Pictures from NatGeo, Life below the ocean, traffic jams in the brain, and a few other things
Because I have nothing original to write, and am in fact preparing for a test on the morrow, here’s a bunch of stuff from ’round the interwebs that I thought was interesting:
1) A brilliant collection of pictures vying for a prize at National Geographic’s Photography Contest 2010. Look in particular for pictures of a supercell thunderstorm (2), the lightning strike at NY harbour (16) and the silhouette of the child (18).
2) Scientists have found life in the deepest layers of the Earth’s crust (called the gabbroic layer). These microbes live off hydrocarbons, apparently. Because the paper is in PLoS, you can read the entire paper without having to go through a paywall.
3) The bottleneck in the brain, from Carl Zimmer. A fascinating discussion of refractory periods where brain activity slows down. Read in particular about the experiments conducted (this appears on page 2) and how we only start timing our thoughts after the refractory period is over. [Hat Tip: Slashdot]
4) You can now add coffee stains to your LaTeX files, without a mug, or any coffee. Very nice! [Hat Tip: Some forty-something professors.]
And, since no list of links is complete without comics, here are two:
5) Jesus and Mo, talking about how Dawkins is worth more points than Grayling:
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[/jesusandmo]
6) The Dilbert Strip of Nov 20, 2010:
[End. Fini. Kaputski. Links]
why wud u want coffee stains? on ur paper..
Have you seen the pictures? They look convincing. I’m putting it in whatever I write with LaTeX next!