When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.
Richard C Lewontin lab 1976:
See Russ Lande, top left; Jerry Coyne bottom right. Who are the three others? Help me folks!
march
The Moon at waxing gibbous phase on a dark background.
Waxing Gibbous Moon. 2019UT 28 February 2026. 🔭 🧪 🎨 #astrophotography #SciArt #photography #StormHour #ThePhotoHour
tuesday, but no pancakes
field cricket (the higher pitch in particular)
"The Beagle sailed round Chatham Island, and anchored in several bays. One night I slept on a part of the island, where black truncated cones were extraordinarily numerous: from one small eminence I counted sixty of them, all surmounted by craters more or less perfect. The greater number consisted merely of a ring of red scoriae or slags, cemented together: and their height above the plain of lava was not more than from fifty to a hundred feet: none had been very lately active. The entire surface of this part of the island seems to have been permeated, like a sieve, by the subterranean vapours: here and there the lava, whilst soft, has been blown into great bubbles; and in other parts, the tops of caverns similarly formed have fallen in, leaving circular pits with steep sides. From the regular form of the many craters, they gave to the country and artificial appearance, which vividly reminded me of those parts of Staffordshire, where the great iron-foundries are most numerous."
he did seem to have a geologist's appreciation of the unique landscape...
agreed. and yet, five weeks later: "The natural history of these islands is eminently curious, and well deserves attention." 😹
his appreciation evolved over time, apparently
"Nothing could be less inviting than the first appearance. A broken field of black basaltic lava, thrown into the most rugged waves, and crossed by great fissures, is everywhere covered by stunted, sun-burnt brushwood, which shows little signs of life. The dry and parched surface, being heated by the noon-day sun, gave to the air a close and sultry feeling, like that from a stove: we fancied even that the bushes smelt unpleasantly. Although I diligently tried to collect as many plants as possible, I succeeded in getting very few; and such wretched-looking little weeds would have better become an arctic than an equatorial Flora."
In celebration of #DarwinDay, here are his decidedly mixed first impressions after landing on the Galápagos (17 Sept 1835; from 'the Voyage' Chap X):
"Nothing could be less inviting..."
The revised Schedule F policy, finalized last week, will kick in next month. It could reclassify career government scientists—potentially those involved in grantmaking at agencies like NIH and NSF—into at-will employees, and would strip them of whistleblower protections.
Rabbits capture, try and execute a hunter. The Smithfield Decretals, decorated in London, England, in the 1340s: Royal MS 10 E IV, f. 59v-61v
Bad bunnies from long ago
www.bl.uk/stories/blog...
GMT-5 timezone not good
tired
How many tigers do you think is in a jar of tigers balm
art deco facade of the Babylon Kino. The marquee reads: metropolis live babylon orchester berlin
sunday
grunewald (in my apartment building)
snow & stairs, Berlin
Minotaur in the labyrinth, Roman mosaic at Conímbriga, Portugal
Frank Stella, Labyrinth, 1960
fantastic book (and one of her best)
Charley Harper, "Darwin's Finches", from "The Giant Golden Book of Biology", 1961
Portrait of William S. Burroughs from the 'Danger' series, by Brion Gysin, 1959.
'”Modern man has lost the option of silence.”
William S. Burroughs.
Shout out to everyone currently experiencing everything
This is not a model. This is a "fossilised" taxidermy of a Woolly Rhino, discovered in Starunia mine in Carpathian Poland (now Ukraine) in 1929. Dating to the Pleistocene, its exquisite preservation is owed to a mixture of brine, oil and clays. 🧵
mislaid species — the latest "tortured phrases” in scientific publications?...
Not apocalyptic looking at all
Gratuitous X-ray microscopy imaging, a "bouquet" of developing soybean flowers.
@zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social
@danforthcenter.bsky.social
