The Pineneedle Collective: science

Showing posts with label science. Show all posts

Tuesday 27 January 2015

Bloomin' Science

SO - Hong Kong. Flip. I have been having the best time - I have accumulated around 50 gigabytes of video footage and photographs so far! As soon as I get some down-time (which, to be honest, may not be until I'm back in Sydney! Hehe), I am going to post ALL OF THE THINGS! I have been discovering the most amazing markets, shops and places to visit and I can't wait to share them. I've also been having a great couple of days of meeting Hong Kong locals, such as designer and illustrator Eilidh from Book of Deer! I love that my blog has allowed me to meet so many cool people from all over the world, who I would otherwise have never known about. Can I give a shout-out to the internet?

Top is DIY | necklace is handmade (Hong Kong, HKID gallery) | skirt is vintage | shoes are from Asos (sold out) | belt is vintage

Also - you might have noticed that I haven't posted any science news/facts/tidbits on here for a while. I've been having somewhat of a mini-life-crisis, thinking, "maybe I don't like science anymore?? Maybe I just want to do sewing/fashion/design and make videos forever??" - until I realised that I actually just dislike exams (who doesn't) and it was the stress of two super difficult biochemistry examinations that put me off science for a while. But last night I started watching SciShow again and remembered that I do actually love science. Because you can use it to answer both every serious and ridiculous question that you might have. Like "why can you see your breath in the cold?" and"do you REALLY only use 10% of your brain?" (the answer is no.)

I wanted to share one of my favourite videos from SciShow, to try and get back into the habit of blogging about science more regularly again! You should totally watch this, even if you already know the answer:

Much love!

Wednesday 17 December 2014

DIY Sweetheart Dress & Kumquat Trees

This is the best dress that I have ever made. I am so ludicrously proud of it! If you follow me on instagram then you might have seen the progression of this dress from bedsheet to cute vintage dress over the past week. The whole dress is made entirely (apart from the bias tape around the bust and zipper which were separately thrifted) from a bedsheet that I picked up from the thrift store the other day - even the buttons!

I made up my own pattern for this dress (and yes I am working on a tutorial for it!), and I'm very happy with how it fits! I just used a basic circle skirt pattern for the bottom half, making it a little bit longer than I usually make my circle skirts to give it more of a "vintage" feel.

The heart pockets were a brilliant suggestion by Carbon Chic - seriously, Demi has been like my sewing fairy godmother for the past year or so, because she is always inspiring me and giving me amazing ideas for my sewing! They were the perfect finishing touch that my dress required. I'm super excited because Demi is actually coming to visit me this weekend in Sydney. As well as going op-shopping together, we're aiming to join creative forces and have some kind of "sew-off" session - I'm really looking forward to what will result!

For this entire past week I have been staying at a wonderful beach house down the south coast. As I wandered down into the backyard the other day to take photos of my dress, I discovered that the house we are staying in has a giant kumquat tree! Not only is it pretty to pose with, I also LOVE kumquats. I am obsessed with all things sour - seriously, I could eat sour lollies all day long (in fact, when I was a kid I ate sour things so much that my tongue would literally bleed & I'm also someone who can easily drink a cup vinegar), so naturally, kumquats are one of my all-time favourite fruits.

(This is me stealing all the kumquats to take home with me, haha).

Dress - handmade by me | shoes - Katie's (from Estonia) | necklace - c/o Ginger Pickle

Little science fact for the day - did you know that kumquats can form hybrids with other citrus fruits? Many varieties of hybrids exist including lemonquats, limequats, and fukushu, which is a mandarin-kumquat hybrid. I wonder if Lemonquats would be even more sour than both lemon and kumquats individually are? If so, I want to eat all of them! What's the most sour food that you've ever eaten? (I'm on a bit of a quest to find the most sour foods in the world).

I'm not really sure how I progressed so quickly from dressmaking to sour foods there, but in any case, I hope you're all having a really great day!

All my love,

Friday 28 November 2014

In Bloom / Milk and Chemistry

I took these photos the day after I finished my last exam, and it was the first time that I had dressed up to go out in a lonnnng time. I matched a bunch of reds with dark red and more red, because I love matchy-matchy colours.

These pretty, pretty tights are from Tabbi Socks, and are made in Japanese city that is apparently famous for it's sock-making - Koryo-city, Nara! Included in my order was a brief history about the city and the lives of the people who live there. I wish that more companies told you the story behind their manufacturing processes - I think that it's good for you to know more about where your clothes are coming from, because it's all too easy to take them for granted. Also, Tabbi socks have the prettiest floral tights for sale right now and it's making me wish that it wasn't about to go into full-blown summer here, because I want them all!

I have to give a quick shout-out to two amazing artists, whose work I have admired for a long time, who both surprised me this week by drawing me! These artists have two very different styles, and I love them both.

The first is by Rachel, who sent me this gorgeous watercolour illustration. I just love the dress and necklace that Rachel put me in - I think that I'm going to have to recreate both somehow!

Anton Belardo (@jellyfishkisses on instagram) makes the most wonderfully creepy-cute collage-style fashion illustrations. Just as I was sitting in a doctor's surgery today feeling super nervous, scrolling through instagram, I found that I'd been tagged in this amazing illustration - which brightened my mood considerably! I'm a badass mermaid - I can get through anything (plus, the news from my doctor ended up being good, so that was even better). Thank you so much, Anton!

I am so lucky to have been connected to such creative people through the world of blogging, and honoured to be considered a worthy muse for their art!

And finally - some science.

Chemistry is ridiculous! This is what happens when you combine milk, food dye and dish soap (which is on the end of the cotton tip).

So what's happening? Milk contains a lot of water, but it also has some fat, which is a "water hating" molecule (hydrophobic) - this is why when you pour oil into water, the two don't mix.

Adding soap - a molecule that has one "water loving" (hydrophilic) and one "water hating" (hydrophobic) end - starts the chemical reaction. The hydrophilic end dissolves into the water, while the hydrophobic end attaches to the fat molecules. The hydrophobic ends of the soap try to match up with all of fat molecules they can find, causing the food colouring (which, being less dense than milk, floats on the surface) to be moved around in all different directions.

And you can do this yourself at home! I love DIY science!

I hope that you are all having a beautiful day,

Sunday 23 November 2014

Oh hey there, Summer (plus my 5 favourite science podcasts)

Thank you to the dude who sold me this All About Eve dress for $15 at Glebe Markets on Saturday. He seemed disappointed that I haggled him down from $20, and I now realise why - this dress is still in stores, retailing for $80. So I am pretty happy with myself for picking it up second-hand (#hagglers4lyf). And, I'm sorry guy, but I will super enjoy the dress this summer (if that's any consolation). It's super light, easy to throw on and has the cutest summery print!

One of the things that I enjoy most about the summer is binging on podcasts. I am obsessed with podcasts, particularly science podcasts. Being both free and regularly released, and they're perfect for listening to while sewing, catching public transport or taking long, lazy afternoon walks. (Illustrations in below photo are by Em Somerville.)

Annika's 5 all-time-favourite science podcasts:

Radiolab (website)
I actually discovered Radiolab after someone mentioned it on a blog post of mine (thank you, if you're reading)! I then proceeded to listen to every single episode. Radiolab is amazing - as well as science they also have a focus on sound production and effects, so it's as pleasing an experience for your ears as much as it is for your brain. I recommend that you start with the Colours episode, followed by Stochasicity, followed by Black Box.

The Infinite Monkey Cage (website)
Brian Cox and Robin Ince manage the perfect combination of science and comedy in their live panel podcast, featuring both science writers and comedian panelists such as Stephen Fry and Ross Noble. Their discussions often venture into philosophy and the broader implications of science on culture and technology. I've only just started listening, but I'm already hooked. I highly recommend the episodes "Irrationality" and "Can Science Save Us?"

Sawbones (website)
Sawbones takes you on a tour through Western medical history - and it does a good job of making you appreciate being alive in the 21st Century in the time of science-based-medicine, which while it isn't perfect, is a far cry from drinking goats blood to treat hayfever, hiding horseshoes to cure the hiccups, giving opium to children to get them to sleep, or treating headaches by drilling a hole in your head (listen to the episode "trepanation" for that one). It's funny, haunting and educational all at the same time.

Skeptics With A K (website)
From Merseyside in the UK, Skeptics with a K focuses more on scientific skepticism and regularly covers topics such as debunking ghosts, homeopathy and psychics, as well as discussions about placebo, peer review and scientific design. With their new PhD panelist Alice, it now also has a good dose of molecular biology thrown into the mix. The thing that I really love about Skeptics with a K is that the podcasters manage to both be hilariously offensive and the most genuinely lovely people all at the same time. Highly recommended for anyone who likes to take a critical look at the media they consume.

The Naked Scientists (website)
A recap on the science news of the week, as well as answering questions that you never realised you were curious about until now, such as "why do your eyes water when you yawn" and "why do chameleons change colour"?

Do any of you have some good podcast recommendations (science or not! And on the topic of not-science podcasts, listen to SERIAL podcast if you haven't already - oh my, it's good. You'll all be hooked.)

Much love,

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Fighting Evil By Moonlight & Organic Molecules in Space

Annika - shirt is thrifted, skirt c/o Faith & Lola, shoes c/o Chicwish (old), tights from Japan, earrings are handmade.

Katie - dress is thrifted, shoes are mine (thrifted), socks from Clear It and brooch is vintage.

I'm glad I'm friends with someone who also gets the urge to go out on a freezing night, dressed up like a nightmarish barbie doll and take photos next to dumpsters. These photos were taken way-back-when in June, but I thought they would be a good set to pull out of the vault just in time for Halloween (I tell myself every year that I'm not going to jump on that bandwagon, but it inevitably happens).

Anyway, these shots did end up being fairly appropriate for a Halloween-themed shoot - mainly because of these shots I got of Katie looking throughly possessed (which I turned into an even creepier gif):

What... even. The funny thing is that we weren't even attempting any kind of demon-possession shots; Katie just happened to be jumping around, trying to stay warm, while I was trying to focus my camera on her. So we were SUPER freaked when we were later reviewing the photos and these shots popped up, because we couldn't even remember taking them!

I also want to bring attention to how cool this vintage (and Sailor Moon-esque) brooch of Katie's is:

You may also notice that I have a brand new blog banner! It's by the incredible Em Somerville whose art I have loved FOREVER. I'm so beyond pleased with it. While I loved my old header, this one is a much more accurate representation of what this blog is about - vintage-inspired fashion with a side of sewing and science. If you haven't checked out Em Somerville's artwork before, this is her website, and she also posts some pretty fantastic stuff on her instagram account.

Today I will leave you all with an awesome bit of science: A complex carbon-based molecule was found floating around in space, 27,000 light years away from Earth. I'm so blown away by the fact that astronomers are able to detect such a tiny thing (a molecule! You can't even see those with a light-microscope, let alone the naked eye) from such a long distance. But the researchers are pretty confident that it's out there. Furthermore, it's an organic molecule - which lends support to the theory that life-forming molecules may come from outer-space rather than being created on planets. Read more here, it's amazing.

I hope that you're all having a lovely day,

Saturday 11 October 2014

Brighton Beach | Why is your brain inside your head?

Here's some photos from the vault! These shots were taken back when I visited Melbourne in July, while me & my mum were being touristy-tourists at the Brighton Beach bathing boxes.

It was a typically-overcast, freezing Melbourne winters day, and I think that the amount of clashing patterns that I ended up wearing was more out of necessity (I didn't bring enough un-patterned clothes with me), than me making a fashion statement! Regardless of this, I'm always going to love wearing a ridiculous amount of clashing-patterns, so I didn't mind this forced fashion statement at all.

My mum decided that she wanted to get in on taking outfit photos too, so I present to you all: my mum's very first outfit post!

Can you see where I get my love of pattern-mixing from??

My mum would definitely have to be one of the biggest style influences in my life. She's never been afraid to rock up to work or any event wearing cute mary-janes, a gorgeous thrifted dress and the craziest/coolest patterned tights she can find! (p.s. you should all leave some super nice comments about how stylin' my mum is; she is my blog's number one fan and you will make her day, I guarantee you!)

So: embedded below is my favourite science video of the week!

Some things are just so ingrained that you don't even think about questioning them. Have you ever thought about why your brain is inside your head before?

No? Me either.

But the more you do think about it, the stranger it seems. Why isn't your brain tucked away inside your torso with your other vital organs like your stomach, heart and liver? What's it doing all the way up there, wobbling around on your neck, so far away from all the organs it has to communicate with?

Let this video blow your brain!

I hope that you've all had a great week,