Dollfaces / Alien Life in the Solar System (part 1)

Today's outfit is nothing special - just what I wore around and about on Monday. I totally have a brand new trick with my tights though - layering patterned fishnet tights over opaque tights. I bought heaps of these fishnet-style tights about two years ago, then got a bit sick of them after over-wearing them, so this is a great way of refreshing them and pretending I have a whole lot of new tights. dress - c/o Romwe necklace - Claire's cardigan - c/o Sheinside white tights - c/o Oasap patterned tights - Ebay shoes - Asos So, Europa is awesome. One of Jupiter's moons, Europa is a really interesting place. Firstly because it has an atmosphere made up of oxygen, secondly because although the surface is a solid sheet of ice, it probably has a huge ocean made of liquid water underneath the layer of ice, and thirdly, it is one of the best candidates for alien life in our solar system. (Image credit) The subsurface ocean Scientists think that Europa has a layer of liquid water underneath its outer icy surface. While the surface is frozen, the water can remain liquid underneath because of something called "tidal flexing". This is due to Europa's orbit around the giant and very dense Jupiter - gravitational pull from Jupiter, and another moon Io, keeps the interior water moving about, creating enough energy to keep it warm and in a liquid state. And the ocean is huge - estimates put the volume of the ocean at about twice that of Earth's ocean. Alien Life Warm, liquid, moving water is a good place for life to start up. But if the water is sterile, no amount of sloshing around will produce life. However, just recently more evidence for the moon being a good place for life has emerged. The surface was just found to have salt on it, which indicates a possible ocean of sodium chloride - yep - that's salt water just like in our own oceans on Earth! And very recent research also suggests that hydrogen peroxide - an important energy supply that could be used to support life - exists on the surface of Europa as well. If the hydrogen peroxide is also in the oceans, this would provide a great way for life to start up, if it hasn't already. Research done in the 1970s found that life doesn't need sunlight to develop - using chemosynthesis, life is able to exist at the very depths of our own oceans, using thermal vents to produce their own food-cycle which doesn't require any photosynthesis at all. So life could very well use a similar mechanism to develop and survive in pitch-black water underneath the icy exterior of Europa as well. Ships and robotic probes that are scheduled for Europa in the '20s and '30s will be able to tell us a lot more. I can't wait! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

The Best Dress / Science Art from Etsy

This dress is the best combination of colours, prints and cutouts that I've come across in a long time. I am such a lucky lady to be the owner of so many incredible statement dresses! This particular one is perfect with a boater hat and some knee-high socks - it doesn't need much dressing up because it's already got a lot going on in it. dress - c/o Romwe socks - c/o Sock Dreams shoes - Chicory For today's science post, I've compiled a little list of awesome science art and gifts. Every time I look, more and more science geekery seems to appear online (especially on etsy). From the point of view of an aspiring science communicator, and collector of geeky novelty things, this makes me very happy. Also, if any friends/family happen to be reading this... remember that my 21st is in a month ;) Anatomical heart pendant from Rainnua  Red blood cells pendant from Outpost 8  Wooden pi brooch from Kate Rowland Illustration  DNA double helix pendant from Theresa Pytell Handmade (I love this, although it doesn't show the major and minor grooves of DNA - but I'm being pedantic)  Anatomical Heart Necklace from Blue Bayer Design  Vintage anatomical poster from Curious Prints  Voyager golden record pendant necklace from The Pendant Garden Periodic table chopping board from Elysium Woodworks Brain anatomy bracelet from Missing Pieces I hope you're all having/will have a lovely Monday! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Plaid & Lace / Capturing an Asteroid

I really like pairing plaid with lace. This plaid skater skirt from Choies is exactly what I've been looking after for ages - it also looks great (although super preppy, but I don't mind) paired with suspenders. This lace shirt is also a versatile wardrobe piece - throw it on over a dress on a cooler day when you don't want to completely cover up with a sweater. I've been doing this a lot lately, now we're finally coming into some colder weather here! shirt - c/o Oasap skirt - c/o Choies shoes - Chicory socks - c/o Sock Dreams So NASA's next big plan, after sending Curiosity up to Mars last year (...who incidentally hopefully won't be obliterated by a possible collision with Mars and a comet next year, but that's another story), is to capture an asteroid and bring it into stable orbit around the Earth. What NASA want to do is to use an unmanned robot vehicle to capture the asteroid, then bring it back into orbit where it can be studied and explored by humans, and also mined for things like water - to provide to the international space station (for whom it currently costs thousands of dollars per kg of water sent there). Exactly how the asteroid will be captured is still unclear, but NASA believe with new technology coming out of physics and engineering, it can be done within 10 years. I think that this is really exciting. Although hopefully NASA will be able to figure out how to stop the asteroid colliding with all the thousands of satellites and space junk currently in orbit around Earth. It's a pretty huge job! Read more about it here. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Autumn Vintage & How Many Pixels To Mars?

Ahh, it's finally cold enough in Sydney to start layering up! This is definitely my favourite kind of climate - cool, sunny days where you can comfortably wear tights and a cropped sweater over a long vintage dress or skirt. Basically everything that's in this outfit is thrifted for a few dollars, which makes me really happy. Speaking of which, there's a thrift store only 50m down the road from my new place. I have somehow successfully restrained myself from going and spending all of my rent money there so far, but I don't know how long that is going to last... (It's basically the biggest tease ever). tie - c/o Flapper Girl shirt - Thrifted skirt - Thrifted belt - Thrifted tights - c/o Oasap shoes - Thrifted You guys know I love attempting to make you feel all tiny and insignificant ;) but seriously, I really do love projects like the Scale of the Universe and How Big Is Space, that cleverly attempt to show you how big the world around us really is. Call me weird, but I find it kind of reassuring, rather than daunting, thinking about how small I am and how incomprehensibly huge the universe is. Because how can you be stressed out about an assignment deadline or people at work when the universe is just so, so, so much bigger than you (and all your problems) are? So anyway, this is another cool example of that kind of project which I found the other day - if you set Earth to 100 computer pixels wide, how many pixels away is Mars (our closest planetary neighbour)? The website that will answer that question for you, Distance To Mars, is here. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Holy Cats!

This dress is yet another extremely fantastic one (did you see my teapot dress yesterday?). I just couldn't go past the print on the front of this dress. And how could you? It's a cat wearing a crown, pretending to be a king. Come on, now. Look at his little crown and cape! Also, I forgot to take closer-up pictures, but the dress has collar tips which are little skulls. It's a very interesting dress indeed. Also, in this post I'm reviewing these shoes, sent to me by a company called Sammydress. Well, I'm definitely a fan of big, beautiful (and impractical) shoes, so they definitely ticked that box. I was really surprised with the quality of the shoes, being from a wholesale website (FIFTEEN DOLLARS, PEOPLE!) - they are suede and really well-made, the stiletto heels feel really strong and don't wobble at all, and my feet feel really secure walking in them, which is always a good thing. I've had bad experiences with wholesale shoes before (often smelling really like petrol, taking forever to ship and being very "plastic-y" and cheap-looking), but these were entirely the opposite to that. They didn't smell, they arrived in about a week and, most importantly, look amazing. Another great thing was that the size was perfect - I'm a US 8/UK 6, and the 39 fits me perfectly. They're really the most beautiful things, and basically about as comfortable as sky-high-stilettos could be. Now I just have to learn how to walk properly in them... dress - c/o Oasap tights - Ebay shoes - c/o Sammydress I'm sorry that a lot of my "science segments" have just been videos from these guys lately, but I don't have a lot of internet access at my new house as of yet. Soooo I am not really able to research cool science things for hours and hours :( anyway, this is something I found a couple of weeks ago, and is way too good not to share. Especially as I'm wearing a cat dress. Enjoy! p.s. The winner of the TNK vintage giveaway is Emmy Anne! You will be emailed shortly. Remember, you can still get 50% off anything at TNK vintage using the coupon code 26790. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Teapot Dress & My New House

GUYS, THIS DRESS. It's got TEAPOTS on it. I'm pretty sure that this is one of the best prints that I've ever seen on a dress. And you can get it here if you're as in love with it as I am. Oh, and see this new background? I'm at my new house! And I have this pretty new photo-taking spot, and apart from the window behind me kind of making it look like I have antennae coming out of my head, I think it's pretty nice. Anyway, speaking of my new house, it's almost all set up and it's very very pretty and I'm really proud of it, so I'll hopefully get some shots of it up soon (if that's something people would like to see?) dress - c/o Sheinside shoes - Chicory clips - DIY Something amazing happened in neuroscience the other day and I of course have to share it with you. Image Source Scientists from Stanford University developed a technique which can turn biological tissue transparent (they showed this by making a mouse brain completely clear), while keeping it's original shape. This is going to make it so much easier to study cells like neurons,  which are all densely packed inside the brain, without having to make a billion million individual slices of the brain. And the technique can be used on any tissue, not just brain tissue. It's an exciting time to be going into neuroscience :D Read more here. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr