On Christmas Day, I watched a documentary about the terra cotta warriors — thousands of clay soldiers built as funerary objects for the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor. One crazy fact I learned: Unlike the type of lacquer we call shellac today (which comes from crushed beetles), ancient Chinese artists used a lacquer derived from the sap of the lacquer tree, a relative of poison ivy. Anybody tasked with the job of applying that lacquer can end up with a serious allergic reaction. Another fun fact: We've still never seen the inside of Qin Shi Huang's tomb. Partly, this is a bureaucratic issue. But the larger problem is the mercury-laden soil on top, possibly contaminated by Qin Shi Huang's tomb, itself, which was supposed to contain a scale model of his empire, complete with rivers and oceans flowing with (you guessed it) mercury.
Ancient Chinese art used a toxic lacquer made from a relative of poison ivy
NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft touches asteroid Bennu, sends rubble flying, high hopes it grabbed sample
The NASA Osiris-Rex spacecraft "crushed rocks and sent rubble flying as it briefly touched an asteroid, a strong indication that samples were collected for return to Earth, officials said Wednesday," reports AP. More at the OSIRIS-REX Sample Return Mission site: "OSIRIS-REx TAGS Asteroid Bennu." Excerpt: Captured on Oct. 20, 2020 during the OSIRIS-REx mission's Touch-And-Go… READ THE REST
Scientific paper about being bitten by a weird snake
Meet the leaf-nosed snake, a peculiar Madagascan species with a gift for crypsis. Reading about it I found my way to Envenomation by the Malagasy colubrid snake Langaha madagascariensis, which turns out to be "This God Damned Snake Bit Me!" written up as a formal scientific paper. To avoid harming the snake and to prevent… READ THE REST
Sasha Sagan interviews a series of inspiring female scientists
In Violet magazine, writer Sasha Sagan, author of the must-read For Small Creatures Such As We, is interviewing a series of inspiring and diverse female scientists. First up is evolutionary biologist Dr. Michelle Trautwein, "curator of flies" at the California Academy of Sciences. followed by South African chemist/nanotechnologist Dr. Tebello Nyokong of Rhodes University, and… READ THE REST
For under $40, you can learn all about Python, machine learning and artificial intelligence
This week in thinking machines news, a Harvard professor and his students have now raised $14 million to create artificial intelligence so smart that even hackers can't crack it. Meanwhile, reports from the White House suggest the federal government is close to issuing their directives on how agencies should regulate AI going forward. And if… READ THE REST
This laptop cooling pad can save your computer and your legs
Back when you used to split time between home and the office, it really wasn't usually a big deal. But now that you spend hour after hour tapping away at that one laptop all day and all night long, you should probably start paying attention to just how freakin' hot that thing is getting. In… READ THE REST
Memrise has a unique take on teaching you a foreign language
When you decide to sign on to learning a new language, you're not doing it so you can learn how to conjugate verbs in Spanish. You're learning it so if you go to Mexico or run into a Spanish speaker, you'll be able to converse and understand what's happening around. Dull classroom recitations and boring… READ THE REST
