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
Hey! We have zombie fungus ants in the US yay!
Reading David Byrne can help your science writing
∞ The most beautiful thing I’ve seen today is a Portuguese man-of-war up close
Want to be a citizen scientist for NASA? They need your help checking 1.3 million photos!
A stunning 4K video of Cygnus’ orbital cremation
Ebola is so scary because of psychological “dread”
Why woodpeckers don’t get concussions
Why is the Internet orange? A fascinating optical mystery
∞ Hordes of tiny weavers make nests so big they break the trees they sit in
Yes, let’s raise cyborg moths and test them in science carnival rides
Some of the rocks in that cave are made by bacteria
This is why ash is so bad for airplanes
∞ With this latest study, the “10,000 Hour Rule” is well and truly dead
This Is Where Your Childhood Memories Went
Long ago, birds lost the genes to taste sweet stuff. Then hummingbirds re-evolved it. But why?
A noir detective story happening at the La Brea tar pits
A murmuration of starlings can quiver and warp following the cues of just one bird
It’s OK to pee in the ocean, because chemistry!
Survey shows that lesbians have more orgasms. Yay!
Pufferfish poison is everywhere, and not just in the sea. It’s in worms beneath us but we don’t know why
Huh. Less than 2% of smokers started after age 26. [PDF]
∞ The density of water is why those huge buckets at water parks can’t dump all at once. Case in point
Really cool photo feature on how the Martian climate has battered Curiosity
Sydney cities are making spiders bigger and more numerous
We are figuring out how lizards regenerate their tails and ruin kids’ first reptile experience
Give Teens Access to Birth Control and, Amazingly, the Teen Pregnancy Rate Drops
Did seals bring tuberculosis to the Americas?
Everything that the atomic bomb to Hiroshima was from less than 2% of its fissionable material
It’s easy to smuggle weapons past airport body scanners, researchers find
∞ Great longread about the first samples of life from million-year old Antarctic mud below 800m of ice
You can never perfectly balance a pencil on its tip because physics
How residents of a disappearing island understand climate change
∞ This “digital makeup” is seriously one of the coolest tech demonstrations I have ever seen
The world’s largest solar power plant is frying a bird in the desert every two seconds
Reddit, Twitch, and Imgur want to help social scientists with Internet research. So they made DERP. It sounds great.
Want to find existing life on Mars? Maybe we should throw a rocket-powered lawn dart at the thing
The rocks are talking to you! This is where the smell of rain comes from
We think mantises can eat humming birds, but we aren’t sure because people always stop it if they see it
During 2011, roughly one of every twelve African elephants was killed by a poacher.
An insect-imposed speed limit in my home state could save a population of dragonflies
The world’s fastest camera can capture chemical reactions that occur at one-sixth the speed of light
∞ An unprecedented look at the venom harpoon tubes that are a jellyfish’s nematocysts
Your Childhood Was Lame: Tops Don’t Have to Be Round Anymore
Extreme Nerdery
Thoroughly impressed by the PhD student building working hard drives in Minecraft
Minecraft hard drives you’d need to have to store Minecraft in Minecraft: 164,381
Forbes article claims Iron Bank is worth 1.8 trillion. TELL ME HOW YOU KNOW THAT
∞ Congratulations, you’re a Time Lord. The amazing ways that you regenerate every day
Lose yourself for a bit in the top 10 DUNE tumblrs
A Spotter’s Guide to Rare and Unusual Patronuses
What’s one of the big hang-ups for Oculus Rift? Motion sickness
The first chapter to xkcd’s upcoming book is of course wonderful
What are your chances of hitting a planet by randomly firing an infinitely powered laser into the sky?
Some of the science you can binge on at Marvel’s Times Square exhibit
I don’t care if Pierce Brosnan sucks at GoldenEye 007, he played GoldenEye 007
∞ Don’t feel too bad, your brain sucks at video games
Love this medical drawing of an advanced cordyceps infection as in The Last of Us
Take a second to appreciate the incredible user interfaces in Guardians of the Galaxy
Sciencey GIFs and Images
I still can’t believe these nuclear test videos are real
∞ Stabilized rhythmic gymnastics is visually intoxicating
The hognose snake realllly wants to sell you on the fake death thing
Amazing microscopic images from 1909. A diatom so awesome it produces an illusion
This is one way that we test sleep deprivation in rats: The flowerpot technique
Beluga whale playing with and/or trying to scare the hell out of this kids at the zoo
∞ You need this today. You’re welcome
A less ruin-your-day interpretation of this: Orca helps seal try out for the Olympics
Very cool animated infographic about how a jellyfish stings
Gorillas are all chest-beating apparently
I am blown away by how closely this one dude is tracking his life
That thing where a giant grouper eats the shark on the end of your fishing line
“Flower” graphic of air traffic at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport over 24 hours
College life and real life, as told by this guy’s 150,000 pedometer data points over 8 months
The most complete, detailed view of Antarctica since 1997
A cobble is when hot-rolled steel jumps out of its guides
Some wizard visualized almost all of Reddit
No students, you weren’t crazy
Great visualization of the size of Comet 67P
C’mon brain, this is the exact same image. You can do this
∞ Hey everyone! Being a people looks fun!
Mild steel on a lathe in microscopic slo-mo. So. Darn. Satisfying.
Dogs are slightly like goblin sharks. Slightly.
Pop Culture Happenings
Russian rocket carrying satellite has a catastrophic takeoff. The shockwave was incredible
Patrick Stewart’s ice bucket video is of course classy as all class
∞ Bill Nye wants to change the world or go down swinging
Study: Human Hearing Most Acute When Listening To Arguing Parents From Top Of Stairs
∞ Nick Offerman reads from r/showerthoughts and I love it
The new most expensive coffee goes through an elephant before it goes through you
SeaWorld trainers will not be able to swim with killer whales again
∞ Russia to Bulgarians: Please stop making our statues Superman and Wonder Woman
Broken Teeth And Fake-umentaries: Another Shark Week Gone By
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