Top of page

Archive: 2015 (23 Posts)

Monkey Skin, Elephant’s Breath, and Kitten’s Ear: History of Color Naming

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

There is scarcely any subject that has so many practical and scientific aspects as the subject of color (Henry LeFavour, Elementary Color, 1895:p1) There are many ways to study color*. We can trace the history of color pigments, the development of color chemistry, the effect of color on our psyche, and the perception of color. …

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

New Horizons: Journey to Pluto and Beyond, subject of Dec. 8 lecture

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

Pluto has become one of our most favorite bodies in the solar system, perhaps gaining increased appreciation after it was demoted from a full-sized planet to dwarf planet in 2006 and thus decreasing our solar system planet count to eight planets. A significant portion of Pluto’s mass is icy material and so it is often referred …

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

Flights of Fantasy and Fact: Man-made Wings in Literature and History subject of Dec. 3 program

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

Today’s guest blog post is by science fiction and fantasy author Fran Wilde, who will be visiting the Library on Dec. 3 to talk about “Flights of Fantasy and Fact: Man-made Wings in Literature and History”. Wilde is also a technology consultant and former engineering and science writer. Her short fiction has appeared in publications …

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

Dawn Mission and the Formation of Our Solar System Subject of Nov. 19 Lecture

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

In late 2007 the Dawn mission spacecraft launched and began the 1.8 billion mile journey to the giant asteroid Vesta, which it reached in 2011. It was the first spacecraft to orbit a main-belt asteroid. In March 2015 it completed another 990 million miles to the dwarf planet Ceres and was the first spacecraft to …

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

The Arctic Voyage of HMS Investigator, 1850-54

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

Today’s guest post is by ST&B’s upcoming speaker Glenn “Marty” Stein, a maritime and polar historian who will be at the Library on October 29 to talk about his recent book “Discovering the North-West Passage: The Four-Year Arctic Odyssey of H.M.S. Investigator and the McClure Expedition” (McFarland & Co, 2015). Stein has researched maritime and …

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

Scouting for Exoplanets with TESS, Lecture on October 8

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

The first exoplanets, or extrasolar planets, were definitively discovered in the 1990s, although the idea of other worlds like ours goes back to the ancient Greeks, and their existence had been theorized by Giordano Bruno in the 16th century and Isaac Newton in the 18th. The first direct images of exoplanets were produced in 2008. …

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

Icy Volcanism in the Outer Solar System Lecture on September 16

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

Did you know that there are frozen volcanoes that spew icy particles and water vapor, instead of fiery molten rock? You’ll have to travel millions or billions of miles into the outer solar system to find icy volcanism, also known as cryovolcanism. Many of NASA’s missions to the far-reaches of our solar system have provided evidence …

Print shows Thomas Jefferson, full-length portrait, facing slightly right, standing beside a table; he is lifting from the table the Declaration of Independence with his right hand and pointing to it with his left hand; there is a bust of Benjamin Franklin on the table, as well as several books. On a small table to the right is a single-disc electrostatic generator and beneath that, resting on the floor, is a globe.

Counting the Miles: Thomas Jefferson’s Quest for an Odometer

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

Today’s post is guest authored by Julie Miller, historian of early America in the Library’s Manuscript Division. Julie has written for Inside Adams before- see her post on “The President and the Parsnip: Thomas Jefferson’s Vegetable Market Chart (1801-1808).” Thomas Jefferson, who liked to count and measure everything, coveted an odometer. While in Paris as …

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

Celestial Charts: Exploring and Observing Space at the Geography and Map Division

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

Today’s post is from Carlyn Osborn, a Library Technician in the Geography and Map Division. Carlyn has a B.A. in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology from Johns Hopkins University and is currently a graduate student at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies. With high-resolution images of Pluto and the search for …