Dining Like Darwin: When Scientists Swallow Their Subjects : The Salt : NPR
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/08/12/430075644/dining-like-darwin-when-scientists-swallow-their-subjects
Once he embarked on The Beagle, Darwin's penchant for bold food choices continued to evolve. He ate puma ("remarkably like veal in taste"), iguanas, armadillos. He not only ate giant tortoises, but tried drinking their bladder contents: "The fluid was quite limpid, and had only a very slightly bitter taste." He ate a 20-pound rodent (usually assumed to be an agouti) that provided "the very best meat I ever tasted." He even accidentally ate part of an ostrich-like bird called a lesser rhea, after spending months trying to catch it so that he could describe the species. (Don't worry: Once he realized what they were dining on, Darwin made everyone stop eating and sent a package of leftover bones, skin and feathers back to England.)
Scientists uncovered the nutrients bees were missing — Colonies surged 15-fold | ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260327000518.htm
Scientists have developed a breakthrough “superfood” for honeybees by engineering yeast to produce the essential nutrients normally found in pollen. In controlled trials, colonies fed this specially designed diet produced up to 15 times more young, showing a dramatic boost in reproduction and overall health. As climate change and modern agriculture reduce the availability of natural pollen, this innovation could offer a practical way to support struggling bee populations.
What imitating an iconic robot reveals on allospecific vocal imitation in parrots and starlings | Scientific Reports
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-23444-7?utm_source=FuckOff&utm_medium=FuckOff&utm_campaign=FuckOff
This study compared nine parrot species and European starlings on their ability to imitate monophonic and multiphonic sounds created for the Star Wars character R2-D2. These complex synthesizer sounds allow for a strong comparative analysis with the same spectral complexity imitated by multiple species. Our results show that starlings have a higher accuracy when imitating multiphonic sounds than parrots
Stellar Harvest — Center for PostNatural History
https://www.postnatural.org/stellar-harvest?utm_source=FuckOff&utm_medium=FuckOff&utm_campaign=FuckOff
Pell designed the Stellar Harvest project to use the light-concentrating power of a large reflecting telescope to gather light from the brightest available star in the night sky for the smallest light-loving microorganisms on Earth - phytoplankton. The project will examine the ability of a type of phytoplankton known as diatoms, which are found in every aquatic environment on the planet and responsible for a significant amount of the oxygen we breathe, to grow off the light from a star.
How It's Made - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL39_ud5aKSvnYDhKdB7wTDUZRiE8RaJat
Explore the fascinating world of how everyday items are manufactured and produced. From aluminum foil to contact lenses, discover how many of the things we buy and use are made.
Engineers repurpose a mosquito proboscis to create a 3D printing nozzle
https://techxplore.com/news/2025-11-repurpose-mosquito-proboscis-3d-nozzle.html
The team tested their "bio-nozzle" by building a custom 3D printer, called a 3D necroprinter. They mounted the mosquito proboscis on a standard dispensing tip and used it to deposit specialized bioinks.
Breathing Through Our Butts Declared Safe After First Human Trial
https://www.404media.co/breathing-through-our-butts-declared-safe-after-first-human-trial/
Scientists have tested out enteral ventilation—a possible method of administering oxygen with a liquid delivered through the rectum that is then absorbed into the intestines—in humans for the first time. The trial demonstrated that this method of ventilation is safe and “paves the way for future studies to see if this technique can help patients with respiratory failure,” according to a study published on Monday in the journal Med.
Synthetic Survey Data? It's Not Data
https://quantuxblog.com/synthetic-survey-data-its-not-data
My personal conclusion — as a matter of logic, empirical findings, statistical reasoning, and scientific principles — is that synthetic data has no place in survey research. I also believe the purported use cases for synthetic data are unconvincing; alternative approaches are superior in their results and are less risky in practice. And there are important questions about research ethics that each of us should consider.
Why I hate the index finger - PMC
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2997957/
To me, index fingers portray a hideous personality reflecting conceit and pantywaist attitudes. In essence, they are smart-ass digits we can often do without. If I had to lose a finger and had my choice, I would choose first my nondominant hand index ray and next the other index. I find index digits easy to hate and sometimes hard to love.
Scientists are trying to understand cephalopods’ behavior and molecular makeup.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2015/12/16/scientists_are_trying_to_understand_cephalopods_behavior_and_molecular_make.html
Growing up unvaccinated: A healthy lifestyle couldn’t prevent many childhood illnesses.
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2014/01/growing_up_unvaccinated_a_healthy_lifestyle_couldn_t_prevent_many_childhood.html
So the anti-vaccine advocates’ fears of having the “natural immunity sterilized out of us” just doesn’t cut it for me. How could I, with my idyllic childhood and my amazing health food, get so freaking ill all the time?
God, Darwin and My College Biology Class - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/opinion/sunday/god-darwin-and-my-college-biology-class.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed&_r=0
EVERY year around this time, with the college year starting, I give my students The Talk. It isn’t, as you might expect, about sex, but about evolution and religion, and how they get along. More to the point, how they don’t.
God, Darwin and My College Biology Class - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/opinion/sunday/god-darwin-and-my-college-biology-class.html?WT.nav=MostEmailed&_r=0&action=click&module=MostEmailed&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&src=me&version=Full
EVERY year around this time, with the college year starting, I give my students The Talk. It isn’t, as you might expect, about sex, but about evolution and religion, and how they get along. More to the point, how they don’t.
Faith in science and religion: Truth, authority, and the orderliness of nature.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/11/faith_in_science_and_religion_truth_authority_and_the_orderliness_of_nature.html
The conflation of faith as “unevidenced belief” with faith as “justified confidence” is simply a word trick used to buttress religion.
The Man Who Would Teach Machines to Think - James Somers - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/the-man-who-would-teach-machines-to-think/309529/
Douglas Hofstadter, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Gödel, Escher, Bach, thinks we've lost sight of what artificial intelligence really means. His stubborn quest to replicate the human mind.
The Man Who Would Teach Machines to Think - James Somers - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/the-man-who-would-teach-machines-to-think/309529
Douglas Hofstadter, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Gödel, Escher, Bach, thinks we've lost sight of what artificial intelligence really means. His stubborn quest to replicate the human mind.
Astronaut and a Writer at the Movies - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/01/science/space/an-astronaut-and-a-writer-at-the-movies.html
As we recall from bitter memory, the Hubble and the space station are in vastly different orbits. Getting from one to the other requires so much energy that not even space shuttles had enough fuel to do it. The telescope is 353 miles high, in an orbit that keeps it near the Equator; the space station is about 100 miles lower, in an orbit that takes it far north, over Russia.
To have the movie astronauts Matt Kowalski (Mr. Clooney) and Ryan Stone (Ms. Bullock) zip over to the space station would be like having a pirate tossed overboard in the Caribbean swim to London.
The snake whose bite can send you back through puberty
http://io9.com/5878200/the-snake-whose-bite-can-send-you-back-through-puberty
In a study published in The Lancet, about twenty-nine percent of patients who recovered from Russell's Viper venom had signs of hypopituitarism or Sheehan's Syndrome. Both conditions have unremarkable symptoms, like a constant feeling of cold and an unusual amount of fatigue. What distinguishes them is a sort of reverse-puberty in adults. They lose their sex drive. They lose fertility. They lose their body hair, especially pubic hair. Men lose facial hair and muscles. Women lose curves as the condition causes them to lose weight. Some doctors even report loss of mental faculties as the condition progresses.
'Nanogardens' Sprout Up On The Surface Of A Penny : The Picture Show : NPR
http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2013/05/20/185509508/nanogardens-sprout-up-on-the-surface-of-a-penny
Engineers at Harvard University have figured out a way to make microscopic sculptures of roses, tulips and violets, each smaller than a strand of hair.
Why Americans Are the Weirdest People in the World
http://www.psmag.com/magazines/pacific-standard-cover-story/joe-henrich-weird-ultimatum-game-shaking-up-psychology-economics-53135/
Joe Henrich and his colleagues are shaking the foundations of psychology and economics—and hoping to change the way social scientists think about human behavior and culture.
Why Americans Are the Weirdest People in the World
http://www.psmag.com/magazines/pacific-standard-cover-story/joe-henrich-weird-ultimatum-game-shaking-up-psychology-economics-53135
Joe Henrich and his colleagues are shaking the foundations of psychology and economics—and hoping to change the way social scientists think about human behavior and culture.
The Hidden Connection Between Medieval Land Parceling and Modern American Psychology | Wired Opinion | Wired.com
http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/11/how-a-quirk-of-medieval-farm-shapes-led-to-the-american-psychology-today/
The fact that the farm, not the transportation, came first is important. It was a geographic case of the tail wagging the dog.
The Hidden Connection Between Medieval Land Parceling and Modern American Psychology | Wired Opinion | Wired.com
http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/11/how-a-quirk-of-medieval-farm-shapes-led-to-the-american-psychology-today
The fact that the farm, not the transportation, came first is important. It was a geographic case of the tail wagging the dog.
Bombshell: Koch-Funded Study Finds 'Global Warming Is Real', 'On The High End' And 'Essentially All' Due To Carbon Pollution | ThinkProgress
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/07/28/602151/bombshell-koch-funded-study-finds-global-warming-is-real-on-the-high-end-and-essentially-all-due-to-carbon-pollution/
Our results show that the average temperature of the earth’s land has risen by two and a half degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years, including an increase of one and a half degrees over the most recent 50 years. Moreover, it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases.
Bombshell: Koch-Funded Study Finds 'Global Warming Is Real', 'On The High End' And 'Essentially All' Due To Carbon Pollution | ThinkProgress
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/07/28/602151/bombshell-koch-funded-study-finds-global-warming-is-real-on-the-high-end-and-essentially-all-due-to-carbon-pollution
Our results show that the average temperature of the earth’s land has risen by two and a half degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years, including an increase of one and a half degrees over the most recent 50 years. Moreover, it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases.
Bill Nye to CNN: ‘The two sides aren’t equal’ on climate change | The Raw Story
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/02/bill-nye-to-cnn-the-two-sides-arent-equal-on-climate-change/
“There are a couple of things that you can’t really dispute,” Nye explained to CNN’s Carol Costello. “Sixteen of the last 17 years have been the hottest years on record. That’s just how it is.”
“I appreciate that we want to show two sides of the stories — there’s a tradition in journalism that goes back quite a ways, I guess — but the two sides aren’t equal here. You have tens of thousands of scientists who are very concerned and you have a few people who are in business of equating or drawing attention to the idea that uncertainty is the same as doubt. When you have a plus or minus percentage, that’s not the same thing as not believing the whole thing at all.”
Bill Nye to CNN: ‘The two sides aren’t equal’ on climate change | The Raw Story
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/02/bill-nye-to-cnn-the-two-sides-arent-equal-on-climate-change
“There are a couple of things that you can’t really dispute,” Nye explained to CNN’s Carol Costello. “Sixteen of the last 17 years have been the hottest years on record. That’s just how it is.”
“I appreciate that we want to show two sides of the stories — there’s a tradition in journalism that goes back quite a ways, I guess — but the two sides aren’t equal here. You have tens of thousands of scientists who are very concerned and you have a few people who are in business of equating or drawing attention to the idea that uncertainty is the same as doubt. When you have a plus or minus percentage, that’s not the same thing as not believing the whole thing at all.”
Thalience — KarlSchroeder.com
http://www.kschroeder.com/my-books/ventus/thalience
Now maybe you can see how science could have a successor: thalience would use objective truth as an artistic medium and merge subjectivity and objectivity in a creative activity whose purpose is the re-sanctification of the natural world. To believe in an uplifting and satisfying vision of your place in the universe, and to know that this vision is true (or as true as anything can be) would be sublime. Thalience would be an activity worthy of post-scientific humanity, or our own biological or post-biological successors.
The fake chemical compound Isaac Asimov invented to punk science writers
http://io9.com/5887014/the-fake-chemical-compound-isaac-asimov-invented-to-punk-science-writers
the only way for the compound to be more soluble than it already was would be if it dissolved before it came in contact with the water. He decided this would be a good basis for another short story, and then realized this represented the perfect way to deal with his concerns about scientific writing
Cosmic Log - How monkeys handle moral outrage
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/20/10459741-how-monkeys-handle-moral-outrage
When Occupy Wall Street and similar protests played out over the past year, the phenomenon looked familiar to Emory University primatologist Frans de Waal: He's seen similar moral outrage over economic inequity expressed by monkeys and chimps. And he thinks we could learn a lesson or two from our fellow primates.
The Mystery of the Canadian Whiskey Fungus | Magazine
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/05/ff_angelsshare/all/1
When he arrived at the warehouse, the first thing he noticed (after “the beautiful, sweet, mellow smell of aging Canadian whiskey,” he says) was the black stuff. It was everywhere—on the walls of buildings, on chain-link fences, on metal street signs, as if a battalion of Dickensian chimney sweeps had careened through town. “In the back of the property, there was an old stainless steel fermenter tank,” Scott says. “It was lying on its side, and it had this fungus growing all over it. Stainless steel!” The whole point of stainless steel is that things don’t grow on it.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 47 year old television signals bouncing back to Earth
http://www.rimmell.com/bbc/news.htm
A BBC team have been working closely with Dr Venn's team to help recover the signals. BBC Television historian Peter Wells, explained "We now know these are original broadcasts. So far we have recovered about 7 weeks of old television signals from space. Every day in our lab is like traveling back in time. And speaking of which we have just started the digital recovery of signals that contain lost Doctor Who episodes.
Banishing consciousness: the mystery of anaesthesia - health - 29 November 2011 - New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228402.300-banishing-consciousness-the-mystery-of-anaesthesia.html?full=true
The development of general anaesthesia has transformed surgery from a horrific ordeal into a gentle slumber. It is one of the commonest medical procedures in the world, yet we still don't know how the drugs work. Perhaps this isn't surprising: we still don't understand consciousness, so how can we comprehend its disappearance?
Matt Mercier: The physics of triangles
http://storycollider.org/podcast/2011-11-27
Matt Mercier was failing high school physics, until he started dating a girl whose father was a physics teacher.
BBC News - Neutrino experiment repeat at Cern finds same result
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15791236
If confirmed by other experiments, the find could undermine one of the basic principles of modern physics.
Neutrino experiment replicates faster-than-light finding : Nature News & Comment
http://www.nature.com/news/neutrino-experiment-replicates-faster-than-light-finding-1.9393
Physicists have replicated the finding that the subatomic particles called neutrinos seem to travel faster than light. It is a remarkable confirmation of a stunning result, yet most in the field remain sceptical that the ultimate cosmic speed limit has truly been broken.
BBC drops Frozen Planet's climate change episode to sell show better abroad - Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8889541/BBC-drops-Frozen-Planets-climate-change-episode-to-sell-show-better-abroad.html
Viewers in the United States, where climate change sceptics are particularly strong group, will not see the full episode.
The Large Hadron Collider may have discovered why we don't live in a universe of antimatter
http://io9.com/5859845/the-large-hadron-collider-may-have-discovered-why-we-dont-live-in-a-universe-of-antimatter
Must Watch: Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Pamela Gay, and Lawrence Krauss discuss our future in space
http://io9.com/5851956/must-watch-bill-nye-neil-degrasse-tyson-pamela-gay-and-lawrence-krauss-discuss-our-future-in-space
The video, originally shot back in July at TAM 2011 Las Vegas, is of a panel featuring Bill Nye, astronomers Neil DeGrasse Tyson & Pamela Gay, and theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss—and the entire discussion is moderated by Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait. The subjects raised are consequential, the discussions thought provoking, and the opinions of the panelists refreshingly diverse (and often conflicting).
Radar-like sensors bring touch sensitivity to everyday items | The Verge
http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/1/2529957/radar-like-sensors-bring-touch-sensitivity-to-everyday-items
Utilizing a technology known as time domain reflectometry, a pulse is sent through a wire every time it's touched until it hits a detector, which reflects the pulse back. Based on the speed of the pulse and the time it takes to return, software can pinpoint the starting point of the pulse. The touch-sensitive wire can be placed onto any regular item — the wire can even take the place of a guitar string, while a wire pattern can be embedded inside deformable objects like clothes.
City lights could reveal alien civilizations | ExtremeTech
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/102661-city-lights-on-other-planets-could-reveal-alien-life
New research conducted by Abraham Loeb from Harvard and Edwin Turner from Princeton shows that electric, artificial lights on remote planets could be detected using next-generation ground and space telescopes. The basic approach is simple: planets that are exclusively illuminated by a local sun will have one “light signature,” while a planet with artificial lights will have another. Loeb and Turner say that this technique, with our current telescopes, would be able to pick out a major terrestrial city on the edge of the Solar System, in the Kuiper belt (50 AU) — but future telescopes, or the telescopes belonging to advanced, alien races, could see farther.
Must Watch: Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Pamela Gay, and Lawrence Krauss discuss our future in space [Video]
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/vip/~3/du8yiu5mRr4/must-watch-bill-nye-neil-degrasse-tyson-pamela-gay-and-lawrence-krauss-discuss-our-future-in-space
Climate Skeptics Take Another Hit (Kevin Drum/Mother Jones)
http://www.memeorandum.com/111021/p19#a111021p19
S#*@ scientists say
http://boingboing.net/2011/10/18/s-scientists-say.html
Quantum Levitation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=autoshare&v=Ws6AAhTw7RA
Researchers find that tiny tubes of carbon bound together in a "yarn" rotate like muscles - but with a thousands of times more twist than ever seen before.
http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/lbyhy/researchers_find_that_tiny_tubes_of_carbon_bound
TOM THE DANCING BUG: "Governor Rick, Science Hick," starring Rick Perry!!!
http://boingboing.net/2011/10/05/tom-the-dancing-bug-governor-rick-science-hick-starring-rick-perry.html
Every Child Is A Scientist | Wired Science | Wired.com
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/09/little-kids-are-natural-scientists
I have an unwritten blog post in my head about this, re: religion & faith vs science & doubt. If you have faith in a bunch of answers, the universe is boring. If you have doubt about many things, you have room for adventure.
Merlin W. Donald - Queen's University
http://psyc.queensu.ca/faculty/donald
Merlin Donald is a Emeritus Professor in the Department of Psychology and Faculty of Education, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. A cognitive neuroscientist with a background in philosophy, he is the author of many scientific papers, and two influential books: Origins of the Modern Mind: Three stages in the evolution of culture and cognition (Harvard, 1991), and A Mind So Rare: The evolution of human consciousness (Norton, 2001).
The Great Principles of Computing » American Scientist
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/id.10402,y.2010,no.5,content.true,page.1,css.print/issue.aspx
"The great-principles framework reveals a rich set of rules on which all computation is based. These principles interact with the domains of the physical, life and social sciences, as well as with computing technology itself."
In breakthrough, nerve connections are regenerated after spinal cord injury
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/uoc--ibn080510.php
I hate Traditional Chinese Medicine : Pharyngula
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/08/i_hate_traditional_chinese_med.php
Kitten + mouse + magnets + mad scientist = ɟʇʍ : pics
http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/bsh3i/kitten_mouse_magnets_mad_scientist_???/c0ocwki=
Comic-con reacts to Fred Phelps : Pharyngula
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/07/comic-con_reacts_to_fred_phelp.php
BBC News - 'Artificial life' breakthrough announced by scientists
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10132762.stm
"Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first synthetic living cell.
The researchers constructed a bacterium's "genetic software" and transplanted it into a host cell. "
ScienceDirect - Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine : Are full or empty beer bottles sturdier and does their fracture-threshold suffice to break the human skull?
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_acct=C000050221&_coverDate=04/30/2009&_docanchor=&_fmt=high&_ob=ArticleURL&_orig=search&_rdoc=1&_sort=d&_udi=B8CY1-4TVY5PW-1&_urlVersion=0&_user=10&_userid=10&_version=1&md5=e198291d4a28294f4d077e1d6888f8ce&view=c
"Beer bottles are often used in physical disputes. If the bottles break, they may give rise to sharp trauma. However, if the bottles remain intact, they may cause blunt injuries. In order to investigate whether full or empty standard half-litre beer bottles are sturdier and if the necessary breaking energy surpasses the minimum fracture-threshold of the human skull, we tested the fracture properties of such beer bottles in a drop-tower."
RANDOM.ORG - True Random Number Service
http://www.random.org
"Perhaps you have wondered how predictable machines like computers can generate randomness. In reality, most random numbers used in computer programs are pseudo-random, which means they are a generated in a predictable fashion using a mathematical formula. This is fine for many purposes, but it may not be random in the way you expect if you're used to dice rolls and lottery drawings."
Unorthodox - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/unorthodox
"This has three odd consequences. The first is that, by the end of sex, the two individuals have become genetically identical. It’s as if you and your mate began coitus as yourselves and finished as identical twins. The second odd consequence is that, partway through its life, a ciliate can radically alter its genetic make-up; genetically speaking, the transformation is so extreme that it’s as if you changed into one of your children. Talk about being reborn."
Measure the Speed of Light Using Your Microwave | Orbiting Frog
http://orbitingfrog.com/blog/2008/05/13/measure-the-speed-of-light-using-your-microwave
"The fact that microwaves are now readily available to most of us in the western world and they are only a few centimetres in length, means that you can measure the speed of light in your very own home.The quickest and tastiest way to perform this little experiment is with marshmallows, but chocolate chips also work. You’ll obviously need a microwave oven as well, and a large, microwaveable dish. You will need a ruler, too."
Turkey: Archeological Dig Reshaping Human History - Newsweek.com
http://www.newsweek.com/id/233844
"Standing on the hill at dawn, overseeing a team of 40 Kurdish diggers, the German-born archeologist waves a hand over his discovery here, a revolution in the story of human origins. Schmidt has uncovered a vast and beautiful temple complex, a structure so ancient that it may be the very first thing human beings ever built. The site isn't just old, it redefines old: the temple was built 11,500 years ago—a staggering 7,000 years before the Great Pyramid, and more than 6,000 years before Stonehenge first took shape. The ruins are so early that they predate villages, pottery, domesticated animals, and even agriculture—the first embers of civilization. In fact, Schmidt thinks the temple itself, built after the end of the last Ice Age by hunter-gatherers, became that ember—the spark that launched mankind toward farming, urban life, and all that followed."
Contrary Brin: The Real Struggle Behind Climate Change - A War on Expertise
http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2010/02/real-struggle-behind-climate-change-war.html
"Of course, to typify any lawful profession as across-the-board corrupt or cowardly is absurd, but to so besmirch the one professional cohort that is unambiguously the most brave, individualistic, honest, curious and smart of all, well, there has to be an agenda behind such drivel -- and there is one. The good old Boffin Effect. "
NASA Scientists Plan To Approach Girl By 2018 | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/nasa_scientists_plan_to_approach
Carbonating at Home with Improvised Equipment and Soda Fountains
http://www.truetex.com/carbonation.htm
"Carbonating tap water to make seltzer is easy, fast, and absurdly inexpensive with my improvised apparatus. All that is required is to place CO2 (carbon dioxide) gas in agitated contact with chilled water for a few seconds. In this essay, I'll show you how it is done with easy-to-find parts and common PET (polyethylene terephthalate, sometimes called PETE) soda bottles. I'll also explain the kinetic chemistry of why it works so well. And in the second half of this essay, I'll explain how I progressed from this improvised apparatus to installing a complete soda fountain in my home.
"
No Moods, Ads or Cutesy Fucking Icons (Re-reloaded) » PRISMs, Gom Jabbars, and Consciousness
http://www.rifters.com/crawl?p=791
"You are never more alive, more awake, more conscious, than when in excruciating conflict with yourself. If self-awareness is the hallmark of humanity, then Sophie’s Choice may be its most mind-expanding exemplar."
Reasons to be optimistic for the future - opinion - 09 September 2009 - New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327252.700-reasons-to-be-optimistic-for-the-future.html
"Now, more than ever, science and reason must prevail. The scale of the challenge is hard to overstate, but New Scientist is optimistic that we can succeed: our boundless doomsaying is more than matched by our boundless creativity and our ability to, eventually, do the right thing."
Why the #$%! Do We Swear? For Pain Relief: Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-do-we-swear
"Dropping the F-bomb or other expletives may not only be an expression of agony, but also a means to alleviate it"
Slice a bottle in half ... with string | Wonder How To
http://www.wonderhowto.com/wonder-of-the-day/cut-a-beer-bottle-in-half-with-a-string
"The ingredients necessary are simple: string, acetone and a match. ... The clean break in the glass occurs when the exact ring of heated glass comes in contact with the cold water. Thermal shock slices the bottle in half."
Rules for Time Travelers | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2009/05/14/rules-for-time-travelers
"0. There are no paradoxes.1. Traveling into the future is easy.2. Traveling into the past is hard — but maybe not impossible.3. Traveling through time is like traveling through space.4. Things that travel together, age together.5. Black holes are not time machines.6. If something happened, it happened.7. There is no meta-time.8. You can’t travel back to before the time machine was built.9. Unless you go to a parallel universe.10. And even then, your old universe is still there."
Don't Listen to Jenny McCarthy | Cracked.com
http://www.cracked.com/blog/dont-listen-to-jenny-mccarthy
"In one video, I heard her say “Contrary to scientific belief, autism is not genetic and I truly believe it is a genetic vulnerability.” You know why science never says it “truly believes” anything? Because it’s fucking science. Which isn’t to say that science is infallible, just that I respect that science won’t say that a vaccine is good for you because it “believes” in it."
How to brew beer in a coffee maker, using only materials commonly found on a modestly sized oceanographic research vessel. « Southern Fried Science
http://southernfriedscience.com/2009/04/26/how-to-brew-beer-in-a-coffee-maker-using-only-materials-commonly-found-on-a-modestly-sized-oceanographic-research-vessel
Women Smell Better Than Men: Scientific American Podcast
http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=women-smell-better-than-men-09-04-09
"Research at the Monell Chemical Senses Center finds that women have keener senses of smell than do men, and that men's body odors are harder to cover up than are women's. Christie Nicholson reports"
Image evolution
http://alteredqualia.com/visualization/evolve
'Star Trek' exhibit to make first Midwest stop in Detroit | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press
http://www.freep.com/article/20081210/NEWS01/812100400
Out of this world: British teddy bears strapped to helium weather balloon reach the edge of space | Mail Online
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1091896/Out-world-British-teddy-bears-strapped-helium-weather-balloon-reach-edge-space.html
"It's not often that Britain can claim a win in the space race. But these teddy bears drifting nearly 20 miles above Earth have become the first soft toys to take part in extra-vehicular activity (to use correct NASA jargon) at such an altitude."
The GOP ticket's appalling contempt for science and learning. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine
http://www.slate.com/id/2203120
"This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus. Those who despise science and learning are not anti-elitist. They are morally and intellectually slothful people who are secretly envious of the educated and the cultured. And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just "people of faith" but theocratic bullies. On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity."
BBspot - Evolutionary Acceleration Research Institute Ready to Start “Squirrel Smasher”
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2008/09/squirrel-smasher.html
"Scientists currently rely on computer simulations to smash biological units, but simulations can only do so much, and without the visceral enjoyment of seeing two squirrels collide at thousands of miles an hour."
Intel cuts electric cords with wireless power system - Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080821/ts_alt_afp/usitinternetenergychipcompanyintel
"Most importantly, the electricity was transmitted without zapping anything or anyone that got between the sending and receiving units."
Judge says UC can deny religious course credit
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/12/BAQT129NMG.DTL&tsp=1
"A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution. ... Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking."
Overcoming Bias: Joy in the Merely Real
http://www.overcomingbias.com/2008/03/joy-in-the-real.html
"You might say that scientists - at least some scientists - are those folk who are in principle capable of enjoying life in the real universe."
Hairy blobs found in acidic hell
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/ns-hbf060408.php
"Kathleen Benison, a geologist at Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, led a team that studied the sediments formed by acidic and very salty lakes in modern day Western Australia, and those deposited around 250 million years ago in North Dakota."
Op-Ed Contributor - Put a Little Science in Your Life - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/opinion/01greene.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
"Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that’s precise, predictive and reliable — a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empoweri
Einstein writes of 'childish superstition'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/12/peopleinscience.religion
"The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change
Blocks and Files - Data recovered from Seagate drive in Columbia shuttle disaster
http://blocksandfiles.com/article/5056
"The Kroll people managed to recover 90 percent or so of the 400MB of data from the drive with its cracked and burned casing."
PsyBlog: Why Psychology is Not Just Common Sense
http://www.spring.org.uk/2008/03/why-psychology-is-not-just-common-sense.php
"Ultimately what really sets psychology apart from common sense is the scientific method."
Science Text Attempts to Reconcile Religion and Science
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?cid=21921300&sid=406714
"The point is this: there has never -- never ever ever -- been a single thing that has been taken out of the science basket and put back in the god basket. Not one. Ever."
'Mythbusters' test seeks to determine if cockroaches could survive a nuclear holocaust
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/v-printer/story/9390500p-9303503c.html
"A team from the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters is at the Hanford nuclear reservation this week to get to the bottom of the nuclear survival myth."
071907_velociraptor1.jpg (JPEG Image, 320x240 pixels)
http://www.foxnews.com/images/root_images/071907_velociraptor1.jpg
The Tree of Life and "I Believe In Science" slogan
http://www.spreadshirt.com/shop.php?article_id=1304463&op=article&p=3
"The Tree of Life and "I Believe In Science" slogan in white on a green ringer tee."
Scientific Savvy? In U.S., Not Much - New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/science/30profile.html?ei=5070&en=09f6a1c897958ab2&ex=1183953600
"At a time when science permeates debates on everything from global warming to stem cell research, he said, people's inability to understand basic scientific concepts undermines their ability to take part in the democratic process."
Lick Observatory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lick_Observatory
"The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. It is situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, USA."
Boing Boing: Mr. Wizard (1917-2007)
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/06/12/mr_wizard_19172007.html
"Pioneering TV science educator Don Herbert, AKA Mr. Wizard, passed away this morning. He was almost 90 years old."
YouTube - Look Around You - Computer Games
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cBcrTucxiRc
"Jack then grows a beard with the help of the 'Computashave'"
Plastic sheets perform auto-origami - tech - 12 April 2007 - New Scientist Tech
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=dn11590
"Sheets of plastic that fold into tiny pyramids, boxes and spheres when water is added have been created by French researchers."
I Believe In Science
http://www.ibelieveinscience.com
"The Tree of Life design celebrates the theory of evolution and was created to give a voice to those who favor traditional biology and oppose the growing American support of various forms of creationism."
Exploratorium: Opportunities for Artists
http://www.exploratorium.edu/about/air.html
Bush Finds Error In Fermilab Calculations | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38718
"President Bush met with members of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory research team Monday to discuss a mathematical error he recently discovered in the famed laboratory's "Improved Determination Of Tau Lepton Paths From Inclusive Semileptonic B-M
xkcd - The tribulations of Bill Nye
http://xkcd.com/c200.html
Bill Nye, the disgruntled hungry science guy
Wired News: So. Many. Letters
http://www.wired.com/news/wiredmag/0,72220-0.html?tw=rss.index
"You all just started calmly talking. And talking. And talking. We got more responses to this article than to any piece in memory. Brimstone quotient: low."
Damn Interesting - Outer Space Exposure
http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=741
"Though an unprotected human would not long survive in the clutches of outer space, it is remarkable that survival times can be measured in minutes rather than seconds, and that one could endure such an inhospitable environment for almost two minutes with
The Flicker Fusion Factor
http://pages.cthome.net/rwinkler/fff.htm
"When we get behind the wheel of a car, we may think we gain a bird's power of flight, but actually we are poor, pathetic imitators of birds."
British scientists grow human liver in a laboratory | the Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?ct=5&icc=NEWS&icl=TabModule&ico=Homepage&in_article_id=413551&in_page_id=1770
"British scientists have grown the world's first artificial liver from stem cells in a breakthrough that will one day provide entire organs for transplant."
The Onion: Mars Rover Beginning To Hate Mars
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/54360
The conceit, originating on LJ, that Spirit is a disgruntled goth, while Opportunity is an what we'd call in High School days - a "social" has gone mainstream.
Richard Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God - Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20061023/cm_huffpost/032164
"We cannot, of course, disprove God, just as we can't disprove Thor, fairies, leprechauns and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. But, like those other fantasies that we can't disprove, we can say that God is very very improbable."
Can hot water freeze faster than cold water?
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/hot_water.html
"Hot water can in fact freeze faster than cold water for a wide range of experimental conditions."
NERD E BLOG: Top 5 Mythbusters Segments
http://nerdeblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/top-5-mythbusters-segments.html
"With the 4th season of Mythbusters drawing to a close I have compiled a list of some of the best segments in the shows history..."
onegoodmove: Colbert Dawkins
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2006/10/colbert_dawkins.html
"Stephen Colbert's interview of Richard Dawkins author of The God Delusion was excellent."
Damn Interesting - The Gravity Express
http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=696
"One interesting property of the Gravity Express is that its transit time would always be very, very close to forty-two minutes regardless of the distance travelled."
Charlie's Diary: Playing the Genocide Card
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2006/10/genocide.html
"The Lancet isn't just any medical journal ... It is not noted for publishing random speculation, agitprop, and crank letters — it's the top journal of record in its field."
Great Falls Tribune - Lawmaker fires back at governor‘s comments on age of Earth
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061009/NEWS01/61009005/1002
"A Republican state lawmaker is criticizing Gov. Brian Schweitzer for comments he made to a newspaper here about the lawmaker‘s belief that the planet is not millions of years old."
As We May Read -- Ginsparg 26 (38): 9606 -- Journal of Neuroscience
http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/26/38/9606?etoc=
"This is the real lesson of the move to electronic formats and distribution: not that everything should somehow be free, but that with many of the production tasks automatable or off-loadable to the authors, the editorial costs will then dominate the cost
The Extreme Sport of Origami
http://www.discover.com/issues/jul-06/features/origami?page=1
"A physicist's computer program speeds the creation of stupefyingly complex paper sculptures."
The True Face of Abortion Opponents | Needlenose
http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/3300
"So thanks Dr. Science, for driving a nice little wedge between these people and their nasty little judgemental causes and ripping away their thinly-veiled morality facade (oops, did I say veiled?) I don't like abortions either. Nobody does. I wish they c
Pharyngula: Another accolade from a 'prestigious' journal
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/08/another_accolade_from_a_presti.php
"It's always such an honor to be hated by people who believe the earth is less than 10,000 years old, was conjured into existence in six days, and that not believing their god appeared on Earth, like Zeus before Leda, means your non-existent soul will bur
Global Warming -- Signed, Sealed and Delivered - Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-oreskes24jul24,0,823343.story
"There is continuing debate in the scientific community over the likely rate of future change: not "whether" but "how much" and "how soon.""
Memo to the Public Relations Department. In the Pipeline:
http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2006/07/07/memo_to_the_public_relations_department.php
"if one of us ever does manage to change the world, it'll start with a puzzled glance at a computer screen, or a raised eyebrow while looking at a piece of paper. Instead of getting noisier, everything will get a lot quieter."
YouTube - Mentos and Coke explode
http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=9J6rGf1iGXU
"Mentos and Coke Explode when mixed."
MP3 link - Science advocate destroys global warming/AIDS dismisser
http://media.libsyn.com/media/sciencefriday/scifri-2006061623.mp3
Last week, Ira Flatow of NPR's Science Friday program did a segment on politics and science, bringing on Tom Bethell, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, and Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science.
Scientists sideline Bush opposition to stem cell research | The Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/07/harvard_stem_cel_projects
"While we understand and respect the sincerely held beliefs of those who oppose this research, we are equally sincere in our belief that the life-and-death medical needs of countless suffering children and adults justifies moving forward with this researc
Guardian Unlimited Books | Special Reports | Top scientist gives up on creationists
http://books.guardian.co.uk/hay2006/story/0,,1785655,00.html
"The most important difference between evolutionists and creationists, Prof Jones concluded, is that scientists are always prepared to say, "I don't know"."
Amazon.com: Precalculus for Christian Schools: Books: Kathy D. Pilger,Ron Tagliapietra
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1579246141/104-3738331-5415167?n=283155&v=glance
"Worse than you may imagine"
The Exploratorium - San Francisco - Yelp
http://www.yelp.com/biz/0RXDIJ4NhzUNMU2WpUN2XQ?hrid=lXYJQ5UyogEig_6rXoaTRA
"A hands-on museum with dozens of interactive exhibits explaining how and why things work. Even those with little or no interest in science will find themselves fascinated by a lot of the facts and figures told in simple laymen's terms."
'The Science Guy' is entertaining and provocative at MCC lecture
http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2006/04/06/04062006wacbillnye.html?cxcat=11&cxsvc=7&cxtype=rss
"He even ruffled a few religious feathers along the way."
Dispatches from the Culture Wars: William Dembski: Prophet for Hire
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2006/04/dembski_as_prophet.php
"It seems that evolution is perpetually just that close to collapsing, yet it never does."
Scotsman.com News - Sci-Tech - Fly me to the moon - by catapult
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=510172006
"Scots scientists have unveiled plans to develop a giant slingshot to catapult material from the earth to the moon."