Elizabeth Landau

1 month ago | smithsonianmag.com | Elizabeth Landau

Astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin spent nearly a year in “utter bewilderment” after arriving at the Harvard College Observatory in the early 1920s. She often worked into the late evening and felt “in a state of exhaustion and despair,” she later wrote in her autobiography. The fruits of her labor would earn her an important place in the history of astronomy. A century ago this year, her 1925 doctoral thesis presented a controversial idea: that hydrogen and helium dominate stars.

1 month ago | slate.com | Elizabeth Landau

Medical Examiner This story was originally published by Undark and has been republished here with permission. My lower abdomen was covered in yellow bruises from injections I gave myself twice a day. I cried over tiny mishaps: when I couldn’t find my keys, when I spilled coffee grounds, when I realized I’d be late for yet another appointment at the fertility clinic to have my blood drawn and ovaries probed.

1 month ago | undark.org | Elizabeth Landau

My lower abdomen was covered in yellow bruises from injections I gave myself twice a day. I cried over tiny mishaps: when I couldn’t find my keys, when I spilled coffee grounds, when I realized I’d be late for yet another appointment at the fertility clinic to have my blood drawn and ovaries probed. It felt like every imperfect thing I did reflected my apparent inability to get pregnant.

1 month ago | estadao.com.br | Elizabeth Landau

Acima das margens de mares e lagos pré-históricos, os pterossauros vagavam pelos céus. Eles eram criaturas emplumadas que variavam em tamanho de pombos a aviões, e os primeiros vertebrados conhecidos por terem sido capazes de voar. E por milhões de anos, eles tinham caudas longas terminando em uma aba proeminente de pele chamada de catavento. Os paleontólogos há muito se perguntam sobre esse estranho apêndice e sua finalidade.

2 months ago | bostonglobe.com | Elizabeth Landau

An image from Natalia Jagielska showed a life reconstruction of Rhamphorhychus with its vane, a flap of skin on the end of its tail that scientists believe helped it maneuver in flight. NATALIA JAGIELSKA/NYTAbove the shores of prehistoric seas and lakes, pterosaurs roamed the skies. They were feathered creatures that ranged in size from pigeons to planes, and the first vertebrates known to have been able to fly.