stage 4 breast cancer haver with brain metastasis. I'm posting through my cognitive transformations as I'm experiencing them. Please be kind to me, I'm bringing my whole self to this struggle
Today we present another Charles Tunnicliffe study, this time of the common House Sparrow (Passer domesticus). As common as these birds are, they never cease to fascinate us. Tunnicliffe (1901-1979), a renowned naturalist artist and illustrator (and also a very fine wood engraver), would sometimes do studies from dead bird specimens, as he apparently has here. He writes:
I am fortunate . . . in knowing an expert ornithologist, who is a fine taxidermist and a keeper of a museum. Sometimes, when a fresh specimen arrived at his museum he would allow me to make my studies of the bird before he made it up into a skin for his cabinet collection.
These studies are reproduced in Bird Portraiture (“How To Do It” Series No. 35), published in London and New York by The Studio in 1945, another donation from our friend Tony Drehfal.
View more posts with works by Charles Tunnicliffe.
fuuuuck i just realized that the future idealized version of myself cant exist without current me being the catalyst for change and doing hard things. has anybody heard about this
The versatile cannabis plant could, some scientists think, one day be useful for lunar and Martian colonists. For now, researchers will subj
On Monday, June 23, shortly after 9 pm UTC, hundreds of seeds, fungi, algae, and human DNA samples, many of which have never been exposed to space before, will make their maiden voyage aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the mission is hoping to be the first to send plant tissues and seeds into a polar low Earth orbit and back, to allow scientists to study how biological systems are affected by the harsh levels of radiation found high above Earth’s poles. The information they glean, researchers hope, could one day help spacefarers grow crops on other planets.
The samples will travel in a small biological incubator called MayaSat-1, developed by the Genoplant Research Institute, a Slovenian aerospace company specializing in space-based biological research. At an altitude above 500 kilometers, the incubator, housed inside a larger capsule, will cross zones near the North and South poles where concentrations of charged particles emitted by the sun are high due to the Earth’s magnetic field. When it passes through these regions, it will be exposed to up to 100 times more radiation than objects orbiting at similar altitudes around the equator, like the International Space Station (ISS). The capsule will orbit Earth three times, in a mission lasting around three hours, before re-entering the atmosphere and splash-landing in the Pacific Ocean. If all goes to plan, the incubator will be collected from a location around nine hours off the coast of Hawaii and shipped back to Europe, where the real exploration will begin.
Among several research participants with samples aboard the mission is Božidar Radišič, who will be following the launch livestream closely from his office at the Research Nature Institute in Slovenia. The Martian Grow project, led by Radišič and his team, is sending approximately 150 cannabis seeds into space in MayaSat-1 to test their resilience and potentially accelerate their evolution. It’s not a gimmick, though, or a quest for an otherworldly high.
The incubator, called MayaSat-1 and seen here in a protective case, was developed by the Genoplant Research Institute, a Slovenian aerospace company specializing in orbital biological research. Photograph: Genoplant Research Institute
Having dedicated much of his working life to studying the cannabis plant, Radišič believes it is uniquely qualified for space agriculture. It grows fast, adapts well, and has been an agricultural crop for thousands of years. According to Radišič, if at some point we want to grow life on Mars, this makes it an ideal candidate. “Sooner or later, we will have lunar bases, and cannabis, with its versatility, is the ideal plant to supply those projects,” he tells WIRED. “It can be a source of food, protein, building materials, textiles, hemp, plastic, and medicine. I don’t think many other plants give us all these things.”
Best known for producing the cannabinoids THC and CBD, Cannabis Sativa L. contains hundreds of different compounds, many of which are still being discovered and the effects of which we don’t fully understand. What we do know is that it is a resilient plant, coping well with stressors such as UV light and radiation (such as gamma rays), which are used to aid in its cultivation here on Earth. It has also grown in climates from the highlands of Tibet to the jungles of Southeast Asia and the deserts of Afghanistan and can be raised in controlled conditions.
Gary Yates, a plant researcher and head of cultivation at Hilltop Leaf, a medical cannabis manufacturing facility in the UK, agrees that the versatility of cannabis makes it a “leading contender” for a space crop. “Its hardiness makes it perfect for an extreme environment,” he tells WIRED. “It has shown great resilience and can grow in unexpected places. It doesn’t demand too much water, is known to thrive in low-nutrient soil, and has demonstrated phytoremediation potential, for removing toxins and heavy metals from the ground.”
Previous research has highlighted how conditions in space, such as microgravity and radiation, can influence plant genetics—and for Radišič, this is the key reason to send those cannabis seeds into orbit. “The point is to explore how, and if, cosmic conditions affect cannabis genetics, and we may only find this out after several generations,” he says.
According to D. Marshall Porterfield, professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University, who has been studying plant growth in space for several decades, the impact of radiation exposure on biological materials during space flight is “well understood” through previous studies. “It randomly causes mutations. Some of those mutations might turn up genes, they might turn down genes, they might knock out genes, they could disrupt whole signaling pathways,” he explains. “As a result, you get variable responses in the biological materials that could lead to new genetically stabilized mutations that could then be identified and derived.”
Radišič is not the first to query the effects of space travel on cannabis. A collaborative research team including a group that is based at the University of Colorado Boulder sent cannabis tissue cultures to the ISS in 2019. Nothing has been published, however, on how exposure to cosmic radiation and microgravity impacts the cannabis plant.
He’s also not the only researcher working to expose plants to higher radiation levels than previously studied. Porterfield, who is one of the scientists working on NASA’s LEAF mission—a lunar plant-growth experiment that will go to the moon with Artemis III in 2027—says we know “almost nothing” about the impact of radiation exposure beyond low Earth orbit. Understanding how variability in radiation impacts plants will be a “critical focus” of the LEAF mission.
“We’ve been trapped in lower orbit for the last 30 years and haven’t advanced a lot of the basic research that we need to go to deep space, where you find galactic cosmic radiation,” he says. “There may be some unexpected responses from this variable source of radiation. Plant responses to these radiation issues are going to be important for future agricultural systems on the moon.”
Once MayaSat-1 has returned, for the next two years Radišič and his team will work with the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia to breed generations of clones from the space seeds to study genetic changes and plant adaptations, including “alterations in cannabinoid profiles”—how much CBD, THC, and other compounds the plants go onto develop. The second phase of their study will then involve simulating Martian soil conditions and growing plants in controlled low-gravity environments on Earth.
Lumír Ondřej Hanuš, a chemist at Palacký University Olomouc in Czechia and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has been studying the cannabis plant since the 1970s. A research adviser on the project, he believes that there are “many possibilities” for scientific investigation once the seeds have returned.
As well as potential genetic and epigenetic changes, the Martian Grow team will look for structural and physiological changes, such as differences in leaf size, chlorophyll content, root architecture, photosynthetic rates, and water use. They will examine what happens after the plant is exposed to stressors such as disease, and analyze the activity of enzyme hormones and secondary metabolites, which could lead to the identification of new compounds.
“Whether there are changes or not, both results will be important for the future, so we know how to grow cannabis in the space environment,” Radišič adds.
We’re still some way off from actually growing cannabis on Mars, though, or any plant for that matter. Microgravity, extreme temperatures, lack of nutrients, and toxins in the soil do not make favorable conditions for cultivation.
“We will have to adapt to the environment on Mars, and slowly adapt our plants for them to survive,” says Petra Knaus, the CEO of Genoplant. “For now, we believe it will only be possible [to grow plants] in a closed system container with the conditions adapted.” For future missions, Genoplant is developing a new space capsule in this vein, scheduled for its first reentry test in 2027, that will enable researchers to grow seeds in space and monitor them for several years.
While cannabis could potentially be a supercrop for the space age, back on Earth, it is still predominantly thought of as a recreational drug (albeit one widely used for medicinal purposes), which has prevented regulators and researchers from fully acknowledging its scientific potential. Hanuš is optimistic that the findings from the project, whatever they look like, could dispel some of this stigma and speed up its scientific acceptance.
“If interesting results are published, it could speed up our understanding of cannabis,” he says. “It is a very important plant, which I think has a big future if humanity ever crosses into space and starts life on another planet.”
From living matter to molecules to elementary particles, the world is made of “chiral” objects that differ from their reflected forms.
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine.
After her adventures in Wonderland, the fictional Alice stepped through the mirror above her fireplace in Lewis Carroll’s 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass to discover how the reflected realm differed from her own. She found that the books were all written in reverse, and the people were “living backwards,” navigating a world where effects preceded their causes.
When objects appear different in the mirror, scientists call them chiral. Hands, for instance, are chiral. Imagine Alice trying to shake hands with her reflection. A right hand in mirror-world becomes a left hand, and there’s no way to align the two perfectly for a handshake because the fingers bend the wrong way. (In fact, the word “chirality” originates from the Greek word for “hand.”)
Alice’s experience reflects something deep about our own universe: Everything is not the same through the looking glass. The behavior of many familiar objects, from molecules to elementary particles, depends on which mirror-image version we interact with.
Mirror Milk
At the beginning of Through the Looking-Glass, Alice holds her cat Kitty up to the mirror and threatens to push her through to the other side. “I wonder if they’d give you milk in there? Perhaps Looking-glass milk isn’t good to drink,” she says.
Alice was onto something. Just over two decades before the book’s publication, Louis Pasteur discovered while experimenting with some expired wine that certain molecules can be chiral. They can come in distinct left-handed and right-handed structural forms that are impossible to superimpose. Pasteur found that, while they contain all the same components, the mirror versions of chiral molecules can serve distinct chemical functions.
The pioneering French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur discovered the chirality of biomolecules in the late 1840s. Photograph: Smithsonian Institution Librarie
Lactose, the sugar found in milk, is chiral. While either version can be synthesized, the sugars produced and consumed by living organisms are always the right-handed ones. In fact, life as we know it uses only right-handed sugars—hence why the genetic staircase of DNA always twists to the right. The root of this “homochirality” remains one of the biggest mysteries clouding the origins of life.
Kitty couldn’t have digested looking-glass milk. Worse, if it had contained any bacteria with the opposite handedness, her immune system and antibiotics would have been ill suited to put up a fight. A group of prominent scientists recently cautioned against the synthesis of mirror-image lifeforms for this reason—if any were to escape the lab, they could evade regular lifeforms’ defense mechanisms.
Shrinking Down
Continuing down the rabbit hole, we see traces of chirality all the way to elementary particles.
Pasteur’s work on molecules rested on a previous discovery by Augustin-Jean Fresnel, who in 1822 realized that different quartz prisms could send light’s electric field twirling in one of two directions—clockwise or counterclockwise. If each particle of light could leave a smoke trail in its wake, a right-handed screw of smoke would emerge from one prism and a left-handed screw from another.
Nowadays, physicists consider chirality a fundamental property of all elementary particles, just like charge or mass. The particles that don’t have mass are always traveling at the speed of light, and they also all carry an intrinsic angular momentum as though they’re spinning like a top. If the particles are flying in the direction of your thumb, their spin follows the direction your fingers curl—on either your right hand or your left.
The situation is a bit more complicated for massive particles, such as electrons and quarks. Because a massive particle travels more slowly, a speedy observer could overtake it and effectively reverse its direction of motion, thus flipping its apparent handedness. For this reason, when describing the chirality of massive particles, physicists often refer to the mathematical description of the particle’s quantum properties. When you rotate a particle, its quantum wave function shifts left or right depending on its chirality.
Almost every elementary particle has a twin through the looking glass. A negatively charged left-handed electron is mirrored by the anti-positron, a negatively charged right-handed particle.
In looking-glass world, Alice finds all logic turned on its head: People run in order to stay in place, and they celebrate “un-birthdays” on all the days they weren’t born. Similarly, our universe differs from its mirror image. The weak force—the force that’s responsible for radioactive decay—is felt only by left-handed particles. This means that some particles will decay in the normal world while their counterparts in the mirror would not.
Plus, there’s one particle that seems not to show up in the mirror at all. The neutrino has only ever been observed in its left-handed form. Particle physicists are investigating whether the right-handed neutrino exists or if neutrinos’ mirror images are simply identical, which could help explain why the universe contains something rather than nothing.
There’s a lot we can learn about our own world by peering through the looking glass. Just be careful not to drink the milk.
Every Friday, we're opening the enchanted covers of rare and vintage children's books from our Special Collections to bring you a glimpse into the magical world of faeries, folk tales, and timeless storytelling. From beautifully illustrated editions to classic tales passed down through generations, each week we'll highlight a gem from the stacks that once sparked imaginations and still do today!
This week's pick is My Bookhouse: Through Fairy Halls, edited by Olive Beaupré Miller (1883-1968) and published in 1920 by Miller's own The Bookhouse for Children in Chicago. It combines classic tales, poetry, nursery rhymes, and fables from around the world, beautifully illustrated by talented artists including Maud and Miska Petersham and Garada Clark Riley. Part of the treasured My Bookhouse series, this 3rd volume opens the door to "fairy Halls" filled with timeless folk and fairy stories.
Author and editor Olive Beaupré Miller, a resident of Winnetka, Illinois, founded The Bookhouse for Children after struggling to find suitable stories to share with her daughter. She believed that quality children's literature should be well-crafted, carry a strong moral message, and align with the child's stage of development. When existing works didn’t meet these standards, she often wrote her own. Building on the positive reception of her earlier publications, she and her husband launched The Bookhouse for Children in 1919. The company specialized in curated children's stories that reflected Miller’s values and were sold through door-to-door subscriptions.
🌟So, dust off your imagination and join us on this magical journey through the pages of history. Who knows what wonders await you in the fairy halls! 🧚✨
And a very happy 20th birthday to my own real-life storybook hero, my son Wyatt! May your next chapter be the best one yet! 🎂🎉
-View more from our Historical Curriculum Collection
Yesterday we brought you a wood engraving and last week we showcased an illustration by the noted British naturalist artist and illustrator Charles Tunnicliffe (1901-1979). Today we present paintings by Tunnicliffe of shore and water birds as reproduced in Bird Portraiture (“How To Do It” Series No. 35), published in London and New York by The Studio in 1945. Shown here are the:
Dunlin (Calidris alpina)
Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus)
Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)
Red-throated Loon (Gavia stellata)
Eurasian Widgeon (Mareca penelope)
Wood Duck (Aix sponsa)
Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis)
Common Eider (Somateria mollissima)
Razorbill (Alca torda)
Our copy of Bird Portraiture is from the collection of the Library of the Akron Art Institute with its bookplate, and is a gift to UWM Special Collections from our friend Tony Drehfal.
View more posts with works by Charles Tunnicliffe.
View more Feathursday posts.
what should we do with our brains? @twolakes - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
annaxmalina
dededos
blakekathryn
stormborns
germansingergirl
izzy806
baratheonpilled
