one original post a year

that s laun .

Me giving you a heartfelt gift: chunk of laun

Culture is so obsessed with the idea of lone geniuses that it doesn't really appreciate that most of the progress of science (and likely every other discipline) occurs collaboratively, in babysteps, and usually through a lot very tedious, utterly unsexy, work.

This is what’s so faulty with our short sighted coverage of scientific discoveries. You hear politicians question why we spend money on science studying insect wings and then decades later that research gets used by NASA for the most efficient way to fold/unfold solar panels on spacecraft. All of science is connected and useful because it enhances our understanding of the universe

When lasers were discovered they were called “a solution without a problem”, noone had any idea what to use them for. Since then they’re revolutionised communications and SO many parts of technology. CDs, DVDs, printing, fast internet, laser etching for making computer chips, laser eye surgery, spectroscopy, LIDAR measurements of weather patterns, barcode scanners, cooling atomic clocks, nuclear fusion, microscopy, LED technology and materials research. I’m probably not even scratching the surface here. Fund theory and fundamental science research.

It's actually kind of heartening, lasers; because before they were invented, their only real antecedents in science fiction were things like rayguns and heatrays and what not. But it actually turns out that their usefulness as a weapon is extremely limited, whereas their usefulness for just about everything else is incredible. It's one of the occasions where we flipped the "Dual Use" coin and it landed very solidly on the good side.

RELEASE THE BUBBLE HORSE

Some kid is in therapy because they told their mom about a unicorn in the sky and no one believed them.

gUyS please click the link you won’t regret it

Its been so long since Build-a-Frog came across my dash. I needed them today :)

im sobbing omg

Please do build a frog its very nice

Person: “So, what hobbies do you have?” My mind: *goes blank*

quantum physics demonstrates that certain things change state when directly observed. in my case, i change into a moron.