Back up everything friends! https://www.axios.com/2025/04/04/noaa-research-websites-go-dark-saturday-night #science #uspol
science
Although the Nonprofit Industrial Complex has some sophisticated gatekeepers barring access, I've renewed my efforts to find San Francisco Bay Area cooperators interested in my proposed nonprofit for unique S.T.E.A.M.-focused ArtScience demonstration projects that serve the common good.
While general participants are welcome, I need the commitment of board-level founders.
#SFBA, #EastBay, #NonProfit, #Research, #Design, #Development, #CitizenScience, #Science, #Technology, #Engineering, #Arts, #Math, #Cooperative, #Mutualism, #Prefigurative
Why did Louis de Broglie, Nobel laureate in physics, abandon his own pilot wave theory?
By Laurie Letertre
Such a great story! 😍
"Fold paper. Insert lens. This $2 microscope changes how kids see the world"
https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2024/11/24/g-s1-35181/microscope-lens-students-foldscope
"Once assembled the Foldscope is the size of a bookmark. It’s small enough to fit in a pocket and can magnify up to 140 times.
Each unit costs around $2 to make. Foldscopes are offered for free to kids in lower income countries; various upgraded models with extras are sold as well, earning money for the charitable endeavor."
#OTD in 1922.
At Toronto General Hospital, 14-year old Leonard Thompson became the first human to receive an injection of insulin as a treatment for diabetes, administered by Dr. James Collip. Thompson developed an allergic reaction to the injection. Additional work was done to refine the treatment and a second dose given on January 23.
More about insulin:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin
We Didn’t All Evolve From One Population Of Early Humans, New Research Claims
"We've arrived at a place where we can begin to address some key questions about our shared ancestry and even emerge with new questions we haven't known to ask before."
https://allthatsinteresting.com/human-evolution-population-groups
Under #Trump, #EPA scientists say managers encouraged them to delete evidence of chemicals’ harms, including #cancer, miscarriage and neurological problems, from their reports. And in some cases, they said, their managers deleted the information themselves.
#News #Science #Environment #Health #Government
(Published Sept. 2024) https://propub.li/3Zx4ljp
Mária Telkes died #OTD in 1980. She was a Hungarian-American biophysicist, engineer, & inventor who worked on solar energy technologies.
During World War II, she developed a solar water distillation device, deployed at the end of the war, which saved the lives of downed airmen and torpedoed sailors. In the 1940s she and architect Eleanor Raymond created one of the first solar-heated houses, Dover Sun House, by storing energy each day.
"Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mystery that we are trying to solve."
Where is Science Going? The Universe in the light of modern physics.
#OTD in 1900.
Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law (quantum theory) at the Physic Society in Berlin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck%27s_law
Max Planck at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/35343
Dale Andersen’s Astrobiology Antarctic Status Report: 11 January 2026
This morning, Dale Andersen and his team departed their arrival point at Ultima Air base and headed south to Lake Untersee. They departed around 6:30 am ET and arrived at the shore of Lake Untersee at their traditional base camp location (at S 71.260082° E 13.506017° at an elevation of 2,645 ft.) around 12:00 – 12:30 pm ET.
Galera pedi a @isadora para criar um canal só para ciência, no protocolo XMPP, vamos lá se empolguem e vamos dialogar. Segue o link abaixo
xmpp:ciencia@conference.isacloud.cc?join
@josemurilo @OG @biloti @rogawa @rony @labdciencia @henriqueffcustodio @melissawm @tiagojferreira @numerico
J. J. Thomson, who was born #OTD in 1856, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1906 for his discovery of the electron, the first subatomic particle to be found.
Thomson was also a teacher, and seven of his students went on to win Nobel Prizes: Ernest Rutherford, Lawrence Bragg, Charles Barkla, Francis Aston, Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Owen Richardson and Edward Victor Appleton.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._J._Thomson
Books by J.J. Thomson at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/38322
In happier news, it's been a great week for learning strange new things about the universe. A few highlights:
The Rubin Observatory opened its eyes & immediately discovered 1900 asteroids, including the fastest-spinning large asteroid (once every 1.88 minutes!).
https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2601/ #science #nature #space
#OTD in 1787.
William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
Orbiting at a much greater distance from Uranus are the ten known irregular moons. The planet's magnetosphere is highly asymmetric and has many charged particles, which may be the cause of the darkening of its rings and moons.
"Throughout space there is energy. Is this energy static or kinetic! If static our hopes are in vain; if kinetic — and this we know it is, for certain — then it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature."
Serbian-American inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla died #OTD in 1943.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
Books by Nikola Tesla at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/5067
What Is Entropy? A Measure of Just How Little We Really Know.
Exactly 200 years ago, a French engineer introduced an idea that would quantify the universe’s inexorable slide into decay. But entropy, as it’s currently understood, is less a fact about the world than a reflection of our growing ignorance. Embracing that truth is leading to a rethink of everything from rational decision-making to the limits of machines.
By Zack Savistky
https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-entropy-a-measure-of-just-how-little-we-really-know-20241213/
In a recent #SETILive conversation, SETI Institute Communications Specialist Beth Johnson and SETI Institute Senior Planetary Astronomer Dr. Franck Marchis discussed the missions, milestones, and observations that define space science in 2026. Their discussion placed individual missions within a broader scientific framework focused on planetary systems, cosmic environments, and humanity’s place in the universe.
Learn more: https://www.seti.org/news/what-to-expect-in-space-science-2026/
PRESS RELEASE
The SETI Institute announced that nominations are now open for the 2026 Tarter Award for Innovation in the Search for Life Beyond Earth. The Tarter Award recognizes individuals whose projects or ideas significantly advance humanity’s search for extraterrestrial life and intelligence.
The nomination period opens on January 15, 2026, with a deadline of March 31, 2026.
Learn more: https://www.seti.org/news/seti-institute-opens-call-for-nominations-for-the-2026-tarter-award/
On Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, at 7 pm (PST), Dr. Bruce Macintosh (Director of the University of California Observatories) will give a free, illustrated, non-technical lecture entitled:
"Pictures of Distant Worlds"
in the Smithwick Theater at Foothill College, in Los Altos (see directions below).
The talk is part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series, now in its 26th year.
Learn more: https://www.seti.org/events/pictures-of-distant-worlds/
Next #SETILive: When Galaxies Collide
TODAY, 15 January, 11 am PST
Dr. Moiya McTier will explore two new Euclid studies that combine vast sky surveys, machine learning, and multi-wavelength observations to uncover when and why active galactic nuclei (AGN) ignite. The results show that galaxies in the midst of mergers are far more likely to host actively feeding black holes — and that the brightest AGN are almost always found in cosmic collisions.
WATCH LIVE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMm_KOVN4k0
We now know much more about how our ancestor 'Lucy' lived — and died
"Fifty years after a fossil skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis was unearthed in Ethiopia, we know so much more about how this iconic species lived and died."
This week's net.wars, "Split", notes Keir Starmer's reversal on digital ID and ponders the row over Grok's clothing-removal capabilities and its collateral damage to the Royal Society: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2026/01/16/split/ #NetWars #AI #digitalID #science
#OTD in 1959.
American physicist Richard Feynman gave a speech entitled "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" at Caltech, anticipating the field of nanotechnology. Feynman considered the possibility of direct manipulation of individual atoms as a more robust form of synthetic chemistry than those used at the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_Plenty_of_Room_at_the_Bottom
A light from the periphery
The life of Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose illuminates how scientific genius can emerge from the most unexpected quarters
by Somaditya (Soma) Banerjee
More about Nath Bose;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyendra_Nath_Bose
