Photographer Mark Meyer did a partial analysis of his crayons: Starting with a fresh box of twenty-four Crayola crayons I measured each with an i1 pro spectrophotometer to create a set of spectral power distributions (SPD) of the reflected light…. This is what a box of crayons looks like broken into it’s spectral components. (HT Bob O’Hara)
Category: Arts and Science
Research and other stuff that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
Sherlock Holmes and toe loss in lizards
Fuelled with curiosity, some scientists exploit – lovingly, proudly – the investigative trick featured in Arthur Conan Doyle‘s 1892 story Silver Blaze. There, a baffled police inspector seeks help from the great autodicact/detective Sherlock Holmes: [Inspector Gregory:] “Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?” [Holmes:] “To the curious incident of the […]
Prof. Nishiyama – #2 – The Zen of clutch maintenance (eggs)
Bearing in mind that the word ‘ovoid’ means ‘egg-shaped’, the question : ‘Why are eggs ovoid?’ has much in common with questions like or ‘Why are hearts heart-shaped?’ or ‘Why are sausages sausage-shaped?’ And the Zen-like qualities of the egg-shape question have not escaped professor Yutaka Nishiyama, (Osaka University of Economics, Japan) who decided to […]
Adventitious Branching in Liverworts
Today we celebrate adventitious branching in liverworts. Do your part, if you like, by obtaining a copy of the following study, and reading it aloud to a public official: “Adventitious Branching in Liverworts,” David M’Ardle, The Irish Naturalist, vol. 4, no. 4, April 1895, pp. 81-4.