flickering pictures

From Harper’s Weekly, because I couldn’t write it better myself: Penguin Nils Olav, the Norwegian King’s Guard mascot since 1972, was knighted in front of a crowd of several hundred people and 130 guardsmen. Nils, who shat himself during the ceremony, was, read the proclamation from King Harald the Fifth, “in every way qualified to [...]

[Read more →]

A California company called LS9 says it has done the impossible: come up with cheap, homegrown, renewable “carbon-negative” oil to satisfy the world’s growing fuel needs. With bug poo. From the Times: To be more precise: the genetic alteration of bugs -– very, very small ones –- so that when they feed on agricultural waste [...]

[Read more →]

The New Scientist reports that over 20 years and 44,000 generations in the lab, a particular population of Escherichia coli (or E. coli for short) bacteria have evolved the ability to metabolize citrate, a nutrient that the bacteria normally can’t use. This is a big deal — something akin to humans developing the ability to [...]

[Read more →]

Well, sort of. From the International Herald Tribune: Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, scientists reported on Wednesday. The report, released [...]

[Read more →]

Houston, Texas has apparently been invaded by red hairy “rasberry ants,” named for the exterminator who tried in vain to wipe them out. They’ve also been crawling into sewage pumps, computers, gas meters and other electrical equipment, causing short circuits. A Fox News clip shows Tom Rasberry himself, who says “you can kill ‘em by [...]

[Read more →]

In yet another breakthrough of modern medicine, MAKE Magazine features a homemade prosthetic wheel for an injured turtle, fitted after she was run over by a car and lost the use of her rear legs. Her shattered shell was held together with velcro and epoxy, and the turtle — named Little Bit — apparently lived [...]

[Read more →]

I’ve started making National Geographic one of my regular online stops, and I’m starting to realize just how fantastic this magazine is. A few days ago it reported that in 1971, five pairs of Italian wall lizards were moved onto a small Croatian island. Today, they’ve taken over, and their bodies have adapted to their [...]

[Read more →]

The end of the World War II in 1945 gave birth to another war — one that was “colder” but just as terrifying. US-Soviet tension and the arms race it caused had much of the world in a panic, and WWII’s victors were falling all over themselves to test nuclear weapons and build arsenals meant [...]

[Read more →]

I think one day my love of alliteration is going to get me into trouble. Ten tons of terrible trouble. Here’s a first-hand account from Puerto Rico’s Mosquito Bay, “one of the most bioluminescent bodies of water in the world,” with an eerie blue glowing effect created by tiny dinoflagellates. It was posted on Curious [...]

[Read more →]

A scientific expedition off the coast of Antarctica has discovered several new species of animals never before seen by human eyes. National Geographic showcases the finds in an amazing photo gallery. The flower-shaped animal above is likely a completely new species and has “stalks” over three feet long. The starfish at right is just mesmerizing. [...]

[Read more →]