white
esiegel | June 27, 2012"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way -- things I had no words for." -Georgia O'Keeffe
When it comes to the Universe, it isn't just the stuff that's in it that's important.
Image credit: 2MASS Extended Source Catalog (XSC).
It's also how all that stuff interacts with itself and everything else. To the best of our knowledge, there are four fundamental forces in the Universe, and they're all essential to our existence.
Image credit: Stichting Maharishi University of Management, the Netherlands.
Some of them are familiar, like gravitation. On the…
esiegel | February 21, 2010When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.-Albert Einstein
I woke up this morning with the Sun in my face, which marks the first time all year that that's happened.
(The irony, that I'm now listening to the Grateful Dead's "Looks Like Rain.")
And after a few seconds had passed (you know, it takes me a few seconds to realize that I'm not still in my dream, trying to navigate through some bizarre hotel corridor), I realized I couldn't read the numbers on my old LED alarm clock.…
edyong | February 3, 2010"That is Shadowfax. He is chief of the Maeras, lords of all horses, and not even Theoden, King of Rohan, has ever looked on a better. Does he not shine like silver, and run as smoothly as a swift stream?" - Gandalf
In the Lord of the Rings, Gandalf rides upon a magnificent white stallion called Shadowfax. White horses have been greatly prized in human societies as a sign of wealth and dignity, largely because their bright coats are both pretty and rare. There are reasons for that. In the wild, the same conspicuousness that inspires legendary tales also makes white horses vulnerable to…
edyong | December 28, 2009
In the White Sands National Park of New Mexico, there are three species of small lizard that all share white complexions. In the dark soil of the surrounding landscapes, all three lizards wear coloured coats with an array of hues, stripes and spots. Colours would make them stand out like a beacon among the white sands so natural selection has bleached their skins. Within the last few thousand years, the lesser earless lizard, the eastern fence lizard and the little striped whiptail have all evolved white forms that camouflage beautifully among the white dunes.
Erica Bree Rosenblum from…
edyong | November 23, 2009In the early days of the last US elections, Hillary Clinton's campaign was accused of deliberately darkening Barack Obama's skin in a TV ad. The implication was that by highlighting Obama's "blackness", Clinton's camp was trying to exploit negative associations that voters might have with darker skin. But you don't need editing software to do that - a fascinating new study suggest that people literally change the way they see a mixed-race politician, depending on whether the candidate represents their own political views.
Liberal American students tend to think that lighter photos of Barack…
sb admin | April 26, 2009An anonymous commenter asked if I could explain the white box I sometimes use for insect studio shots.
Here it is:
There's not much to it. It's an old cardboard box- this one once held toilet paper, I think- with white printer paper taped along the inside. The strobe is placed inside the box. When the strobe fires, the box is filled with a lovely diffuse white light.
White boxes only take a few minutes to assemble, and I'll often make one on location if I need to. Natural substrates like leaves and rocks can be added to the box so that it approximates a field setting. The whole thing…
zooillogix | March 10, 2008This picture of a rare white orca was taken off the coast of Alaska's Aleutian Islands last month by researchers on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research ship. Looks like he could use a bleaching. The whale had been spotted years ago but has eluded researchers since.
According to the Jaws-inspired masterpiece Orca (1977) - "The killer whale is one of the most intelligent creatures in the universe. Incredibly, he is the only animal other than man who kills for revenge. He has one mate, and if she is harmed by man, he will hunt down that person with a relentless, terrible…
grrlscientist | October 16, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, blue feathers, Tyndall scattering, Rayleigh light scattering, schemochromes, white feathers
A pair of hyacinthine macaws, Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus.
Image: The Guardian.
Most avian plumage colors are the result of different types of pigments that are deposited into feathers while they are regrowing after moult. However, pigments alone do not produce all avian feather colors. Blues, such as those seen in hyacinthine macaws, Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus, and white, such as the snowy color of Bali mynahs, Leucopsar rothschildi, typically result from small changes in…