Science is Drokking Fantastic Because...

[O Lucky Stevie!]

Clearly God was expressing his displeasure over the Russian people turning their backs (ahem) collectively on Communism, da?

[Spikes]

I bet that they ALL now scrambling around in the dirt, trying to find those little fragments of rock that are worth more than Gold.

Jammyski

[Dandontdare]

I bet that they ALL now scrambling around in the dirt, trying to find those little fragments of rock that are worth more than Gold.

Jammyski

apparently they started showing up on ebay within the hour - from people who could not possibly have collected them "hmm - I've got some rocks in the garden .. IDEA!"

[Frank]

This is a really good video of the Chelyabinsk meteor exploding.

How fucking casual is that copper? His voice never rises above a monotone: Yeah, there's a massive incandescent ball of I-don't-know-what streaking through the sky directly overhead. I'm going to Greggs; do you want anything?

[Ancient Otter]

I bet that they ALL now scrambling around in the dirt, trying to find those little fragments of rock that are worth more than Gold.

Jammyski

apparently they started showing up on ebay within the hour - from people who could not possibly have collected them "hmm - I've got some rocks in the garden .. IDEA!"

Well someone's got to pay for the massive heating and window repairs bills due to your windows exploding in winter in one of the coldest countries on the planet....

[Dandontdare]

the freakiest thing about the footage is the long gap between the flash and the shockwave - people had about half a minute to freak out over the huge burst of light in the sky before all their windows explode and things start popping off like firecrackers. That's got to have been a follow-through moment!

[Ancient Otter]

First picture of a black hole's spin.

Spiral toothed shark fossil mystery solved.

Transparent 3D computer display.

Older couple wanted for private-funded Mars mission.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Has this been posted before?  Science really is drokking fantastic.

http://www.ted.com/talks/boaz_almog_levitates_a_superconductor.html

[TordelBack]

Has this been posted before?  Science really is drokking fantastic.

http://www.ted.com/talks/boaz_almog_levitates_a_superconductor.html

It's a great piece, but one of the things that annoys me about TED demo-based talks is that hardly anyone wears safety gear.  I used to shout myself hoarse trying to get my colleagues to wear the proper PPE, no matter how irritating it can be, these guys should set an example on the public stage.

Mind you, no goggles or gloves are going to save you from this, the greatest event of our lifetimes if it comes off:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/02/28/mars_impact_the_red_planet_may_get_hit_by_a_comet_in_october_2014.html

A direct hit would make Shoemaker-Levy 9 look like a pea-shooter.  I am very, very excited.

[von Boom]

It looks like it's going to miss, barely. At least that what the people at the Keck are saying.

[Ancient Otter]

Human waste radiation shield. 

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Volcanic Lightning:



VOLCANIC GOSHDARNED LIGHTNING!

From APOD:

Explanation: Why does a volcanic eruption sometimes create lightning? Pictured above, the Sakurajima volcano in southern Japan was caught erupting in early January. Magma bubbles so hot they glow shoot away as liquid rock bursts through the Earth's surface from below. The above image is particularly notable, however, for the lightning bolts caught near the volcano's summit. Why lightning occurs even in common thunderstorms remains a topic of research, and the cause of volcanic lightning is even less clear. Surely, lightning bolts help quench areas of opposite but separated electric charges. One hypothesis holds that catapulting magma bubbles or volcanic ash are themselves electrically charged, and by their motion create these separated areas. Other volcanic lightning episodes may be facilitated by charge-inducing collisions in volcanic dust. Lightning is usually occurring somewhere on Earth, typically over 40 times each second.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Holy shit!  Just out of shot, of course, is the barbarian, scantily-clad woman, and floating heavy metal band name in spiky letters

[Ancient Otter]

Astrobiologists Find Ancient Fossils in Fireball Fragments.

[TordelBack]

Astrobiologists Find Ancient Fossils in Fireball Fragments.

However, Phil Plait rips into this one big time, and for my money he makes some very persuasive points:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/03/11/meteorite_life_claims_of_fossils_in_a_meteorite_are_still_wrong.html