Every so often, you stumble over a discovery that just settles in your backbrain and fizzles away.

But creating a time cloak-something that could hide not just an object but an event-is even more ambitious. Rather than just rerouting the rays of light striking an object, a time cloak would have to deflect all the light beams influenced by the ( Read more... )

This is really interesting. It’s 15 minutes long, but it’s worth listening to ( Read more... )

This to-scale representation of the Sun and the planets is eye-opening. You can scroll rather quickly-just watch for the teeny flashes that indicate a planet just flitted past at speed.

Saturn turns up at about the quarter point. Think about that.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

I love these stories. It seems as though we’re getting closer and closer to uncovering Earthlike worlds.

Planet in habitable zone, possibly with Earth-like atmosphere, discovered 36 light years away.

Today, along with the announcement of 50 other exoplanet discoveries, comes news from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) of the second planet ( Read more... )

Scare the neighbors! Alarm your friends!

Or they may all just squee all over the place, who knows?

Green glowing kittens. Can puppies be far behind?

When these green kitties were still twinkles in their parents’ eyes, scientists investigating a macaque gene thought to protect monkeys against feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) inserted it into cat ( Read more... )

I love Ed Yong’s blog, Not Exactly Rocket Science. He’s joined Alton Brown as a charter member of my Geeky Crush Club.

This one’s about parasites that influence the behavior of their hosts, including driving them to their deaths.

At the top of its plant, the caterpillar liquefies. Its body almost seems to melt. As it does, it releases millions of ( Read more... )

Really.

(Thanks to Doranna Durgin for the link)

Click to view

Literally:

A manuscript dated back to 1293 from Italy was sent to the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro e la Conservazione del Patrimonio Archivistico e Librario (ICPAL) in Rome for restoration [7]. The volume is composed of 222 sheets divided into six gatherings with a binding made of parchment. It was written on Arabic paper made of linen and ( Read more... )

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/arsenic_based_life.png