Source: ladymadeofglass.deviantart.com
DUDE. SCIENCE YO. LOOK AT THIS. LOOK AT HOW FREAKING AWESOME THIS IS!
A new study indicates horse-riding Asians wove and wore wool trousers by around 3,000 years ago.
It's sort of fascinating to think that someone invented something that we take for granted and wear (or try to get out of wearing) on a daily basis. -Brie
socialnerdism reblogged
Love Letter from a Scientist by Utterlybanjaxed (Drawings by Me and Arbeekeypok)
This giant project is finally finished! After being amazingly inspired by this stunning poem, Arbee and I decided a collab was needed. It linked so perfectly to Cecilos that we couldn’t resist :D
jtotheizzoe
An amazing poem dedicated to love and science AND Welcome to Night Vale?! This might be perfect.
socialnerdism reblogged
Neil deGrasse Tyson is not impressed with all your sexism.
Oh yeahhhh
Okay so I love this photoset but why not list them here, too? I can’t be the only one who doesn’t watch TV until it’s like 5-10 years out of date… :)
Annie Jump Cannon - “Cannon was known for her diligence and skill in addition to her enthusiasm and patience. She classified more than 225,000 stars, and her work was published in the Henry Draper Catalogue over the course of nine volumes between 1881 and 1924.
"In 1911, Cannon became the curator of astronomical photographs at Harvard Observatory. She worked at astounding efficiency and was able to classify up to three stars a minute. In the 1920s, Cannon cataloged several hundred thousand stars to the 11th magnitude. She discovered 300 variable stars, in addition to 5 novae, a class of exploding stars.”
Henrietta Swan Leavitt - “Whilst recording and cataloguing the data on her variable stars, Leavitt found that she could accurately and consistently relate the period of a given star’s brightness cycle to its absolute magnitude. The discovery of this simple and hitherto-unknown relationship made it possible, for the first time, to calculate their distance from Earth. Henrietta Leavitt had just become, in the words of George Johnson, author of the book Miss Leavitt’s Stars, ‘the woman who discovered how to measure the Universe’.”
"Some of those closer to the heart of Leavitt’s discovery profited too – not least Edward Pickering, who as director of the Harvard College Observatory claimed the right of superiority over his minion by publishing her findings in his own name, effectively taking most of the credit. The statement, which appeared in a Harvard Circular in 1912, referred to Leavitt only as the person who had ‘prepared’ it. Pickering’s successor at the observatory, Harlow Shapley, gained fame six years later when he built on Leavitt’s discovery of the period-luminosity relation to redefine our knowledge of the Milky Way. Leavitt, without whose findings his would have not been possible, was once again barely mentioned.”
I don’t have cable, so probably their names were mentioned in the episode of Cosmos that these screencaps are from (I hope so!). But even so… I wish that when people called attention to oversights like this that they also did the work to help correct them.
Also Annie Jump Cannon is a FABULOUS name. It’s shameful that any of us can ever forget it.
When your childhood and your science geekdom collide, there is much awesome. - Jessie
I love living in the future. It's freaking awesome. -Brie
Source: Mashable
socialnerdism reblogged
Hump-Day Run Down. . .Or something like that.
We're still working on a name. Anyways! We're trying something new on Social Nerdism! On Wednesdays Jessie and I will be sharing various links and stories we've found interesting or worth mentioning. Here is our first offering:
Nerd Culture
Twilight Panel to kick off Comic Con - Because it's probably best to get the crazy out of the way early. On the plus side, if you do camp out for this, you'll probably have an advantage over one else cause.....They probably won't clear Hall H between panels again this year either.
And TNT announced a Falling Skies Panel to be moderated by Wil Wheaton - Makes perfect sense that Wil would be hosting the panel at SDCC since he's also hosting 2nd Watch. If you haven't had a chance to check out 2nd Watch and you're a fan of Falling Skies go have a watch.
Other Panels that have been announced: Merlin, Psych (really? Why is this at Comic Con?) an offering from Nickelodeon including The Legend of Kora and Spongebob, True Blood, Game of Thrones, Spartacus, Glee, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Kevin Smith's Comic Book Men.
The Internets
Bear Love Good. Cancer Bad. - If you've been living under a rock lately, you may have missed Funny Junk's attempt to bully money out of The Oatmeal via the delightfully amusing Charles Carreon. The Oatmeal responded by starting a fundraiser to benefit the American Cancer Society and The National Wildlife Federation. His goal was to raise 20K (the amount Funny Junk was asking for). It seems he's exceeded that by about 10 times. When the fundraiser closed Monday night, well over 220K was raised. Meanwhile in a fit of butthurt Charles Carreon decided he was going to SUE ALL THE THINGS giving the internet someone new to hate. I recommend reading all about the fit of Butt Hurt with commentary by Ken and others at Popehat.com/tag/oatmeal-v-funnyjunk
Science and Tech
How many computers does it take to identify a cat? - So in Google's secret labs Skynet is reading I can has cheezburger? Take note of this future self! This may be its downfall.
Popular Media (You know those things we do with our time and dollars)
Dredd Trailer - In a world where...Karl Urban has a Southern accent? Yeah we dunno, but he sounds sorta like a breathy McCoy to be honest. It's okay Karl, despite you taking voice lessons from Liv Tyler, we'll probably go see this.
BBC Doctor Who Fan Fiction - Is it still fan fiction if BBC sanctioned it? Probably not, but it's interesting because I don't recall any other franchise posting novellas on their website.
[Jessie] The science geek me just died a little bit.
Family Portrait on shirt.woot!
[Brie:] Poor Pluto. How could I not buy this shirt.
Mars May have had Oceans Source CNN
[Brie:] Last one in is a rotten egg!
[Jessie] Reasons I love being a science geek: Because awesome research is awesome.
Jupiter = next Republic stronghold?
(found via @thinkgeek)
Source: blogs.smithsonianmag.com
A Lichtenberg figure being created by a tap from a nail. - Results? Awesome youtube video.