marie-the-astrochemist

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Whale graveyard reveals Miocene mass strandings. A discovery of the remnants of four separate whale beaching events over an estimated 10,000 years in the Miocene 6-9 million years ago has been excavated in sandstones right next to the Pan Americana highway in the Atacama desert of northern Chile after construction work first unearthed them. The Dozens of skeletons of several species were found at four separate levels, and are thought to have died from eating toxic algae during a plankton bloom before being washed into a beach estuary, now called Cerro Ballena (whale hill). Such blooms are common, with rivers providing the nutrients washed out of the Andes in a wetter era than the present. The repetitive nature of these events quantified by this find is as far as I know, unique. Loz Image credit: Adam Metallo/Smithsonian Institution http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/26/baleen-whale-graveyard-fossil-treasure-atacama-chile http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=00200075B6WM http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/mystery-behind-astonishing-fivemillionyearold-whale-graveyard-revealed-9153714.html

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This is the most punk rock thing I’ve ever seen

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Boudica was the wife of Prasutagus, King of the Iceni, a Celtic tribe in what is now East Anglia. After Prasutagus’ death, the relationship between the Iceni and Romans deteriorated, probably due to the repressive occupation policies of Roman colonists and officials. The Romans refused to accept a woman as tribal leader; according to Tacitus they publicly whipped Boudica and raped her virgin daughters.*

In 60 AD, the Iceni conspired with their neighbours, the Trinovantes, and Boudica was chosen as their leader. Tacitus records that she addressed her army with these words, “It is not as a woman descended from noble ancestry, but as one of the people that I am avenging lost freedom, my scourged body, the outraged chastity of my daughters,” and concluded, “This is a woman’s resolve; as for men, they may live and be slaves.” Together they rose up against the Romans and moved south to attack and plunder the Roman settlements. Their first target was the veteran colony Camulodunum, today’s Colchester. They burned the city to its foundations and killed all its inhabitants. Londinium (London) and Verulamium (St Albans) followed. Presumably more than 50.000 fighters had gathered around Boudicca, and after the initial successes new supporters joined.

Although the Celtic inhabitants of Britain were highly developed and experienced in many aspects, they were not versed in warfare. Their equipment was simple, and the level of organisation of the British warriors was in no way comparable to that of the enemy. Though strong in numbers, they had no chance in the final battle against the disciplined, better armed and tightly organized troops of Rome. The Roman commander and governor of Britain, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, together with two legions, confronted the British, who had previously led guerrilla-like attacks, in open field in a battle northwest of Verulamium and destroyed them.

There are two versions of Boudica’s fate: Tacitus reports that Boudica took her life by poisoning herself, while Cassius Dio believes that Boudicca fell ill and eventually died.

The great tragedy of Boudica is that she was one battle away from achieving her ultimate objective, for had she succeeded, Rome would have withdrawn from Britain. Boudica’s legacy is that of bravery and of standing up to opression to secure ones freedom.  It’s a story that inspired later generations of Britons, including Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth.

*Cassius Dio provides an alternative explanation for Boudica’s response, saying that previous imperial donations to influential Britons were confiscated and the Roman financier and philosopher Seneca called in the loans he had forced on the reluctant Britons.

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[marie-the-astrochemist]

Today we learned that conches, the sea-dwelling mollusks who live inside those big, beautiful conch seashells in warm tropical waters, peer out at the world with cartoonish eyes on tiny eyestalks. They see you. They see everything. And what’s more, they can regenerate their peepers should they happen to lose one or both of them.

“One 1976 paper dug into the specific behind these animals’ alien eyestalks. Sitting at the tips of long stalks, they contain retinas with both sensory cells and colored pigment cells. But the story gets weirder because obviously, it gets weirder. After amputating the conchs’ eyes, a fully-formed replacement took its place 14 days later. Humans, we really are losing this evolutionary game.”

But wait, that’s hardly the only surprising set of eyes under the sea. Scallops have eyes too, LOTS of them:

Conch photos by Redditor buterbetterbater and via @shingworks.

[via /r/pics and Gizmodo]

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Dual regular polyhedra and semi-regular polyhedra. ②

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The Hallo'ween tradition derived from a Celtic belief that this world connects with the spiritual world, known as Samhain.

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bless Scottish twitter

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@aethelynt aesthetic

> similar < 

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Why does the deep sea matter? And what’s down there?

The ocean is the lifeblood of Earth. It covers more than 70 percent of the planet’s surface, drives weather, regulates temperature, and supports all living organisms. But we’ve explored, mapped, and observed less than 20 percent of it.

The deep sea is one of the least explored areas within the ocean – but new technologies like remotely operated vehicles are changing that. So what are we finding?

GIF transcript beneath the cut. 

Keep reading

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The Sun in different wavelengths. Surely made from the images taken by Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope on board SOHO.

(Via GIPHY)

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the lower mantle behaves like a stiff “plastic” and the upper mantle behaves like a soft “plastic” and is more malleable, so as material heats up the matter becomes less dense and “rises” toward the crust; when it cools it becomes more dense and is drawn back down to the core again.

One of my favourite geology facts is this: These diagrams are a lie.

The mantle isn’t yellow. Nor is it orange, or red, or brown, or gray, or black.

The earth’s mantle is made up largely of peridotite.

The earth’s mantle is lime green.

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Daspletosaurus chase #illustration #oaklandartist #oaklandart #oaklandillustrator #dinosaur #black #white #lines #curves #minimal #simple #daspletosaurus https://www.instagram.com/p/Bopv7hslnxT/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=4bhq9h4ob3kv

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I made a Star Wars vine compilation because what the heck

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She should have a statue. Not those confederate MFs.