Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Scientists have discovered the "energy source" that powers the northern lights. I thought it was just refracted dust all this time. (Incidentally, Philip Pullman's first book was titled Northern Lights, then changed to The Golden Compass for US readers. I'm just saying.)

Speaking of heavenly happenings, Newgrange is going to stream a live webcast of the winter solstice. How cool is that?

The always-amazing Wellcome Collection has a new exhibit concerning sleep and dreaming. Those of us who can't get to London before the end of the exhibit can investigate some of it online, fortunately.

If you can't sleep because you're afraid of alien abduction, do not fret - you can now purchase a handy Earth Dog Tag that will show any benevolent aliens how to get you back home! (If these sorts of things freak you out, you probably don't want a life-size robot in your home. And a full directory of robot-related events won't be useful, either. However, this poster on How To Spot A Cylon might be reassuring.)

On the more mystical side, there's a beautiful French exhibition showing a bestiary of animals from the Bible and other literature from medieval times. If you go to the French language version, it's much more detailed - even if you can't read French, you can click away and see all sorts of lovely illustrations.

1 comment:

Danny said...

Hmmm for those willing to make it in time for the bestiary - maybe get one of those dogtags and make sure you returned a bit early ;)

The french information page says "Exposition du 11 octobre 2005 au 8 janvier 2006" - too bad, cause I might have been in Paris on time to go visit if it was this year