There Is No Branch Of Mathematics, However Abstract, Which May Not Some Day Be Applied To Phenomena Of

It is by logic we prove. It is by intuition we discover.“

Henri Poincaré (via stardust-seedling)

Teen breaks Rubik’s Cube new world record (video)

Epimetheus Above the Rings of Saturn

via reddit

Masterpieces in Agar. These are some of the most beautiful Agar Art pics from (and inspired by) the annual competition hosted by the American Society for Microbiology. Read more about the contest, the artists, and their work here.

Is it possible to have a spacesuit that is skin tight? My logic on this is that space wants to separate your bodies atoms but can the pressure be neutralized by having a tight enough skin suit? Am I even making sense?

Meet Dava Newman:

Now NASA’s Deputy Administrator (second-in-command). She’s spent years at MIT developing what’s known as the “BioSuit” - basically a skintight spacesuit that would use mechanical counter-pressure to apply about a third of an atmosphere on the body, enabling exploration with full range of motion, minimizing the energy spent fighting your own bubble-boy-of-a-suit.

There were a couple of problems remaining when she left to work for NASA:

The design so far still includes a pressurized helmet that has a seal issue with the rest of the suit. Also certain parts of the suit (the hands as you can see above) are difficult to get quite right.

The second problem is going to be returned to in a few years. The last I heard the research group was going to let material science develop carbon nanotubes and graphene a bit more and then try using those two materials somehow in the design.

It’s a super promising design and I hope they get it down pat! As is, it stands to benefit the medical community as well as to open astronaut qualifications to people shorter than 5′5″ (or somewhere around there) - below which apparently they can’t even apply to be an astronaut due to the spacesuits not being made small enough.

(Image credit: Professor Dava Newman: Inventor, Science Engineering; Guillermo Trotti, A.I.A., Trotti and Associates, Inc. (Cambridge, MA): Design; Dainese (Vincenca, Italy): Fabrication; Douglas Sonders: Photography)

“Todd why is the office flooded?”

“Aesthetic.”

Lego Sisyphus

This dreamy animation shows a massive black hole tearing apart a passing star

During this process — known as “tidal disruption” — some of the stellar debris is flung out into space, while most of it falls around the black hole and forms a huge gaseous disk.