Pretty much, yeah.

Photo

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:11:45 -0600

Photo

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:45:38 -0600

spaceplasma: Electric discharge showing the lightning-like...

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:37:54 -0600

Electric discharge showing the lightning-like plasma filaments from a Tesla coil.

GIF from photos courtesy of Dan McCauley

bobbycaputo: The Only Known Photograph of Einstein Deriving his...

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:36:57 -0600

bobbycaputo:

The Only Known Photograph of Einstein Deriving his Famous E=mc² Equation

At a public lecture in Pittsburgh in 1934, four hundred lucky students were privy to a lecture by Albert Einstein, in which the great man mathematically derived his famous mass-energy equivalence equation: E=mc². What you see above is a photo from that lecture, and what is thought to be the only surviving photo that shows Einstein working on that derivation.

The photo was pulled from a halftone newspaper clipping by David Topper and Dwight Vincent of the University of Winnipeg, who discovered it in 2007. Sadly, everything is a bit fuzzy so you can’t really make out the famed equation itself. And even though the original article had a crisp picture of Einstein posing next to one of his blackboards, he’s next to the wrong one.

Here’s a closer look at the man and the math. If you look closely, you’ll see the mass-energy equivalence in the lower left hand corner of the blackboard on the right:

Fortunately, Topper and Vincent managed to take the blurry photo and reproduce both blackboards in their original paper. Here’s the math behind the magic, the derivation of mass-energy equivalence as presented by Albert Einstein.

In case you’re wondering why the famous equation says Δ

pokemontrainerbarry: Pokémon X and Y ~ Sprites (X,X)

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:36:38 -0600

pokemontrainerbarry:

Pokémon X and Y ~ Sprites (X,X)

"Technology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize that they are one and the..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:30:13 -0600

“Technology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize that they are one and the same process as the universe.”

- Alan Watts via revofthought (via cnce)

"There were no other competing bids, despite reports, to snap up the New York-based hipster blogging..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:21:50 -0600

“There were no other competing bids, despite reports, to snap up the New York-based hipster blogging service.”

- Kara Swisher needs to stop calling Tumblr a hipster blogging service. (Oh, and she says the deal was unanimously approved. On a side note, TechCrunch suggests that the reason why Tumblr accepted the lower deal is because many of their executives have departed in recent months.)

likeafieldmouse: Amy Stein - Domesticated (2008) Artist’s...

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:20:36 -0600

likeafieldmouse:

Amy Stein - Domesticated (2008)

Artist’s statement:

“Within these scenes I explore our paradoxical relationship with the wild and how our conflicting impulses continue to evolve and alter the behavior of both humans and animals. We at once seek connection with the mystery and freedom of the natural world, yet we continually strive to tame the wild around us and compulsively control the wild within our own nature. Within my work I examine the primal issues of comfort and fear, dependence and determination, submission and dominance that play out in the physical and psychological encounters between man and the natural world. Increasingly, these encounters take place within the artificial ecotones we have constructed that act as both passage and barrier between domestic space and the wild.”

neurosciencestuff: Human stem cells successfully cloned for the...

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:17:06 -0600

neurosciencestuff:

Human stem cells successfully cloned for the first time

A working process for cloning stem cells from existing human cells has finally been discovered by a team at Oregon Health & Science University.

These stem cells were created by reprogramming healthy skin cells, a goal that has eluded researchers around the world for years. It’s the first key step in developing medical procedures for replacing dying or injured cells with new ones to stave off disease and age. That could mean growing a new liver, or kidney or heart, in the lab for an organ transplant, or even repairing the brains of those suffering with diseases like Parkinson’s.

The team was led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov from the reproductive and developmental sciences department of the Oregon National Primate Research Centre. He said: “A thorough examination of the stem cells derived through this technique demonstrated their ability to convert just like normal embryonic stem cells into several different cell types, including nerve cells, liver cells and heart cells. Furthermore, because these reprogrammed cells can be generated with nuclear genetic material from a patient, there is no concern of transplant rejection.”

“While there is much work to be done in developing safe and effective stem cell treatments, we believe this is a significant step forward in developing the cells that could be used in regenerative medicine.”

The technique Mitalipov and his team used is called “somatic cell nuclear transfer” — as you can see in the video, it essentially involves sucking out the DNA from an adult cell and inserting it into the empty nucleus of a donor egg. This creates a clone of the original cell, and is in fact the first step in the cloning method used to create animal clones like Dolly the sheep.

However, in its therapeutic mode, the new cells can be grown as replacements for the original type of cell. That objective hasn’t been reached until now as human eggs are extremely fragile compared to many of the animals which we have cloned. That Mitalipov and team have succeeded is down to research on primates, and adapting primate stem cell research to humans.

As a cell divides after fertilisation, it undergoes several transformations as it prepares to split and multiply. The metaphase is the moment just before a cell splits, as the chromosomes align alongside each other in the very centre of the cell so that, when it splits, one goes one way as another goes the other, each taking the full copy of the genetic code. The researchers managed to stall the metaphase while the cell underwent nuclear transfer, effectively giving the new chromosomes time to get settled before the metaphase finished and cell division proceeded.

An added bonus is that the eggs used have not been fertilised, so there won’t be any debates over the ethics of embryonic stem cells as we have seen in the US in the past. While the researchers placed skin cell nuclei into the receptor egg cells, the method is conceivably similar for any other kind of cell.

And, while it may sounds like the first step towards a practical method for cloning humans, the Mitalipov has made it clear that’s not the aim. “Our research is directed toward generating stem cells for use in future treatments to combat disease. While nuclear transfer breakthroughs often lead to a public discussion about the ethics of human cloning, this is not our focus, nor do we believe our findings might be used by others to advance the possibility of human reproductive cloning.”

The research has been published in the journal Cell.

Photo

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:12:25 -0600

scienceisbeauty: Insects in amber. From the Dominican Republic,...

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:11:04 -0600

scienceisbeauty:

Insects in amber. From the Dominican Republic, Miocene epoch (23.8 to 5.3 million years ago).

Source (Widener University)

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Sun, 19 May 2013 13:10:16 -0600

Photo

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:09:02 -0600

explore-blog: Yesteryear’s stereotype-defiers: Kick-ass vintage...

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:40:19 -0600

explore-blog:

Yesteryear’s stereotype-defiers: Kick-ass vintage public domain photos of women in science.

Photo

Sun, 19 May 2013 01:22:22 -0600

Kage ::: (in series)

Sun, 19 May 2013 01:09:51 -0600

Kage ::: (in series)

gamefreaksnz: Assassin’s Creed movie slated for 2015 The...

Sun, 19 May 2013 01:07:38 -0600

gamefreaksnz:

Assassin’s Creed movie slated for 2015

The Assassin’s Creed movie now has an official release date of May 22, 2015.

wildcat2030: Zaha Hadid Architects are designing a new metro...

Sun, 19 May 2013 01:04:54 -0600

wildcat2030:

Zaha Hadid Architects are designing a new metro station in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia described as “a three-dimensional lattice defined by a sequence of opposing sine-waves (generated from the repetition and frequency variation of station’s daily traffic flows) which act as the spine for the building’s circulation.” Basically, that means that the station has a unique, undulating facade that mimics the daily flow of traffic for Riyadh’s 5 million residents.

The King Abdullah FInancial District (KAFD) Metro Station will become a focal point for the city, not only as a hub for commuters, but also as a celebrated public space. The KAFD is scheduled to be completed by 2017 and will help ease the traffic congestion in the area.

See ArRiyadh Development Authority’s modern train station design in the gallery below. Don’t you wish this was coming to a city near you? (via Futuristic metro station planned for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | DVICE)

thekhooll: Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day A phenomenon in...

Sun, 19 May 2013 00:26:08 -0600

thekhooll:

Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day

A phenomenon in its own right, the behavior of flocks of birds has intrigued scientists for decades. Beautiful and enigmatic, flocks of migratory birds have become increasingly threatened by climate change and urbanization. May 11th and 12th mark the annual celebration of World Migratory Birds Day, a world wide event to increase awareness around protecting these species and the environments the inhabit.

colchrishadfield: Today’s photo is from the Mongolian...

Sun, 19 May 2013 00:18:43 -0600

colchrishadfield:

Today’s photo is from the Mongolian highlands. Surreal to see a frozen lake surrounded by sand dunes.