Correction: Even Cooler Than We Thought!

From a 9th century Irish manuscript, the phrase ‘massive hangover’ (Latheirt) written in the ancient Irish text Ogham. The monk must have been having a very rough day…..

Source 

Here’s an artsy peak at some giant clams behind the scenes! Their luminous colors and patterns are thanks to tiny, helpful algae that live inside the clams’ tissues.

Thank you to staffer Kat for the photo!

WELL AIN’T THAT SOME SHIT.

“[…] all things are one thing and that one thing is all things—plankton, a shimmering phosphorescence on the sea and the spinning planets and an expanding universe, all bound together by the elastic string of time.” — Ricketts and Steinbeck, The Log From The Sea Of Cortez

What is America’s obsession with Bill Nye the Science Guy I once said in class that I had never seen it and this girl yelled YOU’VE NEVER WATCHED BILL NYE and in 5 seconds flat half the class was screaming HOW COULD YOU HAVE NEVER WATCHED BILL NYE while the other half chanted BILL BILL BILL BILL

I think I’ve had both of these mindsets at different times

hate doesn’t just happen. war doesn’t just happen. And we are definitely not “right” enough to kill or bring pain to anyone… // Hina Syeda

Highlights From This Semester’s Cultural Anthropology class

“So, like the dolphin, what you really want to do is maximise the fish returns on your dead seagull investment.”

“Don’t forget, breakfast is never just breakfast. Your avocado is never just an avocado.”

All the best stories start with “so I was hanging around with some Armenians in Moscow…”

‘How to not get arrested during field work’ is a vital anthropologist skill.

“Once you create a state it’s really hard to get rid of.”

Accusations of witchcraft roll downhill.

“You don’t want a continual pattern of recessions and depressions, because then your citizens start reading Marx, and you don’t want your citizens reading Marx, because then bad things happen to you.”

Professor:  “And what did Columbus bring with him when he set off to sail to India?” Student: “Diseases?”

Good luck on your exams everyone, we’ve almost made it!

it is absolutely my kind of thing. so much work, such intricate pieces! I would’ve loved to be on the team that put this together.

Creepy or adorable? Researchers at Harvard University have demonstrated the first autonomous, untethered, entirely soft robot: the octobot.

Instead of being controlled by electronics, the robot’s logic board is powered by chemical reactions and fluid passing along tiny channels. Scientist have struggled to create completely soft robots because rigid components like circuit boards, power sources and electronic controls are difficult to replace.  

Learn more about the octobot and soft robotics here and see the full study published in Nature here.

Videos Credit: Harvard SEAS/Image Credit Lori Sanders

Did you know that Uranus was (accidentally) discovered on this day in 1781, the first planet to be discovered with the aid of a telescope? At first, British astronomer William Herschel thought the object in the sky to be a star or comet, but within two years, other astronomers showed it was a new planet orbiting the Sun. The ice giant is four times wider than the Earth and appears blue due to the methane in its atmosphere. Photo: NASA