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This Week in Science: Warm-Blooded Fish and Space Swords

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

What makes a new species, adaptation, or randomness?

What happens when you give eels cocaine?

Can We Just Save This Adorable Parrot for Christ’s Sake?

Wow a “propane rifle” can teach a lot of fluid physics

Enjoy your day at the beach (Sicarius hahni)

∞ A Turkish 3D printing company gives an injured turtle live-saving titanium jaws

It’s not a stream of consciousness, it’s a rhythm

“You could robotize a house plant to drag itself into sunlight, that would be really cute and perhaps even useful”

Avian flu viruses have affected over 33 million turkeys, chickens and ducks in over a dozen states since December.”

Is there elegant math behind the bamboo that you and I will never see flower?

Do fruit flies get scared? Well, maybe

∞ The woodpecker-riding weasel has been immortalized

The first drone I’ve legitimately wanted follows you around, and is adorable

Boba Fett could learn a thing from trap-jaw ants

∞ We’ve found the first truly warm-blooded fish

With three studies now published on the #TheDress, we still don’t know what exactly is going on

Our best look yet at Ceres’ mysterious spots

A giant squid visits Mordor

“Even in death, the elephant sustains life. Beneath its floppy ears lie six million calories.”

It’s now fully funded, but every cent will help Bill Nye and The Planetary Society’s LightSail!

We can 3D print mini jet engines

But did we actually give chickens dinosaur snouts?

∞ This is how you poop in space

Look, life sucks most of the time. Just try to remember that one of these frogs is squeaking somewhere right now

You ever spent an hour looking at mantis eyes?

I love this whale that spent an hour spraying watchers and knocking phones out of selfie sticks

Just a catheter inserted into someone’s thigh and all the way up to his or her eye

Do you have a microbial fingerprint that can identify you?

Long-eared hedgehogs don’t like inquisitive pups

 

Extreme Nerdery

Go Download SpaceX’s Vintage Mars Travel Posters

∞ I’m still waiting for some Star Wars news to top this anime drawn by one guy

Dragon Ball Z as pulp fiction

Why were people writing about Pokemon in 1870?

Comparison Ford

Brienne of Darth

∞ Of course Adam Savage built himself a gorgeous, screen-accurate Captain Kirk chair

Are we ever going to run out of gas?

Wrath of Khan scores higher as a sequel than almost any other second film

∞ This is a space sword made of meteorite

That time a science writer ruined William Shatner’s day with the news Pluto will have no “Vulcan” moon

So, sloths at night should be in horror movies

∞ So excited for xkcd’s new Up Goer Five-inspired book: Thing Explainer!

This Half-Life fan art is perfect

Quantic Dream basically came up with Ex Machina in a (fabulous) tech demo three years ago

∞ The Physics Behind Age of Ultron’s Earth-Shaking Ending

 

Sciencey GIFs and Images

A barn owl defends its chicks from a snake

∞ Devil rays are so majest—nevermind

Animatronics have gotten really good

Geometry is weird

Male kudus lock horns in battle to the death

Giraffes sleep less than five hours a day (sometimes much less), and like bending their necks to do so

∞ Bird swag

Mantidfly wasp cosplay is pretty good

∞ A tree’s innards smolder after a lightning strike

The bolas spider flings a glob of silk at its prey with amazing dexterity

Some insects that can really get under the skin

See? Root canals aren’t that bad

Why I prefer prop planes

Monday.

Orbits of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids

∞ There are a lot of forces ready to unleash a dragster

“Snow cleaning” a test mirror for the James Webb Space Telescope

 

Pop Culture Happenings

Bird formations are to save energy…used for swearing

∞ Rick and Morty’s Simpsons couch gag is perfect

Chill out and watch dyes and fluids mix to beautiful piano

We Asked These Astronauts What It’s Like To Be In Space

Enough children are obese that our perceptions of ideal weights have followed suit

∞ “This is the first time that abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula have been found to be medically inaccurate

Hotboxing a room actually works

The US’s changing religious landscape

∞ The best thing I’ve read all month: How Marvel Is Killing the Popcorn Movie

Ohhhhhh. Makes total sense now: Why Is There A Hole In Airplane Windows?

Meanwhile, in Japan

I had a lot of fun with Age of Ultron, but this “Hater’s Guide” is hilarious (and makes some good points)

1.3 million particles thrown into a bowl

Finn SCIENCE

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