So. They’ve done it again. Carl Sagan (and a host of other cosmologists) now have soul. I mean, they had soul all along, but thanks to the miracle of modern vocoders, you can now sing along.

More at Symphonies of Science.

The Guild salutes you!

The mantis shrimp, Stomatopoda, is one of the most terrifying sea creatures under three feet long. At least to me. They move exceptionally fast and have lots of spiky, sharp parts that are just long enough to do some serious damage before you even realize what’s happening. You can watch a TED video of them being one of the [...]

If I tried to tell this as a story, you’d think I was making it up.

A sound artist wired together an old floor lamp, some motors and a couple microprocessors to create this:

I don’t know why it’s always songs named “Crazy” that attract this sort of automata attention, but I’m not complaining.

[via]

Dreamy.

Discover’s Bad Astronomy blog celebrates a new effort to teach more science:

I was particularly excited to hear Obama announce an annual science fair to be held at the White House! As he said, it’s time that people who have made extraordinary achievements in science stand beside athletes and others honored at the White House.

And as if he were [...]

It’s 11 p.m. Eastern, so I’m claiming this as still the 23rd, and I’m submitting a vastly improved mix of“A Strong Enough Lie.” Drums are now matched to beats, extraneous things have been cut away and that saz part makes more sense.

Sometimes, even coffee isn’t enough to make it all make sense the night before. If you’ve [...]

SONG: “A Strong Enough Lie” (To download: double right-click & “Save As”)

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: “Vanished Persian army said found in desert”, Discovery News, 9 Nov 2009, as used in the post “Like a wolf on the fold. Like an ocean of choking sand.”

ABSTRACT: It’s hard to get more poetic than an [...]

Click to embiggen

Image courtesy of NASA/JPL/University of Arizona. It’s part of their project called HiRISE in which they’re taking photographs of Mars. High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment. I suppose they could also have gone with “HiRISEx” as an acronym, but it’s just as well they didn’t.

Noctis Labyrinthus – the Mazes of Night – is [...]

They’ll change the world, says H+, an online magazine that can’t get enough of the fake steak concept:

In-Vitro Meat… will appear in 3-10 years as a cheaper, healthier, “greener” protein that’s easily manufactured in a metropolis. Its entree will be enormous; not just food-huge like curry rippling through London in the 1970′s or colonized tomatoes teaming up with [...]