do it nine times

laughingsquid:

Jack Andraka, The 15 Year Old Who Developed a Lifesaving New Test for Pancreatic Cancer

spiderkiss:

feferipixies:

the-fandoms-are-cool:

everythingis19:

cosmicsyzygy:

Look, I made a gif of this most awesome wizard at the Leaky Cauldron!

DUDE IS READING ‘A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME’ BY STEPHEN HAWKING

I NEVER REALIZED

are you serious

I always assumed wizards just ignored science, because the fact that “magic” exists, can explain anything. But there are MuggleBorn wizards, ones who, until they were eleven, lived in the real world and learned science and things. Did they all just abandon that normal, muggle knowledge, like Harry did? It’s always been there, itching in the back of my mind.

FOUR FOR YOU SCIENCE WIZARD

YOU GO SCIENCE WIZARD

can we point out that he’s doing wandless magic too

like voldemort couldnt even do that shit

molly fuckin weasley couldnt fuckin do that

who are you

the secret to wandless casting turns out to be:

SCIENCE

(via lavishness)

waxjism:

rhamphotheca:

frumpytaco: Fungus fungus fungus fungus

* Paxon: one of these is not just a fungus… anyone know which one?

Bottom left is a lichen.

symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae FTW!

(Source: woods-of-stars)

sciencecenter:

How do plants grow in outer space?

Scientists have long argued that the Earth’s gravity was critical to a plant’s ability to position and develop its roots. Without the downward cues of gravity, it’s thought, the behavior of the roots would be unpredictable. Scientists aboard the International Space Station decided to test this notion on a recent trip in space. They took two Arabidopsis plants, one on the ground and one in space, and imaged the root growth every 6 hours for 15 days. While the spacebound plants grew slower, their root behavior was highly similar. That means gravity might not have much or any impact on how plants grow. The findings leave other factors, like perhaps moisture or light avoidance, as the main candidates for root growth determinants. 

Have some motherfucking science for christmas, kids. xoxo

(Source: missmelaniemae, via jtotheizzoe)

0xymoronic:

shitarianasays:

theeyesinthenight:

the-sonic-screw:

platinumpixels:

volpesvolpes:

unseilie:

sarahvonkrolock:

gaysexagainstawall:

them-days-was-olden-as-fuck:

The spread of the black death.

Poland

Poland, tell us your secret.

Poland is the old new Madagascar. 

If I remember correctly, Poland’s secret is that the jews where being blamed all over europe (as usual) as scapegoats for the black plague. Poland was the only place that accepted Jewish refugees, so pretty much all of them moved there. 

Now, one of the major causes of getting the plague was poor hygiene. This proved very effective for the plague because everyone threw their poop into the streets because there were no sewers, and literally no one bathed because it was against their religion. Unless they were jewish, who actually bathed relatively often. When all the jews moved to Poland, they brought bathing with them, and so the plague had little effect there.

Milan survived by quarantining its city and burning down the house of anyone showing early symptoms, with the entire family inside it. 

I reblogged this tons of times, but the Milan info is new.

Damn Italy, you scary.

Poland: “Hey, feeling a bit down? Have a quick wash! There, you see? All better”

Milan: “Aw, feeling a bit sick are we? BURN MOTHERFUCKER, BURN!!!!!”

Also, this might have something to do with it: from what I understand, O blood type is uncommonly… common in Poland. Something to do with large families in small villages and a LOT of intermarriage. The black plague was caused by a bacterium that produced, in its waste in the human body, wastes that very closely mimic the “B” marker sugars on red blood cells that keep the body from attacking its own immune system. Anyone who has a B blood type had an immune system that was naturally desensitized to the presence of the bacterium, and therefore was more prone to developing the disease. Anyone who had an O type was doubly lucky because the O blood type means the total absence of ANY markers, A or B, meaning that their bodys’ immune system would react quickly and violently against the invaders, while someone with an A may show symptoms and recover more slowly, while someone with B would have just died. Because O is a recessive blood type, it shows in higher numbers when more people who carry the recessive genes marry other people who also carry the recessive gene. Poland, which has a nearly 700 year history of being conquered by or partnering with every other nation in the surrounding area, was primarily an agricultural country, focused around smaller, farming communities where people were legally tied to, and required to work, “their” land, and so historically never “spread” their genes across a large area. The economy was, and had been, unstable for a very long period of time leading up to the plague, the government had been ineffective and had very little reach in comparison to the armies of the other countries around for a very very long time, and so its people largely remained in small communities where multiple generations of cross-familial inbreeding could have allowed for this more recessive gene to show up more frequently. Thus, there could be a higher percentage of O blood types in any region of the country, guaranteeing less spread of the illness and moving slower when it did manage to travel. Combine this with the fact that there were very few large, urban centers where the disease would thrive, and with the above facts, and you’ve got a lovely recipe for avoiding the plague.

Interestingly enough, as a result from the plague, the entirety of Europe now has a higher percentage of people with O blood type than any other region of the world. 

WHY IS THIS ALL SO COOL

When Tumblr teaches you more about the plague than 12 years of school ever did.

(via princessmyrcella)

Dara O’Briain on Mitt Romney.

THIS SO HARD. And for me? It’s that he doesn’t know how FIRE works. FIRE. FIRE. Like, the most basic achievement of humankind.

(Source: sarahxmay, via mklutz)

originalmaja:

A wave and a circle are both considered two-dimensional projections of a helix.

(via waxjism)

aj-watson:

cuntofdoom:

Because this always bears reblogging. Illustrates how cartography—specifically the ways in which cartographers shrink and expand land masses in order to depict a “flat” earth— distorts our perception of the world.

Fascinating.

(Source: visualamor, via princessmyrcella)

wonderbraforyourdick:

You are the worst person.

You can be a vegan and whine at people, thats hurting nobody but when you tell people to not take vaccines, you’re endangering public health.

If YOU mixed mercury, aluminium phosphate, ammonium sulfate, formaldehyde and viruses and injected it into someone, you’d kill someone because you have no pharmacological experience. 

If someone in a lab mixed those together, they know how they work, they have medically assessed and peer reviewed evidence and strict guidelines to follow to create a safe and effective product. Why is it legal? Because they know what they’re doing and know how to spell “phosphate” and “ammonium”.

Why don’t YOU educate yourself instead of subscribing to the notion that all scientists are evil and want to poison you are your natural, vegan lifestyle. I say this as a fucking IMMUNOLOGIST, you are single handedly responsible for the skyrocketing resurgence of deaths caused by TB, measles and the worrying prospect of smallpox returning.

Let’s break this one down and give you some education.

• Mercury is an element in the compound thiomersal which was part of many vaccines. It has been claimed with NO tangible evidence other than a multifaceted correlation that thiomersals cause autism. This has been investigated thoroughly and no causal link has been found.
• Aluminium phosphate is an aluminium salt which is used as an adjuvant in vaccines. An adjuvant is a compound which causes an immune response to be higher and stronger, so that the immune system comes into contact with the attenuated virus more, so that it can recognise the antigens of the virus and provide immunity. They are a necessary part of the vaccine if you want it to work well.
• Ammonium sulfate is used in the process of purifying the proteins in the synthesis of a vaccine. It is also found in bread and flour, so you’d better learn to enjoy rice if you want to avoid it.
• Formaldehyde is used in the treatment and purification of vaccines and stops contamination. Most of this is removed before the vaccines is shipped, although some remains.

In my personal and scientifically backed opinion, the war against disease is a hundred fold more important than the mum-led war against vaccines. Do you want your child to die a slow, painful, agonising death? If not, then shut the fuck up with your so called “facts” you got from Yahoo Answers and get your kid vaccinated.

I am going to sound derogatory, but if you don’t have formal education in at least biology, you have no role to talk about the way vaccines should be done. You have no idea of the actual function and mechanism in which they work, and you have is a vague knowledge that mercury used to make people mad, formaldehyde is used in embalming and that ammonium sulfate and aluminium phosphate sound scary.

Vaccinate your kids if you want them to live. End of. If you don’t then you clearly don’t love your kids and would prefer to see them die of completely preventable diseases.

This has been a rage filled, alcohol induced response from a scientist.

Cosigned by a sober, also rage filled biologist. Vaccinate, you dumb fucks. You are killing other people’s children by not. And that is the lowest of the low. I mean, killing your own kids is one pretty terrible thing. Killing other people’s kids? You’re a waste of skin.

(Source: consciouscreators, via blasfemme)

secretcervix:

deejaybird:

“Uhura” comes from the Swahili word UHURU meaning “freedom”. Uhura was pretty much the first ever black main character on American television who was not a maid or a domestic servant in 1966. TV network NBC refused to let Nichelle Nichols be a regular, claiming Deep South affiliates would be angered, so Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry hired her as a “day worker,” but still included her in almost every episode. She actually made more money than any of the other actors through this workaround, and it was kept secret from the other actors, but it was still a humiliating second-class status. The network people made life hard for Nichols, constantly trying to pare down her screen time, purposefully dropping racist comments in her presence and even withholding her fan mail from her. This deplorable state of affairs led Nichols to make the decision to quit after the 1st season, but then she happened to meet the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. who pleaded with her to stick with the show because as a Black woman she was portraying the first non-stereotypical role on television. 

RE-BLOGGING AGAIN BECAUSE TODAY IS THE 46TH ANNIVERSARY OF STAR TREK AND UHURA IS A BABE AND NICHELLE NICHOLS IS AWESOME!

- after Star Trek was cancelled, she volunteered for a special project with NASA to recruit minority and female personnel for the space agency

- those recruited include: Dr. Sally Ride (the first American female astronaut), United States Air Force Colonel Guion Bluford (the first African-American astronaut), Dr. Judith Resnik and Dr. Ronald McNair (who both flew successful missions during the Space Shuttle program before their deaths in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster), Charles Bolden (current NASA administrator), and Lori Garver (current Deputy Administrator).

- she flew aboard NASA’s C-141 Astronomy Observatory, which analyzed the atmospheres of Mars and Saturn on an eight-hour, high-altitude mission

;_; I love everything about this.

(via bookshop)

huffingtonpost:

arpeggia:

Animals in the Womb

They may grow to be very different beasts, but these breathtaking images reveal how surprisingly similar the beginning of life can be for the animal kingdom. Captured using revolutionary four-dimensional imaging technology and anatomically accurate models, scientists have managed to shed light on the world of mammals inside the womb. As diverse a bunch as they are - elephant, dog, dolphin and penguin are all shown united by their similar stages of development.

Scientists captured the images for a National Geographic Documentary called ‘Animals in the Womb’. The images were also used on a Channel 4 documentary ‘Animals in the Womb’ which aired in 2009. They were created by using a combination of ultrasound scans, computer graphics and small cameras -as well as some carefully created models- to document the animals’ development from conception to birth, and give an unparalleled glimpse into a world that few of us would ever expect to see.

[via dailymail.co.uk]

Wow. 

(via thedailyfeed)