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Meet Galle- The Happy Face crater from mars.

Galle is a crater on Mars. It is located on the eastern rim of the huge impact basin Argyre Planitia in Argyre quadrangle. It is named after the astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle. 

Galle is often known as the “happy face crater” because the illusion of a smiley is created by a curved mountain range in the southern part of the crater and two smaller mountain clusters further north. The formation was first photographed by Viking Orbiter 1.

Why did you see a smiley face? 

On the face of it, it was just a crater with a few mountain ranges ( no offence to Galle- the crater ), but i bet the moment you saw the photo you recognized the smiley face ! 

‘Mysterious’ isn’t it!!

It is due to a well known psychological phenomenon known as ‘Pareidoila.’ Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds and cars! and hearing hidden messages on records when played in reverse. 

Read more about Pareidolia here.

Image Credit : NASA.

Some of the heaviest elements ever seen have been given tentative names by their discoverers. The namesakes? Three places and a Russian dude.

These names aren’t settled on quite yet - there is a five month probation period during which the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) welcomes public comment. You can email the IUPAC president directly with your thoughts.

If you discovered an element, what would you name it?

This is how all rape trials should go. Especially those of people who work in the sex industry because, unfortunately, some people take their profession as consent.  

The Surprising And Varying Kinds Of Intelligence- Which One Is Yours?

In our modern day society we find that the educational system has a very narrow perspective of intelligence, mostly linguistics and logical knowledge. The groups who fall within the parameter of these intelligence sectors, can prize themselves  as lucky.

What happens when our schooling system mostly focuses on these sectors? Well,  a very big percentage of the people gets left out. By doing so, there is a big possibility that this group gets labeled as less intelligent, while the truth can be very much the opposite. Their intelligence may just lie in a different category.

The theory of multiple intelligence was first published by Howard Gardner in 1983. In his book called Frames of mind, he describes seven different intelligence categories. Over the years a couple additional categories has been added, with the latest suggestion for an addition in the beginning of this year.

With this theory Gardner wants to show that the norm of what is called ‘intelligence’ in our society is too narrow. People can be highly intelligent in other areas.  Which one of the next categories applies to you?

Keep reading

Nearly half a century after Roe, it’s time the media stops treating abortion like something taboo and start treating it like what it is – an important and normal part of life for a huge portion of Americans.

To those who celebrate it, Happy Independence Day! Enjoy the parabolic envelopes that form while those bright, sparkling, parabolic curves are etched into the sky tonight…

Life in Technicolor: Glasses for the colorblind

With so much of our world color-coded, life can be quite tricky without the ability to see the full range of the rainbow.

For the 13 million Americans (and 300 million people worldwide) with color vision deficiency or blindness, living with the inability to detect red, blue, green or a mixture of these colors means having to learn to discern traffic lights or subways lines based on order and patterns rather than color, or having to ask someone whether the piece of meat they’re about to ingest is actually well-done.

However, EnChroma, one of several emerging startups founded by University of California alums, is changing the way people with color vision deficiency experience the world. They make eyewear that corrects for the most common color blindness. 

According to Marc Levin, a neuro-ophthalmologist at UCSF, the lenses work by changing how light is received by the brain for those whose eyes lack sensitivity to red and green light wavelengths. It filters out light that the red and green light-absorbing molecules/photopigments in our eyes sense most similarly. This helps the brain receive more distinct color wavelength information.

While their glasses currently only work for people with red-green color blindness, the company hopes to eventually create lenses that will also help individuals with more severe color vision deficiencies.

GIF source: Valspar Paint

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PBS NewsHour has a new science video series called ScienceScope - and their first episode is all about smells!

Scientists, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the White House Brain Initiative, are trying to understand how smells travel, and how we detect them. They simulate the turbulent wafting of an order with dye in water. The hope is that this research will lead to smell-detecting robots that could replace search dogs. 

Images courtesy of PBS NewsHour/Brian Gill/Nsikan Akpan

Quick Facts: The Palestinian Nakba.