Spring Has Sprung! Enjoy A Dose Of Color With Willie Cole’s Pressed Iron Blossom No. 2.

Fruity pebbles squares with white chocolate drizzle

Study Says Making Art Reduces Stress, Even If You Kind Of Suck At It

Researchers found that 45 minutes of creative activity significantly lessens stress in the body.

The next time you’re blessed with that familiar, overwhelming sensation of stress — when your anxieties turn from passing sensations in the brain to rude house guests overstaying their welcome — I highly recommend breaking out your construction paper, model clay, glitter glue, feathers and pipe cleaners.

“I’m not an artist!” you might protest, recalling the ambivalent grin your parents flashed while hanging your elementary school masterpiece on the refrigerator all those years ago. But, no matter. Honestly, it does not matter. Science says so.

More specifically, Girija Kaimal, assistant professor of creative arts therapies at Drexel University, says so. Kaimal recently led a study examining the effects of making art on stress-related hormones in your body.

The results, published in Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, titled “Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants’ Responses Following Art Making,” found that 45 minutes of creative activity significantly lessens stress in the body, regardless of artistic experience or talent.

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The tusk of a woolly mammoth being unearthed from a Siberian riverbed. 

Happy ‪#‎InternationalWomensDay‬! Learn more about Kevlar, invented by Stephanie Kwolek: http://wp.me/s4aPLT-kevlar

Microsoft announces all the things 

Nowadays, Microsoft is a serious consumer electronics device vendor and the company presented a load of hardware at its October 6th event:

- A developer version of the VR HoloLens will be available in Q1-2016 for $ 3,000. Cool!

- An new version of the Microsoft Band is ready. The wearable band now has Cortina integration, a curved gorilla glass display and the device is fully packed with fitness centric features such as continuous heart rate monitoring, UV monitoring, GPS, a barometer and Microsoft Health integration. The Microsoft Band can be preordered today for $250 and it will be available at the end of October.

- Microsoft unveiled three new Windows 10 Lumia phones including the high-end 950 ($550) and 950XL ($650) devices and the budget Lumia 550 ($140). The 950 devices feature USB-C connectors, 5.2” or 5.7” high resolution OLED displays, 20 MP cameras with optical image stabilisation, 32GB of storage and support for additional SD card storage. The devices will be out at the end of November. Reasonable specs for high-end devices, but I’ve been burned before by Microsoft’s mobile eco system.

- The Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is the company’s new tablet. The device fits a larger 12.3”  2,736 x 1,824 resolution display in the same design foot print as last years’ Surface Pro 3. The Surface Pro is 30 percent faster than the SP3 and comes with an updated Surface Pen. The pen features 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, one year battery life and nifty magnetic storage. The new and slimmer Type Cover has a 40 percent larger glass track pad and updated key mechanism compared to previous models. The Surface Pro 4 will be available at the end of October with prices starting at at $899.

- The big surprise of the event was the Microsoft Surface Book, the company’s first lap top. The convertible notebook has a 13.5” 3000 x 2000 resolution touch screen and Microsoft said it was pound for pound, the fastest laptop in the world. It can be yours for $1499 and pre orders start today. The Surface Book looks nice and the “fulcrum hinge” enables the device to bend in all kinds of positions even though it actually won’t let you fully close the lid.

The Rio Tinto is a river in southern Spain that is noted for its distinctive bright red hue, which is caused by the presence of dissolved iron in the water. With a pH of 2, it is also extremely acidic; because of this fact, it has recently gained interest among the scientific community due to the presence of extremophile aerobic bacteria that thrive in its waters. The river has been extensively studied by astrobiologists for its implications on the potential to find such bacteria in subterrenean oceans elsewhere in the solar system. 

(Source)

Françoise Tellier-Loumagne. 

Svartifoss, also known as the Black Fall, is a waterfall surrounded by dark basalt columns located in Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland. Because of its unique geographical features, it is a popular tourist destination. 

(Source | Artist) 

Can eyeballs bounce? Like if you were to scoop someone's eye out and it came out in perfect shape would it bounce if it fell on the floor?

I’m not sure. They can be rubbery, but I’m not sure if the force required to make them bounce wouldn’t also make them go splat.

Maybe some biology/med students know (I don’t deal much with eyeballs as a Chemistry major).

Followers?

The only home we’ve ever known. Clouds and sunlight over the Indian Ocean, as seen from Discovery during the STS-96 mission in 1999.