A non-mythological unicorn?   So it seems.   Unicorns have been mentioned throughout history, in mythology and in the works of The Bible and Pliny the Elder's Natural History.    Today the modern westernized unicorn is pure white and hangs out with virgins.

In zoology, it is never so simple.

In 1992, in Vietnam's Vu Quang Nature Reserve near the country's border with Laos, a spectacular zoological discovery occurred.  A creature with long horns (sorry unicorn fans - two of them) and white facial markings, and resembling the antelopes of North Africa but more closely related to wild cattle, a new species called the Saola was discovered.

My last post about hydrogen bonding included a video about dogs as an analogy to the chemistry. This got me thinking about visual analogies, and how video or images can be used to convey something that perhaps print can't quite accomplish.

This video by Brad Plummer and Julie Karceski of SLAC (disclaimer -- they are both colleagues and friends) explains the concept of gravitational lensing -- in which a particularly large galaxy bends light in such a way that an observer can see objects behind the galaxy -- with a simple household item: the wine glass. Watch:

When you think of the ideal creative environment, what comes to mind?  We may imagine a place where you have freedom of expression, a place that encourages breaking convention, somewhere that is abundant in resources that are readily accessible for innovative development of technology, and exposure to many different cultures for inspiration and collaboration.