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Sunday Dalí: The Phenomenon of Ecstasy, 1933. Collage.

From Ego Is A Rat On A Sinking Ship:

The woman sought by the Surrealist, then, was not conceived of as one who would avoid exploitation at all. It was just that Surrealism offered what it thought was an alternative exploitation to that of bourgeois society. One expression of this alternative can be seen in Salvador Dalí’s Phénomène de l’extase, a collage showing various enraptured female faces, many of which were taken from Charcot’s photographs. The image originally followed a text by Dalí on the apparently irrational component of art nouveau architecture, parts of which alluded to sculptural details of girls and angels in rhapsodic abandon on the buildings of Antoni Gaudí. “Continuous erotic ecstasy,” wrote the artist, leads to “contractions and attitudes without precedent in the history of statuary.” He continued in a subsection also entitled “Phénomène de l’extase” that “the repugnant can be transformed into the beautiful” through such ecstasy.1 The transformation of the perception of art, architecture, and most other forms of modern life was thus dependent upon the continuous excitation of ecstasy. The sexual abandon of the female hysterics in the collage was one way of accommodating such a desire.2

Salvador Dalí, “De la beauté terrifiante et comestible de l’architecture Modern’ style,” Minotaure 3-4 (12 December 1933), 69-76. ↩

Robert James Belton, The Beribboned Bomb: The Image of Woman in Male Surrealist Art, 249. ↩

“By 1970, the Knights of Walpurgis (later renamed the “Death Eaters”) were an organisation formed of people Tom Marvolo Riddle knew from his time at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as well as their relations. Nearly all of those recruited were from Slytherin House as students.”

The Ancient Town of Monsanto, Portugal.

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) dir. Frank Capra 

The Forgotten Pyramids Of Sudan. Bagrawiyah, Sudan

Science-Heavy SpaceX Dragon Headed to Space Station

Heads up: a new batch of science is headed to the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX Dragon on April 2, 2018. Launching from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop a Falcon 9 rocket, this fire breathing (well, kinda…) spacecraft will deliver science that studies thunderstorms on Earth, space gardening, potential pathogens in space, new ways to patch up wounds and more.

Let’s break down some of that super cool science heading 250 miles above Earth to the orbiting laboratory:

Sprites and Elves in Space

Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) experiment will survey severe thunderstorms in Earth’s atmosphere and upper-atmospheric lightning, or transient luminous events. 

These include sprites, flashes caused by electrical break-down in the mesosphere; the blue jet, a discharge from cloud tops upward into the stratosphere; and ELVES, concentric rings of emissions caused by an electromagnetic pulse in the ionosphere.

Here’s a graphic showing the layers of the atmosphere for reference:

Metal Powder Fabrication

Our Sample Cartridge Assembly (MSL SCA-GEDS-German) experiment will determine underlying scientific principles for a fabrication process known as liquid phase sintering, in microgravity and Earth-gravity conditions.

Science term of the day: Liquid phase sintering works like building a sandcastle with just-wet-enough sand; heating a powder forms interparticle bonds and formation of a liquid phase accelerates this solidification, creating a rigid structure. But in microgravity, settling of powder grains does not occur and larger pores form, creating more porous and distorted samples than Earth-based sintering. 

Sintering has many applications on Earth, including metal cutting tools, automotive engine connecting rods, and self-lubricating bearings. It has potential as a way to perform in-space fabrication and repair, such as building structures on the moon or creating replacement parts during extraterrestrial exploration.

Plants in space! It’s l[a]unch time!

Understanding how plants respond to microgravity and demonstrating reliable vegetable production in space represent important steps toward the goal of growing food for future long-duration missions. The Veggie Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System (Veggie PONDS) experiment will test a passive nutrient delivery system in the station’s Veggie plant growth facility by cultivating lettuce and mizuna greens for harvest and consumption on orbit.

The PONDS design features low mass and low maintenance, requires no additional energy, and interfaces with the Veggie hardware, accommodating a variety of plant types and growth media.

Quick Science Tip: Download the Plant Growth App to grow your own veggies in space! Apple users can download the app HERE! Android users click HERE!

Testing Materials in Space

The Materials ISS Experiment Flight Facility (MISSE-FF) experiment will provide a unique platform for testing how materials, coatings and components react in the harsh environment of space.

A continuation of a previous experiment, this version’s new design eliminates the need for astronauts to perform spacewalks for these investigations. New technology includes power and data collection options and the ability to take pictures of each sample on a monthly basis, or more often if required. The testing benefits a variety of industries, including automotive, aeronautics, energy, space, and transportation.

New Ways to Develop Drugs in Space

Microgravity affects movement and effectiveness of drugs in unique ways. Microgravity studies already have resulted in innovative medicines to treat cancer, for example. The Metabolic Tracking investigation determines the possibility of developing improved drugs in microgravity, using a new method to test the metabolic impacts of drug compounds. This could lead to more effective, less expensive drugs.

Follow @ISS_Research on Twitter for your daily dose of nerdy, spacey goodness.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

When news of The Hobbit being turned into a firm first broke out, I was quite the giddy camper. After all, it was 11 years ago when I first discovered Lord of the Rings and its epic goodness and I was quite excited for this movie. And with Peter Jackson back at the helm in directing the prequel of the trilogy that made me fall in love with the series, you bet that I was very much looking forward to this movie. So much to the point that I just wanted my last final to be over and for midnight to strike so I could watch. via Reelwire

Clark Gable greets Myrna Loy in Wife vs. Secretary (1936)