Meet Ronan, a 3-year-old sea lion that loves disco and the Backstreet Boys, and is the first non-human mammal able to keep the beat to music.
Previously, birds like parrots (like this parrot, and this parrot, and this parrot, and these parrots) were the prime head-bobbers of nature. And it’s not tied to vocals, like the way that parrots mimic human speech (since sea lions don’t do that). It seems like rhythm is a natural part of biology.
So next time you move, feel the beat in your evolution, man.
(via The Two-Way : NPR)
COOL!!!
(Source: makarov92, via fuckyeahdementia)
Scientists turn off the ability to feel cold. Someone needs to science fiction novelize this development immediately. (via ScienceDaily)
Photo: Oleksii Sergieiev / Fotolia
holy shit.
Oh Rayleigh?!
So the sky is blue because short wavelengths of light coming from the Sun (blue, etc.) are scattered more than long ones (yellow, red, etc.), reflecting the short wavelength light into our eyes instead of it passing through the atmosphere as part of white light. Sunsets are red for the opposite reason … but yeah, why isn’t it violet?
Violet has an even shorter wavelength than blue light. So does indigo, whatever that is. There’s a good logical case for a purple sky, right?
Want to know the answer? Why the sky isn’t violet?
Do ya?
The truth is that the sky is both violet and blue. But the color receptors in our eyes don’t see violet very well, so we get the (incorrect) impression that the sky is just blue. Some birds actually see well into the violet and ultraviolet, so the sky must look trippy as hell to them.
(via xkcd)
“The problem is that date rape drugs are odorless, colorless, and tasteless once they’re in your drink. We all know not to leave our drinks unattended, but the reality is it’s impossible to keep an eye on your drink all night. So what’s the solution? With the help of Dr. John MacDonald, a professor of chemistry at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and with the help of Contract Researching Organizations, DrinkSavvy is developing material that will immediately change color to warn you if a drug is slipped into your drink.”
There’s more information at the startup’s Indiegogo site. An NECN interview sheds a little extra light on the subject, and WPI has recognized the project’s potential with a prestigious award.
So Tumblr. You’re notorious for attacking rape culture; just think how much this could do to fix that problem. At time of posting DrinkSavvy is at $2,500 of its $50,000 goal. Let’s signal boost it.
holy shit yes
Whoa. So signal boosted.
Genius.
What would happen if an meteor or asteroid the size of ______________, made of ______________, hit Earth at a speed of ______________?
There’s a web app for that. Check out Purdue’s Impact: Earth!
Have fun destroying the planet!!! (And learning about asteroid impacts of various sizes and energies, of course)
Space sleeve by Dan Henk
Pretty much the most intense shoulder ever.
Pretty much out of this world.
This takes the science ink cake, folks. Speaking of Science Ink, Carl Zimmer has a whole book about that.
whoa
Neil DeGrasse Tyson - The Greatest Science Sermon Ever
Just because religion and science don’t always get along doesn’t mean that isn’t okay to shout the both of them from the mountaintop.
Here’s Neil deGrasse Tyson, delivering a stunning and inspirational sermon (like he is prone to do) on science inspiration from 2006. When you look up, and realize that the iron in your blood is the same iron that makes up the core of a meteor … don’t feel small, feel tall!!!
Watch that and tell me you don’t just want to lasso the Moon!
(from YouTuber playd76)
How the Sun and Moon Are Helping Sandy’s Waters Rise
As Hurricane Sandy makes landfall on the Northeast coast of the U.S. over the next couple days, we are already seeing reports of higher-than normal tidal surges for a storm this size. Hurricanes always bring high seas along with them thanks to their intense low pressure, but the fact that Hurricane Sandy happened during a full moon (Monday night) is putting that rising water on steroids.
In a full moon (or new moon), the Earth, Sun and Moon are aligned in a way that not only allows the usual lunar pull on the tides, but also a solar pull! It’s stretching the Earth’s oceans like taffy, creating more extreme high tides that will make Sandy’s surge much worse. The Moon has a much greater pull on tides because of its distance to Earth, but the Sun’s mass gives it a serious influence in situations like this.
The top image shows how this phenomenon works, with the radius of the Earth and Moon to scale. The thing that amazes me is how far apart, in size and in distance, these three bodies really are! The bottom image shows the correct size scale for the Sun, Moon and Earth, but only the Earth/Moon distance is to scale. The Sun would be so far away that I’d have to walk into the next office to finish the graphic!
Check out more about full moon tides and hurricanes at Bad Astronomy.
Learned about this in Oceanography a few weeks ago. Knowledge is power, folks, and the universe knows all
