Author Archives: Chompsky

The COVID19 mRNA vaccine (ie. Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna) painted by artist and biologist David Goodsell. To wit:

The vaccine structure is highly idealized, with spike mRNA in magenta, lipids in blue, and PEG-lipid in green. The background is blood serum or lymph.

In the spirit of biological ecumenism, he did a lovely portrait of the ‘boul coronavirus back in February.

kottke

There’ve been a few (but none quite like the outgoing one).

Behold: a spectacular display of mammatus (breast-like) clouds over Mount Rushmore last September. To wit:

Unlike normal flat-bottomed clouds which form when moist and calm air plateaus rise and cool, bumpy mammatus clouds form as icy and turbulent air pockets sink and heat up. Such turbulent air is frequently accompanied by a thunderstorm. Each mammatus lobe spans about one kilometre. The greater mountain is known to native Lakota Sioux as Six Grandfathers, deities responsible for the directions north, south, east, west, up, and down.

(Image: Laure Mattuzzi)

apod

Behold: Mons Rümker: a 70km wide, 1100m high complex of volcanic domes in the great basaltic lunar mare of Oceanus Procellarum, the Ocean of Storms. To wit:

Daylight came to the area late last month. The lunar terminator, the shadow line between night and day, runs diagonally across the left side in this telescopic close-up of a waxing gibbous Moon from November 27. China’s Chang’e-5 mission landing site is also in the frame. The probe’s lander-ascender combination touch down on the lunar surface within a region right of centre and north of Mons Rümker’s domes on December 1. On December 3 the ascender left the Ocean of Storms carrying 2 kilograms of lunar material for return to planet Earth.

(Image: Jean-Yves Letellier)

apod