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
You are using an incredible mathematical theorem to eat your pizza. No really, you genius
∞ Have you ever seen a fish cast a patronus charm? You’re welcome
Nearly half of Americans believe in ghosts. Why?
The “Freshman 15” isn’t a thing
∞ Why would whales still need evolving hips? For sexytimes (maybe)
The sad map of how we’ve destroyed the whale population
Five phenomena that sound like nuclear bombs, heard by our secret monitoring system
Papua New Guinea’s Tavurvur volcano sends a shockwave smashing through the sky. But how?
Yes, your stupid synthetic workout shirts really do smell worse
99.999% certainty humans are driving global warming
Meet Dreadnoughtus, the largest land animal ever (maybe) that was impenetrable to small arms fire (not really)
I jump in on Nerdist News Jessica Chobot to say a quick thing about DREADNOUGHTUS
How Caffeine Evolved to Help Plants Survive and Help People Wake Up
Should we protect ourselves against potentially infectious alien memes?
Should we program technology to deceive us? And do those damn crosswalk buttons even work?! (Nope)
∞ A rocket fuel for evolution in the symbiosis of plants and their bacteria
This odd little undersea mushroom looking thing might change the branches of early life on Earth
Germany has radioactive boars roaming around thanks to Chernobyl
That thing where epilepsy causes compulsive poem writing
Sharks are not always the top predator
Moss piglets aren’t the only species to survive the vacuum of space
A Brain Will Go to Amazing, Sometimes Scary Lengths to Preserve Its Constructed Narrative
When discovering imaginary radiation destroyed a career in science: Blondlot’s “N-rays”
We have officially defined superclusters. Ours is called Laniakea, or “Immense heaven”
Really cool artist’s representation of gravitational lensing
∞ Can quantum mechanics help us kill our grandfathers in the past?
These indigenous people point, but with their faces
This mimic is so good at what it does that we need to protect what it mimics just to save it
Confirmed: Stuff really is funnier, sadder in a crowd
Extreme Nerdery
Scientifically accurate Chip and Dale
Uh, yeah, there were badass female vikings. We know this
∞ What’s the CO2 equivalent of pwning a n00b? Less if it’s with a physical copy of the game, according to a new study
Ohhhhh, rifle bullets take advantage of the Venturi Effect!
∞ A peacock mantis shrimp uses Pringle-shaped armor to punch through crabs
Why Scrooge McDuck would have to apply for a building permit
∞ My review of xkcd’s new book, What If? It’s wonderful
Randall Munroe’s Rolling Stone profile is exactly what you think it is
To celebrate the release of his new book, xkcd has a comic that is turtles all the way down
Spider-Man, Spider-Man would be kinda gross
Sciencey GIFs and Images
Long exposure shot of last night’s Falcon 9 rocket launch
A sea squirt embryo with video game-style weak points
The scale of this volcanic GIF speaks so much to the power of nature
∞ The lines are all perfectly level. C’mon brain you can do this
Reason #15 that I don’t surf: Unidentifiable fish in the waves
Work smarter, not harder today y’all
∞ Artist Dillon Marsh did some calculations to contrast the scars of mining with its result
Um, heat rises? Is Thor available for comment?
∞ Your reminder that a dog-sized cat is way cooler than a cat-sized dog
Pop Culture Happenings
How scientists feel about global warming, in hand-written letters
Dads at One Direction concerts
The Last of Us meets Adventure Time
So, put spider legs on your dog and it is legitimately terrifying
More than 99% of FCC commenters support Net Neutrality
∞ NASA panel find the lack of science happening on Mars disturbing
The TI-84 Plus still has a stranglehold on classroom mathematics
This ram definitely had enough of this drone’s s**t, and the pilot’s
Frankenstein is a story about how people can be monstrous, not the dangers of science
Turning Fallout 3 into a new game by, uh, killing everything
A health worker disinfects a corpse in an Ebola isolation ward
Let’s all have a moment of silence for the poor Russian space sex geckos
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