John Schoenherr's art for Space Viking. Where else would a self-respecting viking go, but the final frontier?

We don't have to choose between the fantastical and the technological. Why not both? Art by Finnian MacManus.

Ozempic (semaglutide), mounjaro (tirzepatide), retatrutide etc. were derived from molecules isolated in Gila monster venom by an "eccentric biochemist," Jean-Pierre Raufman. He asked the insane question others didn't, "can venom help humans?"

A skinned CAT (scanner)

There's been a cognitive aging-related breakthrough, "an increase in [..] iron-associated protein ferritin light chain 1 (FTL1) [..] in the hippocampus of aged mice, [..correlate] with cognitive decline." "Targeting neuronal FTL1 in [..] aged mice improves [..] cognitive impairments"

In 1979, children's books publisher, Usborne Publishing, worked with an aerospace engineer, Kenneth Gatland, and artist, David Jefferis, to create an illustrated guide to the future. Here is their page on Ristos – computers on our wrist. Imagine that.

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt van Rijn. 1633. Rembrandt's only seascape was stolen from a Boston museum in 1990. Its location is currently unknown.

Early Space Shuttle concepts were uncannily similar to Starship. Example, #51,223 A shuttle for Mars departing Earth. Art by Renato Moncini.

Early Space Shuttle concepts were uncannily close to SpaceX's Starship - part: 1,241,022 In this Grumman Shuttle proposal, the Shuttle is designed around a ‘lifting body’ design, similar to Starship, with the idea (most likely) being a similar re-entry profile.

Just your regularly scheduled reminder that in the 1950s, the US designed & planned to mass manufacture giant Mach 3 airplanes. 2.4k mi (3.9k km) in 90 min. Or, NYC to LA in 90 min.

Top of the morning to you! Mayhaps we can create a better world today?

we're in the business of making alchemists obsolete. eat it Newton. Congrats on the breakthrough Marathon Fusion, Kyle Schiller & Adam Rutkowski

At 1517, we're proud supporters of the new Vat-to-Agar movement. via 1517 Medici grantee @x - divyan_b ps - if you're a wily teen between 18 & 14 who'd like to join the cause; apply to 2E! Deadline is August 3rd, 2025! 1517.smapply.us/prog/2e2025/

"At the controls of an aircraft of the future," which would be a rocket (of course). Popular Mechanics, 1932.

Casting bronze at home, May 1932. Don't forget the asbestos!

The Kowloon Walled City used to be an actual walled city - a fortress. Historical accidents turned it into a world of its own with 700+ factories / industrial premises and hundreds of unlicensed schools, medical clinics, doctors and dentists.

Table of fortifications from Ephraim Chamber's 1728 Cyclopædia. Or, "An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; containing the Definitions of the Terms, and Accounts of the Things signify'd thereby, in the several Arts, both Liberal and Mechanical, and the several Sciences, Human and Divine [..]"

The architect Paolo Soleri's hexahedron arcology. 1969.

From Andrey Maximov's Mars series. Harmonia city.

Early Space Shuttle concepts were uncannily similar to SpaceX's Starship. This proposal from the 1971 was proposed by Grumman Aerospace & Boeing for NASA's "Alternate Space Shuttle Concept[s]" study. It had a modified Saturn V first stage w/ a shuttle-like vehicle on top.

Simulating living in space. Collier's Magazine, 1953.

How we used to live. Cutaways of a roundhouse from the Bronze Age. "[Their] layout [..mirrored modern homes with space] for cooking, sleeping, and textile production. [Residents ate] porridge, cereals, honey, and stews made with beef, mutton, and fish"

The artist in his room at the Villa Medici, Léon Cogniet.

Remember. Freedom.

What are you launching off the plane of the ecliptic today?

Adrian Bush's "The Easter Project." Cats are gonna cat.

If you're focused on what matters, then who cares if you're the leading strand or an Okazaki fragment. In life, as in molecular biology, results matter more.

Reconstructed Iron age Hillfort from ~500BC. "several important finds [were found in the fort like] a [Bronze Age] cup-and-ring marked rock [&] Pictish slab [showing] an incised bull." Reconstruction by Bob Marshall commissioned by Fife Coast & Countryside Trust, 2015.

The 4-second mile; infographic, 1964. Describing Donald Campbells' project to break the sound barrier on land. Breaking speed records was a Campbell family tradition. Donald's father, Malcolm Campbell built 3 cars & 2 boats to break records. Donald, 1 car & 2 boats.

'Build a house' by Gorg. 2017. According to the artist, "What's so hard about building a house? We'll just draw one and live in it!"

Vintage ads used to be so colorful! Zenith watches was the first American-style Swiss mass-scale watch manufacturer.

'Enceladus is inhabited' by Gorg, 2024. via the artist, "Your cottage on your own little island in the clear waters of the endless ocean of the terraformed Enceladus."

Vasily Polenov's 'An Olive Tree in the Garden of Gethsemane.' Painted, 1882. Called the “Knight of Beauty,” Polenov believed, “art should promote happiness and joy.”

Until the 1940s, we didn't know that magnetic poles move. The discovery was an outgrowth of the American exploration of the arctic (Project Polaris). Compass readings across 100s of flights were used to find the magnetic north pole. Plotting our wandering magnetic pole via aircraft. Pop Mech 1945

You can brick your visual system. Celeste McCollough noticed in 1962 that when exposed to gratings of certain colors, people's brains would transpose the colors. The effect persisted for over 2 mo.

Evening Watch by Gorg, 2018. Handpainted oil on canvas.

A study of fish genetics. Before we could read genomes, we used model organisms to render the invisible visible. Mendel had his peas. Erich von Tschermak's wheat-rye & oats, Hugo de Vries' evening primroses and Carl Correns' four o'clock flower.

Hi!

Science. The best drug ever. Are you taking a hit of science today?

The Experiment by Frank Paul. Ca. 1920s.

The first raster image ever made — a "portrait of Jacquard was woven in silk on a Jacquard loom and required 24,000 punched cards to create (1839)."

What's your today's "One More?"

"World's greatest anthropologist predicts [that humans of the future will have] no hair! No teeth!! Four toes!!! Bulgy foreheads!!!! [And a] Baby Jaw!!" Clearly, this man was a visionary.

A "trade school" ad by Western Electric. April, 1949.

Edward Jenner's first inoculation. A lithograph by Gaston Mélingue. Ca. 1894. On May 17th, 1796, Jenner inoculated the 8-years-old James Phipps against smallpox. "Phipps [became] immune [..to] smallpox [..as did several other children..] including [Jenner's] 11-month-old son."

Scientists weren't always seen as cold, rational disinterested outsiders. Once, scientists - like Louis Pasteur - were seen as saints. In 1885, he gave boy badly mauled by a rabid dog his new vaccine at "personal risk [as] he was not a licensed physician" The boy survived. He was fêted as a saint.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau dreamed of the day humanity lived under the sea. In the early-60s, Cousteau helped design and launch Precontinent I (Conshelf One) & Precontinent II to make an underwater village. These are some of the photos from that experiment.

An oblique view of Southern California's coastline. USGS, 1970.

Dudley Buck with his superconducting cryotron on the left & the vacuum tube it was replacing on the right. Ca 1950s. Computing history might have looked really different if Buck hadn't died in 1959.

Our future in space. Concepts for 2001: A Space Odyssey