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41 articles
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    Arts

    The Quest to Understand—and Mimic—Nature’s Trickiest Colors

    The West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae)AlessandroZocc via Shutterstock Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . It was an image in a book of a sparkly blue fish—a West Indian Ocean coelacanth—that inspired German painter Franziska Schenk to begin a project that would occupy much of her adult life. “It […]

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    General

    Sparkly Mints May Help Explain Puzzling “Earthquake Lights”

    Agriculture inspector Jim Conacher photographed these earthquake lights over Tagish Lake, in Canada’s Yukon Territory, in 1972Jim Conacher Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . For centuries, people have been reporting mysterious lights along the ground and in the sky soon before an earthquake hits. But it wasn’t until 1966 […]

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    Technology

    Your House Is Waiting to Be Turned Into a Projection Screen

    The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, illuminated by Obscura Digital’s projectionsObscura Digital Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . The silver screen. Movie screenings. The big and small screens.Ever since 1879, when Eadweard Muybridge used the world’s first movie projector to display a loop of 13 images of […]

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    Paleontology

    Future of Fossils: Print Your Own Dinosaur at Home?

    A 3D printout of the Plateosaurus vertebra placed next to the (mislabeled) field jacket that contains the original fossilRene Schilling et al. / Radiology Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . In 1898, the American Museum of Natural History was presented with a golden opportunity along with a challenge almost […]

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    General

    Born of Meteor Dust, Unusual Clouds Appear in the Night Sky

    Martin Koitmäe via Flickr Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . If you look to the darkening sky after the end of a long summer day, you might see tendril-like clouds with a blueish tinge that hang at the edge of space. They appear when conditions are right, generally at […]

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    Health

    The Health Costs of our Late-Night Light Addiction

    A study at RPI’s Lighting Research Center tested the effects of digital tablets and different colors of light on subjects’ circadian rhythms.Brittany Wood et al. / RPI Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . In the summer of 2012, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a new policy stating that […]