science saturday

Some great images of the leftovers from the Soviet Moon program. Why does Saturn’s moon Iapetus look like a walnut? (Seriously, it looks like a walnut.) The next generation of malware may well simulate your personality. A regulator for the…

Fascinating presentation by Hans Rosling about how the world is winning the war on child mortality. Is water more common on asteroids than originally thought? Remember that story about the bees disappearing? There’s an answer. Drinking at the pub can…

Most of the space news this week has surrounded Gliese 581G, the first planet found to reside in the so-called “Goldilocks zone.” But we have a much closer visitor in the night sky, Comet Hartley 2, which will be visible…

It’s kind of odd to see hurricanes as the International Space Station sees them, if only because of the superstructure in the frame and the angle of the video. Plus, in this footage you get to see three different storms–Julia,…

Ever wonder why mobile phone chatterers get on your nerves? The term “lab rat” might have been “lab raccoon at one point. How good are you at knowing when you’re right about something? The amount of gray matter in part…

Cockroach brains may contain the next great anti-microbial compound. Who knew? Great images of Saturn and 4 of its moons from the Cassini space probe. Great interview dealing with the science of swarm intelligence on Science Friday. Has science discovered…

I almost always start these with a link from the Wired Science blog, but how do I choose today? Here are the top 4 right now: two stories onexoplanets, NASA flies a drone over Hurricane Earl, and the Smithsonian has…

The story of the faster-than-wind wind-driven vehicle is fascinating, not so much for the actual machine, but for the rancor the debate stirred up online. Very good read though. Studying the place of the booty call relationshipon the spectrum of…

The headline says it all: “Galactic Supervolcano Erupts From Black Hole“. That oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico? Still there, and no idea how long it’ll stay. The moon is shrinking. The more research that’s done on brain damage…

What goes into the formation of an icicle? Arguing can be good for you, apparently. Tried to see the Perseids meteor shower on Thursday night, but down here light pollution makes it really difficult. National Geographic has some great shots…

Two spiral galaxies collided a hundred million years ago. The pictures just got back from the developer. (Is that joke too out of date now? Maybe.) The UN added 21 sites to its World Heritage List in furtherance of its…

Olivia Judson is taking some time off from the NY Times, which makes me sad. So glad this whale is extinct. And while I love my cats, I’m glad this one is extinct too. If I understand this correctly, an…