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| Science | https://chronicleflask.com |
| PseudoPod | https://pseudopod.org/people/kat-day |
Things painted with Vantablack (the name comes from Vertically Aligned Nanotube Arrays) look like mini black holes. In photographs, because there are no shadows, it looks as though 2D black shapes have been painted on the photograph’s surface.
More here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantablack
Meet the manchineel tree! It’s incredibly toxic: just standing underneath it can cause horrible blisters. Its sap contains phorbal (which is water soluble, making this a bad place to stand in a rainstorm) which causes a strong inflammatory response and promotes tumour formation.
The manchineel tree is native to southern North America to northern South America.
Its fruit look like small apples, hence one Spanish name is manzanilla de la muerte, "little apple of death” 💀
Do not eat.
For #WorldEngineeringDay and with #InternationalWomensDay coming up, here’s a thread of five female engineers #WomenInSTEM 🧵 🪡
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1632017430674391041.html
(With apologies for the threadreader link, but it’s the quickest way to reproduce the text with the images and their alt text)
This month’s piece of short fiction from me is:
The Faint Sounds of Music and Life in the Distance
I hope you enjoy it 🌙
https://thefictionphial.wordpress.com/2023/02/28/the-faint-sounds-of-music-and-life-in-the-distance
perennial: lasting for a long time, or (plants) having a lifecycle of 2+ years
perineal: relating to the area between the anus and genitals
Let the ‘nn’ remind you of the 2 years.
Unless you’re talking to a doctor, you probably mean ‘perennial problem’ 😉
further vs. farther
These both mean ‘more distant’ but, especially in US English, farther implies physical distances, while further is more figurative: yoU should consider this fUrther while you wAlk fArther
And watch out for the easy typo of switching ‘farther’ for ‘father’ 👨🏼
Thyme* for a little proofreading thread of words that are often confused, with some helpful tips for getting it right… 🧵
(*See what I did there? 😉)
And by the way, if you fancy having a little moment, the petition is still there, and so are people’s “reasons for signing”.
He inspired a lot of scientists, over the years 💜
I like to think Terry Pratchett would’ve been amused 😄
You can still buy the pencil sharpener. Hopefully it’s made of sapient pearwood. Mine’s never moved, though.
Also, yes, octarine is a halogen. Yes, 117 is the perfect number for a DW element. Fight me.
~~~
Granny smiled grimly. It was the sort of smile that wolves ran away from. Granny grasped her broomstick purposefully.
‘Million-to-one chances,’ she said, ‘crop up nine times out of ten.’
—Terry Pratchett (1948–2015, GNU)
(2/2)
