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
? “Your abdomen explodes. Her gonads are erupting out from where your genitals are.” The most horrifying parasite you haven’t heard of.
Adorable/Interesting: So You Know, This Is How to Incubate Baby Cephalopods in a Soda Bottle
Jumping spiders are bringing sexy back, or maybe twerking
? Believe it or not, we’ve never had a real number for this (until now): How Many Cells Are In Your Body?
Get enough mirrors, and you can melt steel
On the psychology of online comments
Spiders who come bearing gifts have longer, more successful sex. Romantic arachnids
? A switch of just two amino acids lets this mouse turn scorpion venom into a painkiller
The oarfish isn’t even close to the weirdest thing you will find in the ocean’s depths
Good points, but I’m not sure I’m convinced: Why We Should Accept GMO Labels
? Ever have a lip ring that is actually a severed ant head? These bats have
Now that The Walking Dead has an infectious disease to deal with, the next episode should follow some science
Humans have no monopoly on moral behavior
“Doris Taylor doesn’t take it as an insult when people call her Dr Frankenstein.”
Science proves: In the Wake of the Boston Marathon Bombing, Twitter Was Full of Lies
Sweeping longread on how we have tinkered with the code of life, making aliens on Earth
Comprehensive longread about the great questions surrounding our favorite dinosaur
? Really well-written longread on why your brain needs more downtime
The Man Who Forgot Everything. Fascinating longread about the world’s most celebrated amnesiac
Watching water droplets levitating in harmonics of standing waves. TL;DR water’s got some moves
“A study of nearly a million girls eradicates anxieties about mass HPV vaccinations.”
When did we start believing in Martians? Why did we stop?
? When a NASA rocket fails, at least it leaves a pretty trail
How can we tell if babies have a sense of numbers? Watch their eyes
In all the caves in all the world, you had to be in this one, but that’s cool, because you’re a venomous crustacean
A comparison of different wolves and their sizes, for your lupine enjoyment
Science has a big problem with the part that makes it so great: Unreliable research
Even turtles get the bends, in their bones
Really great TED ED animation on the science of stage fright (in a lovely Tim Burton style)
? Take an amazingly disjointed (in a good way) journey, doodling fractals in math class
Why computing power used to be measured in “kilo-girls”
In which I am super jealous of Veritasium: 10 Facts About Great White Sharks
The great thing about science is that it lets us smash frozen Koosh balls
The sea creature that looks like an exploded kidney bean
? The science of reading shows that print and digital experiences are complementary, not adversarial
Why are bugs attracted to light? Actually, we don’t know
Nerdery at its Finest
The true point of the LHC is to make platypuses
? Data doesn’t lie: You should have picked Squirtle
The legendary Pokemon who has a real ancestor with the greatest antlers in history
You teach me and I’ll teach you! A phylogeny of all the known Poke?mon families
First-person Pokemon battle are much more intense
? So good: A Pokemon comic strip that is incredibly dark
Statistically, you shouldn’t switch in the Monty Hall problem if you want a goat
Seriously, don’t read the comments, listen to them read back to you
? What Superman 3 teaches us about computer programming
Gabe Newell is indestructible. Creatures you control get +2/+2, flying, and indestructible
Humanity will soon be outnumbered by the LEGO version of itself
Elbow rocket, now! Check out these amazing kaiju LEGO fights
? The best Halloween decoration is a quadcopter ghost
Again, quadcopters were simply made for Halloween
Re-titling sci-fi books to what they should be called
The final frontier is on your keyboard
“For this procedure, you will need at least one 8-Ball, which will be destroyed.”
Living on an asteroid where achieving escape velocity is as easy as dunking a basketball
The Star Trek facepalm collection
? STOP. Vader Time
Schwarzenegger does AMA, re-records their favorite lines for fans, because he’s awesome
GIFs and Images That Make You Wow
Spin a wet tennis ball just right and you model a galaxy
The horseshoe crab is like a beautiful engine turning over
? Time to look again at this glorious GIF of the goblin shark
? This owl is a total player
Here’s a moth pretending to be a wasp
Green pit viper is not impressed
Would you let a shrimp clean your teeth?
Undercurrents are damn scary. I imagine that’s why those signs on the beach are there…
You can’t really soak a sponge in mercury, just so you know
? My favorite GIF of all time, really: Barn owl in the snow
Ants: One size never fits all
Imagine if trees gave off wi-fi signals…
Radial water freezing on a car hub cap
? Oh, vampire bats can gallop, by the way
Cruel, unusual, totally understandable. Damn squirrels
Pop Culture Happenings
? My 2013 Wildlife Photograph of the Year winner? “The water bear”
Between 1967 and 1973 there were 13 Saturn V launches. This video shows all of them
? A review of the DSM-5 as a dystopian novel
The Best Science-inspired Album Covers Of All Time
“The Secret” is bullshit but it comes out of a movement that has shaped American History
? Pacific Rim: Most awesome dumb movie, or most dumb awesome movie?
Christopher Hitchens: A legend for confusing reasons
http://ThatsNotHowYouPipette.tumblr.com/
? I think this art is inspired: The Little People Project
Where Did the Fear of Poisoned Halloween Candy Come From? From the media and one evil parent
Nebraska approves a study intentionally questioning climate change, scientists refuse to carry it out