#science reads

[whilereadingandwalking]

Australia made me fear spiders less. Yes, I saw lots of way-too-big, colorful spiders, but they were all 'over there.' One was in a bathroom corner. But not one came near me, and it was honestly a bit of exposure therapy of sorts. So when I was in Brisbane, I picked up Silk & Venom: The Incredible Lives of Spiders to learn more about how spiders were cool.

This book definitely taught me that spiders are awesome. Diving bell spiders live in underwater nests by using air bubbles. Spiders can use electromagnetic fields to balloon rapidly away from the ground and find new territory. Spiders live at the top of the Himalayas. Spider silk is biocompatible and may be the key to future implants, healing, and even chronic pain treatment. Spiders are a fellow victim of widespread doctor misdiagnosis, because an astounding number of "spider bites" are actually due to something else. Some spiders can change color, others pretend to be ants (very successfully), and spiders make fascinating traps out of their webs. Hanlon's love of spiders comes through wonderfully, and his writing is accessible and fun.

I do think that James O'Hanlon could do some self-examination work on his approach to people's fear of spiders. His dismissive, baffled tone risks alienating the very people that he wants to self-examine. There are a lot of other reasons people might be scared by spiders that he doesn't explore (any Naked & Afraid episode will show you crawly many-legged things are mostly very bad for humans—ants, ticks, cockroaches, millipedes). His mystified lack of empathy will simply turn off many readers. He is 100% right that storytelling is the key to vilifying or saving species (think about how we talk about sharks now vs. after Jaws first came out), and so it's worth pointing out that his storytelling comes off as condescending in many of these passages. Particularly (unfortunately) in two anecdotes that feature women or girls being frightened by spiders, which is a big, big issue (I promise men hate spiders at least as much as girls do).

So ultimately, a good read, but Hanlon could take a lesson from his own book and think about the message sent when stories are told in a certain way.

[bluestonewings]

ACES!!! Look at this Scientific American article!!! It makes me genuinely so happy to read. We’re making it!!!!

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/asexuality-is-finally-breaking-free-from-medical-stigma/

[mytoplifeskills]

The Second Edition of the Norton Critical Edition of Robinson Crusoe is based on the Shakespeare Head Press reprint of the first edition copy in the British Museum, with the “errata” listed by Defoe’s publisher, William Taylor, incorporated into the text.

Michael Shinagel has collated the reprint with all six authorized editions published by Taylor in 1719 to achieve a text that is faithful to Defoe’s original edition. Annotations assist the reader with obscure words and idioms, biblical references, and nautical terms.

“Contexts” helps the reader understand the novel’s historical and religious significance. Included are four contemporary accounts of marooned men, Defoe’s autobiographical passages on the novel’s allegorical foundation, and aspects of the Puritan emblematic tradition essential for understanding the novel’s religious aspects.

[charles-breaks-beakers]

HETEROSEXUAL CIS-PEOPLE LOOK HERE

Snaps my fingers at you as you scroll past this post

Look at me. Listen.

I'm not the best at serious posts, but that article up there reminded me of how important it is that people like you stand up for us. So hold on while I try to get this out of my mushy end-of-work-day brain.

We could fight this fight ourselves for decades trying to reach the equal laws, gender affirming trans healthcare that doesn't have a 2-5+ soul-eating years of waiting time, medical care with equal knowledge of lgbtqia+ bodies, and, what is often forgotten, inclusion in the little everyday areas of life like our way of speaking or things being set up or designed with the existence of queer people in mind.

But you joining in could get us there so much faster.

The power you have as a hetero cis person is that you set the standard for what is seen as the average way of treating us among other hetero cis people. You have been given the power of deciding what's "normal" and I'm begging you to use it.

Richard Green is a great example of to what extent your actions can help our situation, and smaller ways of support still add up to a great impact on society, and could make the days of the queer people you interact with.

Educate yourself before you speak up, but don't be silent.

[luvingsunshine]

sapiens: a brief history of humankind

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 295

So, maybe Danny should have been more specific when he said he wanted to get reincarnated, because this? Is not an ideal situation. 

See he’s fine with being a clone, really, but uh, apparently the scientists want to terminate him- which, like dude, he’s not even melting or actively dying! So what if he failed at their tests, his body is three, give him a break! 

Well, at least it’s given him certainty in getting out, because these are Not good people. He wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt and- hold up, another clone? Brother? Two brothers? One aged up, one in the middle of it- since his own aging-up failed past three? 

Oh hell no, they can’t experiment on his brothers, those are his brothers and living people just as much as he is! Time to break out- and he’s taking those papers thank you- and gonna’ grab his… he’s gonna’ call them his triplets because they’re the same age, just aged differently. 

Now hold his hand, they’re runnin’ to the mountai- oh thank fuck, the physically-oldest of them can fly. To the mountains while they have the cover of night and they can figure things out. At least his life isn’t boring yet…

[headspace-hotel]

My take on "why there are many adults that only read YA novels" is pretty simple

The YA book explosion of the mid 2000's-mid 2010's was mostly scifi and fantasy genre, and trying to "get into" adult SFF is a punishment from hell

[celialowenthal]

Tests | 2023

[markscherz]

Fun fact: before we understood inheritance, some academics literally thought it was some kind of vibrations picked up by the nervous system.

They literally thought evolution happened through vibes alone.

[sarahmackattack]

If you do a science event at a library and bring your snake, please be advised that someone might read a book to your snake.

[evelasco-art]

Personal work inspired by greatest writer ever aka Ursula K. Le Guin's short story Winter's King. You can find it in The Wind's Twelve Quarters, it's set in the same world as The Left Hand of Darkness and it's... well, brilliant, like pretty much all her writing.

“Thus, although the best known picture is that dark image of a young king standing above an old king who lies dead in a corridor lit only by mirror-reflections of a burning city, set it aside for a while.”

And then, as she often does, proceeds to break your heart.

At first, I wanted to make 3-4 illustrations for this story, but found a way to put all scenes into a single piece. And I believe that actually works better, given the cyclic nature of the story.

I'm not done illustrating Gethen. Genly Ai and Therem Harth rem ir Estraven: you are next. Once I finish the commissions I'm working on and have the time and energy for personal art, that is.

[torpublishinggroup]

Character Art for When Among Crows

Check out this stunning character art for Veronica Roth’s novella, #WhenAmongCrows!

Dive into a world where dark secrets and intricate alliances intertwine, and get to know our intriguing cast of characters:

🔮 Niko - An enigmatic leader with a mysterious past, guiding his companions through dangerous lands.

🌌 Baba Jaga - A fierce warrior with unyielding loyalty and a connection to ancient magic.

🔥 Ala - The strategic mastermind whose hidden motives and pivotal decisions could shape the fate of their world...

Dive into When Among Crows today!

Art by: @eleonorpiteira

[bethanydelleman]

Edit: Turning off reblogs on this post since I've been told it contains misinformation. Also, someone reblogged it with a huge rant and blocked me (as far as I can tell), leaving me unable to reply and with only partial notes and that freaks me out.

So I was telling someone about my boy, Sejong the Great of Joeson, who deserves that title "great" since he was so concerned about illiteracy that he created the easy-to-learn Korean alphabet (Hangul) by himself, but then the nobility got mad about all these reading peasants and tried to ban it. And my friend says, "Oh, I thought illiterate poor people in the past were just lazy."

And I was like, "No, no, you don't want your indentured servants and peasants reading and figuring out how much you are screwing them over. The adapted Chinese characters that Korea had been using took years to learn so it was a natural gatekeeper of knowledge."

And then, because one must be fair, I went on to explain how Europeans locked up their knowledge behind Latin, especially the Bible, and how it was so important that Martin Luther translated it into everyday German, because once you can read the Bible yourself, you can challenge the almost absolute power of the church. Only the rich could afford to learn Latin, so only the rich could read the book that their entire society was allegedly based around.

I do think things are much better today, but why are most scientific papers paywalled and scientists sometimes act as if they should be treated like infallible priests...

Edit: I wanted to end this post on a happy note, but then I started thinking about paywalls and it made me a bit depressed. We still do make our best knowledge less accessible to the average person and I hope we can do more to change that.

[utilitycaster]

between the Assembly taking over Aeor and the Tishtan site and his behavior towards the Grim Verity and the fact that I bet they probably did the same to Pride's Call, I have to wonder if there's just a rag-tag group of furious historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists who are amassing to murder Ludinus Da'leth over that alone

[chickenchirps27]

hello denizens of tumblr i come with humble offerings

they wish to romance you

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

I CURSE YOU WITH LOVE FOR CREATIONISM

what an odd thing to say to a Jewish paleontologist

did you know

young earth creationism was never the jewish interpretation of that text; those jews today who believe it have been influenced by xtians. classic commentary showcases vagueness as to the timing of the creation event, with one talmudic commenter suggesting the time may have been millions of years

YEC'ism, as a result, is filled with antisemitism, as many philosophies that require jewish people to be wrong about their own books are

not a single aspect of the Torah is meant to be taken literally. it is a multifaceted work where higher level interpretations are the bulk of the meaning of the text (Pardes method)

many jewish scholars over the years have pointed out how living things change over time

the amount of evidence we have that the earth is 4.6 billion years old and the universe 13 billion years old is overwhelming

the amount of evidence we have that living things have changed over long periods of time is overwhelming

the amount of evidence we have that populations change over short periods of time (which would then add up to those long changes) is overwhelming

the amount of extremely accessible evidence we have that evolution via natural selection happens is greater than the evidence we have for the force of gravity

many things we deal with today, in our anatomies, geographies, and ecologies, are only explicable with a knowledge of deep time

understanding evolution has been linked with more tolerant attitudes and a better ability to critically evaluate new information (ie, if you're a young earth creationist, you are more likely to be racist and stay that way)

understanding evolution is key to actually fixing many social and ecological problems and ignoring it is, in fact, a self defeating action

the history of the earth is not actually a debatable subject. people who believe in young earth creationism are one thing: delusional.

anyways, I know you didn't read any of that, so have fun sticking your head in a pile of sand. Ostriches don't do that, but you do.