February 2012 Archives

Here's just a glimpse of some of the science stories that hit this week you might have missed.

Russia drills down to pristine Antarctic lake.

Ten-year-old accidentally discovers new explosive molecule.

Audio: 165-million-year-old cricket song comes back to life.

600-million-year drought makes life on surface of Mars unlikely.

Fruit flies drawn to the sweet smell of youth.

Bored at work? Counting down the hours to the weekend?

Then Weird Science can help (as long as the boss doesn't spot ya!).

Weird Science Friday Links give you a nudge towards stuff you'll hopefully find more diverting than the stack of papers in front of you!

Cosmonaut Couture: Russian photo shoot makes space sexy.

Company makes custom stuffed toys out of children's drawings.

Sputnik launch tower be gone.

List of common misconceptions.

China's abandoned Wonderland.

Image via Wikipedia

Bubbly poured into a long narrow flute provides more of a nose-tingle than when served in a wide and shallow "coupe".

The reason is that much higher levels of carbon dioxide, released by bubbles in the glass, collect at the top of a flute.

Image via Wikipedia

Contrary to popular belief, there are not a lot of fish in the sea, say researchers.

Despite covering 70% of the Earth's surface, marine environments contain only 20% of all its species.

In the new study, scientists made the surprising discovery that freshwater rivers and lakes contain more fish species than salty oceans.

Yet freshwater environments occupy only 2% of the Earth's surface.

Hubble takes you into the Carina Pillars, and then the helix Nebula.

What will you be doing on the web this year? Click to embiggen.

Harry Potter (Photo credit: Profound Whatever)

Scientists have deployed Harry Potter-style powers to levitate fruit flies and watch them walk on air.

Researchers performed the seemingly magical feat by suspending fruit flies in a strong magnetic field.

The technique, known as "diamagnetic levitation", allows water and organic based materials to become weightless.

Image via Wikipedia

Men and women have such different personalities they really could be from Mars and Venus, research has shown.

A new psychological study of more than 10,000 people revealed "striking" gender differences, especially in areas such as sensitivity and dominance.

The findings suggest previous studies have "consistently underestimated" the way personality divides men and women, say the authors.

Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean holds a special environmental sample container filled with lunar soil collected during his sojourn on the lunar surface.

Thanks to the presence of a natural "zoom lens" in space, this is a close-up look at the brightest distant "magnified" galaxy in the universe known to date.

Gravitational lensing produces a natural "zoom" to observations and this is a look at one of the brightest distant galaxies so far known.

Located some 10 billion light years away, the galaxy has been magnified as a nearly 90-degree arc of light against a galaxy cluster which is only half the distance.