I probably shouldn't mention how much seawater I accidentally swallow whenever I'm in the ocean swimming.
Full of nourishing copepods!
Photos capture life inside a drop of seawater
111–120 of 202 posts
Re: Photos capture life inside a drop of seawater
#112These pics remind me of an indy game way back on the PS3 called Flow[0]. It was designed as a low stress, low impact, and a fairly calming game. You were a small underwater creature that swam around collecting things to become a bigger creature. You used the 3-axis feature of the controller instead of the d-pad and joysticks. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(video_game)
Reminded me of Osmos: https://www.osmos-game.com/
Still to this day (since it was released), I listen to the soundtrack. I love it so much. :)
The game idea itself is so original too!
Re: Photos capture life inside a drop of seawater
#113Beautiful and interesting stuff! I have never heard of copepods before, but have now and will have to do some more reading. > Walter once got a call from an Orthodox Jewish organization wanting to know if there were pieces of non-kosher creatures floating in the New York City tap water. The answer was yes. Not to pick on them, but I found this illuminating on how religions present such a myopic view of life and what…
>> Not to pick on them, but I found this illuminating on how religions present such a myopic view of life and what it means to be alive on Earth.
You fall into a trap of using a single English word to cover a multitude of different world-views. It would be as useful to say that the quote "... how people present..."
Within the broad category of "religion" you have thousands of different groups, most of which would find minor, or very major, things to disagree on. Judaism is massively different to say Druidism or Buddhist. Crumbs, _within_ Judaism you have a full spectrum from Ultra Orthodox to unpracticing.
I would thus caution you from viewing the world as falling into either religious or irreligious. Ultimately that classification is not meaningful.
Re: Photos capture life inside a drop of seawater
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unless he has considerable rabbinic training, Walter is not competent to judge whether the (invisible) copepods are kosher or not. The categories in the religious laws have some connection to biology but are not determined solely by physical conditions either. At the risk of over-simplifying, these laws are meant to be possible to follow. Nobody is going to decide that, henceforth, all strictly observant Jews must fi…
Here's my favorite story about scientists judging what's kosher, starring none other than Richard Feynman: One day, two or three of the young rabbis came to me and said, "We realize that we can't study to be rabbis in the modern world without knowing something about science, so we'd like to ask you some questions." Of course there are thousands of places to find out about science, and Columbia University was right ne…
While I agree with his observation here, if his narration can be assumed to be accurate, it is somewhat rich coming from Feynman who was famously dismissive of things he didn't find interesting. He saw the world from a very particular point of view.
Re: Photos capture life inside a drop of seawater
#115Robert Hooke’s “Micrographia” had a really profound effect on the history of science. Here is the book— check out the letter to the king. I think people’s minds were blown and were ready to accept some new realities. https://www.milestone-books.de/pages/books/003613/robert-hoo...
That letter is really something. I tend to think of grandiose flattery towards royalty as something that belongs in the ancient world. The puns on "small" and "least" at the end were also unexpectedly funny. I wonder how much people took this kind of flattery seriously, or if it was done with eyes rolled and tongue in cheek.
> I wonder how much people took this kind of flattery seriously, or if it was done with eyes rolled and tongue in cheek.
Probably everyone who wasn't an idiot knew it was kinda silly and the sentiments not genuine, or at least exaggerated, but did it anyway. Cf business English, résumé cover letters, et c.
Re: Photos capture life inside a drop of seawater
#116> But copepods typically range from about 0.2 to 1.7 millimeters in length, just large enough to magnify using conventional lenses and equipment Does that mean conventional macro camera lenses or a microscope?
For that size I would use a 1X or 4X microscope objective attached to a camera (this is in fact how my DIY automated microscope at home for looking at tardigrades does it). I don't understand the part about needing high light intensity- at such low magnification, I have to attenuate my LEDs significantly and take extremely short exposures (like, running a 1A LED at 10mA and 1-10us exposures). But I can't fault his re…
For the light intensity, it's likely that he's using a much smaller aperture to increase depth-of-field than you are, and that will crank up the light requirements.
Re: Photos capture life inside a drop of seawater
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many photographers make a living with magazines like NatGeo. And you could also sell prints online.
You can win a project from NatGeo and/or other organizations.. but that is not permanent income.
Lots and lots of people get by with unstable burst-y incomes like this.
Those of us with well-paid salaried jobs have a luxury we easily take for granted.
Re: Photos capture life inside a drop of seawater
#118Robert Hooke’s “Micrographia” had a really profound effect on the history of science. Here is the book— check out the letter to the king. I think people’s minds were blown and were ready to accept some new realities. https://www.milestone-books.de/pages/books/003613/robert-hoo...
That letter is really something. I tend to think of grandiose flattery towards royalty as something that belongs in the ancient world. The puns on "small" and "least" at the end were also unexpectedly funny. I wonder how much people took this kind of flattery seriously, or if it was done with eyes rolled and tongue in cheek.
Keep in mind that this letter and book helped guarantee funding for the Royal Society!
Edit: The text “…Philosophy and Experimental Learning have prosper'd under your Royal Patronage. And as the calm prosperity of your Reign has given us the leisure to follow these Studies of quiet and retirement, so it is just, that the Fruits of them should, by way of acknowledgement, be return'd to your Majesty. There are, Sir, several other of your Subjects, of your Royal Society, now busie about Nobler matters: The Improvement of Manufactures and Agriculture, the Increase of Commerce, the Advantage of Navigation: In all which they are assisted by your Majesties Incouragement and Example. Amidst all those greater Designs, I here presume to bring in that which is more proportionable to the smalness of my Abilities, and to offer some of the least of all visible things, to that Mighty King, that has establisht an Empire over the best of all Invisible things of this World, the Minds of Men.“
Re: Photos capture life inside a drop of seawater
#119Beautiful and interesting stuff! I have never heard of copepods before, but have now and will have to do some more reading. > Walter once got a call from an Orthodox Jewish organization wanting to know if there were pieces of non-kosher creatures floating in the New York City tap water. The answer was yes. Not to pick on them, but I found this illuminating on how religions present such a myopic view of life and what…
>> Not to pick on them, but I found this illuminating on how religions present such a myopic view of life and what it means to be alive on Earth. You fall into a trap of using a single English word to cover a multitude of different world-views. It would be as useful to say that the quote "... how people present..." Within the broad category of "religion" you have thousands of different groups, most of which would fin…
You have AFAICS:
religious
atheist
agnostic
Re: Photos capture life inside a drop of seawater
#120Beautiful and interesting stuff! I have never heard of copepods before, but have now and will have to do some more reading. > Walter once got a call from an Orthodox Jewish organization wanting to know if there were pieces of non-kosher creatures floating in the New York City tap water. The answer was yes. Not to pick on them, but I found this illuminating on how religions present such a myopic view of life and what…
>> Not to pick on them, but I found this illuminating on how religions present such a myopic view of life and what it means to be alive on Earth. You fall into a trap of using a single English word to cover a multitude of different world-views. It would be as useful to say that the quote "... how people present..." Within the broad category of "religion" you have thousands of different groups, most of which would fin…
It is not always possible to qualify every single word, especially in an Internet forum comment, so I might argue that the trap lies with the reader. As when one encompasses a generality, one should consider that it rarely applies to the totality of the categorical word. While the anecdote presented in the article involves a presumably particular sect of Judaism, I don't think one would be hard pressed to find similar analogs in most of the other major religions in the world. It's no surprise because the foundations of these religions were developed thousands of years ago, in which humanity's understanding of the world beyond itself was still infantile, at least more infantile than today's juvenile understanding. So I don't think it's much of a leap to generalize to religions rather than single out this particular one. Religion is more about culture and control than it is about searching for understanding, the latter of which you might find more in spirituality, art, and science.