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
?Blame the Victim, But Get a Bentley. What would it be like if “The Secret” was right?
Learned a ton from this: The Devil’s Tumor
Do fetuses poop? Kinda?
Meet “the Mr. T of gastropods”
What does tennis grunting actually do besides make a racket? (heh)
? Amazing physics on display: The jar of beads that empties itself
How to tell if a “shark in flooded city streets after a storm” photo is a fake in 5 easy steps
An ode to a chalk octopus and a sauntering cat
Why we can no longer think of obesity as simple thermodynamics
Is science close to the fabled head transplant?
Floating mystery blob is actually a gelatinous tube of squid. Yay nature!
? Insightful, comprehensive: Do Some Harm. Best analysis of the failure of Chinese medicine I’ve ever read
To beat cancer, we might have to outsmart evolution
A father’s genetic quest to understand his daughter’s disease
A physicist looks at the universe and finds that God is not a good theory
Good time to revisit: Will changing your profile picture do anything for marriage equality?
?How Uncertainty Can Help Fight Science Denialism
We have just smashed the record for the oldest sequenced genome with horse bones
Try explaining intelligent design to this struggling Tapir with an enormous and flexible penis
What magnets can tell you about SCOTUS rulings
?A myth about Komodo dragons bites the dust (A myth which I totally believed, until science)
“There’s no reason at all not to tell readers if no peer review has vetted the information.”
? Fantastic use of GIFs in a science story: How to recycle glass bottles.
How science removes the purpose from life while making it even more astounding
Archimedes didn’t build a death ray, but his real inventions are still fascinating us
“Suicide peaks with the tulips and lilacs.” Clues in the Cycle of Suicide
?The Fungus that Reduced Humanity to The Last of Us. How a new videogame is using science to bring us the most realistic zombies ever.
So you want to be a science writer?
How an AK-47 can re-chamber itself faster underwater than in air
“In harvesting the fruits of wonder, we came into our own as a species.” Did wonder evolve?
?Wine tasting is bunk, full of a “vocabulary of bullshit”
How the beauty of a butterfly’s wings is a study in cosmic uncertainty
Does homeopathic mosquito repellent work? No. Just like any other homeopathic pill
A levitating superconductor on a mobius strip is like an awesome science train
Nerdom at its Finest
In The Last of Us, there is more than one kind of clicker
An Educational Video on Graboids. In case you were heading out with Kevin Bacon into the desert anytime soon
? You guys, I’ve found Daft Punk’s next instrument. It might be even better than their helmets
Astronomers are so easy to fool when it comes to habitable exoplanets
Only for the well-versed in physics: Could Superman punch you into space?
I bought this t-shirt today because it combines three things I love to nerd out about into one. Nerd > Hipster
? Reminder: Little girls are still better at designing superheroes than you
A Biophysicist Fact-Checks World War Z
The only thing World War Z has in common with the book is the title. Really
XCKD on the weirdest world record: Number of hotdogs eaten while skydiving in a wing-suit
? When The Last of Us are Left, How Long Would it Take to Transcribe Wikipedia?
The many worlds hypothesis of Pokemon
What is the name of that guy from Star Trek again?
? This simple comic-related question took an amazing turn: Scooby-Doo and Secular Humanism
Life-Size Lego Alien Facehugger
Pop-culture moves ahead with feathered dinosaurs even if Jurassic Park will not
GIFs and Images for 2-seconds of Fun
If you aim high and think positive, sometimes you get your horns caught in the power lines
Olympus Mons makes Hawaii like pretty pathetic volcano-wise
Afraid of Jaws? Just be glad we don’t see his ancient cousin anymore
A super infographic: Every Super Power!
? This is an upside-down butterfly that looks like a right-side up moth
I’m no gun nut, but the intricacies of a flying tank shell are mesmerizing
GIF not for the squeamish: Keeping a donor heart alive
? Reminder: Scientifically, at some point, that Internet commenter was nothing but an asshole
Reminder: Goblin shark mouths exist
Reminder: Natural beauty is everywhere
Stare at the black dot, and the moving bar changes color. Your brain is weird
Still maybe my favorite shuttle launch photo
Ohhhhh. This is where arachnophobia comes from
Awesome. Drawing the Joker only with salt on a black surface
Science fact > Science fiction: The Flight Deck of Space Shuttle Endeavour
? After re-watching Jurassic Park last night, reeeeeallly hard not to start posting this picture on pseudoscience websites
Just another day at the beach with a water spout
Most accurate golfer or most trusting friend. William Tell with a golf ball
? I’m no radiologist, but when x-ray’d, corsets look like the jack up ladies pretty bad. Absolutely Fascinating
Vegetation on Earth over the course of a year
Teeth: weirder when in your face
Oh Yeah, Other Things Happen in the World
? Some science to print out for the kids: The Drake Equation Illustrated
Bullet art that is “a static testament to an energy that was once violently kinetic.”
Interesting: Are seniors more satisfied with life if they have pets?
Now that is Mass Effect cosplay
Take the evil “Literacy Test” Louisiana gave black voters in the 1960s. You’ll fail.
Opponents of gay marriage going through the five stages of grief
What caused the fall of the Roman empire? Everything
8 Lessons MST3K Taught Me About Writing, Life, and Everything
All Jose Canseco’s knowledge bombs about science collected in one place, and when they were a win for science communication
Your kids never heard of Mister Rogers? Fix that with this lovely auto-tuned song
You can look at a 30-year Google Earth timelapse of any place on the planet
Man with Parkinson’s switches off his brain pacemaker with dramatic results
? Playing first-person Pac-Man makes it way more intense
I was skeptical at first, but this uber hydrophobic spray is chemistry MAGIC
Time magazine is completely wrong about atheists not helping in Oklahoma
For the 90s kids: Beanie babies didn’t really hold their value
