moleskinerie

What Are Dreams ?

 

A fascinating look on what happens once we close our eyes and drift into sleep.

What are dreams and why do we have them? 

NOVA joins leading dream researchers as they embark on a variety of neurological and psychological experiments to investigate the world of sleep and dreams. Delving deep into the thoughts and brains of a variety of dreamers, scientists are asking important questions about the purpose of this mysterious realm we escape to at night. Do dreams allow us to get a good night's sleep? Do they improve memory? Do they allow us to be more creative? Can they solve our problems or even help us survive the hazards of everyday life?

NOVA follows a number of scientists, including Matthew Wilson of MIT, who is literally "eavesdropping" on the dreams of rats, and other investigators who are systematically analyzing the content of thousands of human dreams. From people who violently act out their dreams to those who can't stop their nightmares, from sleepwalking cats to the rare instances of individuals who don't seem to ever dream, each fascinating case study contains a vital clue to the age-old question: What Are Dreams?

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My Adventures With Heart Failure

An artist sketches her way through a heart condition in a notebook chock-full of evocative images and emotions.

"In 2008, after recovering from breast cancer, New York artist Vicki Behm contracted what seemed to be a bad flu. But symptoms persisted beyond the usual time. She eventually found herself in an ER, gasping for breath. Then she was diagnosed with a disease she had barely heard of.

This is Vicki's visual diary, annotated with her words, from her symptoms to her hopeful new life with a weakened heart."

View her work @ Health.com

Copyright © 2008 Health Media Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Encyclopedia of Life

 

Quick! What is a Phoca vitulina? Give up?

Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Our goal is to create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the Internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike. To transform the science of biology, and inspire a new generation of scientists, by aggregating all known data about every living species. And ultimately, to increase our collective understanding of life on Earth, and safeguard the richest possible spectrum of biodiversity.

EOL

Learn more.

[Thanks JC]

Look here for the answer >>>

Inspiration: Graffiti for Butterflies

Some summer-y fun experiment to try...just because:

A post on how to attract monarch butterflies to urban food sources along migratory routes in North America

GFB uses images of milkweed flowers to broadcast the location of food sources to monarch butterflies. In the prototype at left, the graffiti is placed on a wall above an actual milkweed plant in New York City, signaling the presence of nectar to hungry monarchs in the vicinity.

Learn more.

Art: Poster.com

The Cloud Appreciation Society

The Morning Glory cloud sweeps in over the Gulf coast of northern Queensland

THE REMOTE SETTLEMENT of Burketown, in Australia’s northern Queensland, is not the sort of place you’d expect people to travel thousands of miles to visit. With a population of just 178, Burketown sits in one of Australia’s most remote shires. But every September and October, a small group of individuals journey from all corners of the country for the appearance of a remarkable and dramatic cloud called the Morning Glory. Clouds don’t usually have names, nor are they normally linked to a particular location, but then the Morning Glory is no normal cloud. Looking like a huge white roll of meringue, it stretches up to 600 miles (about the length of Britain) and sweeps over Burketown at speeds of up to 35mph. The visitors who come to marvel at this beautiful and awe-inspiring meteorological phenomenon are an intrepid group of glider pilots, for whom the cloud promises the most unique and thrilling flying conditions of anywhere in the world. Each year they come to this sleepy town in the hope of ‘soaring’ the Morning Glory, an exhilarating gliding adventure that can only be described as cloud-surfing.

By Gavin Pretor-Pinney
The Cloud Appreciation Society

Learn more.

The Encyclopedia of Life

Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Our goal is to create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the Internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike. To transform the science of biology, and inspire a new generation of scientists, by aggregating all known data about every living species. And ultimately, to increase our collective understanding of life on Earth, and safeguard the richest possible spectrum of biodiversity.

EOL

Learn more.

[Thanks JC]

The First Flower

The First Flower

NOVA on PBS
April17 at 8 PM
Check your local listings

Program Website

Linnaeus’s Flower Clock

0200 – Night blooming cereus closes
0500 – Morning glories, wild roses
0600 – Spotted cat’s ear, catmint
0700 – African marigold, orange hawkweed, dandelions
0800 – Mouse-ear hawkweed, African daisies
0900 – Field marigold, gentians, prickly sowthistle closes
1000 – Helichrysum, Californium poppy, common nipplewort closes
1100 – Star of Bethlehem
1200 – Passion flower, goatsbeard, morning glory closes
1300 – Chiding pink closes
1400 – Scarlet pimpernel closes
1500 – Hawkbit closes
1600 – ‘Four o’clock’ plant opens, small bindweed closes, Californian poppy closes
1700 – White waterlily closes
1800 – Evening primrose, moonflower
1900
2000 – Daylilies and dandelions close
2100 – Flowering tobacco
2200 – Night blooming cereus

The approximate opening and closing times of aequinoctal flowers that can be used in an horologium florae.

Linnaeus’s Flower Clock
The Athanasius Kircher Society

VISIT

Searching for the Poisonous Pitohui

Poisonous birds do not have major medical importance, but are interesting and fascinating in their own right. The following data shows how little we actually know of the natural world. In 1989 a researcher (John P. Dumbacher of the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C), netted a specific bird in New Guinea, named Pitohui dichrous ("rubbish bird", fam. Pachycephalidae). They are the size of a thrush, and both male and female have colored patches in their plumage. After handling a bird, he got scratched. Licking his hands afterwards, he noted numbness of his lips and a burning feeling in his mouth, suggesting the presence of (a) toxin(s). He described it as : "…Within a minute, your tongue tingles, then it burns, and your mouth can go numb for several hours. It's a lot like tasting hot chili peppers or touching a 9-volt battery…." This was very weird, as poisonous birds were unknown at that time. After investigations, it was found that a complex alkaloid toxin, homobatrachotoxin, was concentrated in feathers and the skin of the animals. The concentration varies depending on the species.

LINK

Conservationist Bruce Beehler is pushing through a wild and previously unexplored jungle in search of a mysterious and poisonous bird native to Papua New Guinea, the pitohui. His only lead and guide is a local shaman, who uses poison from the bird in his rituals.

Listen on ODEO

The Transit of Mercury

On Wednesday, 2006 Nov 08, Mercury will transit the Sun for the first time since 2003. The transit or passage of a planet across the face of the Sun is a relatively rare occurrence. As seen from Earth, only transits of Mercury and Venus are possible. There are approximately 13 transits of Mercury each century. In comparison, transits of Venus occur in pairs with more than a century separating each pair.

The principal events occurring during a transit are conveniently characterized by contacts, analogous to the contacts of an annular solar eclipse. The transit begins with contact I which is the instant when the planet's disk is externally tangent with the Sun. Shortly after contact I, the planet can be seen as a small notch along the solar limb. The entire disk of the planet is first seen at contact II when the planet is internally tangent with the Sun. During the next several hours, the silhouetted planet slowly traverses the brilliant solar disk. At contact III, the planet reaches the opposite limb and once again is internally tangent with the Sun. Finally, the transit ends at contact IV when the planet's limb is externally tangent to the Sun. Contacts I and II define the phase called ingress while contacts III and IV are known as egress. Position angles for Mercury at each contact are measured counterclockwise from the north point on the Sun's disk.

NASA

Related link: How to view it safely @ Exploratorium
Photo: Mead

[via BB]