Jason Goldman, writing in The Guardian, today tells of the long history of frogs being sent (by humans) into space for scientific purposes: “Frogs in space: one giant leap indeed“. Ig Nobel Prize winner Richard Wassersug [pictured here] has an intimate relationship with the history of frogs in space. Among his publications in that realm: “Emesis and […]
Tag: space
Best space music videos: Hadfield/Bowie & Coleman/Anderson/Bach
These are our picks for best space music videos of the past few years. In our view, they qualify as being improbable in all the best senses of that word. Both videos show performances done by musician-astronauts in spacecraft orbiting the earth. Chris Hadfield performs David Bowie‘s “Space Oddity”: Cady Coleman and Ian Anderson (of […]
Worm-generated wormholes record history in space and time
Wormholes — what are they good for? This study suggests one possible answer: “Wormholes record species history in space and time,” S. Blair Hedges, Biology Letters, vol. 9, no. 1. February 2013. The author, at Penn State University, reports: “I show that printed wormholes in rare books and artwork are trace fossils of wood-boring species […]
Eminent space-dinosaurs self-plagiarism headline
Today’s Headline of the Day appears in the Nature newsblog: Eminent chemist denies self-plagiarism in ‘space dinosaurs’ paper (HT Ed Yong)