Thanks to Apple, many of us have decorated our homes with shiny white plastic items. It turns out that one type of bird does exactly the same thing. Research in Spain has shown that the black kite that has the biggest collection of shiny white plastic pieces is likely to have the most chicks. (That […]
“The Big Beginning” is the eighth installment in the Symphony of Science music video series. It deals with the origins of our universe, covering the Big Bang theory, expansion and cooling of the universe, formation of galaxies, the interplay between matter and anti-matter, and cosmic radiation. The music video features Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, Carl […]
The idea that friends are the new family might go deeper than purely cultural patterns. A US study raises the possibility that genetics may contribute to who we do and don’t form friendships with. James Fowler, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, has previously looked into the way humans form social […]
Cloning sheep was scientifically impressive, but not that visually impressive. Cloning mice had research value, but created footage that was a little freaky at best. But using cloning to get an elephant to give birth to a woolly mammoth? Now that’s science you can see. This isn’t the plot of another Jurassic Park sequel, but […]
By Derek Clark Contributing Writer [GAS] Imagine you’re a young go-getter scientist trying to finish your Ph.D. in geology when you find yourself alone in the lab on a Friday night. After you’ve posted all your Mohs hardness penis jokes on Twitter and checked your ‘Geologists Are Sexy’ blog for comments, you get bored and […]
By Derek Clark Contributing Writer [GAS] The more I live on this planet, the more I want to pack up and move to a new one. Considering humanity’s impressive talent at destroying this world of ours (wars, environmental disasters, Justin Bieber and whatever it was my coworker just did to that bathroom), I think it’s […]
No, this isn’t an official commercial promoting NASA, but we definitely think it should be. Sit back, relax, and enjoy. [Via Reddit]
Try as you might, you can’t walk in a straight line without a visible guide point, like the Sun or a star. You might think you’re walking straight, but as NPR’s Robert Krulwich reports, a map of your route would reveal you are doomed to walk in circles. So, anyone here care to explain the […]
By Derek Clark Contributing Writer, [GAS] BZZZT! That was the sound I heard just before yelping like a little schoolgirl and grabbing my earlobe in pain. The next sound was the giggle of my five-year-old son. “This is my death ray, daddy!” he said, pointing his little index finger with the thumb still cocked at […]
The Joy of Stats is an hour long documentary that will take you through the wonderful world of statistics. Yes, I know that the idea of spending an hour watching this will turn quite a few of you down, but since the documentary is presented by superstar boffin Professor Hans Rosling, whose eye-opening and funny […]