in-pursuit-of-knowledge-blog

Latest Posts by in-pursuit-of-knowledge-blog

Earth and Moon between the Rings of Saturn [1024x1024]

Register: turbovote.org Check your registration: headcount.org/verify-voter-registration/ More info: usa.gov/voting

Sunset on Mars

Correction: even cooler than we thought!

Apparently Ethiopian Baboons are starting to domesticate wolves, which is giving scientists new insights about what it might have been like when early humans did that. That’s cool pretty cool!

Neat!

I may be awkward sometimes But

at least i did not say “neat”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl7-9QZgea_/

In 1941, Swiss engineer George de Mestral noticed after a hunting trip that burrs from burdock plants stuck to his pants and his dog’s fur. 

He took the seed and looked at them through a microscope to find that this seed attaches to animal fur via the hooks on its surface to improve distribution.

                               Source: All of Nature on Blogspot

These hooks would latch onto anything loop-shaped, such as the fibers in his pants and his dog’s tangled fur. This inspired him to come up with the ‘Velcro’.

Velcro is a bio-mimicry of this burrs with small flexible hooks attached on its surface to attach to fluffy surfaces.

Although it goes by the name Velcro the generic name is a  hook-and-loop fastener)  

And depending on the load that needs to be held there are different types of hooks that are available:

The sound that the velcro makes when you rip it apart is oddly satisfying. It is made when the loops are ripped apart from the hooks.

It was always in my head that the hooks or the loops would break whenever you would rip it apart. But turns out, they are extremely flexible.

                                                Source

For a long time I believed that this was the end of the story and that’s how far we had gone. But recently when I was trying to mount a board to the wall, I came across the 3M dual lock fasteners.

These use a mushroom shaped hook on both the sides to snap together in place.

                                                  Source

And evidently it turns out the mushroom fastener design were inspired from dragonflies who used it for stability during mating (check source video above for more).

This is great, but since this is made of plastic this surely would fail at higher temperatures. You need something robust to handle higher temperatures, and this is where the Metaklett comes into the picture:

A square metre of this fastener, called Metaklett (made of steel), is capable of supporting 35 tonnes at temperatures up to 800 ºC,  (Video)

There is something exotic in the blend of nature and technology that is manifested in the Velcro, I just cannot put my hand on what it is.

Have a great day!

derin.goya.fishing on ig 🐙

Dig into an Incredible Compendium of Objects Excavated from the Bottom of Amsterdam’s Amstel River

“What’s bigger than this?” Crystal Kingdom edit for @stainedglassthreads

no seriously at what point do we stop saying dinosaurs and start saying prehistoric birds?? is it a matter of time?? a matter of species??? SCIENCE SIDE OF TUMBLR PLEASE HELP

Little god raised up in grass, lord of fields and valleys vast

I said I was sorry.

I may be awkward sometimes But

at least i did not say “neat”

ASTONISHING, said Death.  REALLY ASTONISHING.  LET ME PUT FORWARD ANOTHER SUGGESTION: THAT YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A LUCKY SPECIES OF APE THAT IS TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THE COMPLEXITIES OF CREATION VIA A LANGUAGE THAT EVOLVED IN ORDER TO TELL ONE ANOTHER WHERE THE RIPE FRUIT WAS. Fighting for breath, the philsopher managed to say, ‘Don’t be silly.’ THE REMARK WAS NOT INTENDED AS DEROGATORY, said Death.  UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES, YOU HAVE ACHIEVED A GREAT DEAL.

Terry Pratchett, “Death and What Comes Next” (A Blink of the Screen) (Tired of dealing with philosophers but never tired of humanity as a whole.)

After an extensive talk with a wonderful confidant of mine, I have concluded that “Neat!” is not an appropriate response to an earnest confession of emotions.

Injectable bandages

Above: Akhilesh K Gaharwar, Ph.D., of Texas A&M University, demonstrating injectability of nano engineered hydrogels, Credit: Gaharwar Lab, www.akgaharwar.com A gelling agent commonly used in making pastries just got a major promotion. It’s now a key ingredient for new “injectable bandages” that can simulate the structure of human tissue, stop bleeding and promote healing. Potential applications include helping troops wounded in the battlefield. This Texas A&M research is our featured podcast story - Sweet! http://bit.ly/2ILgNBY

Below: Schematic showing injectable bandage composed of 2D nanoparticles and common food additive - kappa carrageenan, Credit: Lokhande, et al.

Paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1742706118300564

If you have eyes for just one shrimp, make it a mantis shrimp. 

There’s a megalodon tooth in the nature trade right now and my god do I want it

Technology for the blind!

NSF-funded researchers at Texas A&M University have developed STAAR (Situated Touch Audio Annotator And Reader) e-reader that enables blind readers to read the same text sighted readers do. The system allows a user to scan the text with their fingers to hear the words. For more information:  https://bit.ly/2Fm1HSU

Video credit:  Texas A&M University

Jelly donut anyone? These “dinner plate” jellies usually live in the deep sea, but were recently spotted closer to the surface around Monterey Bay. 

Local diver Dave Smith captured this video of one snacking on doliolids (the gelatinous things floating around in the water and also in the jelly’s pink gut tissue). Just in time for National Donut Day!

https://www.instagram.com/thepersonalquotes/

“There have been too great a tendency to call anyone ‘impractical’ who dare to look too far in advance of the well beaten path. What is being ‘practical’? One must have imagination in order to be truly practical.

"I know scientific men who have spent years in attempts to do some obviously impossible thing and who yet have been called 'practical’ because if they succeeded in accomplishing that for which they were striving they would make much money.

"The same man would have jeered not long ago at the suggestion that we on the earth might receive signals from Mars. Big things are not 'practical’. They are wonderful. Many scientific minds, like many minds which are not scientific, shy at anything which is wonderful. Yet the simplest things in nature are wonderful almost beyond the limits of the human imagination.

"Men ignorant of the way in which plants grow would jeer at a farmer if suddenly they should be so placed that they saw him planting seeds. They would declare him an impractical creature because the fruition of his efforts if at all possible of realization is so remote. They want immediate results.

"The sending to and reception from Mars of signals would be an achievement by no means as wonderful as Nature’s simple process of making seeds grow in the ground.”

–Nikola Tesla

“Marconi Credits Mystery Flash To Far Planet”New York Sun, January 25, 1920.

people say the animorphs covers are *creepy* but the actual in book transformations are all like ‘then her face cracked in two, her organs melted, her bones all snapped and reformed backwards, and her fingers and toes fused together. she couldnt cry because her tear ducts didnt fucking exist anymore. everyone looked at the ground so they wouldnt throw up looking at this’

Solar System: 10 Things to Know

Movie Night

Summer break is just around the corner. Hang a sheet from the clothesline in the backyard and fire up the projector for a NASA movie night.

1. Mars in a Minute

Back in the day, movies started with a cartoon. Learn the secrets of the Red Planet in these animated 60 second chunks.

2. Crash of the Titans

Watch two galaxies collide billions of years from now in this high-definition visualization.

3. Tour the Moon in 4K

Wait for the dark of the waning Moon next weekend to take in this 4K tour of our constant celestial companion.

4. Seven Years of the Sun

Watch graceful dances in the Sun’s atmosphere in this series of videos created by our 24/7 Sun-sentinel, the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO).

5. Light ‘Em Up

Crank up the volume and learn about NASA science for this short video about some of our science missions, featuring a track by Fall Out Boy.

6. Bennu’s Journey

Follow an asteroid from its humble origins to its upcoming encounter with our spacecraft in this stunning visualization.

7. Lunar Landing Practice

Join Apollo mission pilots as they fly—and even crash—during daring practice runs for landing on the Moon.

8. Earthrise

Join the crew of Apollo 8 as they become the first human beings to see the Earth rise over the surface of the Moon.

9. Musical Descent to Titan

Watch a musical, whimsical recreation of the 2005 Huygens probe descent to Titan, Saturn’s giant moon.

10. More Movies

Our Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio provides a steady stream of fresh videos for your summer viewing pleasure. Come back often and enjoy.

Read the full version of this article on the web HERE. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.  

Matt Hovland - Land of Hov

Here’s an artsy peak at some giant clams behind the scenes! Their luminous colors and patterns are thanks to tiny, helpful algae that live inside the clams’ tissues.

Thank you to staffer Kat for the photo!