The Science of Igloos

A Revolutionary Surgical Procedure ... and the Perfect Patient Name

*checks the calendar to make sure it's not April 1*

OK, here's the press release.  The transplant recipient's name is MANNING. No, really.

Out of This World! Space Exploration as Art

Science can also be beautiful wall art!

Absolutely Awesome: Solar Eclipse Seen From the Air

More delightful details here!

Lights Out For Compact Fluorescent Lamps

GOOD RIDDANCE to those dim, curly, toxic miseries that Greenies shoved down the throats of an unwilling populace.  I hate those things.  Anyway, bye bye bye!

I love incandescents, and, thanks to heroic geeks from MIT and Purdue, there is new hope for their renaissance.

Since we're on the topic, let's revisit one of my favorite Remy videos:

Today in History: Galileo Discovers 4 Jovian Moons

Using a homemade (!) telescope, Galileo discovered 4 moons of Jupiter on this day in 1610.  Today the moons Callisto, Europa, Ganymede, and Io are also called the Galilean moons in his honor.

Disgustingly Cute: Meet the Ili Pika of Northwest China

Funny name, weapons-grade adorable furry face.

Supermoon, Solar Eclipse, Vernal Equinox, March Madness, Starbucks Race Hustling, and Netanyahu Derangement Syndrome All In One Day!

Well, I guess the only thing I can do as commentary is post this Onion story. 

It's been a lunatic day, in which learning that Starbucks is actually encouraging its baristas to engage customers in discussions about race relations wasn't even the craziest thing that happened.  The inevitable backlash has, admittedly, provided its own form of Schadenfreudelicious entertainment. (Of course the incomparable Iowahawk has a quip.)

Elsewhere, my head is spinning from all the post-Israeli election howling from various people and quarters and media outlets.  I really can't take any more of it, because all the yelling and yammering has coalesced into one wordless collective shriek.  Maybe later I'll try to consider the fallout and talk about foreign policy again, but for now let's just call the furious reactions together "Netanyahu Derangement Syndrome" and let it go at that, mmmkay?

Finally, let me add: THANK GOD March Madness has finally started.  It's the only madness right now that makes any damn sense at all.  

(PS: Go, Anybody-But-Duke!)

Happy 2015!

Delightful Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has a great message about optimism and the conscious resolution to do some good this year to make the world a better place:

Ave atque Vale: Stephanie Kwolek

She was the inventor of Kevlar.  (Hat tip to California Dreamer.)

Awesome: The Commencement Speech From Space

Take a look at what happened yesterday: "NASA Astronaut and UConn alum Rick Mastracchio '82 (ENG) delivers the 2014 UConn School of Engineering Commencement address from the International Space Station."

Do the Math: 17 Equations That Changed the World

How many do you know?

Discovered: World's First Venomous Crustacean

A venomous what?!  Right on time for Halloween comes this creepifying animal tale from - where else? - Down Under. 

How Does Fido Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways.

A neuroscientist has a new book exploring how dogs love their humans.

Life Imitates "Jurassic Park"

Just found: a fossilized blood-engorged insect in amber.  I hope everyone's seen Jurassic Park!

Seasonal Nerd Fun: Pumpkin Catapults

Look what the folks at the Illinois Institute of Technology are up to!

Life Imitates Science Fiction: 10 Examples

10 Sci-Fi Predictions That Became Science Fact by alltime10s

Great Moments in Research: Yale Investigates Cuteness

I swear I'm not making this up.

Greening the Deserts with Carbon Dioxide

Well, whaddyaknow?  Look at this from the American Geophysical Union:

Scientists have long suspected that a flourishing of green foliage around the globe, observed since the early 1980s in satellite data, springs at least in part from the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere. Now, a study of arid regions around the globe finds that a carbon dioxide “fertilization effect” has, indeed, caused a gradual greening from 1982 to 2010.

I now expect professionally apocalyptic eco-zealots to complain that greening the desert will lead to the extinction of the sand worms or something.  The Spice global warming gravy train must flow!

Say "Cheese" - I mean, "E = mc2"!

Dated 1934, this is the only known photo of Albert Einstein writing out his famous mass-energy equivalence formula.  Wow!