She Blinded Me with Science!

After going through hundreds of e-mails yesterday, I found a few things that I thought I'd share with you.  Each of them, in one way or another, has a bit of science to offer; and so, today, I am blinding you with science.  Enjoy!

A Black Widow Pulsar Consumes Its Mate



I found this video while looking through some suggested YouTube videos yesterday.  It was so interesting that I wanted to share it.  This is the story of how we found a rather strange pulsar phenomenon--a pulsar with its binary star which it is burning away.  This may be the most visible dense object we have found to date in our solar system, and that's pretty exciting for a lot of reasons, especially to scientists who are studying dense particles--how they form, how they maintain their stability, and how these binary star-pulsar systems work.

Pulsars are simply neutron stars that are rotating.  To learn more about pulsars and neutron stars, check out this article by NASA.  And to learn about how black holes are formed, check out this article and video by Universe Today.  (And yes, black holes can be formed when two neutron stars collide.  How cool is that?)

GLaDOS (the evil computer from the Portal games) Explains Nuclear Fusion and Fission



I found this video linked to me by an article from The Mary Sue.  It was just too amazing not to share with all of you, and you'll learn a bit about nuclear fusion and nuclear fission by watching it.  While this is aimed at kids, I imagine a lot of us adults could stand to have things explained to us like this, too.  After all, having an evil computer teach me about science is way more fun than having a professor do it.

The Nebula Award Nominees

While this is dedicated in large part to science fiction and fantasy writing, there has always been a spark of scientific innovation mixed with social ideology that collides with our modern world.  Sometimes written as commentaries, these works can teach us about the world we live in by taking us to far away places and strange worlds.  They can also allow the authors to express new philosophical ideas or take a Zenoistic view on one particular idea played out to its absurd--and sometimes intriguing--conclusions.

This year's nominees have a few particular favorites for me.  Among them are:

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman -- for best novel
Doctor Who: ‘‘The Day of the Doctor’’ (Nick Hurran, director; Steven Moffat, writer) (BBC Wales) -- the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, and all of the other nominees

Europa Report (Sebastián Cordero, director; Philip Gelatt, writer) (Start Motion Pictures)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, director; Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón, writers) (Warner Bros.)
Her (Spike Jonze, director; Spike Jonze, writer) (Warner Bros.)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Francis Lawrence, director; Simon Beaufoy & Michael deBruyn, writers) (Lionsgate)
Pacific Rim (Guillermo del Toro, director; Travis Beacham & Guillermo del Toro, writers) (Warner Bros.)

That said, The Mary Sue has found some of the nominees available online to read.  Check out their article to find them.

The President Says a Few Words about Iron Man



If you haven't seen this video yet, you should.  I found it while looking over an article, once again, by The Mary Sue.

"Your Undead Heart" -- A Romeo and Juliet Song



Last, but not least, I leave you with some zombie love.

"But what does this have to do with science?" you ask.

To that, I can only say--watch some zombie movies, take a zombie apocalypse survival course, and then tell me what zombies don't have to do with science.

Also, ...it's Romeo and Juliet and a song about zombies!

Again, a special thanks to The Mary Sue for their article that steered me to it.