What a wonderful world...

To start off the summer, the U.S. Postal Service issued a set of stamps showcasing views of the Sun from our Solar Dynamics Observatory!

Since its launch in 2010, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (or SDO) has kept up a near-constant watch on the Sun from its vantage point in orbit around Earth. SDO watches the Sun in more than 10 different types of light, including some that are absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere so can only be seen from space. These different types of light allow scientists to study different parts of the Sun – from its surface to its atmosphere – and better understand the solar activity that can affect our technology on Earth and in space.

The new set of stamps features 10 images from SDO. Most of these images are in extreme ultraviolet light, which is invisible to human eyes.

Let’s explore the science behind some of the stamps!

Coronal hole (May 2016)

The dark area capping the northern polar region of the Sun is a coronal hole, a magnetically open area on the Sun from which high-speed solar wind escapes into space. Such high-speed solar wind streams can spark magnificent auroral displays on Earth when they collide with our planet’s magnetic field.

Solar flare (August 2011)

The bright flash on the Sun’s upper right is a powerful solar flare. Solar flares are bursts of light and energy that can disturb the part of Earth’s atmosphere where GPS and radio signals travel.

Active Sun (October 2014)

This view highlights the many active regions dotting the Sun’s surface. Active regions are areas of intense and complex magnetic fields on the Sun – linked to sunspots – that are prone to erupting with solar flares or explosions of material called coronal mass ejections.

Plasma blast (August 2012)

These images show a burst of material from the Sun, called a coronal mass ejection. These eruptions of magnetized solar material can create space weather effects on Earth when they collide with our planet’s magnetosphere, or magnetic environment – including aurora, satellite disruptions, and, when extreme, even power outages.

Coronal loops (July 2012)

These images show evolving coronal loops across the limb and disk of the Sun. Just days after these images were taken, the Sun unleashed a powerful solar flare.

Coronal loops are often found over sunspots and active regions, which are areas of intense and complex magnetic fields on the Sun.

Sunspots (October 2014)

This view in visible light – the type of light we can see – shows a cluster of sunspots near the center of the Sun. Sunspots appear dark because they are relatively cool compared to surrounding material, a consequence of the way their extremely dense magnetic field prevents heated material from rising to the solar surface.

For more Sun science, follow NASA Sun on Twitter, on Facebook, or on the web.

1) 📚 approximately how many books have you read 

2) 📝 book that everyone has to read 

3) 📕 favourite first book in a series 

4) 📗 favourite second book in a series 

5) 📘 favourite third book in a series 

6) 📖 book you’ve read more than once and how many times 

7) 🛋 book that keep you up all night 

8) 🎁 book that was surprisingly good 

9) 😡 book you expected more of 

10) 💰 most expensive book you’ve bought 

11) 💩 the worst book you’ve read 

12) 🏆 the best book you’ve read 

13) 🎥 favourite book to movie/tv show adaptation 

14) 🎬 book you want to be a movie/tv show 

15)  🏝 summer book recommendation 

16) ⛄️ winter book recommendation 

17) 🌎 favourite fictional world 

18) 🐲 favourite book creature 

19) 👯 favourite female friendship 

20) 👯‍♂️ favourite male friendship 

21) 💋 favourite kiss 

22) 👸 favourite princess/queen 

23) 🤴 favourite prince/king 

24) 😈 favourite villain 

25) ❤️ favourite ship 

26) ⛵️ favourite crack ship 

27) 😱 best plot twist 

28) 🔮 power you’d like to have 

29) 🥊 character you’d punch in the face 

30) 😤 character you loved but now hate 

31) 😻 character you hated but now love 

32) 😭 death that made you cry the most 

33) 😂 the funniest scene 

34) 🤢 the grossest scene 

35) 💔 scene that broke your heart

36) 🏹 favourite fantasy book

37) 🚀 favourite sci fi book

38) 🌹 favourite romance book

39) 👻 favourite horror book

40) 🏰 favourite historical fiction book

Something that has recently taken a rather obsessive home in my brain is a paragraph in Morgoth's Ring about Glorfindel's re embodiement and reincarnation of elves in general. This will be long so under cut

Skin Deep: How a Missing Protein Redirects Epithelial Cells to Become Intestine-Like

Nature — and by extension, human biology — is famously creative, working with a finite set of ingredients to create an enormously complicated and surprisingly diverse body of life, including your body.

The latest case in point is a paper published online in the February 4, 2021 issue of Nature Communications, in which senior author George L. Sen, PhD,  an associate professor in the departments of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Dermatology, and colleagues describe what happens to skin cells when a key protein is blocked during stem cell differentiation.

Would-be skin cells become intestine-like.

The authors found that a protein called SPT6 is critical to furthering differentiation, the process in which stem cells develop into specific kinds of cells. When it is inhibited, skin stem cells lose their “epidermal fate” and instead develop into cells similar to those lining the intestines. Grown in culture, they form intestinal organoids.

Pictured above: Scanning electron micrograph of human skin layers.

The results suggest that skin and intestine are closely related and their fate determined by SPT6 control of subsequent gene expression, specifically the gene P63. The results have implications modulating skin diseases such as cancer, wound healing and specific conditions like Barrett’s esophagus, a gastroesophageal reflux disease where a portion of patients develop intestinal metaplasia, a condition where the stratified, squamous epithelial cells of the esophagus turn into intestine-like cells. The new findings suggest the underlying mechanism for this disorder might be due to misregulation of SPT6 and P63 gene expression.

Thingol: sprints into the woods to become a missing person then shows up with a god-wife, always ready to throw a temper tantrum and challenge someone to an impossible quest

Melian: turned part of the landscape into an evil spider zone, weirdly chill about her daughter going to fight Satan, loses it with impressive alacrity when her husband dies

Lúthien: passionate love story involves her beating up several evil divinities and wolves while shouting at her parents that they don’t understand her anymore

Dior: beauty and spite, sends hate mail that leads to sectarian violence, unclear if he killed all three of Fëanor’s sons himself

Elwing: jumps off a cliff and turns into a bird which is frankly cooler than lighting yourself on fire out of sheer rage because birds have beaks that you can continue to assault your enemies with

Thingol: sprints into the woods to become a missing person then shows up with a god-wife, always ready to throw a temper tantrum and challenge someone to an impossible quest

Melian: turned part of the landscape into an evil spider zone, weirdly chill about her daughter going to fight Satan, loses it with impressive alacrity when her husband dies

Lúthien: passionate love story involves her beating up several evil divinities and wolves while shouting at her parents that they don’t understand her anymore

Dior: beauty and spite, sends hate mail that leads to sectarian violence, unclear if he killed all three of Fëanor’s sons himself

Elwing: jumps off a cliff and turns into a bird which is frankly cooler than lighting yourself on fire out of sheer rage because birds have beaks that you can continue to assault your enemies with

One of my biggest issues with the story of Beren and Luthien is that everyone else suddenly starts acting completely out of character for the sake of their story. Thingol demanding a Silmaril specifically, instead of, say, Morgoth’s head…Finrod the diplomat not communicating with Thingol at all, or trying to talk Beren down… Celegorm and Curufin suddenly trying to arrange a forced marriage…

Okay, especially that last one. Let’s talk about Celegorm and Curufin and how utterly uncharacteristic everything that happened in Nargothrond is. Because the more I think about this story, the less it makes sense to me.

Bach: you’re probably a boomer tbh I don’t know anyone who likes Bach who isn’t really old and boring

Mozart/Beethoven: you’re either really basic or don’t know anything about classical music

Shostakovich/Prokofiev/Stravinsky: you’re really intense and have a strong personality and people are lowkey scared of you

Tchaikovsky: you’re probably a hopeless romantic and I’d be your friend

Debussy/Ravel: you give me strong art hoe vibes but you’re pretty unconventional and I like that

Chopin/Liszt/Rachmaninoff: you’re a pianist or you took it when you were young, quit, then got back into it

Dvorák/Brahms: you’re the best person 10/10 choice and I love you