Kestrell

but hey, superstition is alive and thriving. Too bad I can set my cute new wasp weasel on the First Fearmonger.
Trump's Threat to Public Health by Daniel Smith
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/02/15/trumps-threat-to-public-health/

1. _Introduction to Planetary Geomorphology_ by Ronald Greeley (Cambridge University Press, 2013)
Nearly all major planets and moons in our Solar System have been visited by spacecraft and the data they have returned has revealed the incredible diversity of planetary surfaces. Featuring a wealth of images, this textbook explores the geological evolution of the planets and moons. Introductory chapters discuss how information gathered from spacecraft is used to unravel the geological complexities of our Solar System. Subsequent chapters focus on current understandings of planetary systems. The textbook shows how planetary images and remote sensing data are analyzed through the application of fundamental geological principles. It draws on results from spacecraft sent throughout the Solar System by NASA and other space agencies. Aimed at undergraduate students in planetary geology, geoscience, astronomy and solar system science, it highlights the differences and similarities of the surfaces at a level that can be readily understood by non-specialists.

2. _The Phonological Mind_ by Iris Berent (Cambridge University Press, 2013)
"Humans instinctively form words by weaving patterns of meaningless speech elements. Moreover, we do so in specific, regular ways. We contrast dogs and gods, favour blogs to lbogs. We begin forming sound-patterns at birth and, like songbirds, we do so spontaneously, even in the absence of an adult model. We even impose these phonological patterns on invented cultural technologies such as reading and writing. But why are humans compelled to generate phonological patterns? And why do different phonological systems - signed and spoken - share aspects of their design? Drawing on findings from a broad range of disciplines including linguistics, experimental psychology, neuroscience and comparative animal studies, Iris Berent explores these questions and proposes a new hypothesis about the architecture of the phonological mind"--

I just discovered that there is a LucasionChair.org Web site, with this biography of Nicholas Saunderson
http://www.lucasianchair.org/18/saunderson.html
who is one of my heroes. He became blind as a baby but became a wizard at mathematics and, being one of the few people who really understood what Newton was talking about, taught optics at Cambridge, which had turned him down years earlier when he applied to be a student. He also invented his own accessible calculating device and boards for demonstrating geometrical shapes in two dimensions and geometrical forms in three dimensions (I really wish these boards were still produced by some company). Saunderson's fame was actually mostly as a teacher, since he provided such clear explanations of cutting edge mathematics that everyone came to his classes to find out what Newton was actually going on about. I love this idea of a blind person explaining light and form to a packed room of sighted people.

Btw, if you are wondering what the Lucasion Chair is, it is the chair of mathematics at Cambridge University, occupied in the past by Isaac Newton, in the present by Stephen Hawking and, at some point in the future, by Data.

Article about attempt to build autonomous flying robots with honeybee brain
http://earthsky.org/science-wire/green-brain-project-to-create-flying-robot-with-a-honey-bee-brain

Not relevant for my blindness, but this could well turn out to be the first widespread use of stem-cells, especially considering that the number of people with age-related visual impairments is supposed to double in the next decade or so.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/01/23/145636849/stem-cells-show-promise-as-blindness-treatment-in-early-study?ps=sh_stcathdl

Posted to the Art Beyond Sight mailinglist

NASA Unveils a New Lunar Book for the Visually Impaired

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. - NASA will unveil a new book for blind and visually impaired readers at a media event and reception hosted by the
NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) at 6 p.m. PDT on July 18 at NASA's
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

The book "Getting a Feel for Lunar Craters" was created with the NLSI and features tactile diagrams of the lunar surface designed to educate the blind and visually impaired about the wonders of Earth's moon. David
Hurd, a space science professor at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro, Pa., is the book's author. He and tactile engineer John Matelock began creating tactile astronomy tools after a student with a visual impairment signed up for Hurd's introductory astronomy course.
Cassandra Runyon, a professor at College of Charleston, Charleston, S.C. and Hurd previously produced "A Tactile Guide to the Solar System with Digital Talking Book" for NASA.

Hurd and students from the California School for the Blind, Fremont, Calif., are scheduled to attend the unveiling.

"NASA's Lunar Science Institute is committed to the development of resources to bring lunar science into the world of those who cannot see.
'Getting a Feel for Lunar Craters' is one giant step for humankind, making lunar science visible through touch and sound," said Yvonne Pendleton, director of the NLSI.

The NLSI is a virtual organization that enables collaborative, interdisciplinary research in support of NASA lunar science programs.
The institute uses technology to bring scientists together around the world and comprises competitively selected U.S. teams and several international partners. NASA's Science Mission Directorate and the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington, funds the institute, which is managed by Ames.

For more information about the NASA Lunar Science Institute, visit:
http://lunarscience.nasa.gov

Various real science projects which I have run across in the news this week.

Roombots
http://www.dailybits.com/roombots-the-furniture-of-the-future/

Flourescent tattoos to offer medical monitoring
These tiny rods seem like a nice alternative for medical monitoring--at least if the person is sighted--but I really wish the inventor hadn't taken to calling these implants "microworms"--I prefer to think of them as metabolic mood rings
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/update-microworms-0217.html?tr=y&auid=7819293

here is information about a "cloaking device"
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/invisibility-cloak-0125.html?tr=y&auid=7819294

holographic TV using off-the-shelf hardware
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/video-holography-0124.html?tr=y&auid=7819292

a mathematical model for visual cognition
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/vision-coding-0128.html

and finally,
a device which can "sniff" old books
http://news.discovery.com/history/old-books-paper-chemical-test.html
and then give an analysis of the book or document's age and the fragility of the paper (a field titled "Material Degradomics")
http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/ac9016049#references
--although I thought there was a specific gas which is released by decaying paper? No luck finding the name of such a gas, though.

Posted to The Art of Darkness blog
The Science Tarot
http://www.sciencetarot.com/
examples of some of the cards
http://www.sciencetarot.com/cards.html

I am including a snippet from the AOD post below because the blogger gives some descriptions of the suits and some specific cards and I must say, if one is interested in writing a technomancy story, this deck would provide a lot of inspiration for the world-building.

block quote start
...I have to give mad props to the clever artwork. The suit of Cups is represented by beakers, Swords are scalpels, Pentacles are magnifying glasses, and Wands are bunsen burners. The major arcana are all famous scientists, and the deck attempts to match their work with the various cards’ “meanings” (the nurturing Empress, for instance, is represented by Mendel and his peas). The minor arcana illuminate various scientific ideas, and again an effort has been made to match them appropriately: The ambitious Seven of Swords is represented by the expansion of a red giant star, and the partner-oriented Three of Cups is illustrated by an orchid and its symbiotic fungus.
In particular, the fact that the Wheel of Fortune is represented by Schrödinger’s Cat is utter genius.
block quote end