Having A Huge Number Of Books Is Not Exactly About Reading Them All — It’s About Having The Possibility

Also I've just finished an interesting book called Skylines - A journey through 50 skylines of the world's greatest cities by Yolanda Zappaterra and Jan Fuscoe. I highly recommend it if you can get your hands on a copy. It is short read with some wonderful illustrations.

Looks really cool!

From the dizzy heights of the Dubai horizon to the ancient silhouette of Rome, Skylines features fifty of the most iconic, vibrant and often magnificent places from across the globe. This is your key to exploring the world through the architectural triumphs that make our cities famous.            

Beautiful and atmospheric illustrations accompany an introduction to these iconic vistas, summing up their spirit, history and location. Short histories of each place reveal threads that illuminate often well-trodden streets. This compilation is defined by the one-of-a-kind buildings – including fortresses, palaces, sacred sites, monuments, skyscrapers and cultural hotspots – that makes each one unique.

Images via text via

Lost Landscape

Brazilian architect Luiz Eduardo Lupatini created a visual musing about the nature of human use of building materials.

He placed his conceptual design “Lost Landscape” at the heart of a quarry which would inspire individuals to confront their preconceived ideas about consumption. There is a notable interplay with positive and negative space as well as the presence of both industrial and natural textures. Monolithic concrete walls and entrances would allow people to navigate the extraction site as if it were a system of naturally occurring caves. See more on the winning Carrara Thermal Baths Competition project here.

Images and text via

May Day – a potted history

In addition to the spring equinox (which is around 20 March in the northern hemisphere), 1 May was a traditional date for marking the arrival of spring. Across Europe there have been – and still are – many rich traditions representing fertility and (hopefully!) warmer weather.

The month of May is named after the Greek goddess Maia, depicted here with flower garlands and wreaths.

The Romans marked the start of May with the Floralia. They held a five-day festival to honour Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, which was declared a holiday by Julius Caesar. People would dance, gather flowers and celebrate with public games, theatre and merrymaking to mark the arrival of longer days and the start of the farming season.

The Romans also used the Greek myth of Persephone (Roman: Proserpina) and Demeter (Roman: Ceres) to explain the changing seasons. 

In the UK, May Day has long been celebrated with a mix of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic traditions. The Celtic festival of Beltane takes place on 1 May. In Celtic tradition, the sun was held prisoner during winter months and was released each spring to rule the summer sky. Celtic peoples celebrated this with a huge feast, with great fires and dancing. You can find out more about Celtic festivals here.

Other UK May Day traditions include dancing round a maypole, as seen in this 19th-century print imagining life in Elizabethan England. Although maypole dancing clearly goes back centuries, and is prevalent in many European countries, there is no agreement on when it began, or why!

The eve of 1 May (the night of 30 April) has also been celebrated for centuries in Germanic countries as Walpurgisnacht. The 8th-century abbess St Walpurga is credited with bringing Christianity to Germany. In Germanic folklore Walpurgisnacht, also called Hexennacht (literally ‘Witches’ Night’), is believed to be the night of a witches’ meeting as they await the coming of spring. As Walpurga’s feast was held on 1 May, she became associated with this May Day folk tradition. The eve of May Day, traditionally celebrated with dancing, came to be known as Walpurgisnacht. 

In the late 19th century, a group of socialists and communists chose May Day as the date for International Workers’ Day. Although they fall on the same day, International Workers’ Day and the traditional May Day are essentially different celebrations.

‘May Day’ by Walter Crane. Watercolour and gold, 1874.

‘Maia. Mayus’, the goddess Maya on a cloud at centre, holding flower garlands and wreaths; the zodiacal sign of Gemini beyond. Print made by Jacobus Harrewyn. Engraving, 1698.

‘Flora, Goddess of Flowers’.  Mezzotint with some etching, 1800.

‘May day in the reign of Queen Elizabeth’ by James Henry Watt. Etching and engraving on chine collé, 1836.

‘The Triumph of Labour’ by Walter Crane. Inscribed in capitals along the lower border: ’ Designed to commemorate the International Labour Day May 1 1891 / and dedicated to the wage workers of all countries’. Woodcut, 1891.

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Science-Heavy SpaceX Dragon Headed to Space Station

Heads up: a new batch of science is headed to the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX Dragon on April 2, 2018. Launching from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop a Falcon 9 rocket, this fire breathing (well, kinda…) spacecraft will deliver science that studies thunderstorms on Earth, space gardening, potential pathogens in space, new ways to patch up wounds and more.

Let’s break down some of that super cool science heading 250 miles above Earth to the orbiting laboratory:

Sprites and Elves in Space

Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) experiment will survey severe thunderstorms in Earth’s atmosphere and upper-atmospheric lightning, or transient luminous events. 

These include sprites, flashes caused by electrical break-down in the mesosphere; the blue jet, a discharge from cloud tops upward into the stratosphere; and ELVES, concentric rings of emissions caused by an electromagnetic pulse in the ionosphere.

Here’s a graphic showing the layers of the atmosphere for reference:

Metal Powder Fabrication

Our Sample Cartridge Assembly (MSL SCA-GEDS-German) experiment will determine underlying scientific principles for a fabrication process known as liquid phase sintering, in microgravity and Earth-gravity conditions.

Science term of the day: Liquid phase sintering works like building a sandcastle with just-wet-enough sand; heating a powder forms interparticle bonds and formation of a liquid phase accelerates this solidification, creating a rigid structure. But in microgravity, settling of powder grains does not occur and larger pores form, creating more porous and distorted samples than Earth-based sintering. 

Sintering has many applications on Earth, including metal cutting tools, automotive engine connecting rods, and self-lubricating bearings. It has potential as a way to perform in-space fabrication and repair, such as building structures on the moon or creating replacement parts during extraterrestrial exploration.

Plants in space! It’s l[a]unch time!

Understanding how plants respond to microgravity and demonstrating reliable vegetable production in space represent important steps toward the goal of growing food for future long-duration missions. The Veggie Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System (Veggie PONDS) experiment will test a passive nutrient delivery system in the station’s Veggie plant growth facility by cultivating lettuce and mizuna greens for harvest and consumption on orbit.

The PONDS design features low mass and low maintenance, requires no additional energy, and interfaces with the Veggie hardware, accommodating a variety of plant types and growth media.

Quick Science Tip: Download the Plant Growth App to grow your own veggies in space! Apple users can download the app HERE! Android users click HERE!

Testing Materials in Space

The Materials ISS Experiment Flight Facility (MISSE-FF) experiment will provide a unique platform for testing how materials, coatings and components react in the harsh environment of space.

A continuation of a previous experiment, this version’s new design eliminates the need for astronauts to perform spacewalks for these investigations. New technology includes power and data collection options and the ability to take pictures of each sample on a monthly basis, or more often if required. The testing benefits a variety of industries, including automotive, aeronautics, energy, space, and transportation.

New Ways to Develop Drugs in Space

Microgravity affects movement and effectiveness of drugs in unique ways. Microgravity studies already have resulted in innovative medicines to treat cancer, for example. The Metabolic Tracking investigation determines the possibility of developing improved drugs in microgravity, using a new method to test the metabolic impacts of drug compounds. This could lead to more effective, less expensive drugs.

Follow @ISS_Research on Twitter for your daily dose of nerdy, spacey goodness.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

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Lady Mary, played by Michelle Dockery, has been on quite a journey since we met her in September 2010.

We first met her in the context of Downton Abbey’s changing fortunes. With the sudden death of her cousins James and Patrick on the ill-fated Titanic, the future of the estate is...

Jeanette MacDonald explains why she’s quite an eligible bachelorette in The Love Parade (1929).