JJ Dragon

Seraph in the Headlights

Reckoning with my ‘ghost years’: why a low publication rate doesn’t always reflect failure I have a five-year gap in my publication record. Last year, I published seven academic articles as either the first or corresponding author. Here’s why one level of output isn’t better than any other.

Publish or perish?

go.nature.com/4sfVjmQ

How bumble bees survive days underwater without drowning Insects can stay alive for up to a week in flooded nests, thanks to several tricks

“They’re actually breathing underwater, and that is really exciting and interesting.” https://scim.ag/3OZwj4s

A globular star cluster. Numerous stars are spread throughout on a black background. Many appear as bright white stars, but there are a few larger orange stars. The concentration of stars in the center creates a bright white glow that becomes more diffuse further out.

NGC 6440 is a crowded cluster of stars, making it hard to resolve the makeup of separate stars. The sensitivity and resolution of #NASAWebb recently identified variations in the helium and oxygen amounts between stars.

Credit: ESA, NASA, CSA, P. Freire; M. Cadelano, C. Pallanca.

A colorful nebula with clouds of gas in shades of orange, yellow, and blue, dotted with bright stars against the dark background of space

Meet the Medusa Nebula!

As the star at its heart reached the end of its life, it shed its outer layers into space, forming this colourful cloud. The image foreshadows the final fate of the Sun, which will also become an object of this kind.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1520/

🔭
📷 ESO

A white technical sketch shows a futuristic, aerodynamic spacecraft with two large engine pods and sleek, curved wings against a plain white background.

In a Federation ship hangar, a yellow and silver Naboo Starfighter with an R2-series astromech droid is surrounded by several battle droids.

In a shot from Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, a wedge-shaped Jedi Starfighter prepares to dock with its large, circular hyperdrive ring in the middle of deep space.

The Phantom Menace (1999): Naboo starfighter, early design by Doug Chiang

The shape of things to come.

With a tiny cockpit 😍

$159.99
2026

Astrophoto of the stars and gas surrounding the black hole at the center of the Milky Way (unseen). The gas clouds are shown in red and wrap about two thirds of the way around the center of the image, from upper left to the middle of the right side.

#PPOD: This stunning snapshot, taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), reveals the stars and gas surrounding an invisible giant — a supermassive black hole, located some 27,000 light-years away, at the heart of our Milky Way. 🧪 🔭

She looks fantastic as always. Love Fouine so much.

Could life travel between planets on an asteroid? This hardy bacterium suggests it can Researchers smashed an extremophile bacterium with steel plates to simulate an asteroid impact — and found it nearly impossible to kill, adding some credence to the theory that life could travel betwe...

Could life travel between planets on an asteroid? This hardy bacterium suggests it can www.astronomy.com/science/coul...

D&D Animated: Not the BEES!!! 🐝🤣

#dnd #ttrpg #dnd5e

D&D Animated: What the HECK Is a BOOGLE??? 🤣

#dnd #ttrpg #dnd5e

I always loved the airship designs in John Carter. How they have insect and bird-like wings and use light to fly.

John Carter is 14.

Art by Ryan Church:

Some Extremophiles Could Survive an Asteroid Impact on Mars, and the Dangerous Journey to Earth Panspermia is the idea that life was spread from world to world somehow. New research shows that one type of Earthly extremophile can survive the extremely high pressure from asteroid impacts on Mars,...

Some Extremophiles Could Survive an Asteroid Impact on Mars, and the Dangerous Journey to Earth www.universetoday.com/articles/som...

Chemistry clues could detect aliens unlike any life on Earth Looking for molecular evidence of life on other worlds is tricky, but a test based on the reactivity of carbon compounds could be a useful indicator

Chemistry clues could detect aliens unlike any life on Earth www.newscientist.com/article/2518...

A chemical ‘Goldilocks zone’ may limit which planets can host life Life needs nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. But without the right balance of oxygen, these elements get locked away in planets’ cores.

A chemical ‘Goldilocks zone’ may limit which planets can host life www.sciencenews.org/article/chem...

That would be awesome. I like to draw Fouine some more too.

The featured image shows a starfield surrounding a nebula that resembles the human brain. A blue outer oval has a bright nebulosity inside. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

🔭 The Cranium Nebula from the Webb Telescope

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

ap260309

John Carter IMAX poster

Andrew Stanton's John Carter was released 14 years ago today.

A film neglected by Disney, which was about to buy Star Wars (while A Princess of Mars, the original novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, was a source of inspiration for George Lucas).

A black background in which some thousands of light sources are visible. In the centre of the image, more closer stars are gathered. These centred stars are embedded in a pinkish haze of gas.

This image reveals the stars and gas surrounding the supermassive black hole at the #milkyway centre.

Now, using our VLT, @mpe-garching.bsky.social astronomers discovered a new gas cloud orbiting the black hole, solving a puzzling question.

More: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2610a/

🔭 🧪

What's His Body Count???

#dnd #ttrpg #dnd5

SETI Institute logo. A pink starry background. Silhouette of a women, colored in pink sparkles. Text: International Women's Day, 8 March.

Today, we celebrate International Women’s Day and the women helping lead humanity’s search for life in the universe.

At the SETI Institute, women researchers are studying exoplanets, analyzing radio signals, exploring planetary environments, and sharing the wonder of science with the world. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

First Ariane 6 with four boosters liftoff from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, on 12 February 2026.

Happy International Women’s Day! 🧡

Europe’s Ariane launchers carry a name inspired by a female figure in Greek mythology: Ariadne, the brave heroine who used her wisdom and creativity to guide Theseus through the labyrinth.

The kind of stare you get when you're about to get sliced in half

A cartoonish portrayal of Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps from the movie Zootopia. Their eyes meet, confused and perturbed. There is a blue block behind them for framing.

They're so stupidly fun to draw
#Zootopia #Zootopia2

PRESS RELEASE
A new study by researchers at the SETI Institute suggests stellar “space weather” could make radio signals from extraterrestrial intelligence harder to detect. Stellar activity and plasma turbulence near a transmitting planet can broaden... 🧪

Orange-coloured full Moon on the night of 3 March 2026. Shot taken with a DSLR and 300mm lens at 1/1000s exp, 300mm fl, f/5.6, ISO-800.

Last night's full #Moon was a nice orange colour when rising 😀 #Astronomy #Astrophotography

The Milky Way arcs over and behind this view looking up at Rubin's shiny silver dome toward a starry night sky.

Alerts from NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory have been flowing for about a week...how many have there been?? 🚨

So far, Rubin has generated....drumroll please🥁

~1.7 million world-public alerts!

That's ~1.7 MILLION objects that changed in brightness or position in just seven nights 🤯

🔭🧪

My time-lapse of Tuesday mornings' lunar eclipse shows the subtle changes in the light refracted by Earth's atmosphere. 14 frames over 65 min cover totality. All frames processed identically and assembled into a video with cross dissolve transitions to smooth it. Details in ALT. #astrophotography