Misc
maggie wittlin | October 10, 2006
WNYC - Radio Lab: Musical Language (April 21, 2006)
Check out at least the first four minutes of this. You'll learn first-hand that a looped recording of speech takes on a musical quality, to the point where you can't hear it as anything but song. Wow. (via CV)
Homo floresiensis: Two Years Out
Carl Zimmer looks back on two hobbit-filled years.
The Long Zoom
Spore is coming; hide your heart, girl. And prepare to fulfill your wildest God-complex.
The Meissner Effect - super conductor
A superconducting magnet produces internal currents to cancel an externally imposed magnetic field. Watch the…
maggie wittlin | October 9, 2006
Best. Mars. Picture. EVAH!
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter photographs Opportunity in the context of a beautiful crater.
Your Friday Dose of Woo: H2Ooooooommmm
It must be something in the water. Wait...can you see it?...it looks like...it has to be...woo!
Science Friday: Pipe Dreams
"Poppies! Poppies will put them to sleep."
Freitag Takes Container Architecture to New Heights
They probably shouldn't throw stones, but they can throw insults at environmental companies that don't practice what they preach.
Spice test (new)
This crazy kid kindly demonstrates the effects of eating grill spice,…
stoat | October 8, 2006We took a pile of stuff down the the dump today. I don't like throwing things away (which is a large part of the problem: thngs accumulate because I can't bear to throw them away), but it has become necessary - too much stuff has been piling up. The fluffy toys of the title weren't ours: it was someone we saw there, tipping a whole box of perfectly good toys into the skip. But but but I want to say, there must be someone who wants those... but then again, when the far east pumps out new fluffy toys at such volume at such low price, what margin is there in recycling old ones?
The tip does make…
maggie wittlin | October 6, 2006
The Amateur's Revenge
Expert is as expert does?
Fungus
Grow a beautiful and thriving mushroom colony. (via inkycircus)
A Simple Show of Hands
Explore the science, the politics, and the social significance of hand-holding. Aw.
But We Feel Good About Ourselves
Some might call it "lack of humility," we call it "that can-do American spirit."
How to create a new generation of scientists.
...or a new generation of test subjects. That's useful, too. (via Jake)
Got something for Seed's Daily Zeitgeist? Email the Zeitgeister.
maggie wittlin | October 5, 2006
Remember ... walking in the sand.
Come on, baby, do the starfish locomotion! (via PZ)
Product Warranties
Mental accounting cuts as many corners as real accounting, and it does so at your loss.
Yet Another Warm Fuzzy Disney Tale
They have deceived us about lemmings. Curse you, Disney!
I'm Going To Be A Star
A moving essay of ambition written by Protostellar Molecular Cloud Barnard 631
Healthy Food
Cookie Monster reminds you to eat your veggies, as only he can.
Got something for Seed's Daily Zeitgeist? Email the Zeitgeister.
ksharpe | October 4, 2006What's an antioxidant, and why are they healthful? I thought oxygen was supposed to be good for you!
maggie wittlin | October 4, 2006
Huzzah for Smoot and Mather!
In this comment, Momma Free-Ride discusses her time working on COBE (the project, not the satellite itself) with the newest Nobel laureates.
TEDTalks: Al Gore
Al Gore talks about averting disaster and shows off his bizarrely attuned comic sense. (via The World's Fair)
Best of Nikon Small World Contest (flash-free edition)
These may be the most attractive science-photo-contest-winners of all time. Did someone say "set as desktop background?"
And now for something completely different: What makes foods disgusting?
Hint: Brains fit the bill.
Numbers Are Male, Said…
apalazzo | October 4, 2006Yesterday someone on our floor announced "I see Jesus!"
Really?
Then we saw his image on the left side of a silver-stained polyacrylamide gel:
Upon closer inspection it looked like his face was partially obscured by some proteins.
We could kinda make out a nose, a mouth and a beard. But where are his eyes? Curse that IgG! And ... Jesus is brown! (I never knew.) To help those, who like "seeing Thomas" need some extra help, we then photoshoped ... I mean enhanced the picture:
So is this a blessed pulldown? Or is this a vengeful Jesus trying to warn us latte drinking, public transportation…
maggie wittlin | October 3, 2006
Buying an Allerca Kitten
For a mere four grand (plus one extra for shipping and handling), a beautiful hypoallergenic kitten can be yours! Stop looking at the price tag ,and start looking at those adorable selectively-bred faces below the bullet points.
Welcome to the Blogger SAT Challenge
Chad and Dave are pleased to announce the conclusion of official judging. Read all about it, and see how the bloggers did.
to infinity and beyond
Get your history of the awesomeness of calculus (and a cute number trick) from the cocktail party.
How To: Dismantleâan AtomicâBomb
We got your worst case…
maggie wittlin | September 29, 2006
Fun With YouTube: Zero Gravity Balloon Edition
A balloon pops in Zero G. Everything's more fun in orbit. Well, maybe not everything.
Celebrity Ecological Footprints - how many Earths would we need if we all lived like Tom Cruise?
"Come on, Matt. Matt, have you studied the history of environmentalism? I've studied the history of environmentalism."
Atheism - Tape 4 - Richard Dawkins
Dawkins discusses Darwin's role in how he became an atheist. Shh! Don't tell Kenneth Miller. Do tell PZ.
Taking the Cephalopod to the Bank
Did we mention something about telling PZ?
put soap in microwave
It's alive…
maggie wittlin | September 28, 2006
Laser Challenge Game
A Nobel Prize winner has invented the laser: Let's get this party started! Hey, if it's put out by the Nobel people, it's not just a computer game; it's science education. (via Chad)
Three Lectures by Hans Bethe
The Man teaches quantum. Watch his magic. (via fark)
When crime-fighting tools go bad: Problems with the face-composite system
The police are in cahoots with the criminals! That must be the reason they use this detrimental tool. For shame.
Powers Of Ten by Charles & Ray Eames
Scale: still mindblowing.
How To Get People To Trust You
Um, be trustworthy?
Got…
sarahdasher | September 27, 2006
We had so much fun interviewing the three most recent ScienceBloggers that we decided there's no good reason to limit ourselves to the newbies. Now we're going after all the ScienceBloggers for interviews, and we will be running conversations with many more of your favorites over the coming weeks.
This time around, we're talking to James Hrynyshyn of The Island of Doubt.
What's your name?
James Hrynyshyn
What do you do when you're not blogging?
I'm a freelance science journalist. So that means I spend most of day on non-paying assignments, such as painting the living room walls,…
maggie wittlin | September 27, 2006
Anousheh Ansari Space Blog
Yup, she's blogging from space. Fan your jealousy flames several times a day.
Curious Pop Quiz #4 and E. coli
As Roughage-Gate continues, take this quiz on what delicious spinach dishes you should avoid. Then do what you know you must.
Quicktime Virtual Reality Apollo Panoramas
Witness the moon in all its 360° glory. (via Phil)
Angular Momentum
Prepare to be wooed.
Bird Flu Preparation in Moldova
Why give you a link when you can see the video right here?
Got something for Seed's Daily Zeitgeist? Email the Zeitgeister.
ksharpe | September 27, 2006The 2006 Nobel Laureates will be announced on Monday, October 2. Any early guesses as to who this year's honorees will be?
maggie wittlin | September 26, 2006
GMO Kimchi, Coming to a Korea Town Near You
They might have botched that whole cloned stem cells thing (what, should we not blame the whole country?), but the Koreans are blazing the trail of breath-freshening biotech.
Gabby guys: the effect size
The Female Brain author Louann Brizendine is coming under fire for her claim that women use about 3 times as many words per day as men. Language Log tests it out.
2005 Tokyo Auto Show: Honda FCX
We've raved about Tesla in the past. Now this sexy new Honda is making the fuel cell car cool.
Cats, candy, and evolution
This is why your cat's always in…
maggie wittlin | September 25, 2006
Special Feature: Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge 2006
Science features some very cool photos, illustrations and graphics. Check 'em out.
Your Friday Dose of Woo: If our intestines were lungs we could drink our oxygen!
We've already breathed in the woo, now we drink the woo. Next can we absorb the woo through mucous membranes? Please?
Great Moments in Campus Signage
Now we want to join Union's bio club. Bonus points for giving the mole a star nose.
CDC's Rabies Web Page That's Just for Kids
Yay! Now you can sing your rABC's! (from the depths of the tank)
Science Fair SWAT…
maggie wittlin | September 22, 2006
Lawyers call for science to clear AIDS nurses in Libya
Declan Butler reports on the Tripoli Six, medical workers sentenced to die by firing squad for supposedly infecting over 400 children with HIV. The evidence points to their innocence, and their lawyers are calling for the science community to rally to their cause. The bloggers are doing just that.
Margaret Thatcher Illusion
A hideous display of face perception. Read the original paper here. (via boing boing)
Physics of Superheroes 1 - Death of Gwen Stacy
Not even Spiderman's web could provide a slow enough change in momentum.
Astrology…
ksharpe | September 21, 2006Why do men have a longer period of fertility, relative to their lifespan, than women? (Bonus: is this true of other species as well?)
maggie wittlin | September 21, 2006
Charles Darwin and the Racing Asparagus
NPR dishes about how Darwin used food to his advantage...besides eating it. What ingenuity! (via Jonah)
Climate-controlled White House
"Oh no, we'd never control the information presented to scientists! We're all about open discourse on the issues." Right.
Pale Blue Dot III.0
Don't come in too close. A little distance flatters our complexion.
Escher's "Relativity" in LEGO®
These little building blocks defy paradox. Take that, 2D sketch artist! (via AIR)
Massive Tag Body Spray Slick Spreading From Jersey Shore
With all of the global warming hype,…
stoat | September 20, 2006I really must try to interact more with the other Seed bloggers. As a minor help towards that, I'm going to paste here the link I always lose to the internal fora. I assume it won't work for outsiders.