Blue Dog's eyes

Cosas con las que me encuentro

Some brilliant female scientists you may not know much (or anything) of.

Aglaonike (2nd century BCE), was an astronomer from Ancient Greece during the fifth century. She is on the list of first astronomers who was a woman. She was notorious for being able to predict the accurate time and locations of lunar eclipses. However, because she was a woman her contributions were not believed to be a scientific ability.

People often began to believe she was a witch and gave her the name of the witch of Thessaly. Aglaonike has been mentioned in writings of Pluto, Plutarch, and Apollonius of Rhodes. 

Elena Cornaro Piscopia (1646–1684), Italian mathematician was probably the first woman in the world to receive  a Doctor of Philosophy degree; she is definitely the first woman to have been recorded doing so.

She was a respected and noted philosopher and theologist, although she never received a degree in the latter because the church would not allow it.  

Philippa Fawcett (1868-1948) When she placed first in the Cambridge mathematical tripos in 1890, she forced a reassessment of nineteenth-century belief in the inferiority of the “weaker sex.”

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (1921–) became the second woman to ever win the Nobel Prize in medicine, 1977. Her achievement was the development of RIA, an application of nuclear physics in clinical medicine that makes it possible for scientists to use radiotropic tracers to measure the concentration of hundreds of pharmacologic and biologic substances in the blood and other fluids of the human body and in animals and plants.
She invented this technique in 1959 to measure the amount of insulin in the blood of adult diabetics.

(Source: bluedogeyes)



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expose-the-light: 10 interesting facts about planet Earth 1. Plate tectonics keep the planet comfortableEarth is the only planet in the Solar System with plate tectonics. The outer crust of the Earth is broken up into regions known as tectonic plates. These are floating on top of the magma interior of the Earth and can move against one another. When two plates collide, one plate can go underneath another. This process is very important. When microscopic plants in the ocean die, they fall to the bottom of the ocean. Over long periods of time, the remnants of this life, rich in carbon, are carried back into the interior of the Earth and recycled. This pulls carbon out of the atmosphere, which makes sure we don’t get a runaway greenhouse effect, like what happened on Venus. Without the plate tectonics, there’d be no way to recycle this carbon, and the Earth would overheat. 2. Earth is almost a sphereThe Earth’s shape could be described as an oblate spheroid. It’s kind of like a sphere, but the Earth’s rotation causes the equator to bulge out . What this means is that the measurement from pole to pole is about 43 km less than the diameter of Earth across the equator. Even though the tallest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest, the feature that’s furthest from the center of the Earth is actually Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. 3. Earth is mostly iron, oxygen and siliconIf you could separate the Earth out into piles of material, you’d get 32.1 % iron, 30.1% oxygen, 15.1% silicon, and 13.9% magnesium. Of course, most of this iron is actually down at the core of the Earth. If you could actually get down and sample the core, it would be 88% iron. 47% of the Earth’s crust consists of oxygen. 4. 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered in waterWhen astronauts first went into the space, they looked back at the Earth with human eyes for the first time, and called our home the Blue Planet. And it’s no surprise. 70% of our planet is covered with oceans. The remaining 30% is the solid ground, rising above sea level. 5. The Earth’s atmosphere extends out to 10,000 kmThe atmosphere is thickest within the first 50 km or so, but it actually reaches out to about 10,000 km above the surface of the planet. This outermost layer of the atmosphere is called the exosphere, and starts about 500 km above the surface of the Earth. As we said, it goes all the way up to 10,000 km above the surface. At this point, free-moving particles can actually escape the pull of Earth’s gravity, and be blown away by the Sun’s solar wind. But this high atmosphere is extremely thin. The bulk of the Earth’s atmosphere is down near the Earth itself. In fact, 75% of the Earth’s atmosphere is contained within the first 11 km above the planet’s surface. Want more planet Earth facts? We’re halfway through. Here come 5 more. 6. The Earth’s molten iron core creates a magnetic fieldThe Earth is like a great big magnet, with poles at the top and bottom of the planet, near to the actual geographic poles. This magnetic field extends from the surface of the Earth out thousands of kilometers – a region called the magnetosphere. Be grateful for the magnetosphere. Without it particles from the Sun’s solar wind would hit the Earth directly, exposing the surface of the planet to significant amounts of radiation. Instead, the magnetosphere channels the solar wind around the Earth, protecting us from harm. Scientists think that the magnetic field is generated by the molten outer core of the Earth, where heat creates convection motions of conducting materials. This generates electric currents that create the magnetic field. 7. Earth doesn’t take 24 hours to rotate on its axisIt’s actually 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds. This is the amount of time it takes for the Earth to completely rotate around its axis; astronomers call this a sidereal day. Now wait a second, that means a day is 4 minutes shorter than we think it is. You’d think that time would add up, day by day, and within a few months, day would be night, and night would be day. Remember that the Earth orbits around the Sun. Every day, the Sun moves compared to the background stars by about 1° – about the size of the Moon in the sky. And so, if you add up that little motion from the Sun that we see because the Earth is orbiting around it, as well as the rotation on its axis, you get a total of 24 hours. Now that sounds like the day we know. 8. A year on Earth isn’t 365 daysIt’s actually 365.2564 days. It’s this extra .2564 days that creates the need for leap years. That’s why we tack on an extra day in February every year divisible by 4 – 2004, 2008, etc – unless it’s divisible by 100 (1900, 2100, etc)… unless it’s divisible by 400 (1600, 2000, etc). 9. Earth has 1 moon and 2 co-orbital satellitesAs you’re probably aware, Earth has 1 moon (The Moon). But did you know there are 2 additional asteroids locked into a co-orbital orbits with Earth? They’re called 3753 Cruithne and 2002 AA29. We won’t go into too much detail about the Moon, I’m sure you’ve heard all about it. 3753 Cruithne is 5 km across, and sometimes called Earth’s second moon. It doesn’t actually orbit the Earth, but has a synchronized orbit with our home planet. It has an orbit that makes it look like it’s following the Earth in orbit, but it’s actually following its own, distinct path around the Sun. 2002 AA29 is only 60 meters across, and makes a horseshoe orbit around the Earth that brings it close to the planet every 95 years. In about 600 years, it will appear to circle Earth in a quasi-satellite orbit. Scientists have suggested that it might make a good target for a space exploration mission. 10. Earth is the only planet known to have lifeWe’ve discovered past evidence of water on Mars, and the building blocks of life on Saturn’s moon Titan. We can see amino acids in nebulae in deep space. But Earth is the only place life has actually been discovered. But if there’s life on other planets, scientists are building the experiments that will help find it. A new rover called the Mars Science Laboratory will be heading to Mars in the next few years, equipped with experiments that can detect life in the soil on the Red Planet. Giant radio dishes scan distant stars, listening for the characteristic signals of intelligent life reaching out across interstellar space. And new space telescopes, such as the European Space Agency’s Darwin mission might be powerful enough to sense the presence of life on other worlds.

expose-the-light:

10 interesting facts about planet Earth

1. Plate tectonics keep the planet comfortable
Earth is the only planet in the Solar System with plate tectonics. The outer crust of the Earth is broken up into regions known as tectonic plates. These are floating on top of the magma interior of the Earth and can move against one another. When two plates collide, one plate can go underneath another.

This process is very important. When microscopic plants in the ocean die, they fall to the bottom of the ocean. Over long periods of time, the remnants of this life, rich in carbon, are carried back into the interior of the Earth and recycled. This pulls carbon out of the atmosphere, which makes sure we don’t get a runaway greenhouse effect, like what happened on Venus.

Without the plate tectonics, there’d be no way to recycle this carbon, and the Earth would overheat.

2. Earth is almost a sphere
The Earth’s shape could be described as an oblate spheroid. It’s kind of like a sphere, but the Earth’s rotation causes the equator to bulge out . What this means is that the measurement from pole to pole is about 43 km less than the diameter of Earth across the equator.

Even though the tallest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest, the feature that’s furthest from the center of the Earth is actually Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.

3. Earth is mostly iron, oxygen and silicon
If you could separate the Earth out into piles of material, you’d get 32.1 % iron, 30.1% oxygen, 15.1% silicon, and 13.9% magnesium. Of course, most of this iron is actually down at the core of the Earth. If you could actually get down and sample the core, it would be 88% iron. 47% of the Earth’s crust consists of oxygen.

4. 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water
When astronauts first went into the space, they looked back at the Earth with human eyes for the first time, and called our home the Blue Planet. And it’s no surprise. 70% of our planet is covered with oceans. The remaining 30% is the solid ground, rising above sea level.

5. The Earth’s atmosphere extends out to 10,000 km
The atmosphere is thickest within the first 50 km or so, but it actually reaches out to about 10,000 km above the surface of the planet. This outermost layer of the atmosphere is called the exosphere, and starts about 500 km above the surface of the Earth. As we said, it goes all the way up to 10,000 km above the surface. At this point, free-moving particles can actually escape the pull of Earth’s gravity, and be blown away by the Sun’s solar wind.

But this high atmosphere is extremely thin. The bulk of the Earth’s atmosphere is down near the Earth itself. In fact, 75% of the Earth’s atmosphere is contained within the first 11 km above the planet’s surface.

Want more planet Earth facts? We’re halfway through. Here come 5 more.

6. The Earth’s molten iron core creates a magnetic field
The Earth is like a great big magnet, with poles at the top and bottom of the planet, near to the actual geographic poles. This magnetic field extends from the surface of the Earth out thousands of kilometers – a region called the magnetosphere.

Be grateful for the magnetosphere. Without it particles from the Sun’s solar wind would hit the Earth directly, exposing the surface of the planet to significant amounts of radiation. Instead, the magnetosphere channels the solar wind around the Earth, protecting us from harm.

Scientists think that the magnetic field is generated by the molten outer core of the Earth, where heat creates convection motions of conducting materials. This generates electric currents that create the magnetic field.

7. Earth doesn’t take 24 hours to rotate on its axis
It’s actually 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds. This is the amount of time it takes for the Earth to completely rotate around its axis; astronomers call this a sidereal day. Now wait a second, that means a day is 4 minutes shorter than we think it is. You’d think that time would add up, day by day, and within a few months, day would be night, and night would be day.

Remember that the Earth orbits around the Sun. Every day, the Sun moves compared to the background stars by about 1° – about the size of the Moon in the sky. And so, if you add up that little motion from the Sun that we see because the Earth is orbiting around it, as well as the rotation on its axis, you get a total of 24 hours. Now that sounds like the day we know.

8. A year on Earth isn’t 365 days
It’s actually 365.2564 days. It’s this extra .2564 days that creates the need for leap years. That’s why we tack on an extra day in February every year divisible by 4 – 2004, 2008, etc – unless it’s divisible by 100 (1900, 2100, etc)… unless it’s divisible by 400 (1600, 2000, etc).

9. Earth has 1 moon and 2 co-orbital satellites
As you’re probably aware, Earth has 1 moon (The Moon). But did you know there are 2 additional asteroids locked into a co-orbital orbits with Earth? They’re called 3753 Cruithne and 2002 AA29. We won’t go into too much detail about the Moon, I’m sure you’ve heard all about it.

3753 Cruithne is 5 km across, and sometimes called Earth’s second moon. It doesn’t actually orbit the Earth, but has a synchronized orbit with our home planet. It has an orbit that makes it look like it’s following the Earth in orbit, but it’s actually following its own, distinct path around the Sun.

2002 AA29 is only 60 meters across, and makes a horseshoe orbit around the Earth that brings it close to the planet every 95 years. In about 600 years, it will appear to circle Earth in a quasi-satellite orbit. Scientists have suggested that it might make a good target for a space exploration mission.

10. Earth is the only planet known to have life
We’ve discovered past evidence of water on Mars, and the building blocks of life on Saturn’s moon Titan. We can see amino acids in nebulae in deep space. But Earth is the only place life has actually been discovered.

But if there’s life on other planets, scientists are building the experiments that will help find it. A new rover called the Mars Science Laboratory will be heading to Mars in the next few years, equipped with experiments that can detect life in the soil on the Red Planet. Giant radio dishes scan distant stars, listening for the characteristic signals of intelligent life reaching out across interstellar space. And new space telescopes, such as the European Space Agency’s Darwin mission might be powerful enough to sense the presence of life on other worlds.



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expose-the-light: Top 10 Amazing Moon Facts 1. The Big Whack The moon formed as a result of a collision known as the Giant Impact or the Big Whack, scientists figure. It went like this: A giant Mars-sized object hit Earth 4.6 billion years ago shortly after the birth of the sun and the solar system. A cloud of vaporized rock was kicked up (a mix of Earth and the other object) and went into orbit around Earth. The cloud cooled and condensed into a ring of small, solid bodies, which then gathered together, forming the moon. 2. Earth makes the moon rise Each day, though not at the same time, the moon comes up in the East and goes down in the West — much like the sun and other stars and for the same reason Earth rotates, on its axis, toward the East, pulling celestial objects into view and then forcing them to slip away. The moon also makes an orbital trip around Earth once every 29.5 days. In the sky, this gradual movement is eastward, though it’s not perceptible during any given observing session. It is, however, why the moon rises later each day, by about 50 minutes on average. That also explains why the moon sometimes rises in the evening and us up during the night, while at other times it’s up only or mostly during the day. 3. No dark side Contrary to what you might have heard, there is no “dark side” of the moon. There is, however, a “far side” that we can’t see from Earth. Here’s why: Long ago, the Earth’s gravitational effects slowed the moon’s rotation about its axis. Once the moon’s rotation slowed enough to match its orbital period (the time it takes the moon to go around Earth) the effect stabilized. So the moon goes around the Earth once and spins on its axis once, all in the same amount of time, and it shows us just one face the whole time. 4. Gravity is much weaker The moon is about 27 percent the size of Earth and far less massive. Gravity on the moon is only about 1/6 of that on Earth. If you drop a rock on the moon, it falls more slowly (and astronauts can hope much higher). If you weigh 150 pounds on Earth, you’d weigh 25 pounds on the moon.  5. Bigger and smaller full moons The moon’s orbit around Earth is an oval, not a circle, so the distance between the center of Earth and the moon’s center varies throughout each orbit. At perigee (PEHR uh jee), when the moon is closest to Earth, that distance is 225,740 miles (363,300 kilometers). At apogee (AP uh jee), the farthest position, the distance is 251,970 miles (405,500 kilometers). 6. Pockmarked history The craters on the moon reveal its violent history. Because there is almost no atmosphere and little activity inside the moon, the crater trace a record of impacts back billions of years (unlike Earth, which would have been just as violent back then, but the craters have all been weathered away or folded back into the planet). By dating the moon’s many craters, scientists figured out that the moon (and Earth) underwent a Late Heavy Bombardment around 4 billion years ago. The latest thinking on this pummeling is that life may have survived it, if biology had gotten a foothold that early. 7. Not round The moon is not round (or spherical). Instead, it’s shaped like an egg. If you go outside and look up at the moon, one of the small ends is pointing right at you. And the moon’s center of mass is not at the geometric center of the satellite; it’s about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) off-center. Earth, likewise, bulges in its midsection. 8. Caution! Moonquakes Apollo astronauts used seismometers during their visits to the moon and discovered that the gray orb isn’t a totally dead place, geologically speaking. Small moonquakes, originating several miles (kilometers) below the surface, are thought to be caused by the gravitational pull of Earth. Sometimes tiny fractures appear at the surface, and gas escapes. 9. Tugging on the oceans Tides on Earth are caused mostly by the moon (the sun has a smaller effect). Here’s how it works: The moon’s gravity pulls on Earth’s oceans. High tide aligns with the moon as Earth spins underneath. Another high tide occurs on the opposite side of the planet because gravity pulls Earth toward the moon more than it pulls the water. 10. Ciao, Luna! As you read this, the moon is moving away from us. Each year, the moon steals some of Earth’s rotational energy, and uses it to propel itself about 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) higher in its orbit. Researchers say that when it formed about 4.6 billion years ago, the moon was about 14,000 miles (22,530 kilometers) from Earth. It’s now more than 280,000 miles, or 450,000 kilometers away. Meanwhile, Earth’s rotation rate is slowing down — our days are getting longer and longer. Eventually, our planet’s tidal bulges will be assembled along an imaginary line running through the centers of both Earth and the moon, and our planetary rotational change will pretty much cease. Earth’s day will be a month long. When this happens, billions of years from now, the terrestrial month will be longer — about 40 of our current days — because during all this time the moon will continue moving away.;

expose-the-light:

Top 10 Amazing Moon Facts

1. The Big Whack

The moon formed as a result of a collision known as the Giant Impact or the Big Whack, scientists figure. It went like this: A giant Mars-sized object hit Earth 4.6 billion years ago shortly after the birth of the sun and the solar system. A cloud of vaporized rock was kicked up (a mix of Earth and the other object) and went into orbit around Earth. The cloud cooled and condensed into a ring of small, solid bodies, which then gathered together, forming the moon.

2. Earth makes the moon rise

Each day, though not at the same time, the moon comes up in the East and goes down in the West — much like the sun and other stars and for the same reason Earth rotates, on its axis, toward the East, pulling celestial objects into view and then forcing them to slip away. The moon also makes an orbital trip around Earth once every 29.5 days. In the sky, this gradual movement is eastward, though it’s not perceptible during any given observing session. It is, however, why the moon rises later each day, by about 50 minutes on average. That also explains why the moon sometimes rises in the evening and us up during the night, while at other times it’s up only or mostly during the day.

3. No dark side

Contrary to what you might have heard, there is no “dark side” of the moon. There is, however, a “far side” that we can’t see from Earth. Here’s why: Long ago, the Earth’s gravitational effects slowed the moon’s rotation about its axis. Once the moon’s rotation slowed enough to match its orbital period (the time it takes the moon to go around Earth) the effect stabilized. So the moon goes around the Earth once and spins on its axis once, all in the same amount of time, and it shows us just one face the whole time.

4. Gravity is much weaker

The moon is about 27 percent the size of Earth and far less massive. Gravity on the moon is only about 1/6 of that on Earth. If you drop a rock on the moon, it falls more slowly (and astronauts can hope much higher). If you weigh 150 pounds on Earth, you’d weigh 25 pounds on the moon. 

5. Bigger and smaller full moons

The moon’s orbit around Earth is an oval, not a circle, so the distance between the center of Earth and the moon’s center varies throughout each orbit. At perigee (PEHR uh jee), when the moon is closest to Earth, that distance is 225,740 miles (363,300 kilometers). At apogee (AP uh jee), the farthest position, the distance is 251,970 miles (405,500 kilometers).

6. Pockmarked history

The craters on the moon reveal its violent history. Because there is almost no atmosphere and little activity inside the moon, the crater trace a record of impacts back billions of years (unlike Earth, which would have been just as violent back then, but the craters have all been weathered away or folded back into the planet). By dating the moon’s many craters, scientists figured out that the moon (and Earth) underwent a Late Heavy Bombardment around 4 billion years ago. The latest thinking on this pummeling is that life may have survived it, if biology had gotten a foothold that early.

7. Not round

The moon is not round (or spherical). Instead, it’s shaped like an egg. If you go outside and look up at the moon, one of the small ends is pointing right at you. And the moon’s center of mass is not at the geometric center of the satellite; it’s about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) off-center. Earth, likewise, bulges in its midsection.

8. Caution! Moonquakes

Apollo astronauts used seismometers during their visits to the moon and discovered that the gray orb isn’t a totally dead place, geologically speaking. Small moonquakes, originating several miles (kilometers) below the surface, are thought to be caused by the gravitational pull of Earth. Sometimes tiny fractures appear at the surface, and gas escapes.

9. Tugging on the oceans

Tides on Earth are caused mostly by the moon (the sun has a smaller effect). Here’s how it works: The moon’s gravity pulls on Earth’s oceans. High tide aligns with the moon as Earth spins underneath. Another high tide occurs on the opposite side of the planet because gravity pulls Earth toward the moon more than it pulls the water.

10. Ciao, Luna!

As you read this, the moon is moving away from us. Each year, the moon steals some of Earth’s rotational energy, and uses it to propel itself about 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) higher in its orbit. Researchers say that when it formed about 4.6 billion years ago, the moon was about 14,000 miles (22,530 kilometers) from Earth. It’s now more than 280,000 miles, or 450,000 kilometers away. Meanwhile, Earth’s rotation rate is slowing down — our days are getting longer and longer. Eventually, our planet’s tidal bulges will be assembled along an imaginary line running through the centers of both Earth and the moon, and our planetary rotational change will pretty much cease. Earth’s day will be a month long. When this happens, billions of years from now, the terrestrial month will be longer — about 40 of our current days — because during all this time the moon will continue moving away.;



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