Turns out tomato sex is the reason we have one of life’s greatest foods: the modern potato. They’re hybrids of tomatoes and a non-tuberous potato ancestor called Solanum Etuberosum.
Thank you, horny little tomatoes.
Hat tip: @peteorrall
Medieval Inventions We Still Can’t Fully Recreate Today
The Middle Ages were a time of remarkable innovation, when new technologies flourished. Yet the knowledge behind many of these inventions has been lost. Here are several medieval technologies that remain impossible to fully recreate, even with modern science.
https://www.medievalists.net/2025/10/medieval-inventions-we-still-cant-fully-recreate-today/
Medieval science at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=medieval+science
Last evening I derived the "quantum correlation" for the two channel optical Bell experiment, right here on my Mastodon account. But I did so WITHOUT quantum mechanics, and I did so in a way that makes it clear there is only classical Newtonian motion.
Go see it for yourself: https://masto.ai/@chemoelectric/115805620208576148
It is not a "quantum" anything. It is the ordinary correlation function for ordinary behavior. Yet "Physics" and "Science" channels will go on announcing MAGIC.
🪐 Planets near supermassive black holes?
New simulations suggest the dusty disks around actively feeding black holes could produce enormous planet-mass objects.
Today at 2:30 pm PDT, Lauren Sgro talks with researchers Bhupendra Mishra & Wladimir Lyra on SETI Live.
A space rock entering Earth’s atmosphere does far more than simply “burn up.” By examining 75 meteorite falls captured on video and in photographs, researchers identified seven distinct stages that transform an incoming space rock into a meteorite.
Their results show that melting and fragmentation, rather than evaporation alone, determine how these objects shed mass, lose speed, and eventually reach the ground.
Learn more: https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-the-7-stages-a-meteoroid-goes-through-before-hitting-earth/
Earth has a new friend, it turns out. Astronomers have discovered a peculiar “moon” shadowing our planet as it moves through space. Read more from @sciencefocus:
“cancer patients who received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting an immunotherapy treatment for advanced forms of lung cancer or melanoma lived significantly longer than those who didn’t get the vaccine”
#vaccines #vaccination #cancer #melanoma #skincancer #health #science #medicine
They fill our lungs, give birth to stars, and show where we might get a good dinner with a glowing sign. Find out why this episode of Big Picture Science is “A Real Gas.”
Listen here: https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/a-real-gas
Next #SETILive: Earth 2.0? Maybe Not.
TODAY, 8 December, 11 am PST
How common are biological extraterrestrial intelligences in the Milky Way? Host Simon Steel, Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research, is joined by Manuel Scherf and Helmut Lammer to explore new research that challenges long-held assumptions about “Earth-like” planets and what it really takes for a world to support complex life.
WATCH LIVE: https://youtube.com/live/qy8spTZpTNI
"When you understand all about the sun and all about the atmosphere and all about the rotation of the earth, you may still miss the radiance of the sunset. There is no substitute for the direct perception of the concrete achievement of a thing in its actuality" (Whithead, 'Science and the Modern World,' p. 286).
"Do not imagine that mathematics is hard and crabbed, and repulsive to common sense. It is merely the etherealization of common sense."
Quoted in Life of Lord Kelvin (1910) by Silvanus Phillips Thompson
Happy Birthday Lord Kelvin! Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of William Thomson, an Irish mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer.
Books by Lord Kelvin at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/48139
读过 Science Comics: Frogs 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕
这本好好看！青蛙原来是这么奇特（神奇）的动物啊！
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has officially named Asteroid 2006 BT282 as Asteroid Shostak, honoring Dr. Seth Shostak for his contributions to astronomy and science communication.
Learn more: https://www.seti.org/news/asteroid-shostak/
The Love Letter Generator That Foretold ChatGPT.
Alan Turing and Christopher Strachey created a ground-breaking computer program that allowed them to express affection vicariously when so doing publicly, as gay men, was criminal.
By: Patricia Fancher. via @JSTOR_Daily
Exclusive: #US Dept of #Energy forms $1B #supercomputer & #AI partnership with #AMD
The US has formed a $1 billion partnership with Advanced Micro Devices to construct 2 supercomputers that will tackle large scientific problems ranging from #NuclearPower to #cancer treatments to #NationalSecurity, Energy Secy Chris Wright & AMD CEO Lisa Su told Reuters.
#science #law #EnvironmentalLaw #electricity #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-department-energy-forms-1-billion-supercomputer-ai-partnership-with-amd-2025-10-27/?utm_source=braze&utm_medium=notifications&utm_campaign=2025_engagement
Nancy Grace Roman and Early Space Telescopes.
In this blog post we give you a sneak-peak at a selection of archival materials related to early space telescopes and women in science from the Nancy Grace Roman Papers held at NBLA.
By Karina Cooper, Librarian via @AIP_HQ
"Science is nothing without generalisations... The suggestion of a new idea, or the detection of a law, supersedes much that had previously been a burden upon the memory, and by introducing order and coherence facilitates the retention of the remainder in an available form."
In: William C. McC. Lewis, A System of Physical Chemistry (Volume 1) (p. iv), Longmans, Green and Company. 1918
~John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (12 November 1842 – 30 June 1919)
The wild "Starshot" project was conceived to design a probe that could reach Proxima Centauri in about 20 years.
Although project has gone dormant, it has yielded a lot of new ideas (many not widely shared, alas) about how to build a viable interstellar probe.
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2026/03/10/starshot-is-a-success-part-ii/ #space #science #technology
You haven’t noticed that the days are getting ever so slightly longer, but a new study shows that they are — and it points to climate change. @euronews explains what’s happening and why it can be a problem:
Meet the Real Dr. Frankenstein
The Italian scientist who sparked an electric revolution that led to the beloved horror story—and the battery
By Molly Glick
https://nautil.us/meet-the-real-dr-frankenstein-1245010/
Galvani and Frankenstein at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/27281
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/84
"75% of scientific researchers in the U.S. are considering leaving the country" - must-watch if you haven't fully grasped yet the attack of Trump on US science.. It's somehow more impactful to see actual testimonies instead of facts and numbers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLvO070E_dI
The whole #Trump thing is sad but the long-term damage of what he is doing against research and science, not just in the US but worldwide, is horrible. Just like the damage on the planet, it is not too late to resist of and fix it though! Universities should stick together, people should come out in support of scientists, PIs should come out of their silence - as in this video - to alert the public on the ongoing destruction.
Quoting @Nonya_Bidniss:
https://infosec.exchange/@Nonya_Bidniss/115464536239675362
#OTD in 1054.
Chinese astronomers recorded the sudden appearance of a "guest star", later identified as the supernova that created the Crab Nebula (SN 1054).
Modern understanding that the Crab Nebula was created by a supernova traces back to 1921, when Carl Otto Lampland announced he had seen changes in the nebula's structure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1054
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_Nebula
Crab Nebula images by the Hubble Space Telescope:
https://esahubble.org/images/?search=crab+nebula
The forgotten father of evolution | Sean B. Carroll
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/E9C2el_mCdI
Books by Wallace at PG:
https://science.nasa.gov/specials/your-name-in-landsat/ if you haven't seen it before you can write your name in LandSat images.
We’re excited to invite you to Computational and Medicinal Chemistry by the Lake 2026, happening June 2–4 in beautiful Kuopio, Finland.
This three-day symposium brings together researchers from academia and industry to explore the latest in drug discovery — from PROTACs to AI-driven screening, molecular dynamics, and more.
We’d love to see you too there — let’s talk science by the lake!
https://sites.uef.fi/cmcl-2026/
#medchem #compchem #science #kuopio #AcademicChatter #drugdiscovery #chemistry
![Kelvin in 1906 by Russell & Sons
Russell & Sons, London. - Portrait of William Thomson, Baron Kelvin (1824-1907), Physicist
Creator/Photographer: Russell & Sons Medium: Cabinet card mount Dimensions: 14.6 cm x 10 cm Date: July 4, 1906 Collection: Scientific Identity: Portraits from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology - As a supplement to the Dibner Library for the History of Science and Technology's collection of written works by scientists, engineers, natural philosophers, and inventors, the library also has a collection of thousands of portraits of these individuals. The portraits come in a variety of formats: drawings, woodcuts, engravings, paintings, and photographs, all collected by donor Bern Dibner. Presented here are a few photos from the collection, from the late 19th and early 20th century. Persistent URL: [1] Repository: Smithsonian Institution Libraries Accession number: SIL14-T002-05](/proxy/post_attachment/276296/c15418aff7.jpg "Kelvin in 1906 by Russell & Sons
Russell & Sons, London. - Portrait of William Thomson, Baron Kelvin (1824-1907), Physicist
Creator/Photographer: Russell & Sons Medium: Cabinet card mount Dimensions: 14.6 cm x 10 cm Date: July 4, 1906 Collection: Scientific Identity: Portraits from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology - As a supplement to the Dibner Library for the History of Science and Technology's collection of written works by scientists, engineers, natural philosophers, and inventors, the library also has a collection of thousands of portraits of these individuals. The portraits come in a variety of formats: drawings, woodcuts, engravings, paintings, and photographs, all collected by donor Bern Dibner. Presented here are a few photos from the collection, from the late 19th and early 20th century. Persistent URL: [1] Repository: Smithsonian Institution Libraries Accession number: SIL14-T002-05")
![The guest star reported by Chinese astronomers in 1054 is identified as SN 1054. The highlighted passages refer to the supernova.
A 'guest star' identified as the supernova of 1054 in the pages of the Lidai mingchen zouyi (歷代名臣奏議), which dates to 1414. The highlighted passages refer to the supernova. Transcription: 宋仁宗至和二年。侍御史趙抃上言曰。臣伏見自去年五月巳来。妖星遂見。僅及周稔。至今光耀未退。此谷永所謂馳騁驟歩。芒炎長短。所厯奸犯。其為謫變。甚可畏也。⋯⋯ 不然。何以妖星謫變也。 Translation: 2nd year of the Zhihe reign period of Emperor Renzong of Song [1055]; Attendant Censor Zhao Bian submitted a letter saying: "Your servant considers that, since the 5th month of last year [when] the baleful star appeared, a full year has passed and until now its brilliance has not faded [lit. 'retreated']. This is what Gu Yong meant by 'its rapid movement, the variations in the length of its flaming rays, and the [asterisms] on which it has trespassed successively,' as a censorious anomaly it is greatly to be feared." — in: Pankenier 2006, "Notes on translations of the East Asian records relating to the supernova of AD 1054."](/proxy/post_attachment/288404/6901f0f6af.jpg "The guest star reported by Chinese astronomers in 1054 is identified as SN 1054. The highlighted passages refer to the supernova.
A 'guest star' identified as the supernova of 1054 in the pages of the Lidai mingchen zouyi (歷代名臣奏議), which dates to 1414. The highlighted passages refer to the supernova. Transcription: 宋仁宗至和二年。侍御史趙抃上言曰。臣伏見自去年五月巳来。妖星遂見。僅及周稔。至今光耀未退。此谷永所謂馳騁驟歩。芒炎長短。所厯奸犯。其為謫變。甚可畏也。⋯⋯ 不然。何以妖星謫變也。 Translation: 2nd year of the Zhihe reign period of Emperor Renzong of Song [1055]; Attendant Censor Zhao Bian submitted a letter saying: \"Your servant considers that, since the 5th month of last year [when] the baleful star appeared, a full year has passed and until now its brilliance has not faded [lit. 'retreated']. This is what Gu Yong meant by 'its rapid movement, the variations in the length of its flaming rays, and the [asterisms] on which it has trespassed successively,' as a censorious anomaly it is greatly to be feared.\" — in: Pankenier 2006, \"Notes on translations of the East Asian records relating to the supernova of AD 1054.\"")
