11 years ago
The colour of exoplanet HD189733b has been identified as a deep azure blue this week. Details of the discovery, made with the Hubble Space Telescope, have been reported in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
What intrigued me most is that this blue colour is apparently due to silicate rain in the atmosphere - or glass rain.
The Earth looks blue from space as our oceans absorb red and green wavelengths more strongly that blue ones, and reflect the blue of our sky. Here, the researchers propose that exoplanet HD189733b appears a vibrant blue due to a hazy turbulent atmosphere “laced with silicate particles, which scatter blue light”.
Glass rain. Doesn’t that sound mysterious? I imagine a post-apocalyptic wasteland with shadowy ruins and nature gone wild, as glinting brittle rain falls from dark shining skies.
11 years ago
![Russia is the guest of honour at the Art Paris Art Fair 2013. As part of their exhibition, this is a wooden heart by Dimitri Tsykalov. [insert oversized wooden heart pun here].
More commentary about the Russian contingent here.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/fef6b16ed77aa88722a7d7927d854c18/tumblr_mlem69vpMq1r36l1to1_500.jpg)
Russia is the guest of honour at the Art Paris Art Fair 2013. As part of their exhibition, this is a wooden heart by Dimitri Tsykalov. [insert oversized wooden heart pun here].
More commentary about the Russian contingent here.
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12 years ago
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Reblogged from davidmcclunie
David Mcclunie, James K. Baxter, 2011, Charcoal
The delicate pure invisible light I have not
Seen since I left Grafton. In those days
I’d climb the hill on the Domain
Before dawn, when the leaves were cold as iron
Underfoot…
- James K Baxter
12 years ago
Apparently, when they first opened in 1909 Mr Harry Gordon Selfridge created a Silence Room where people visiting his shop could “retire from the whirl of bargains and the build up of energy”. Selfridges have just re-launched this delightful concept in their lower basement.
Shoes and electronic devices are left at the door.
I can’t wait to visit.
12 years ago
Reading riders. People reading books while riding on the NYC underground. So simple but so gorgeous. And so interesting to see we shouldn’t judge a person by what they look like; seeing what they’re reading is a way more interesting insight.
What a delightful community, to be a part of the Underground New York Public Library.
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12 years ago
In 2008 British artist Roger Hiorns seeded a derelict ex-council flat in South London with deep blue crystals. After sealing the property, it was pumped full of 75000 litres of copper sulphate. A few days later it was drained, and opened. A glorious crystal cavern was revealed, with sharp blue crystalline growths on every surface.
At the weekend I met a sold state chemist who’s boss was consulted on this project. Imagine the logistics and planning and consultation for carrying out something like this. Amazing. The crystal house was reopened for viewing in 2009, but I will have missed it by now as the block of houses was due for demolition. What a magnificent temporary urban installation.
Credit to ArtAngel for supporting this project.
Nick Cobbing’s photographs provide beautiful documentation of the work. Other photography on his website is also stunning, I particularly like the many white arctic scapes like this one and this one (goosebumps).
12 years ago
A follow up to the previous post: PLoS Biology have used one of the Do You Mind? images as the feature image for the June 2012 issue. When it’s an open access online journal, that’s a bit like getting the cover. Yep. Cool.
Do you mind? Artists respond to matter of the mind.
Do You Mind? was an art-science collaboration that paired early career neuroscientists at the University of Auckland Centre for Brain Research with local artists, to develop cross-disciplinary dialogue. When artist Tom Henry visited Renee Gordon in her neurodegeneration research lab she showed him cultured astrocytes using a fluorescent microscope (shown in green, nuclei in blue). Tom commented that her images “evoked everything from star-like galaxies to seaweed forests,” and in response produced prints by pressing paint between surfaces to create semi-symmetric shapes, referencing brain hemispheres and regeneration of cells. See Dowie, et al. (e1001340)], in this issue.
Image Credit: Renee Gordon
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