First, here are some pictures from a person I’ve been following. He’s a person who loves cosmos, nature, science and comics. His Tumblr is mostly about new discoveries in the natural science field.

Cosmos, Weed & Life

http://cwnl.tumblr.com/

NGC 6960: The Witch’s Broom Nebula

http://cwnl.tumblr.com/post/9114396643/ngc-6960-the-witchs-broom-nebula-credit

Credit & Copyright: Adam Block, Mount Lemmon SkyCenter, Univ. Arizona

Ghost of the Cepheus Flare

http://cwnl.tumblr.com/post/9131414846/ghost-of-the-cepheus-flare-spooky-shapes-seem

Credit & Copyright: Stephen Leshin

Windblown N44F 

http://cwnl.tumblr.com/post/9114175012/windblown-n44f-a-fast-and-powerful-wind-from

Credit: Y. Nazé (Univ. Liège), Y.-H. Chu (Univ. Illinois), ESA, NASA

Messier 20 - The Trifid Nebula

http://cwnl.tumblr.com/post/9113323974/messier-20-the-trifid-nebula-copyright

Copyright: Salvatore Grasso

Image: Heavenly Spirals

The Unreasonable Beauty of Mathematics

http://cwnl.tumblr.com/post/9005661982/the-unreasonable-beauty-of-mathematics-if-you

Portrait Close-Up: Pelican IC 5067

http://cwnl.tumblr.com/post/9113906500/portrait-close-up-pelican-ic-5067-the

Credit & Copyright: Tony Hallas

Super-Dense Stars May Squash Neutrons Into Cubes

http://cwnl.tumblr.com/post/9011995171/super-dense-stars-may-squash-neutrons-into-cubes

Galaxy Cluster MACS J0717

http://cwnl.tumblr.com/post/8989279742/galaxy-cluster-macs-j0717-the-most-crowded

Credit: NASA, ESA, CXC, C. Ma, H. Ebeling, and E. Barrett (University of Hawaii/IfA), et al., and STScI

Galaxy NGC 4214: A Star-Formation Laboratory

http://cwnl.tumblr.com/post/9012138771/galaxy-ngc-4214-a-star-formation-laboratory-the

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage(STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

I love cosmos too. I also love photography so I am always attracted to these amazing shapes and colors. But is this all simply about beauty?

I was reading my Physics textbook and found a page saying that when different regions of electromagnetic spectrum are applied, we are able to see completely views of a same nebula (the book uses the Crab Nebula as an example).

Behind these beautiful pictures are the discovery of electromagnetic waves and the applications of the electromagnetic spectrum. Without technological advances, we won’t be able to see any of such things happening far away in the universe.

Yes, nature is beautiful, and so is science.

cwnl:

Of course google I’m sorry

cwnl:

One of life’s greatest questions finally answered: What came first, the chicken or the egg?

“It had long been suspected that the egg came first but now we have the scientific proof that shows that in fact the chicken came first.”

It turns out there’s a protein, ovocledidin-17 (OC-17), that’s only found in the ovaries of chickens that is crucial to the formation of an egg’s shell.

OC-17 coverts calcium carbonate into calcite crystals, which in turn form the shell. No OC-17, no shell, and since OC-17 is only found in chicken ovaries, the chicken had to have come first.

First I want to say that this post has a photo which is the same as on one page in our textbook. This is from an anthropologist focusing on society, media and business that I am following (http://www.stoweboyd.com/).

http://www.stoweboyd.com/post/8690162410/infotechia-itu-mobile-subscriptions-outnumber-toilets

So in developing countries, the number of cell phone subscriptions now goes over that of toilets. Well, if this indicates that technology is more important for people’s life today, does this mean that sanitation is less important? I wonder why technology goes first while the basic hygiene and health quality can’t be guaranteed. I wonder how many people among them, while don’t have enough to afford or access a toilet, choose to use credit or loans to use a cell phone.

Probably when a certain number of people choose to borrow money to own a cell phone (no matter for what reasons) in these countries, the there would come a new economics theory: buying cell phone is a sort of investment, just like real estate, and should be treated different.

Today I read a piece of news article reporting the CEO of Facebook being banned from Google+. So if this is true, I wonder if this is the way Google pays Facebook back: about 2 weeks ago it was said that Facebook put up a Google+ ban (you can search for this online).

But there is other news saying that he closed his G+ account himself. But why? Something to do with his special identity?

So both incidents are “coincidences”? Or…?

Does this remind you of your math class? I decided to re-blog the following:

———————————————————————————————————-

liquid—luck:

What we learn in class:

1 + 1

Homework:

-55x + 47x

Test:

39048240x^2(3454x + 84) + 8343x(x - 454)(354 - x)

———————————————————————————————————

Well, maybe I should say, actually this might be because in class, we need some very typical examples to clarify some ideas or theorems, but for further applications, we need more complicated practices. That’s why we usually find lectures kind of “easy” but recitations, homework and tests much harder. But that’s also why we need recitations and homework problems, right? Very simple questions won’t help us understand theorems thoroughly. Similarly, that’s why we always have Labs for most natural science classes.

I decided to follow this unique blog today: http://quote-book.tumblr.com/

In fact, it’s more like a selection of short quotations from different sources. Inspiring and touching words. But this is also about how people see the world according to their own identities - the 2 pieces that I have re-blogged are examples.

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” (http://quote-book.tumblr.com/post/7213520757)

But what is “I” or “we”? Only after they are clearly defined, can the name of “enemy” make sense. Who do we identify as a member of “the same side”, and who get rejected?

Similarly, “women deserve to be celebrated for the divine people they are” (http://quote-book.tumblr.com/post/7224150274) reminds me of those stereotypes of genders. Why does the author argue and focus so much on respect for women? Have you seen many people today fighting for respect from women for men? The author is trying to fix something, while he/she has first accepted the segregation. Sometimes something that seems to be respectful already implies the existence of discrimination behind it.

These are all about identities in contexts, which set in those short quotations and leave a larger space to inspire me on the concepts in this class. 

laughingsquid:

Keyboard Frequency Sculpture by Mike Knuepfel