isabelthespy:

fuckyeahethnicwomen:

traciglee:

Thirteen-year-old Lauren Rojas decided to send Hello Kitty 100,000 feet into space with a high-altitude balloon. Here are her recorded results.

Science!

Seventh grade girl builds rocket, sends Hello Kitty into the upper atmosphere

 Annalee Newitz

A seventh grader has made good on the dreams of middle schoolers everywhere by sending Hello Kitty into the stratosphere. According to ABC News:

Lauren Rojas, a 12-year-old from Antioch, Calif., got the idea after seeing a television commercial in which a balloon was launched into the sky. She thought she could do the same with her Hello Kitty doll. She would test air pressure and temperature at high altitude for her school’s science fair.

And so she did. With these incredible results. (via io9 Seventh grade girl builds rocket, sends Hello Kitty into the upper atmosphere)

So. Cool. 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I saw the dark of the sky, holy shit, chills down my spine. It’s like that bit in The Right Stuff.

smissmas-miracle:

I have to make a presentation for my Natural Sciences class tomorrow. Naturally, as I am going to an HBCU and tomorrow is the first day of black history month, we had to choose black scientists.

I chose Mae Jemison, because she’s an absolute badass.

This is my presentation.

(Except the ‘babe’ slide, I just wanted to let it be known on Tumblr that Mae Jemison was hot.)

Hopefully it doesn’t get me in trouble.

Enjoy.

fuckyeahlatinamericanhistory:

Today’s Mayan calendar-themed Google doodle. I don’t think this was shown in the US because of the one week anniversary of the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Math, science and astronomy are matters that we have always been passionate about. So with our doodle today, we are celebrating the end of the 13th Baktun of the Mayan calendar Long Count System. But what does this mean?

Mayans were advanced mathematicians and astronomers who calculated the cycles of the moon and sun. They had very specific ways of measuring time, and one of these forms is the Long Count system, in which each year has 18 months with 20 days. The system also includes other units like the Katun, equivalent to 20 years in our calendar, and a Baktun, which  equals to 394 years.

The importance of reaching the 13th Baktun, is that, unlike as what happens in our calendar, a 14th Baktun does not follow. The count returns to zero.

Unlike all the disaster stories that you have probably heard, at the end of the 13th Baktun, as every time Sunday ends in our calendar, Monday comes again and thus begins a new week. Those who have studied the issue, explain that this is because the way their scheduling system works, and although it represents the end of a cycle, it doesn’t have a catastrophic meaning.

Today’s doodle represents the actual date, December 21 2012, as well as the 13th Baktun, forming the word * Google *.

We hope you enjoy this doodle as much as we do, and that the beginning of the next Baktun be very prosperous for everyone.

The constellation Orion—or, possibly, among some Mayan peoples, a turtle—rising over the temple of Kukulkan in the Mayan city of Chichen Itza. The orange star on the left is Betelgeuse and the brightest blue one is Rigel, corrupted English versions of the original names given them by medieval Arab Muslim astronomers.

(Via Phil Plait’s 2012 astrophotography roundup.)

geminid meteor - earthgrazer, dan stanyer

the geminids peak tonight! like an unlucky pedestrian splashed by each passing car, the earth regularly passes through trails of dust and grit that burn spectacularly in our atmosphere. this is one of the showier meteor showers, and this year there may be a surprise cameo appearance.

would-be skywatchers may be discouraged by the prospect of freezing their asses off. luckily it’s the 21st century and there are livestreams for this.

[@neiltyson: Hard to take seriously predicitons about the end of the world from the Maya, a culture that could not predict its own demise

@neiltyson: Hard to take science cues from the Maya, who never discovered the wheel, and who sacrificed animals to satisfy gods.]

commanderbishoujo:

esmeweatherwax:

tombomp:

Hey Neil deGrasse Tyson! Here’s some cool facts:

1) The Mayan culture *still exists*. There are an estimated 7 million people who consider themselves Mayans still living in Central America, with their own unique culture, languages and traditions

2) Mayans never predicted the end of the world was going to come in 2012. Claims that they did were pretty much invented by people who didn’t understand their culture and wanted to sell shit. Perpetuating it is based on ignorant imperialist ideas.

3) A LOT of religions nowadays still practice animal sacrifice, including Hinduism and Islam. These alone take up approximately 40% of the world’s population. The contributions made by people of these religions to science in general have been immense. Dismissing an entire culture’s achievements because they perform animal sacrifice is bigoted, ignorant and gives an incredibly distorted view of the world

4) The wheel is not a mark of a “worthwhile” culture. It appears that the wheel was actually invented in one place and then spread throughout Eurasia and Africa, rather than being invented in multiple places, meaning by your metric it’s “hard to take science cues” from near every culture ever. Mesoamerican cultures had wheel-like objects but it’s likely they never developed it further because there were fewer uses for the wheel, as there was a lack of domesticateable animals that the wheel would be useful in conjunction with.

5) a) How could you *know* they didn’t predict their own *empire*’s (not culture) demise? We know virtually nothing about what people at the time thought and have too few examples of their writing to know. b) No empire ever has predicted its own demise as a mainstream view. What an absurd standard to hold

In conclusion, your comments are highly insulting and perpetuate racist myths about the Americas before the advent of European colonisation as well as the Native American populations today. Maybe do some research before you comment on these things again

Wow fuck you dGrasse Tyson

everyone fucks up

son I am disappoint

we are never ever ever getting back together