Romain Franconville has joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS). He says: I’m a researcher at the Janelia Farm Research Campus, where I study the neural control of locomotion in Drosophila melanogaster. My focus is on walking behavior, as flying flies tend to get stuck in my hair. Romain Franconville, Ph.D., LFHCfS Postdoctoral researcher Janelia Farm, […]
One Way to Thaw Giant Powder
There may be many ways to thaw giant powder. Thomas Boseveae came up with one of them, but his patent has expired: “Apparatus for Thawing Giant-Powder,” US patent #268540, granted to Thomas Boseveae on December 5, 1882. Giant Powder was made and sold by the Giant Powder Company of California, under license from Alfred Nobel. It […]
Turnspit, the kitchen dog
Nicola Twilley essays upon the history of using dogs to power the preparation of food: Dogs still occupy a variety of roles in the human food system, from sheep herding to barbecued delicacy. What is less well known is that before the advent of gas or electric ovens, dogs also provided a convenient power source for […]
Fire in the river (Cleveland), fire from on high (London)
The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, caught fire, in 1969. Randy Newman wrote a song about that. This week, in London, UK, things in a neighborhood in London are burning, the heat being supplied by a new, tall building that—for lengthy periods of the day during at least part of the year— focuses sunlight down […]