The Earth As Seen From

another paper I love is about how play behaviour, not tool use, is related to brain mass in birds, and how we draw false conclusions about tool use and cognitive ability when we should be considering play behaviour…i just love that and it’s implications actually

I think one big reason why we don't consider the stars as important as before (not even pop-astrology anymore cares about the stars or the sky on itself, just the signs deprived of context) is because of light pollution.

For most of human history the sky looked between 1-3, 4 at most. And then all of a sudden with electrification it was gone (I'm lucky if I get 6 in my small city). The first time I saw the Milky Way fully as a kid was a spiritual experience, I was almost scared on how BRIGHT it was, it felt like someone was looking back at me. You don't get that at all with modern light pollution.

When most people talk about stargazing nowadays they think about watching about a couple of bright dots. The stars are really, really not like that. The unpolluted night sky is a festival of fireworks. There is nothing like it.

IC 1795, Fish

The first mobile phone call was made on this day in 1973. Martin Cooper, using a prototype of the Motorola DynaTAC, placed a call from the streets of New York to Bell Labs in New Jersey. The device was 9 inches tall, had a talk-time of 35 minutes, and took 10 hours to recharge.

Head-Up Displays (HUD) in aircrafts

A HUD is a transparent screen that displays flight information in the pilot's line of sight, allowing them to maintain focus on the outside environment. This technology enhances safety and situational awareness by reducing the need for pilots to look away from their forward view to check instrument readings.

Caecilians’ teeth are so metal. Nothing you will expect from what looks like a gummy worm when it has its mouth closed.

Galaxies

Unimaginably huge collections of gas, dust, stars, and even planets, galaxies come in many shapes and sizes. Some are spirals, such as our own galaxy, others are like squashed balls, and some have no shape at all.

From the book Knowledge Encyclopedia Science! (DK)

The autoclave is designed to kill schmucks I think