Tag: science cat

Science Caturday: Rocket Cats!

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In the headlines this week: 16th century rocket cats. That’s right, experts recently revealed that a military manual dating from around 1530 imagined the use of cats and birds as weapons of war, with gunpowder-filled “jet packs” strapped to their backs to set fire to enemy castles or cities.

According to this article in The Guardian, the academics studying the manuscript believe that cats would be poor weapons. Given their preference for staying close to home and doing pretty much as they please, a gunpowder-toting kitty would be more likely to set fire to his master’s camp than to go near a strange castle.

However, the photo above, obtained from a top-sekrit source, indicates that some testing of rocket cats may have been carried on long after castle walls fell, and may indeed be going on to this day.

Image via cheezburger.com

Science Caturday: How to Lolcat

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Yesterday at the ScienceOnline conference, we had a great conversation led by Tara Haelle about the importance of images in science communication. Alas, the subject of lolcats did not arise, so I will address it here. Lolcats are, in fact, the key to all successful science communication. The effective deployment of lolcats is a secret scicomm weapon of mass destruction, by means of cuteness-induced head explosions (See Fig. 1 above. Boom.)

Science communicators should exercise caution when using lolcats to illustrate scientific concepts, however, because it turns out that cats are exempt from certain laws of science.

Fig. 2. Effective use of lolcat to illustrate gravity

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Fig. 3. Oops.

Gravity-Is-Just-A-Guideline

Science Caturday: Cosmos Kitties explain teh Universe

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Sorry kitties, that’s not quite how it happened. Luckily, we’ll get a refresher on the origins of the universe when the reboot of Carl Sagan’s classic Cosmos series kicks off on March 9, with new host Neil DeGrasse Tyson. In the meantime, you can read this terrific article by Joel Achenbach in Smithsonian Magazine about Sagan’s impact and legacy.

lolcat via cheezburger.com

Science Caturday: Billions and Billions

This week,  NASA released some amazing photos from the Hubble Space Telescope, including this mind-blowing image of thousands of galaxies, each one a collection of billions of stars.  Reached for comment, Mittens the cat said:

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Lol via Cheezburger.com

Science Caturday: Stone Cold Logic

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As much of the United States shivers through a wave of brutally cold temperatures, house cats around the country are reporting that they are quite comfy, thanks. Could the magnetic properties of kitties be responsible? Discuss. 

photo via Cheezburger.com