured through the eyes of artists. Links for each: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Zoom Info
Fellow Travelers - Our Microbiome Illustrated A little art to go with the latest episode of the YouTube show. The human microbiome (and microbiomes in general) may just be my favorite subject in biology. This intricate, and in many ways still-mysterious, microbial ecosystem that each of us carry in and on our bodies affects so much of our life! Are we humans, or super-organisms? And to think that we have been completely ignorant of it for so long… Here’s some of my favorite impressions of human microbiome science as captured through the eyes of artists. Links for each: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Zoom Info

Fellow Travelers - Our Microbiome Illustrated

A little art to go with the latest episode of the YouTube show.

The human microbiome (and microbiomes in general) may just be my favorite subject in biology. This intricate, and in many ways still-mysterious, microbial ecosystem that each of us carry in and on our bodies affects so much of our life! Are we humans, or super-organisms? And to think that we have been completely ignorant of it for so long…

Here’s some of my favorite impressions of human microbiome science as captured through the eyes of artists. Links for each: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

What Is “Sky Blue” Anyway? Color Science! In my latest episode on YouTube, you may have seen the “official sky blue” color that popped up. Curious where that came from? Want to use it in your artwork? I converted 475 nm light, the predominant blue wavelength that’s scattered by our atmosphere (and the reason the sky is blue) into hex code (top), and then added in various amounts of white. Depending on how much water vapor and microscopic dust is in the atmosphere, white light gets mixed in with that pure blue. I’ll probably get in trouble for declaring this “official sky blue”, and RGB colorspace isn’t a perfect model of the eye, but I have science on my side, so there! If you’d like to try yourself, check out this wavelength-to-RGB tool based on the color algorithm developed by Dan Bruton. Subscribe to It’s Okay To Be Smart on YouTube and watch the latest episode: “Why Is The Sky Any Color At All?”
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What Is “Sky Blue” Anyway? Color Science!

In my latest episode on YouTube, you may have seen the “official sky blue” color that popped up. Curious where that came from? Want to use it in your artwork?

I converted 475 nm light, the predominant blue wavelength that’s scattered by our atmosphere (and the reason the sky is blue) into hex code (top), and then added in various amounts of white. Depending on how much water vapor and microscopic dust is in the atmosphere, white light gets mixed in with that pure blue.

I’ll probably get in trouble for declaring this “official sky blue”, and RGB colorspace isn’t a perfect model of the eye, but I have science on my side, so there!

If you’d like to try yourself, check out this wavelength-to-RGB tool based on the color algorithm developed by Dan Bruton.

Subscribe to It’s Okay To Be Smart on YouTube and watch the latest episode: “Why Is The Sky Any Color At All?”

Proteins as Pictures How do you draw something you can’t see? You use your imagination, of course. Maja Klevanski begins with ribbon diagrams of proteins as determined by techniques like x-ray crystallography, with their helices, sheets and noodly loops suspended there like frozen spaghetti. Using digital imaging software, she rotates them until a familiar form is suggested. Is it a butterfly? A goat? Or a mother bear with its baby? Using a combination of pure whimsy and nods to the protein’s actual function, she adds lines and shading until the protein takes on a new life. Wonderful stuff. Robert Krulwich has more musings on the history of drawing proteins at NPR.
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Proteins as Pictures

How do you draw something you can’t see? You use your imagination, of course. Maja Klevanski begins with ribbon diagrams of proteins as determined by techniques like x-ray crystallography, with their helices, sheets and noodly loops suspended there like frozen spaghetti. Using digital imaging software, she rotates them until a familiar form is suggested. Is it a butterfly? A goat? Or a mother bear with its baby?

Using a combination of pure whimsy and nods to the protein’s actual function, she adds lines and shading until the protein takes on a new life. Wonderful stuff.

Robert Krulwich has more musings on the history of drawing proteins at NPR.

 Buzzsaw Jaw If you dug up a fossil that looked like a circular saw blade made of teeth, you’d be forgiven for being a little confused. Was it some sort of toothy nautilus? A relic of a dinosaur’s carpentry shop? When Helicoprion (meaning “spiral saw”) was first discovered in 1899, its whorl of teeth was one of the few things identified. Even though there were few skeletal clues, it was quickly decided that these teeth were from a cartilaginous fish. But where did these “teeth” fit in? On the body? Some freaky mouth appendage? Over a century of confusion followed, but recent work using X-ray analysis of fossil specimens has all but confirmed that this fish used a spiral-fed whorl of teeth, constantly regrowing as today’s sharks do, to catch soft prey like squid, 270 million years ago. It’s actually not a shark at all, but a ratfish, a branch of cartilage-skeletoned fish that branched from sharks in prehistoric times. Check out more great analysis by Brian Switek at Laelaps. He also features even more great art by Ray Troll, a Helicoprion aficionado who did the image at top.
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 Buzzsaw Jaw

If you dug up a fossil that looked like a circular saw blade made of teeth, you’d be forgiven for being a little confused. Was it some sort of toothy nautilus? A relic of a dinosaur’s carpentry shop?

When Helicoprion (meaning “spiral saw”) was first discovered in 1899, its whorl of teeth was one of the few things identified. Even though there were few skeletal clues, it was quickly decided that these teeth were from a cartilaginous fish. But where did these “teeth” fit in? On the body? Some freaky mouth appendage?

Over a century of confusion followed, but recent work using X-ray analysis of fossil specimens has all but confirmed that this fish used a spiral-fed whorl of teeth, constantly regrowing as today’s sharks do, to catch soft prey like squid, 270 million years ago. It’s actually not a shark at all, but a ratfish, a branch of cartilage-skeletoned fish that branched from sharks in prehistoric times.

Check out more great analysis by Brian Switek at Laelaps. He also features even more great art by Ray Troll, a Helicoprion aficionado who did the image at top.

Source: National Geographic

explore-blog: Harvard has released a (poorly digitized and barely navigable but nonetheless fascinating) collection of rare mushroom illustrations. Pair with the stunning Natural Histories, exploring the history of scientific illustration.  (↬ TYWKIWDBI) “Nice fruiting body. Mycelium or yours?”Wait, what do YOU think they look like? I’m talkin’ about fungi. Get your mind out of the gutter, folks :)
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explore-blog:

Harvard has released a (poorly digitized and barely navigable but nonetheless fascinating) collection of rare mushroom illustrations. Pair with the stunning Natural Histories, exploring the history of scientific illustration. 

(↬ TYWKIWDBI)

“Nice fruiting body. Mycelium or yours?”

Wait, what do YOU think they look like? I’m talkin’ about fungi. Get your mind out of the gutter, folks :)

(via scientificillustration)

Source: