For years science has been keeping a horrifying secret from us… okay, so maybe they haven’t kept it a secret from you, but I didn’t know anything about it until now! Anyway, that secret is DEEP SEA SQUIDS. They live deep underwater—the video below was shot at 7,500 feet—but I see no reason for them […]
Science!
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Don Ehlen’s Insect Safari
If you are not too squeamish about taxidermy, I do hope you’ve paid a visit to Paxton Gate, the natural sciences store up on N Mississippi, because it’s fascinating. In addition to some stuffed specimens that go far beyond hunting lodge/PNW dining decor variety, they have a huge selection of mounted insects, an excellent books […]
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The Science Studio's "Best Science Multimedia on the Web"
With apologies to your productivity today, the Kickstarter-funded Science Studio recently released a collection of the “best science multimedia on the web” from last year. It’s a fun, engaging collection of video and audio work, all aimed at a general audience and vetted by the Science Studio’s judges, ranging from Neil DeGrase Tyon’s tribute to […]
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Do You Know Where You’ll Go Poo After a Big Earthquake?
Nathan Gilles PHLUSH Toilets. Once again, the editorial staff at the Mercury has put aside its better judgment and let me write an earthquake story. This time it’s about killer buildings—constructed with unreinforced masonry—and attempts by Steve Novick and emergency planners to address the problem by requiring these structures get seismic retrofits. It’s all part […]
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“We Don’t Know What the Best Questions Are to Ask That Computer”
Google’s promotional video for its new quantum computer is a little twee, but the possibilities they’re talking about here are mind-boggling. (Via Kottke.)
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City Club Bravely Attempts to Bridge Fluoridation Rhetoric Gap
Illustration by alex despain In the minutes after this year’s water fluoridation push went down in flames, both sides—even the victorious forces of Clean Water Portland—were gingerly extending olive branches in a bid to move the city past a sometimes ugly political debate pitting kinfolk against kinfolk, neighbor against neighbor. Surely, the entreaties went, we […]
Posted inTech
Shutting Down Comments for Science
In a post at Popular Science titled “Why We’re Shutting Off Our Comments,” Suzanne LaBarre writes: Comments can be bad for science. That’s why, here at PopularScience.com, we’re shutting them off…That is not to suggest that we are the only website in the world that attracts vexing commenters. Far from it. Nor is it to […]
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Are These Organisms Proof of Alien Life?
What do I look like, a scientist? Don’t ask me. But these guys seem pretty excited. “It’s almost too amazing to believe,” one says. (Don’t miss the final and maybe most important sentence: “Despite these fantastical claims, the Journal of Cosmology has had its reputation called into question more than once by other members of […]
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Meet Your Average, Everyday Sadists
In a study published in the journal Psychological Science, Dr. Delroy L. Paulhus explains the results of experiments designed to identify people predisposed to revel in others’ suffering—like those who cheer at sports games when people get injured. People he calls “everyday sadists.” The experiments involve crushing bugs and white noise: In the study’s first […]
Posted inTV
Bill Nye the Science Guy on Dancing with the Stars
So of all the so-called “celebrities” on this season’s Dancing with the Stars, we know there’s really only one: Bill Nye the Science Guy. Here he is in last night’s season premiere, dancing the cha-cha-cha to Oingo Boingo’s “Weird Science” (of course). He’s charming in practice (1:00 mark), clumsy on the dance floor (2:44), and […]
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Today in Scientific Marvel Cow Stampedes
First the cows are all like, “MOOOOO!! MOOOO!! MOOOO!!” (Translated: “I’m am so fucking OUT of here!!”) And then they’re all like “MOOOOO!! Moooo?? MOOOOO???” (Translated: “AHHH! AHHH! Wait… what is that rocket doing. Is that rocket doing what I think it’s doing? HOLY SHIT! THAT’S AN AWESOME ROCKET!!”) Find out more about the experimental […]
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Life Came From Mars?
One scientist is convinced that the crucial element that got life started here came from up there… Evidence is mounting that life on Earth may have started on Mars. A leading scientist has claimed that one particular element believed to be crucial to the origin of life would only have been available on the surface […]