unypl:

UNYPL in 2012: The Regulars

It’s about to be a full year that I’ve been blogging the Underground Library. It’s been a year of so many discoveries and experiences. One discovery I had may seem plain, but it felt profound to experience it through photography. I discovered that a reader is… a Reader. In looking for people who were reading, I found that they were there as a kind. Books weren’t just an item they had with them. They were indications of a larger relationship that defined them. When I posted a reader whom I had photographed twice, someone commented that it was like a love story. I like that and I agree. Readers are in love with the world around them, and their relationship with the books that reveal it to them is an enduring one. 

Here are four readers I happened to see twice over the course of the year. Regulars of the Underground Library. From top to bottom.

1. When I first saw him, he had started reading “New York,” by Edward Rutherfurd. More than a month later, I saw him again when he was almost done with it.  
2. I saw her in the summer, when she was reading “Consider the Lobster and Other Essays,” by David Foster Wallace. On a recent cold morning I saw her again, still with David Foster Wallace, but this time reading his ”The Broom of the System.” 
3. One of the first readers I photographed, I loved his hat and glasses. Last year he was reading ‎”Killing Time: The First Full Investigation into the Unsolved Murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman”, by Donald Freed. Eleven months later, I recognized him because of his hat and glasses. I wasn’t sure why I recognized him, until sure enough, he took a book out of his bag. This time he was reading ”Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon,” by Aram Goudsouzian. 
4. I first saw him late one night, when I was tired and on my way home. But Jack London wasn’t yet in the Underground Library, so I took my camera out and photographed him. Early in the morning a month later, I was tired again when I saw him again, enjoying another story in ”To Build a Fire and Other Stories,” by Jack London.

Memory Shell

biocanvas:

The embryo of a guppy fish at 40-times magnification.

Image by Shmuel Silberman.

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION!

Every Sunday, a question will be asked about one of the images from this past week. Be the first to answer correctly, and your blog will be promoted on Monday’s image post and Biocanvas’s main site!

Some flowering plants have evolved ways to inhibit self-fertilization in order to increase the genetic variability of the population.

What is one specific mechanism employed by plants to prevent a flower from using its own pollen to fertilize itself?

I found the answer from a paper on web. As it says:

“A number of strategies have evolved in flowering plants that prevent self-fertilization. One of the strategies is called self-incompatibility. It was described by Charles Darwin in a book published more than a century ago. He observed that some plant species were completely sterile to their own pollen,but fertile with that of any other individual of the same species. Since Darwin’s observation, self-incompatibility has been found to occur in more than half of the flowering plant species.
Self-incompatibility allows the pistil of a flower to distinguish between self (genetically related) pollen and non-self (genetically unrelated)pollen.Self pollen is rejected,whereas non-self pollen is accepted for fertilization. As Darwin ob- served, self-incompatible plants are completely sterile with respect to self pollen,but fertile with respect to non-self pollen.”

http://www.pnas.org/content/93/22/12059.full.pdf

(via scinerds)

expose-the-light:

A multi-spectrum view of our galaxy. 

(via scinerds)

showslow:

Jim Denevan is a man of many talents. The 50-year-old is best known for his colossal temporary land art, using natural materials to create massive scale drawings on earth, sand and ice. His sculptures are not placed in the landscape, rather, the landscape are the means of their creation. Often aerial photography or video is needed to fully grasp the final work.

Many thanks to Daniel for the suggestion.

scinerds:

Rare and Iconic Photos of Einstein Celebrate His Nobel Win 90 Years Ago

Ask anyone to name an iconic scientist and most people will say Albert Einstein. He was his generation’s greatest physicist as well as an international celebrity and humanitarian. Many people can tell you at least something about his renowned Theory of Relativity, though the details probably elude them right now.

Einstein’s fame extends to pop culture, where photos of the eminent scientist can be seen plastered on mugs, t-shirts, postcards, and internet memes. Though many images are well known — Einstein framed by his wild hair sticking his tongue out at the camera — there are still a good number that rarely see the light of day.

In honor of the 90th anniversary of Albert Einstein winning the Nobel Prize in physics, we are presenting a collection of photographs — some famous, some rare — that exemplify this singular man. The images come from the Bettmann Archive, a collection of more than 11 million historical photographs owned by Corbis Images.

Einstein actually received the 1921 Nobel physics prize but, because of the first World War, the announcement was delayed. He got the medal on Nov. 9, 1922 not for his Theory of Relativity, which was still controversial at the time, but for his earlier work on the photoelectric effect, which is the basis for modern solar power. Einstein wasn’t actually in Europe during the prize ceremony, he was away on a cross-country journey to lecture in Japan. His friend and fellow physicist Niels Bohr received the 1922 physics Nobel during the same ceremony and was upset that Einstein wouldn’t be there to attend the proceedings with him.

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I just filmed a video “Just A Try” on #viddy http://www.viddy.com/video/0678d40a-24bc-4748-84cc-3003942dfeac

I just filmed a video “mother And Son” on #viddy http://www.viddy.com/video/fab2960f-7013-436d-aa2f-d896bbcfb7b5