Search Results for: label/night sky

• Why is the sky pink?

  On Mars, the sky is pink during the day, shading to blue at sunset. What planet did you think I was talking about? On Earth, the sky is blue during daytime, turning red at as the sun sinks toward night. Scattering light Well, it’s not quite as simple as that: if you ignore your dear sainted mother’s warning and look at the Sun, you’ll see that the sky immediately around the Sun is white, and the sky right at the horizon (i…

  Authored by Matthew R Francis on March 12, 2012

• To Everything (Turn Turn Turn) There is a Season

  Today – June 20 – is the northern Summer Solstice, sometimes known as the Northern Solstice, “first day of summer”, or Midsummer’s Day, depending on where you live. It’s the longest day and shortest night of the year in the northern hemisphere (where I live), though exactly how long or short depends on how far north you live. And of course in the southern hemisphere, today is is the shortest day and longest night, since the seasons a…

  Authored by Matthew R Francis on June 20, 2012

• You – Yes, You – Are an Astronomer

  On January 7, 1610 (402 years ago today!), Galileo first identified three moons of Jupiter, the first satellites ever observed orbiting another planet. He later found a fourth, and today those moons — Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto — are known as the Galilean moons in his honor. Galileo was able to do this because he used a telescope to observe: every new way to see reveals something new to be seen. You can buy a telescope that’s more…

  Authored by Matthew R Francis on January 7, 2012

• Diversity in Science Carnival #14: Women’s History Month–Exploring the role of women in the STEM enterprise

  …and I close with a quote from it. It’s a letter by Chitra Thakur-Mahadik, who earned her PhD in biochemistry and hemoglobinopathy from the University of Mumbai and served as staff scientist a Mumbai children’s hospital for 25 years. She wrote to her younger, “partially sighted” self that, “The future is ahead and it is not bad!” She goes on to say, “Be fearless but be compassionate to yourself and others… be brave, keep your eyes and ears open…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on March 29, 2012

• Walnuts, willful murder, & World Book Night

  …functions, leading to “walnut wilt” – the wilting and stunting Gamache noticed with the headstone’s rose bush. As with humans, it’s the dose that makes the poison. It can take a black walnut tree 25 years to introduce enough juglone into the surrounding soil to cause “walnut wilt” or death in sensitive plants –  but less than 10 years can do the trick in some cases. This wide window of lethality res…

  Authored by DXS Contributor on April 24, 2013

• Biology Explainer: The big 4 building blocks of life–carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and nucleic acids

  …molecules themselves break down into a surprisingly small number of building blocks. The proteins that make up all of the living things on this planet and ensure their appropriate structure and smooth function consist of only 20 different kinds of building blocks. Nucleic acids, specifically DNA, are even more basic: only four different kinds of molecules provide the materials to build the countless different genetic codes that translate into all…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on June 8, 2012

• A dislocation of mind

  really wrong was depression. She felt suicidal. I had already called more than 30 psychiatrists by the time we went, and had already discovered that I could not get her an appointment in a reasonable amount of time. 6 weeks, 2 months, 3 months, we’ll add you to the waiting list…and in the meantime my daughter begged, “Please, Mom, can’t you make it stop? I just want it to stop!” It is always awful to witness one’s own child suffering. From a bab…

  Authored by DXS Contributor on March 15, 2013

• After Newtown missteps, journalists get guidelines

  …almost twice as likely to say that they don’t want to live or work near a person with mental illness if they read an article about a person with mental illness involved in a mass shooting, according to a study published March 20 in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Interestingly, this tendency is the same even if the article avoids any mention of mental illness. This may be because this link between violence and mental illness is deeply engrain…

  Authored by DXS Contributor on March 27, 2013

• Double Xplainer: Once in a Blue Moon

  Full Moon, from Flickr user Proggie under Creative Commons license. Tonight—August 31, 2012— is the second full Moon of August. The last time two full Moons occurred in the same month was in 2010, and the next will be in 2015, so while the events are rare, they aren’t terribly uncommon either. In fact, you’ve probably heard the second full Moon given a name: “blue moon”. (The Moon will not appear to be a blue col…

  Authored by Matthew R Francis on August 31, 2012

• Friday Roundup: dissolving mice, preschooler paleontologist, evolution cake, and more 2011 retrospective

  Burrunan dolphin, a new species discovered in 2011 Cool science and science ewwws Can Mountain Dew really dissolve a mouse?  Barry White’s voice may have been low, but how well could his boys swim? French botanist Jeanne Baret botanized around the 18th-century world dressed as a man. Now, she gets some recognition.  Have you had a child? Would it make you feel better to know that you each still carry around cells from one anothe…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on January 6, 2012