Icecream / Colours & Theory of Mind

Today I decided that imitating a giant ice cream would be a fine idea, and I have not regretted it one bit. Except that I somewhat melted in the almost-autumn-heat wearing my new op-shop finds: this lilac sweater and mint-green blouse. Aren't they the prettiest things? blouse - vintage sweater - vintage skirt - c/o Faith & Lola hat - c/o Wholesale tights - Yoshida shoes - Chicory clips - DIY Alright, so this is really interesting to me as both a science-minded lady and someone who is into fashion! Again, I have another science post all about perception, to convince you that the "realities" we experience are largely all in our own minds. This thought experiment has always interested me: the colours we experience are less of an absolute physical property of the world, and more something our mind interprets as all the different colours of the rainbow.  Colour is an illusion. Therefore, both you and I could look at an apple, and call it "red", but my "red" could be totally different to your "red", and if I were to hop inside your brain and have a look at your "red", I might think it was actually green. Have a watch of this video from the fantastic V-sauce, who explains this idea a little better then I did just there. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Oh my heart beats in it's cage / Inattentional Blindness

I HAVE SUCH EXCITING NEWS! I'm doing some pretty goofy expressions in these photos, which you'll have to excuse me for - I couldn't stop smiling really ludicrously/crying from happiness, as I'd just found out that I have been asked to be a part of my university's 'talented student program', WHICH MEANS that I might get to do special research projects and maybe even present them to a bunch of proper scientists at proper science conferences, and basically, BE A REAL-LIFE, PROPER SCIENTIST, getting to throw myself into some research instead of just studying what's already been discovered! I am a billion times over the moon about this and just had to share it with you all :D As for my outfit today: I looove this Koogal sweater! I've been wearing it every single day since I got it in the mail. It goes so well with circle skirts and denim shorts. For this outfit though, I paired it with some cute red gumboots, a red skirt and a red backpack so I kind of have a colour-themed thing going on here. I've also got a giveaway running from Koogal at the moment which you can enter (if you haven't already) here! sweater - c/o Koogal skirt - Wholesale socks - c/o Sock Dreams boots - Ebay backpack - Asos I received some feedback on my explanation of the Ames room in my mini-magazine that I posted yesterday, with a reader expressing surprise that human perceptions can be tricked so easily! I'm really interested in the study of human perception, because when you get into it, a large amount of what we perceive (of what we think of as reality) is just totally made up by our brains. Here's one of my favourite demonstrations of how little attention we pay to reality: Inattentional Blindness. This video is from Derren Brown, who demonstrated the phenomenon with his "person swap". Basically, he asks for directions from passerbys, then swaps around with a totally different person during a slight distraction - and gauges whether the passerby notices the change. Many people don't. I particularly love at 2:20 when he swaps with a female, and the woman he was talking to doesn't appear to notice in the slightest. Yeah. Human beings are pretty bad judges of reality.

Pineneedle & Thread Issue 2

I am sporadically making these mini-magazines for my blog. Let me know what you think of them! I hope you all enjoy this second issue (it's a kind of best-of from my blog for the past month, plus some extra features like the Style Guide and Jennifer from Art in Our Blood.) Click here if you are unable to view the embedded version. And you can also view issue one here. Heaps of love,

I Really Am A Mermaid!

My mermaid membership arrived in the mail this morning, officially certified from the magical kingdom of the Merpeople. So it's indusputable now - I am a mermaid. See? My official-membership-necklace even says so. Are you guys totally jealous? Yeah, I thought so. I've heard that this shop called "I Love Crafty" is selling mermaid-membership necklaces too, although you won't have official certification from the magical Merpeople Kingdom (because obviously you guys aren't real mermaids like me). But I guess you could pretend you were a mermaid, if you had one of those necklaces, and were so inclined... necklace - c/o I Love Crafty skirt - c/o Faith & Lola tights - Yoshida (Japan) shoes - Japan t-shirt - Thank You Mart (Japan) bag - DIY (instructions here) Now this definitely falls into the realm of science fiction, but speculative biology is always a fun topic. This page features several awesome images that speculate on what the anatomy of a mermaid would look like. Below is the skeletal anatomy of a mermaid: Also, I found this pretty funny: did you guys know that last year, the US government had to make an official statement saying that "Mermaid's do not exist"? Come on guys, obviously they do exist... otherwise who would have sent me my official mermaid necklace...?

Monochrome / Tadpoles & Colour Vision

How cool are these tights? I'm a bit worried about wearing them about now I'm back in Australia - I've already had some "hilarious" comments from random seedy men about how I accidently put on odd tights HAHA (you're all so original) :| - as people seem to think they're a little bit odd. But then I remember that you should always dress for yourself, and if people find you strange or amusing, well, you're just making the world a more interesting place. blouse - c/o EFoxCity skirt - c/o Sheinside sweater - c/o Sheinside tights - tight store in Japan shoes - Asos necklace and headband - Claire's (Japan) In science news today, researchers in America were able to transplant eyes into tadpole's tails, and through nervous connection with the spinal cord, the tadpoles were able to see. Through their tails. The tadpoles were able to distinguish not only light and dark through their tail-eyes, but different colours as well. The researchers wanted to look at the ways that the brain can adapt to new signals, or signals coming from unexpected places. This is suuuper important stuff in designing prosthetic eyes for people who are blind, or types of blindness where the the eye functions fine but the brain "misreads" the information coming in from the eye. Read more about it here. I hope you're all very well!

Still In Love With Pastels

There was a point last year where every outfit I wore, especially when I had pink and lilac hair, was pastel-themed and super girly. I still adore the sugary sweet pastel palette. And I'm also still obsessed with my new clear rainboots - I've been trying them out with a different pair of socks every day and marvelling at how that little trick essentially provides me with a new pair of shoes. blouse - Vintage from Japan necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy skirt - Vintage tights - Yoshida socks - Tutuanna shoes - Alibaba Remember my post from about a week ago about how incredible 3D Printing is? Just in case the use of 3D printing to make new organs, or the applications of 3D printing for chocolate technology didn't impress you, yesterday news of a man who had 75% of his skull replaced by a 3D-printed prosthetic was released. The new skull was made by scanning the man's head to generate an accurate 3D replica, and then printed out using a 3D printer. Not only is this new skull made from polyetherketoneketone, a super strong and resistant material, but special details were also added to the structure of the skull to encourage growth of the man's own bone and cells. We are living in the future. Read more about it here. Oh! And one more thing before I go today. This is what I woke up to when I switched on my phone this morning (a bad bad habit, checking my emails is the first thing I do every morning now): Isn't this illustration just incredible? I have to thank Maria Ramirez so much for drawing such a gorgeous portrait. Check out more pretty illustrations on her page here - she's only just started sharing her illustrations with the world, but I am so excited to see what she comes up with next!