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
Mermaid purses are weird
An ancient battle between our DNA and meningitis–microscopic iron thieves
Why Do We Want to Bite Cute Things?
“I’ll prove to you this thing is loaded!” Men more likely to win a Darwin Award
How did the spider cross the road (without setting foot on it)?
Explore 100,000 articles of Wikipedia like a galaxy
∞ The cutest, weirdest little amphisbaenian you’ve ever seen
Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational US Navy laser station
∞ The Demon Core: A plutonium sphere that killed two scientists in eerily similar accidents
Mondegreens: The science of misheard lyrics
Water on Earth probably didn’t come from comets. Thanks Rosetta!
Study: 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic in our oceans
Corrective vaccine information can make people *less* likely to get vaccinated
Watch an amazing animation of near-Earth asteroid discovery over the last 30 years
∞ The baby birds that evolved to mimic *caterpillars* to deter predators
How a tarantula builds a trapdoor lid on its burrow
The giant vacuum that sucks prairie dogs out of their holes is surprisingly well-outfitted for comfort
Putting a spacesuit in an MRI to prevent a drowning in space
Making sense of the tangled mess that is our galaxy’s magnetic field
Mars looks like it was better suited for life than we thought
Making a mini plasma cutter and filming it at 2500 FPS
∞ Prosopometamorphopsia: A condition that visually distorts faces. For one woman, faces morphed into dragons
Los Angeles after maximum sea level rise
Is NASA going to let Hubble burn?
Extreme Nerdery
How zombies might migrate, mathematically
Comparative morphology of popular xkcd characters
∞ Every episode of every Star Trek series, ranked
A TIE fighter crashes on the highway, waits for AAA
How sound designer Ben Burtt made the Millennium Falcon’s hyperdrive malfunction sound
What would happen all of the rivers in the US were instantly frozen in the middle of the summer?
You didn’t know your dinner table was missing physics until you saw this
What do real swordsmen think of the Star Wars trisaber?
∞ How does Smaug breathe fire?
Superman can throw around a few quintillion tons. The Hulk is The Hulk. Who wins?
A captain Picard Christmas carol
Sciencey GIFs and Images
That thing where you saw a rubber band ball in half
The “blue” square in this rainbow is the same color as the square on the bottom
∞ If the floor really was lava, you could step on it
The bow shock of an aerodynamically unstable tank shell
Wait, is everyone gone? Time to be people
A nimble predator, the cat steps gingerly onto the next branch…nevermind
∞ An upside down humpback whale is one of the most majestic things
On the Cheviot summit in the UK, whipping wind makes ice art
∞ One of my very favorite MythBusters moments: The beautiful physics of relative velocity
Nothing but net. And otter.
If you’re wondering whether Cthulhu lives in the deep ocean or not. It does. It’s a bigfin squid
Why your grocery cart’s wheels are always messed up
∞ Humbolt squid just want to say hi. Also, don’t get close enough for them to say hi.
Fluid mechanics makes an ice spiral in a lazy river
When a spider actively uses its web as a snare
Clever: Reverse the melting of a snowflake and it looks like it’s growing
Fun animation of the assembly of the ISS
Fire + dust devil + tumbleweeds = magic
Show aliens this jet engine test and maybe they will work with us after first contact
A lit match up-close is a bubbling planet surface
∞ That thing where your boat hits a log that is actually a recently-fed anaconda
Pop Culture Happenings
Latest bizarre pseudo-diet: “Bulletproof coffee”
This 8-foot long, 27-pound gummy python is 12 pounds of sugar alone
Greenpeace Makes Its Mark on Ancient Site
Hollywood’s resident cougar is looking well
∞ A tumblr of beautiful satellite images made specifically for a phone’s background
What else has improved in Uncharted 4 besides the graphics? Drake’s climbing technique
∞ A University of Sheffield independent student newspaper on Cumberbatch’s engagement
The richest man in Russia bought James Watson’s Nobel prize just so he could return it
Never waste a good Pyramid Head outfit if it’s foggy in your town
A parable of how small biases can segregate society using polygons
Discovery Channel is Getting Eaten Alive for Eaten Alive
Online. Spirograph.
∞ Do you really want to build a snowman?
Over the last 2 years, Grumpy Cat has made more money than Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, and Jennifer Anniston combined
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