scientistintraining:

Adult Molar Costume

I am so excited for Halloween this year.

I might have started dental school today, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be dressing as a molar for Halloween.

Camel Thorn Trees in Namibia via National Geographic

Is it art or nature? Yes, it’s both.

fuckyeahquantummechanics:

I have a friend who’s an artist and he’s sometimes taken a view which I don’t agree with very well. He’ll hold up a flower and say, “Look how beautiful it is,” and I’ll agree, I think. And he says—”you see, I as an artist can see how beautiful this is, but you as a scientist, oh, take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing.” And I think that he’s kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me, too, I believe, although I might not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is; but I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time I see much more about the flower than he sees. I can imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside which also have a beauty. I mean it’s not just beauty at this dimension of one centimeter, there is also beauty at a smaller dimension, the inner structure. Also the processes, the fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting—it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: Does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which shows that a science knowledge only adds to the excitement and mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds; I don’t understand how it subtracts.

-Richard Feynman,  ”The Beauty of a Flower” - The Pleasure of Finding Things Out

(via kl0vis-deactivated20111012)

Ours (Louisiana’s) is a naturally-occurring landform. I guess we deserve credit for not destroying it.

thenewrepublic:

United States of Science! Brilliant map of how each state shines in science, nature and public health, courtesy of the Mother Nature Network.

So true.

(discovered via ffffound.com; originally posted at donttouchmymoleskine.wordpress.com)

Hard to believe. This is why we need to recycle.

mothernaturenetwork:

Photographer Chris Jordan is well known for his work illustrating the sheer size of our consumptive habits. Here’s Plastic Bottles, 2007 from his series ‘Running the Numbers.’