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Nerds and Words: Week 39

I have dug through the Internet this week and uncovered all this geeky goodness. You can find the thousands of links from previous weeks here.

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


I have dug through the Internet this week and 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.


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Science to Read, Write, and Watch

The 34 million year old frog so beautifully preserved you can see its face

? Better bring a stillsuit Muad'Dib: Could a Sand Storm on DUNE Flay Your Flesh?

Amazing video of that incredible jaguar/crocodile attack from last month

Why is the IPCC so much more confident in human-caused global warming? Well, the evidence is there

You could run on water at 0.22G. Thanks Ig Nobels!

These are cross sections of a platypus brain

Re-entering space shuttles generate sonic booms at the nose and tail. All supersonic planes do but they are spaced wide enough for your brain to distinguish

That Mauritius "underwater waterfall" is actually much more interesting than that

How a Kids’ Cartoon Created a Real-Life Invasive Army

Mesmerizing: Watch the currents flow across the Great Lakes in real time

? If feng shui actually worked, it would be a catastrophe for city planners

"Each time you pick your nose, that booger might literally be out-of-this-world."

The way you walk is tied to a hole in your skull, but that's not the whole story.

How memes themselves are memes. Interesting piece on origins and study (LOLcats and other academic stuff)

"5 reasons why I spent two years watching wasp sex"

? How People Disappear

Will we need to genetically engineer organisms to save them from extinction? We should have that conversation

"...Alternative medicine allegedly treats 'the underlying causes' of disease. Nope. Not true. Exactly backwards."

Study: Fish oils don't boost brain power

The first octopus farm is underway! And  you can't vaccinate an octopus. Hmmm.

Why can't we walk in straight lines? It's kind of a mystery

Keep It Simple Students: How You Were Copied. Explanations for students by students

? How many bees does it take to fill an oil drum with honey? I find out in this clip (and do a bit of taste testing)

The genetic progress we are making on MERS one year in

Um. You can make a cast of your bronchial tubes but...you have to cough it up

Talk about the most dangerous spiders in North America while putting both of them on your fingers!

? "The scholarly authorities on freezing to death seem to be, unsurprisingly, Canadians."

30 responses to those who think we science-based medicine folk are wrong about CAM

Why do we go to space? A particularly inspiring video by It's Okay To Be Smart

Why it's so hard for sperm to swim: Fluid physics!

? In which how magnets really work blows my mind

You're wrong about how fast a sneeze goes

 

Nerdery At Its Finest

Stovepipe sponges are the ocean's cookie monsters. No really

? Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na’vi real languages? Wonderfully enlightening video

Bored at the office? Have some supplies around? Build an X-wing!

Heh. I don't think The Blues Brothers had a physics adviser

World’s Insect Leaders Attend G20,000,000,000 Summit

I have written about 35 sci-fi shorts at my new Tumblr (future book project). Here's my latest.

? Posted this kind of thing before, but this is a whole other level: A size comparison of (probably) every sci-fi ship

The scientifically accurate Halley's Comet comic is even sadder

Heh. The Hello Kitty Caterpillar

MC Escher for the gamer age

It would take about 17mins to reach the asteroid belt at Star Trek warp-1

Ridiculously thorough fake biology paper on Wolverine's genetic mutations

? Yes, the whole plot for Ocarina of Time was ridiculous

It took us this long to think of DragonBall Z hair wax!?

? How the standard model of particle physics says "you are my everything"

I can't stop building this atom

Most Star Wars Jedi were idiots, and caused all the deaths in all six movies

Not exactly accurate, but we feel your pain terror bird

 

GIFs and Images for 2-Seconds of Wow

FYI Tigers have serious ups

AMERICA

? I might watch this salt skull on the shore for a while more

Ginormous photo of this shiny blue bee is totally worth it

I'll take my Andromeda on the rocks, please

Scientists test air vortices beautifully

? NASA's vehicle assembly building is so large, clouds have been observed forming near the ceiling

Even snow is pretty at the beach

When the Martian landscape looks like a brain

2013 is the year of the snake. How to draw it is even cooler than the zodiac

? If you're underwater, use nature's toothbrush!

A 1-gram object going at the same speed the ISS orbits at packs a serious punch

? What an amazing shot: Skydivers go down as a rocket launch goes up

An SEM can show you the bio-films that grow over your sutures

They ran Windows in Prometheus, in case you were wondering

Space is everything. Literally. Even fireworks: The star cluster NGC 1929 glows blue and hot in X-ray wavelengths

? The horse head nebula is actually a kaiju fight. You will never unsee that, and that makes me happy.

One way to keep sunlight from heating up a body of water? UV-reflecting balls!

"I threw a tick I found on my roommate in some hand sanitizer and looked at it underneath my dissecting scope."

The velvet worm is absolutely bizarre, which is why I love it

? Insect philosophy: Live life for the moment, because carnivorous caterpillars

 

Pop Culture Happenings

Watch the mud island off Pakistan appear from orbit. Complete with vortex shedding!

? LHC Google street view!

Health Canada adds new warning labels to homeopathic "vaccines"

Privacy Opinions

Finding troubling misinformation about "alternative medicine" at the Mayo Clinic

? I was taken like everyone else, but I had to change my mind: Louis C.K. Is Wrong About Smartphones

Interesting statistics: The Outdoors Don’t Kill People

? A website dedicated to cataloging weird and beautiful shots found on Google street view

"...Extreme cognitive dissonance when the most patriotic thing in your American life is actually super-French."

XKCD doesn't like our universe's lobster habits

Kyle Hill is a science communicator who specializes in finding the secret science in your favorite fandom. He has a bachelor's degree in environmental engineering and a master's degree in communication research (with a focus on science, health, and the environment) from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Aside from co-hosting Al Jazeera America's science show, TechKnow, Hill is also a freelancer who has contributed to Wired, Nature Education, Popular Science, Slate, io9, Nautilus, and is a columnist for Skeptical Inquirer. He manages Nature Education's Student Voices blog, is a research fellow with the James Randi Educational foundation. Email: sciencebasedlife@gmail.com

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