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This Week in Science: Lightsabers in Space and Fractal Worms

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

Just two pieces of rubber keep air inside the ISS

∞ We figured out what in the blue hell this worm thing is

Shock diamonds, methane engines, NASA. All cool terms that look as cool as they sound

Why does stuff have such a weird spin in space?

Just an orangutan babysitting some tiger cubs

The measles vaccine protects against more than just measles

What can a fly tell us about time of death?

How nature can mummify a brain

∞ This is what happens after you die

NASA’s Curiosity rover shows us a sunset on Mars from last month!

You can win $29,000 from NASA — just figure out how to shield astronauts from space radiation

New Loki Microbe is Closest Relative to All Complex Life

We now know what thunder *looks* like

Can you spot the snow leopard?

Veritasium just inspired the hell out of me with his video on “learned helplessness”

Well, cross asking an orbiting astronaut a question off my bucket list

It makes sense that giant whales have stretchy nerves, but it’s still an amazing find

∞ The female orgasm, explained with science demos

Huh. Birds with injured feathers get feather transplants

The reasons why octopus locomotion is so bizarre

How evolution co-opted the bioluminescence of millipedes

Spray spiders down with carbon nanotubes and their silk gets stronger, sometimes

We’re now making hyper-advanced anti-drone technology

 

Extreme Nerdery

I love this Zelda comic explaining the Triforce

∞ Did you know you wanted a gritty, black and white Pokemon comic? I didn’t either

Muscovy ducks look like Darth Maul. That is all.

Thigh-win Lannister

Science is coming…

Geeky artist Nick Acosta made a “working” TNG tricorder and it is awesome

Tattoo ink that glows under UV eventually breaks down, but not before looking awesome

#MayTheFourthBeWithYou

Not such a hard science now, huh?

 

Sciencey GIFs and Images

My mascot for social anxiety is a lizard

∞ I thought this was faked, but it’s actually awesome physics

My mom loves getting my Mother’s Day texts

“Hey Jim how should we test the gliding ability of this snake? Throw it off something tall! Oh…alright!

The next Transformers should be in space, oh wait, we did that

Sometimes when you throw a falcon at a rabbit, you miss

Turn every sandbox into an impact physics lab!

∞ Not feeling great so I looked up how zoologists weigh small birds. Feel better now. Yep, feeling a lot better.  Actually pretty happy now.

Did you know that owls deflate?

An octopus’ chromatophores continue to fire after being prepped for eating

Again, apparently jaguars are totally cool with eating underwater

C’mon Areal Yellow jackets aren’t that scaryNEVERMIND

∞ And you thought there weren’t any dinosaurs left

Researched that weird worm, found a nemertean eating a fish

 

Pop Culture Happenings

The Ghost in the Shell movie has some of the most detailed backgrounds I’ve ever seen in anime

∞ The Footloose warehouse dance scene without the music is hilariously bizarre

Hell is Other People: “Tracks your ‘friends’ and calculates optimally distanced locations for avoiding them.”

When I need to relax, I listen to this video of my favorite instrument that I’ve never heard of (start at 4:30)

Watch firefighting in 4K slow motion from a Phantom camera if you feel like seeing the coolest thing you’ll see today

∞ Standardized testing is kind of broken, and John Oliver lays it out masterfully

Think of Las Vegas…That’s not Las Vegas

Why you shouldn’t wash your dishes by hand

http://carlyfiorina.org

Finn SCIENCE

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