The whole Nerdist team was busy at Comic-Con this year, so this week’s installment of geeky links is a two-weeker!
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
The furthest galactic magnifying glass lets us see light 10.7 billion years in transit
∞ Three molecules might be the reason why you have jazz hands and not jazz palms
Florida bans the importation of lionfish
This robot is the king of ball balancing
The largest penguin we know of was taller than most children
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is going to look for life with an instrument called “SHERLOC”
∞ A snake’s flicking tongue isn’t for taste, it’s for 3D smell-o-vision and so much more
Do Beaked Whales Have Internal Antlers?
You’d think that we all carry one set of DNA in each of our cells. Not “mosaics”
Find life on Europa and change the world for the price of a cup of coffee
Visualizing the chaotic spaghetti that is Jupiter’s magnetic field
Everything you need to know about Ebloa, collected in semi-handy wiki form
I’m not saying it was aliens, because it wasn’t aliens: Cause of Mysterious Siberian Holes Possibly Found
∞ Exploring the speed of dark
Model predicts whether SCOTUS will uphold or reverse a lower-court decision with 70% accuracy
For how scary Ebola virus is, it’s unlikely to become a global threat. Here’s why
The longest marathon of maternal care was fatefully completed by…an octopus
Robotically-controlled scorpions
Eye-tracking heatmaps found you out self-conscious dudes
A robotic octopus takes a swim
Study finds fist-bumping is far more hygienic than handshaking or high-fiving
∞ The physics of fish eating
Woah solar magnetism
Acetaminophen no better than placebos for back pain
The absurdity that is the camouflage of the satanic leaf-tailed gecko
Here are all the ways we know your brain is just as amazing as “Lucy’s”
Seeing Phobos from Mars makes for a googley-eyed eclipseÂ
Elephants have way more genes for smell than you or I, but that’s not the whole story
China just found the largest aquatic insect
∞ For my money, “Slow Life” is the most riveting three minutes of nature footage I’ve ever seen
At least offshore wind farms may positively contribute to marine environments
What isn’t random, and where does our free will hide if it exists?
“God may play dice with the universe, but they are the best dice in the universe.”
Why is your body symmetrical but your guts aren’t?
∞ So interesting! Sandstone arches form by gravity, not erosion
Gut bacteria helps this adorable rodent eat enough poison to kill it
The real “face-hugger” attaches itself to fish for years, sucking it dry
Extreme Nerdery
Why “Muad’Dib” is a totally accurate name for DUNE’s Paul
This robot is a real-life droideka!
All the science of Tatooine you’ll ever need
∞ The fastest way to get a letter to mom is probably an ICBM
What’s the surface gravity on Krypton? 100G…maybe? Nuclear nerds on “Manhattan” discuss (and I check)
Shut up and take my money: Laser-etched map of Ocarina of Time’s Hyrule by Alex Griendling
What dinosaur would make the best household pet? “A baby Stegosaurus because it wouldn’t shed and wouldn’t eat you.”
Elsa has the freezing energy equivalent to enough nuclear weapons to wipe out humanity!
Build a desk-sized, levitating disco ball on the cheap
The on-screen tenure of each incarnation of Doctor Who, in hours
∞ My favorite game ever has the most scientifically accurate zombies ever
Borg cube mini-fridge: freezistance is futile
Mapping Climate Change on Tatooine Over 110 Years
Scientifically accurate Sonic the Hedgehog is pretty rough
Getting your printer ink from a squid is probably cheaper
Movies aren’t actually getting longer
reddit.com/r/StarTrekStabilized
Yep. A dishwasher-safe lightsaber
Sciencey GIFs and Images
∞ The ISS sees a silhouetted Endeavor
Photographer Aaron Huey looks down into a glacial wormhole
Artist Eleanor Lutz has rendered the bioluminescent tree of life
∞ Deaths in the Iliad: a Classics Infographic
This is what a mosquitornado looks like, seriously
This Is What The Inside of a Shark Fin Looks Like
The atmospheres of the solar system
∞ Caddisfly larvae build aquatic cocoons from gold and pearls
That signal? Mayflies. “Massive mayfly event” in Mississippi basin
This is the most detailed map of the Martian surface ever made. Thanks thermal inertia!
Thrips are so small they will feed on an individual spore of fungus or an single plant cell
Artist Makoto Azuma releases plants into space with “Exbiotanica”
An atomic blast as seen from the sky
Pop Culture Happenings
The new The Last of Us remaster has a photo mode, and Reddit is making darn good use of it
∞ A tumblr of guitarists realizing they are holding a giant slug mid-solo
“Mario stands next to a mushroom cloud. Missile crews are known for their dark humor.”
How Rush Hour 2 got into trouble by using enough fake money to alert the Secret Service
Latest trailer for Nolan’s Interstellar is incredible
John Oliver, Buzz Aldrin, Patrick Stewart: #GoGetThoseGeckos
∞ POW blinking in Morse code to spell T-O-R-T-U-R-E during a forced interview
Maybe Wiseau is weirder than we think
Awesome doctor makes vaccination fun
If great scientists had Twitter
Augmented reality rock climbing looks straight-up awesome
Creationist Ken Ham: If there are aliens, they don’t have Jesus, and are therefore damned
Comic-Con!
∞ This is Comic-Con by the numbers
Seth Green and Buzz Aldrin hosted a packed Comic-Con panel about a human mission to Mars!
The science of lining up for stuff
∞ Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman made their Comic-Con panel all about the fans and it was awesome
What I learned at my first Comic-Con: Enjoy cosplayers that take cosplay seriously (and more)
With a bit of scientific training, Marvel wants to make you a S.T.A.T.I.O.N. agent
∞ I went on my own nerd nature safari at Comic-Con and made a video about it!
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