“Most of us think of memory as a chamber of the mind, and assume that our capacity to remember is only as good as our brain. But according to some architectural theorists, our memories are products of our body’s experience of physical space. Or, to consolidate the theorem: Our memories are only as good as our buildings.”

Sarah Rich on the architecture of memory for The Smithsonian. Also see why memory is not a recording device. (via explore-blog)

(via explore-blog)

André Kuipers:

1. England, Paris, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and the Northern Lights over the polar region. 11th February 2012.
2. “Last night”: Nile, Egypt, Israel, Arabian Peninsula, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey. Sunrise in the east. 18th of March 2012.
Via Flickr. Taken from the International Space Station, Expedition 30. 
Credit: ESA/NASA

I read Charles Darwin’s The Origin of the Species as a very young kid and like so many others, I fell completely enamoured by the diversity of our planet. Here’s a couple of pictures of the Galapagos Islands from space, by André Kuipers. He writes: 

The Galapagos islands, one of the most famous, scientifically historic places on our planet.

Taken from the International Space Station, Expedition 30, on the 28th April 2012.

Via Flickr. Credit: ESA/NASA.

expose-the-light:

Earth from Space

1. Desert’s End 

Photograph courtesy NASA via NASA Earth Observatory

 In Eastern Algeria’s stretch of the Sahara, the Tifernine Dune Field - a section of the Grand Erg Oriental dune sea - meets the Tinrhert Plateau, as seen in a 2008 astronaut photograph.

2. Sea Snakes

Photograph courtesy CNES/Spot Image/ESA

 Gullies slithering through sandbanks are seen in the Wadden Sea, near the Netherlands, in a 2006 satellite image.

3. Circulation System

Photograph courtesy NASA and NASA Earth Observatory 

Tidal flats and channels on the western side of the Bahamas’ Long Island are seen in a 2010 astronaut photograph.

4. Circles of Life

 Photograph courtesy NASA and NASA Earth Observatory

 Fields near the city of Perdizes, in the Minas Gerais state of Brazil, are seen in a 2011 astronaut photograph. 


(via scinerds)

“A space suit is made out of a flight suit, a Goodrich tire, a bra, a girdle, a raincoat, a tomato worm. An American rocket ship is made out of a nuclear weapon, and a German ballistic missile; a ‘space program’ — a new organization with new goals — is made out of preexisting military, scholarly, and industrial institutions and techniques.”

Fashioning Apollo – how the spacesuit came to be (via curiositycounts)

(via curiositycounts)