Jacques of all Trades

a-bit-of-science:

This is what sand looks like when it’s been hit by lightning.
Called a fulgurite, this is made up of natural hollow glass tubes formed in quartzose sand, silica, or soil by lightning strikes (at 3,270 °F), which instantaneously melts silica on a conductive surface and fuses grains together over a period of around one second. 

Photographed by Ken Smit

(via skyghe)

thedailywhat:

A New Perspective of the Day: Aerial View of a City vs. Microscopic View of a Neuron

Tumblr blog Infinity Imagined points out some interesting visual similarities between aerial views of city lights taken from the International Space Station and images of neurons taken with a fluorescence microscope.

(via take1xtie1xday)

Sciencing your Home Alone viewing:

theweekmagazine:

“Assuming the paint can is full (roughly 10 pounds) and the rope is 10 feet long, Marv and Harry each take a roughly 2 kilo-newton hit to the face. That is easily enough to fracture multiple facial bones, and is probably going to knock you out cold. Also, I wouldn’t expect either of the Wet Bandits to walk away from this with all of their teeth.”

Can a man really be hit square in the face with a steam iron and walk away unfazed? What kind of permanent physical damage would a blow torch to the head really do? To answer these questions and officially dissolve Home Alone’s Hollywood magic, Lauren Hansen spoke with her friend Dr. Ryan St. Clair of the Weill Cornell Medical College. 

Diagnosing the Home Alone burglars’ injuries

(via meredithbklyn:fatmanatee)

Friday Weird Science: How much sun could a good beard block? | Neurotic Physiology

“I know a guy with a rather luxuriant amount of facial hair. I once asked him if he ever put sunblock on it. Get in the cracks, you know? He said of course not, hair blocks sun. He’s never gotten a burn there, after all. This is definitely true enough, I’ve never gotten a sunburn where my hair is, either. But how much sun does a good beard block if a good beard could block sun?” … 

H/t bilsko

sciencepopularis:

A magnetic field visualized

(via sunfoundation)

theweekmagazine:

Scientists have discovered a way to treat paper with a chemical monomer to make it water-repellant, potentially meaning no more soggy newspapers delivered to your doorstep. (At least for those of us who still have newspapers delivered.)

What else can the paper do? The monomer can be mixed with different nanoparticles, imbuing the paper with the special properties of whatever material is blended in. “If you add iron oxide nanoparticles to the polymer matrix, it’s magnetic paper; silver nanoparticles give you antibacterial properties,” says Jennifer Hicks at Forbes. Potentially, that means wallpaper you can stick refrigerator magnets on, or germ-killing packaging for your children’s sandwiches. Glossy magazines in your doctor’s waiting room could be free of nasty germs.

Keep reading

Anatomy of a brain freeze!

(via thedailyfeed)

Monday morning pre-parenthood learning…

lickystickypickywe:

The Palmar Grasp Reflex
What’s interesting about the palmar grasp reflex is that it is vestigial behavior.
According to a study conducted in 1932, when a finger or similar object is placed in the palm of an infant, as many as 37% of them are able to grasp with enough power to support their own body weight were they to be suspended. (Interestingly, the reverse motion can be induced by stroking the back or side of the baby’s hand).

A similar grasping motion can be observed in the feet of infants. These behaviors typically persist until four or five months of age, and might have been useful to our hairier ancestors, who could have been clung to by their offspring while they were traveling.

(via lickypickystickyme)

observedofallobservers:

theatlantic:

Chart of the Day: How Deep Did James Cameron Dive?

We know and love xkcd, created by Randall Munroe, for doing these sort of big, information-rich treatments on other subjects, including space, movie plots, and the Internet. Here’s his take on the world’s lakes and oceans, where we see the incredible depths of the Pacific’s Marianas Trench, the seas’ lowest point (about as far down as Deepwater Horizon drilled), which makes the “Great” Lakewe grew up near seem like a puddle. With both The Abyss and Titanic getting coy references, the comic also does a wonderful job of reminding us of Cameron’s obsession with the ocean. He was down in the Marianas, after all, to shoot footage for yet another film.

xkcd is the best.

Xkcd makes my Monday, Wednesday, & Friday. It is sad actually.