we are a way for the cosmos to know itself

Kirsty | USA | 17 | She/Her | I really love giant ground sloths. Just your average teenage girl with a love of evolutionary biology and biological anthropology. Shoutout to "Bones" for kindling my love for science.

[thebiomaster]

The Kankakee Mallow grows on only one island in one state in one country in the world.

Langham Island in Illinois is the home to the world’s only wild population of Iliamna remota, commonly known as the Kankakee Mallow.Let’s celebrate Illinois’ diverse flora and fauna by declaring the Kankakee Mallow the official flower of Illinois! Sign this petition to show your support for this campaign and urge Illinois lawmakers to co-sponser Bill HB4338!

[collegekidviews]

[nerdartsycabbage]

Pick up lines for maths nerds :3

[currentsinbiology]

Gregor Mendel T-Shirt

[cosybub]

a piece of advice for high school seniors

first of all, CONGRATULATIONS! you’re almost there, now is not the time to procrastinate and be lazy with your studies. just because it’s the last year, it doesn’t mean it won’t matter anymore. it’s either you make it or break it, so please take this year as serious as you did with the past 3!

senioritis is real and it doesn’t choose anyone. as the year progresses, it’ll just kick you in the ass harder than ever before. just don’t let it get the best of you, okay?

MAKE GOOD MEMORIES AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. If you haven’t gone to a high school party and you’ve really been itching to go to one, then this is your chance! there’s no next time so don’t let this pass! Although it’s perfectly fine to spend your friday nights at home as well.

take a lot of pictures with your friends. it’s your last year together and you all would probably be off to different colleges and universities in a matter of months. wouldn’t it be nice to have some kind of memories to look back on while you’re far away from each other? also, it would be a good laugh in a couple years time!

there are going to be days that you won’t feel like going to school. it’s okay to take a day off as long as you are aware with what you’re missing out on and you keep up to date!

expect that there will be all nighters coming your way because of how hectic senior year is. it’s okay to stay up all night but never go without sleep for more than 36 hours.

EAT AND KEEP HYDRATED. everyone underestimates how important this is! eating breakfast makes a huuuuge difference! I know things get super busy and you may lose track of time, but please make sure you don’t forget to have a little snack from time to time. and don’t forget to drink water! your brain needs it! (fun tip: if you have extra time the night before, make your breakfast! just heat it up in the morning and you’re good to go. but if you don’t then a banana or granola bar would be fine too)

COLLEGE APPLICATIONS. It’s totally okay if you still don’t know which major you want to take up even though everyone says otherwise. Just go with your gut; personal advice: take up something that you’re really interested in!!

don’t let your parents take control over your future. you do you. pursue whatever major you want to, you’re gonna thank yourself later.

it’s okay if you didn’t get in your dream university. it’s not the end of the world, trust me on this one.

reconnect with your old friends. maybe you’ve got into a fight with your best friend and never got any closure? or maybe you guys just drifted apart because the two of you found other friends? this is your chance to reach out to them and ask how they’ve been doing and catch up a little! 

PROM. prom is not worth stressing over, I SWEAR. it’s okay to not bring a date to prom. based on personal experience, it’s super fun to spend it with your friends! and think of it as your last time to be with your batch mates who you basically grew up with!

appreciate everything. the teachers that still accepts your work even though you’re 2 weeks late. your classmates and batch mates who you’ve been through hell and back with. the nasty school lunches. cheering for your high school team. playing for your high school. and everything in between.

and lastly, just take it all in. don’t waste your remaining days in high school wishing it was all over; instead, make the most out of it. I know it gets super hard and frustrating sometimes and you just want to quit but trust me, you’ll miss it once you’ve graduated!

[getstudyblr]

30 . 07 . 2016 // *kicks door down* what do you do with a dead chemist? You BARIUM *slaps knee*

[post--grad]

folks did you know!! i love space!! obviously this list is not comprehensive; i tried to stick to things i love or things that come highly recommended. the bolded links are personal favorites. xoxo, chelsea rae

DOCUMENTARIES

carl sagan’s cosmos (the book / free pdf)

the overview effect

cosmic journeys 

secrets of the universe 

space exploration 

SHORT VIDEOS

wanderers (erik wernquist)

outer space (sanders van den berg)

the 2013 perseids from joshua tree - i prefer non-earth centric stuff but great news joshua tree is basically an alien planet anyway

real astronauts preparing to be sent into orbit

coconut science lab - chris hadfield on youtube; includes videos about daily life in the ISS.

MUSIC

my “space” collection on 8tracks.

osts: interstellar / the martian / sunshine

cosmos is an enormous, lovely 2-volume collection of cinematic music focused on the history of the universe

ambient noise: enterprise bridge / celestial space / space station 

this isn’t music, but listen to these horrifying radio waves from saturn picked up by the cassini spacecraft back in 2002.

OLD STUFF

lots of links about ancient astronomy

astronomy & astrology in the ancient islamic world - a gorgeous met exhibit with some supplemental essays & art

constellation illustrations exerpted from various medieval manuscripts. also, volvelles!

medieval astronomy in europe (europeans were leagues behind non-western astronomers fyi)

james ferguson 1773 astronomy prints

asa smith’s 1855 illustrated astronomy (just the eclipse illustrations)

MOVIES & TV

(there are loads of shows & films about space but i judge based on a few factors: The Aesthetic, how much they make me cry, and level of charming absurdity)

the martian. watch if you love: farming, sebastian stan, disco music

interstellar, gravity, sunshine (have not seen these but they’re on my list!)

star wars. watch if you love ponchos, space dorks, family tragedy, swamps. i’m not gonna tell you what to do but if you wanted to skip episodes i-iii, i would understand.

star trek. 

watch AOS (the jj abrams reboot movies) if you like: lens flares, unnecessary dramatics, karl urban &/or zoe saldana, idiots in love, crying during the first 3 minutes of a film, sass

watch TOS (the original series) if you enjoy: thinking about the human condition, haute couture, yung william shatner, film noir lighting, utopian ideals, beep noises, colors (free w/ amazon prime!)

MISCELLANEOUS

space law

planets i learned about via youtube

that one photo of like 1.5k galaxies from the hubble

interactive visualization of 100k stars

how we’ll live on mars

tumblrs!

@nasa​ 

@colchrishadfield

@curiositymarsrover

@nasajunocam

the mars one mission / “if i die on mars” (this program is v dubious but i’m so into it as a concept)

the project apollo archive - huge public archive of amateur photography from the astronauts on the apollo missions

my favorite shots: lunar / interior

huntington library space lectures on soundcloud - there’s one on “nasa & the postcolonial world” that i’m really excited to listen to!

[andersongillian]

[sandandglass]

Professor Stephen Hawking believes Zayn might still be in One Direction - in a different universe

[stilinskihaleworld-deactivated2]

I honestly love this answer, because he’s simultaneously respecting the validity of fan girl feels while also encouraging girls to stay in STEM.

[peppernights]

[badsciencejokes]

If you were a leaf tissue you’d be the cutie-cle

[keygateiron]

when i make excuses to stay in

[slightly-quarky]

Curie-ous to know what made Marie Curie so awesome??? (via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U59qxm_3fB4)

[explore-blog]

Happy birthday, Marie Cure.

[wickedwhalers]

Forensic Science Meme || Louis François Étienne Bergeret Earliest Modern Instance of Forensic Entomology

“The first known modern instance of forensic entomological investigation involves a certain Dr.Bergeret – that is all we know of his name – who in 1850 discovered that two bricks had been removed from the chimney of a boardinghouse and that the dead (mummified) body of a newborn child had been stuffed into the space behind them”

Dr. Bergeret also noted the number of moth larvae breeding on the remains, in which he takes a sample back to his lab for further investigation. In his article he gives a basic overview of the life cycle of the insects but mistakenly assumes that the metamorphosis would take a full year. Furthermore, he assumes that females generally lay their eggs in the summer, the larvae transforms into pupae in the spring and hatch in the summer.

“The eggs of the larvae we found on the corpse on March 1850 must have been deposited there in the middle of 1849. Therefore, the corpse must have been deposited before this time interval. Next to the many living larvea there were numerous pupae present, and they must come from eggs that have been laid earlier. Could it be that the corpse was deposited even before that time [1848]? The fly that emerges from the pupae that we found in the body cavities, is Musca carnaria L. that lays its eggs before the body dries out. We found other pupae of little butterflies of the night too, that attack bodies that are already dried out. If the body was deposited, say in 1846 or 1847, we would not have found those larvae [since they would have hatched]. In conclusion, two generations of insects were found on the corpse, representing 2 years postmortem: on the fresh corpse, the flesh fly deposited eggs in 1848, on the dried out corpse, the moth laid their eggs in 1849.”   

The estimated time of death for the baby would have been in 1848. His journal article also describes there being four different tenants within three years who lived in the flat of the boardinghouse. The first tenant to go was in 1848. The tenant was a young woman who was known to have been pregnant but was never seen with the baby after the delivery.

The woman was tried with murder, although it was impossible to prove that the child had died of unnatural causes. At trail she claimed that the infant had died of natural causes and was unable to pay the gravedigger. The account could not be disproved and she went free. 

Sources: (x) (x) 

[book-lsh-deactivated20161012]

Book recs?

I am in dire need of things to read, if anyone has any book recommendations I’d love to hear the! I’m not too picky so I’m sure I’d love it

[studywizard]

All the Light we Cannot see

[thebiomaster]

The Sixth Extinction!

[sagansense]