Geek Weekly: She Blinded Me With Science

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas… actually, the sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma…

If you know what I’m getting at, you’re reading the right blog. So, on that note we have a soundtrack with our roundup this morning! I got a little warm and fuzzy reading this article from Flavorpill today that gave some geek love: the oh-so appropriate Mixtape for Science Nerds. Enjoy.

This week in science:

• If you’re creeped out by crustaceans, do your self a favor and skip to the next bullet. For the rest of you fine folk, check out the fossilized tracks of a giant, prehistoric, six-legged “sea scorpion.” Not just any ol’ tracks… the Hibbertopterus sandstone tracks are actually the largest known walking trackway of a eurypterid or any invertebrate animal, according to BBC.

• A battery was developed that can run on pee. Seriously.

• Wired Science and PopSci released amazing news supporting a theory that’s been tossed around for years. The headlines? Ice Discovered on Asteroid, Suggests Earth’s Oceans Came From Space. “A thin film of water ice and organic materials coats the space rock named 24 Themis, according to a study  released today. That discovery marks the first-ever direct detection of water ice on an asteroid, and adds evidence to theories about how asteroids could have brought water and organic material to a primordial Earth.“ The summary only reinforces, in my mind, how –to paraphrase Stephen Hawking– we really are just some lucky, advanced apes on a planet near a very average star… trying to understand the universe.

• Um, speaking of space, Japan has so boldly declared that a bi-pedal Japanese robot will walk the moon by 2015. Now this is the type of future I grew up thinking about.  Next up, CYLONS.

• Even dino youth rebelled from Mom and Dad! This Wired Science article is about young, feathered dinosaurs changing their physical apperance, but really just made me sad. Also left me regretting wanting a scientifically-sound dino costume. That illustration leaves them lookin’ pretty creepy, and it’s nothing like Jurassic Park.

• Last but not least, an ancient city was discovered in India and potentially pre-dates the Harappan Civilzation –one of the world’s oldest– by 5,000 years. The site was discovered by chance. An interviewee in BBC notes, “There’s a huge chronological problem in this discovery. It means that the whole model of the origins of civilization with which archaeologists have been working will have to be remade from scratch…” Updates as they come! Thanks to Brian (@frankenlincoln) for the tip.

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