Digging through the web this week, I uncovered all this geeky goodness. You can find the thousands of links from previous weeks here.
I have marked my favorite links with a ∞. Enjoy.
Science to Read, Watch
Your reminder that barn owls sound like chainsaws on chalkboards
How well do spiders’ matings plugs work anyway?
∞ Reality check: We can’t build this warp-capable starship, but it sure is pretty
Were dinosaurs warm or cold blooded? Turns out that question is too simple
When your crawdad gets anxiety, give it a valium
Climate change is fueling a clone army of 120-foot long super jellies
Do animals have sex for pleasure?
Friday the 13th AND a full moon…that night will be crazy right?! Nah, human psychology is just weird
Where do museums get all those dead animals and why does it matter?
Why the number of different infinities is bigger than infinity
Nemo’s dad should have turned into his mom, because sequential hermaphrodites
∞ An HD timelapse of a star’s “light echo.” Incredible.
What this half a billion year old ancestor can tell us about vertebrate evolution
“A roadmap for getting intimate with some of the largest, most convoluted vaginas on the planet. You’re welcome.”
All the science behind that exosuit kick at the World Cup
∞ “If life is a movie, the frame rate fluctuates widely from one species to another.”
Processing power is moving into the post-Moore’s law age
The difference between understanding and applying causality, crows don’t know it. Babies do
Snake mimics evolved to be like more like a lethal predator that no longer exists there
How fire ants create and maintain incredible living structures
Can you learn to see sound or hear color?
∞ Fantastic longread about the woman who helped create forensic science with miniature crime scenes
Entropy makes the river of time always flow in one direction…probably
No, our skulls didn’t evolve to take a punch. That study was bad science
Oxytocin may have yet another quirk: regenerating our bodies
The locks and keys that trigger cell suicide are so old that coral proteins can pick our cells’ locks!
Will future earthlings describe the “Antropocene” using our plastic “rocks”?
Birds living near Chernobyl are adapting to chronic radiation
The recently evolved parasite that grows like a tree in the skin of sharks
Japanese robot could help med students learn breast exams with virtual tech
The highs and lows of a show that covered the whole universe: My review of COSMOS
Have A Kindle of Kittens, and 10 Other Hilarious Names for Animal Groups
∞ Meet the entomologist who describes insect stings like fine wine
Next-generation condoms might feel like human skin
Extreme Nerdery
Explore the Enterprise as a pixel Data in PixelTrek because why not?
The party I was at told me to write something fun on their wall, so I did.
∞ I got to play Double Fine’s Hack ‘n’ Slash and I loved how it made me feel like a true hacker
The banshee was probably inspired by this amazing owl that sounds like a nightmare with wings
Game of Thrones isn’t even close to medieval. Westeros is like 200 years ago
World War II was seven times longer than the movies about it.
“Dystopia Tracker” is a website that crowdsources the question: How much has science fiction got right?
How to Find and Care for a Pet Tardigrade (with best “having fun” pic ever)
Hey, I love pedantry as much as the next nerd, but c’mon
∞ Giants in Game of Thrones are really, really strong. I did a quick calculation to prove it
That giant scythe the Wall had last episode? It basically exists but with helicopters and chainsaws
Testing death-by-molten metal by pouring lead down a pig larynx
As usual, xkcd puts something hard to imagine in units, makes it real: 4.5 degrees
Two weapons experts discuss the famous armaments in Game of Thrones
Sciencey GIFs and Images
Street fighter particle physics
Oxygen is polar. You can mess with its partial charges when it’s liquid
Organic chemist accidentally synthesizes Jupiter
∞ GIF of the incredible V838 Mon light echo
Your elephant impersonation was once a way to reform a nose. (Atlas of Human Anatomy and Surgery 1831-1854)
Even when you see how this illusion works, your brain simply cannot accept it
On every desk! Perpetual slinky!
Rendering of a Sarychev Volcano eruption on June 12, 2009 from the ISS
The ISS at “night” is fantastically creepy
The Sun had a pretty serious solar flare this week
∞ You’re not arachnophobic, right?
Science GIF Hall of Fame Inductee #008: Helicopter rotors synced with camera frame rate
Ok illustrator, so you have a Cintiq. But do you have an owl peripheral?
The future is bright my friends
Pop Culture Happenings
∞ Dr. Oz is going to testify before congress about weight loss scams. They couldn’t have picked a worse person
Science: Those annoying astronauts on your Mars flight who always touch your stuff are probably extroverts
The odd life of the Snowdenbot
The bat bomb canister was a thing we developed
Countries are still using bomb detectors sold by a convicted conman that DO NOT WORK
Elon Musk makes Tesla’s technology open source
Elon Musk forever established his nerd cred with the title for his open source patent post
Really enjoyed this Wall Street Journal interactive: The World Cup of Everything Else
Fox News makes a great point about water fluoridation. Just kidding.
“In London, cocaine and ecstasy spike on weekends while methadone is used more consistently.”
How the realities of biology complicate the “personhood movement”
The great Chobani yogurt fiasco had led to discontinued lids, free yogurt for scientists
There have been at least 117 mass shootings this year in the US. It’s June.
∞ Being a Lady and Playing DayZ
Find a 727 in the woods, make it your house. Yeah.
Why Do Republicans Always Say ‘I’m Not a Scientist’?
—
