The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

A new (easier) way to detect alien life.

guildmaster@guildofscientifictroubadours.com (grant balfour) — Tue, 19 May 2026 16:12:02 +0000

Mashable reports on astrobiology research that may have found a simpler (and, importantly, more portable) way to detect traces of life on alien planets … by measuring up amounts … Read the rest “A new (easier) way to detect alien life.”

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Science Art: Fowler – Coregonus Nelsonii Bean.

guildmaster@guildofscientifictroubadours.com (grant balfour) — Mon, 18 May 2026 04:20:32 +0000

This is an Alaska whitefish, a cousin of the salmon whose genus name, Coregonus, means “angle-eyed.”

But this isn’t the eye. It’s the alimentary canal, the guts,… Read the rest “Science Art: Fowler – Coregonus Nelsonii Bean.”

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Neanderthals died out from something like loneliness

guildmaster@guildofscientifictroubadours.com (grant balfour) — Fri, 15 May 2026 17:26:14 +0000

Or maybe “loner-ism.” IFL Science reports on new research showing that what might have led to the demise of Neanderthals as a distinct kind of human was the lack of a social network… Read the rest “Neanderthals died out from something like loneliness”

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A Florida high schooler got anxiety meds from tarantua venom.

guildmaster@guildofscientifictroubadours.com (grant balfour) — Wed, 13 May 2026 20:34:20 +0000

Relax, the spider is here to soothe you. Tampa Bay Times reported on Daniel Park, who won a state-wide science competition by using his computers to design a drug candidate for treating anxiety… Read the rest “A Florida high schooler got anxiety meds from tarantua venom.”

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Science Art: Paraboloide Circular 02, by Rodrigo Argenton

guildmaster@guildofscientifictroubadours.com (grant balfour) — Mon, 11 May 2026 02:50:24 +0000

This is a circular paraboloid, a shape with “one axis of symmetry and no center of symmetry,” according to Wikipedia, which also, helpfully, says a *circular* paraboloid … Read the rest “Science Art: Paraboloide Circular 02, by Rodrigo Argenton”

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Brazilian villages make a good living protecting a giant fish

guildmaster@guildofscientifictroubadours.com (grant balfour) — Mon, 11 May 2026 02:33:23 +0000

Science reports on a conservation project that’s also helping some of the poorest people on the planet — villagers along the Juruá River, a western tributary of the Amazon … Read the rest “Brazilian villages make a good living protecting a giant fish”

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The Earliest Emperor Butterfly

guildmaster@guildofscientifictroubadours.com (grant balfour) — Sat, 09 May 2026 05:54:15 +0000

IFL Science reports on the (beautiful) discovery of a (well-preserved) butterfly from 34 million years ago … a specimen with visible, identifiable wing patterns and veins that … Read the rest “The Earliest Emperor Butterfly”

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Science Art: Azimuth and Altitude Instrument, c. 1876

guildmaster@guildofscientifictroubadours.com (grant balfour) — Mon, 04 May 2026 02:45:08 +0000

This is an illustration from the Great Exhibition, 1876, or The great Centennial exhibition critically described and illustrated, by Phillip T. Sandhurst, which you can leaf through … Read the rest “Science Art: Azimuth and Altitude Instrument, c. 1876”

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Trees grow six times taller in strange Amazonian soil.

guildmaster@guildofscientifictroubadours.com (grant balfour) — Fri, 01 May 2026 16:24:11 +0000

BBC’s Science Focus is digging in the dirt to get inside the mystery of “dark earth,” which seems to make the Amazon as fertile as it is… though no one knows how it… Read the rest “Trees grow six times taller in strange Amazonian soil.”

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Science Art: Solar Explosions, G79, by Clement Lindley Wragge.

guildmaster@guildofscientifictroubadours.com (grant balfour) — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 03:23:53 +0000

This is a slide from the magic lantern shows of Clement Lindley Wragge, a popularizer of astronomy, a meteorologist, and a Theosophist mystic who died in 1922.

There’s a collection… Read the rest “Science Art: Solar Explosions, G79, by Clement Lindley Wragge.”

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