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
How does soap work? An astronaut made a floating candy corn sphere to explain
The Wasp That Lays Eggs Inside Caterpillars and Turns Them Into Slaves
It turns out that science sells too
No, A Spider Did Not Burrow Under A Man’s Skin And Live There For Days
∞ Watching sperm whales sleep is some other kind of magic
The time we took Chicago and pushed it up out of a swamp
A scaly sniper is changing how we think about fish intelligence
The ant lion holds all its waste for its entire larval lifetime, you know, like a sarlacc
∞ Your gut gets jetlag too, and that might be affecting your health
100 sharks get so excited about a shoreline buffet that some wash ashore
Before archaea diversified, they got a genetic care package from bacteria
This Exploding Plant is Taking Over the World
Every earthquake is our planet getting just a bit closer to cool
For the last decade, Bill Gates has tried to fund the next big breakthrough in global health. How has he done?
∞ I know what you’re doing this winter. You’re going to skip a stone on a frozen lake. Because it sounds like lasers.
Newly discovered pathogens hiding in New York’s rat population
A sand flea’s entire world could be a piece of driftwood
Last month was the hottest on record
Are social spiders demonstrating group-based evolution?
Where is the Cheetah Biomechanics 101 course?
Diarrhea-destroying fecal transplants now come in satisfying pill form
Jimmy Kimmel’s “What are GMOs?” video is funny, sure, but it highlights a giant challenge in science communication
When you attack a momma spider, sometimes the babies leap to safety
Incredible global warming interactive from Twitter’s Technical Lead for Data Visualization
∞ Ebola is not a zombie virus, a hoax, or a government conspiracy
The anti-vaxx crowd certainly has an insane collection of theories about Ebola
“It would be a mistake, he warned, to imagine that with a single mutation Ebola might become an airborne pathogen.”
Fox New’s Shep Smith on Ebola in the US might be the most level-headed thing I’ve heard so far
Remember, public hysteria is contagious too
∞ Why Bats Are Such Good Hosts for Ebola and Other Deadly Diseases
This is how you put on and take off personal protective equipment for infectious diseases [pdf]
Extreme Nerdery
A musical transcription of Jeff Goldblum’s laugh from Jurassic Park
∞ Nature Already Has Vampires, Body Snatchers, and a Frankenstein
A lock that uses an injected chain for a key. So bizarre/awesome
Saturn’s moon Mimas looks like a Death Star and may have a giant ocean beneath its surface
There is a beautiful sarlacc hiding in the dam by your house, just FYI
∞ Carl Sagan’s COSMOS gets re-edited Tim and Eric style and I love it
“The LHC beam could run the equivalent of a full Daytona 500 on 850 tracks, one after another, in about 2 seconds”
Why is Captain Kirk climbing the mountain?
Dude beats Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64 and Goldeneye 007 all in under an hour by playing the games simultaneously
Yes, this is an actual PC game screenshot
∞ An elegant weapon for a more ceiling-less age
You’re a neuroscientist in the apocalypse. What do you diagnose a zombie with? “CDHD”
Sciencey GIFs and Images
Can’t see on the slopes? Ski with hundreds of LEDs!
∞ I’d love to explore an 8-bit Earth
Who knew that an escalator railing was a pigeon’s evolutionary trap?
Me and this turtle showered the exact same way today
∞ This eagle has seen some sh** man
These birds are called tawny frogmouths, or, awesomestumplookers
Cats are gymnasts because of a dope aerial righting reflex
What do oysters do for the environment? Same water in both tanks; one on right has oysters
Ferrofluid y’all. The best desk toy.
Huh. Snap bracelets used to be made with old measuring tapes
The Arc Jet testing a material designed for entry into the Martian atmosphere
∞ Have you ever seen a hawk tackle a deer? Well, allow me to ruin your day
The Hubble Space Telescope images Supernova SN1987A over 15 years
Redditor rodarmor stitches glorious sections of the Martian surface together
∞ Ejecting a floppy disk in space
Buzz Aldrin’s EVA on the Gemini XII Mission in 1966 looks like a fantastic sci-fi book cover
I’ve never seen such a clear sonic boom pressure wave
∞ Again, don’t bring a brittle star out of the ocean for the sake of creepiness
Thinking back to the first infographic I really wowed at: Cheetah by Jacob O’Neal
Pop Culture Happenings
Yeah, science! The new trend in TV drama
∞ How will world religions deal with alien life? Did Jesus Save the Klingons?
Old man feeds “domesticated” hummingbird
Brilliant installation is four pieces of art in one
I just made all Motel 6 door locks obsolete for you
∞ A Bad Lip Reading of The Walking Dead pt. 2
We are adorably worried about where birds go when it rains
Sexy mermaids have seriously disturbing mythological roots
“Of course Master Bruce.” “That’s LORD Bruce.”
31% of Americans’ food goes uneaten
∞ I had no idea that “civil forfeiture” was a thing. It’s terrifying.
What is it like to live in the National Radio Quiet Zone?
This is how babies used to travel on planes
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