This image (first brought to my attention by Kiki Sanford on G+ (@drkiki) is a stunning visual representation of 50 Years of Space Exploration to various locations in our solar system… and beyond.
Click to embiggen.
Original link. Art by Sean McNaughton, National Geographic Staff, Samuel Velasco, 5W Infographics.
Henry, the Life and Science Museum woodchuck, needs to take some medicine. Here’s our secret: peanut butter.
This video has been making the rounds, but I just had to put it on my blog (so I could keep watching it). It’s just mesmerizing. I love hearing the delight and amazement in their voices as they see these rather ordinary birds do something extraordinary.
Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.
One of the perks of working with the Life and Science Museum Animal Department is getting to handle so many animals. I absolutely adore this little crested gecko. He dropped his tail this year (after an injury at the base of the tail) and we’ve all been watching it regrow a bit. Crested geckos who drop their tails do not fully regrow them (as some other lizards do). However, his little stump has definitely elongated. Alas, no matter how much it regrows, he will not regain the pad of lamellae that he had on the flattened tip of his prehensile tail. I plan to start to take weekly photos of the regrowth and do a timelapse of it at some point. In the meantime, I’m intrigued by his feet and eyes. I still need to bring in a tripod and do a proper photo shoot, but here’s some of his cuteness (on my finger!)
I am very excited to have been asked to do a post on the Scientific American Guest Blog about my recent participation in the #GRAIL #NASATweetup. It went live yesterday (9/21/2011). Click on the screen capture below to go to the original location to read the entire post!
I’m back, and it hardly seems fair that over a week has transpired since I left Florida and Kennedy Space Center. This is the first of several posts that will be a photo travelogue of my adventures during the #GRAIL #NASATweetup (for some background info about the NASATweetup and my participation, go here). My traveling companion is Gnoome, the stuffed (or plush, if you prefer) Moon. He is a traveling gnome wanna-be, hence, his name (which, pronounced in reverse is the object of the GRAIL mission).
If you want details of the science and rocketry (which are really pretty amazing), you should check out the references page on the wiki that I helped to administrate for our tweetup group. NASA does a wonderful job explaining the mission and, frankly, I couldn’t do it better.
The #GRAIL #NASATweetup was scheduled to begin on the morning of September 7, 2011. In order to arrive in time (and pick up my credentials early), I left at 2:30 AM on Tuesday, September 6th.
Gnoome and I headed out in the dark of night, armed with snack food, map, and plenty of coffee for the 10+ hour drive.
Our trip progressed quite well. No other travelers in the car, so we could just keep moving along (read: no extra long rest stops, food stops, etc). Before we knew it, we were in Florida. It's hard to tell from this photo, but it was actually raining. An ironic greeting to the Sunshine State!
Apparently we weren't the only ones tweeting during the #NASATweetup for the #GRAIL launch on Sept 10, 2011.
There are some very, very good videos about NASA, the space program, and the Space Shuttles. But this one captures so much of the behind-the-scenes (and especially the myriad of unsung heroes behind the program–down to the people who make sandwiches for the astronauts) that it is well worth the hour to watch it.
This is the group photo for our #GRAIL #NASATweetup. It was supposed to be taken out in the Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center, BUT there was a torrential rainstorm at the time scheduled for the photo shoot, so it was shot in the lobby of the Debus Center. We still haven’t seen the launch yet (the Thur launch windows were scrubbed due to high upper winds and Friday’s opportunity was also scrubbed). Can you find me?
If you poke around the NASAHQphoto photostream, you’ll see some other photos of the GRAIL launch.
My iPhone pics of the #GRAIL #NASATweetup are here. My “real” pictures haven’t been edited and uploaded yet, but I’ll let you know when they are!
