O Lugar da Ana . Wonderful Ana's Place

2026 April 4

Hello World Image Credit: NASA, Reid Wiseman, Artemis II

Explanation: From pole to pole our fair planet is captured in this snapshot from space, an evocative image from a window of the Orion spacecraft Integrity. From the spacecraft’s perspective the Sun is moving behind Earth’s bright limb along the lower right. Africa and the Iberian peninsula are in view on the pale blue planet’s surface, while aurorae crown Earth’s south and north poles at top right and bottom left. Commander Reid Wiseman took the historic picture on Artemis II mission flight day 2 (April 2), after the completion of the planned translunar injection burn. That burn boosted the spacecraft out of Earth orbit, sending Integrity and crew on a trajectory that will take them around the Moon and back again. That’s a journey humans last made over 50 years ago.

What Happens in the Brain When You Experience Art

Your brain doesn't passively observe art—it simulates it. Neuroaesthetics, the science of how the brain processes aesthetic experience, reveals that art triggers dopamine release, activates mirror neurons, reduces cortisol, and physically reshapes neural architecture over time. The article breaks this down through five original frameworks: the Empathic Projection Effect, the Aesthetic Cascade Model, the Reward-Meaning Bridge, the Cortical Echo Loop, and the Aesthetic Threshold Hypothesis. Together they explain why art feels physically real, why great works grow on you over days rather than hours, and why repeated exposure makes art hit harder—not softer. The piece also draws on landmark research by Semir Zeki, Vittorio Gallese, Valorie Salimpoor, V.S. Ramachandran, Girija Kaimal, and Anjan Chatterjee to ground every claim in peer-reviewed science. The conclusion is direct: art isn't a cultural supplement. It's a biological mechanism your brain relies on to integrate sensation, emotion, and meaning—and the neuroscience now makes that case with precision.

More on WE AND THE COLOR.

Arguably the most massive and influential study ever proving the supposed inherent cruelty of humanity was proven a few years ago to be literally fraudulent

"The Stanford Prison Experiment, one of the most famous and compelling psychological studies of all time, told us a tantalizingly simple story about human nature.

The study took paid participants and assigned them to be “inmates” or “guards” in a mock prison at Stanford University. Soon after the experiment began, the “guards” began mistreating the “prisoners,” implying evil is brought out by circumstance. The authors, in their conclusions, suggested innocent people, thrown into a situation where they have power over others, will begin to abuse that power. And people who are put into a situation where they are powerless will be driven to submission, even madness.

The Stanford Prison Experiment has been included in many, many introductory psychology textbooks and is often cited uncritically. It’s the subject of movies, documentaries, books, television shows, and congressional testimony.

But its findings were wrong. Very wrong. And not just due to its questionable ethics or lack of concrete data — but because of deceit.

A new exposé based on previously unpublished recordings of Philip Zimbardo, the Stanford psychologist who ran the study, and interviews with his participants, offers convincing evidence that the guards in the experiment were coached to be cruel. It also shows that the experiment’s most memorable moment — of a prisoner descending into a screaming fit, proclaiming, “I’m burning up inside!” — was the result of the prisoner acting. “I took it as a kind of an improv exercise,” one of the guards told reporter Ben Blum. “I believed that I was doing what the researchers wanted me to do.”

The findings have long been subject to scrutiny — many think of them as more of a dramatic demonstration, a sort-of academic reality show, than a serious bit of science. But these new revelations incited an immediate response. “We must stop celebrating this work,” personality psychologist Simine Vazire tweeted, in response to the article. “It’s anti-scientific. Get it out of textbooks.” Many other psychologists have expressed similar sentiments."

"Many of the classic show-stopping experiments have lately turned out to be wrong, fraudulent, or outdated. Yet many introductory psychological textbooks have yet to be updated. And it’s high time that we teach the next generation of students to understand them this way."

-via The Internet Archive, via Vox, June 13, 2018. Paywall free. Extensive citations and links to primary sources in article. Emphasis mine.

One of the rare situations where science turning out to be fraudulent and/or wrong is actually very GOOD news!

What Are the Best Brand Guidelines Templates for Adobe InDesign in 2026?

Consistency is key to strong visual identities. Logos alone are not enough—clear brand systems ensure a unified voice. Brand guidelines templates save time by providing structure, allowing designers to focus on strategy. This curated list highlights the top ten brand guidelines templates for 2026.

Read more on WE AND THE COLOR.

Successive major droughts, each lasting longer than 85 years, were likely a key factor in the eventual fall of the Indus Valley Civilization, according to a paper published in Communications Earth & Environment. The findings may help explain why this major ancient civilization—a contemporary of ancient Egypt located around the modern India-Pakistan border—slowly declined, and highlights how environmental factors could shape ancient societies.

The world faces a "new reality" as we have reached the first of many Earth system tipping points that will cause catastrophic harm unless humanity takes urgent action, according to a report released by the University of Exeter and international partners. With ministers gathering ahead of the COP30 summit, the second Global Tipping Points Report finds that warm-water coral reefs—on which nearly a billion people and a quarter of all marine life depend—are passing their tipping point. Widespread dieback is taking place and—unless global warming is reversed—extensive reefs as we know them will be lost, although small refuges may survive and must be protected.

The latest SDG report shows that the world met it's target of preserving 15% of terrestrial ecosystems by 2020. In fact we were at 17.5% of land at the time of evaluation for the 2025 report.

This is still one of those we need to do more and do it faster situations, but that's a tremendous amount of progress particularly for an issue that often take a backseat to climate change in public and political awareness.

As the proportion of the global population living in cities rises to 70% by 2050, mental health challenges more common in urbanites – such as anxiety and mood disorders – become even more broadly relevant. A new study from the Stanford University-based Natural Capital Project (NatCap) shows that spending even a little time in nature provides significant benefits for a broad range of mental health conditions. The results, published today in Nature Cities, offer guidance to urban planners, policymakers, and others for how to use green space as a mental health solution, one that comes with additional benefits like lowering temperatures and sequestering carbon. The research team is now incorporating its findings into a modeling tool for urban planners.

An international research team has uncovered that natural interbreeding in the wild between tomato plants and potato-like species from South America about 9 million years ago gave rise to the modern-day potato. In a study published in the journal Cell, researchers suggest this ancient evolutionary event triggered the formation of the tuber, the enlarged underground structure that stores nutrients found in plants like potatoes, yams, and taros.

2025 June 3

Rainbow Airglow over the Azores Image Credit & Copyright: Miguel Claro (TWAN); Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt

Explanation: Why would the sky glow like a giant repeating rainbow? Airglow. Now, air glows all of the time, but it is usually hard to see. A disturbance however – like an approaching storm – may cause noticeable rippling in the Earth’s atmosphere. These gravity waves are oscillations in air analogous to those created when a rock is thrown in calm water. The long-duration exposure nearly along the vertical walls of airglow likely made the undulating structure particularly visible. OK, but where do the colors originate? The deep red glow likely originates from OH molecules about 87 kilometers high, excited by ultraviolet light from the Sun. The orange and green airglow is likely caused by sodium and oxygen atoms slightly higher up. The featured image was captured during a climb up Mount Pico in the Azores of Portugal. Ground lights originate from the island of Faial in the Atlantic Ocean. A spectacular sky is visible through this banded airglow, with the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy running up the image center, and M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, visible near the top left.