That One Time That Neil And Neil (Gaiman And DeGrasse Tyson, Respectively) Sat Down Together And Discussed

That one time that Neil and Neil (Gaiman and deGrasse Tyson, respectively) sat down together and discussed venereal diseases and people from Venus.

We never do get to hear exactly who Tyson would be for a day. My guess is Newton. Tyson loves Newton. His love for Newton is where this meme comes from: 

(via io9)

There's something wonderfully romantic about this.

The Sounds of Earth

Flying board Voyagers 1 and 2 are identical “golden” records, carrying the story of Earth far into deep space. The 12 inch gold-plated copper discs contain greetings in 60 languages, samples of music from different cultures and eras, and natural and man-made sounds from Earth. They also contain electronic information that an advanced technological civilization could convert into diagrams and photographs. The cover of each gold plated aluminum jacket, designed to protect the record from micrometeorite bombardment, also serves a double purpose in providing the finder a key to playing the record. The explanatory diagram appears on both the inner and outer surfaces of the cover, as the outer diagram will be eroded in time. Currently, both Voyager probes are sailing adrift in the black sea of interplanetary space, having left our solar system years ago

NASA

We live in a science fiction universe.

Image source

This surprisingly lovely little orange is being illuminated from the inside by a lightbulb powered by the orange itself. That’s right, it’s an orange battery:

“The electricity powering the lightbulb inside the orange is generated through a chemical reaction between citric acid and the zinc nails inserted into each wedge.”

The beautiful orange battery was built by photographer Caleb Charland (previously posted here) as part of an ongoing project using pieces of produce and other objects as light sources for his long-exposure photography. Pretty awesome stuff. 

“…but before you start work on a bunch of orange lights to keep on the nightstand, the light generated was so dim this particular photograph required a 14 hour exposure.”

Visit Caleb Charland’s website to view of his wonderful photographic work.

[via Colossal]

Stéphane Guisard captures our obsession with the stars both past and present.