Watch What Happens When You Put A Hummingbird In A Wind Tunnel

High speed footage can reveal the unusual mechanics of a hummingbird’s wingbeat. Here’s how this remarkable aerialist keeps a level head, even in the face of aggressive wind and rain. For its season finale, KQED’s outstanding science series Deep Look (previously here and here) caught up with scientists at UC Berkeley who are studying the…

The Ninth Doctor Returns For All-New Comic Adventures In Time And Space!

10 years after he made his début, the Ninth Doctor is back in a new comic miniseries. But that’s not all for this week’s hottest new comics: DC’s reality-altering Convergence event begins, the origins of Star Wars: Rebels’ Kanan Jarrus are revealed, and an intriguing new series from Boom! Studios begins. Comics! Dark Horse Single…

Melissa McCarthy Gets To Be James Bond—But Funny—In New Trailer For Spy

Bridesmaids and The Heat director Paul Feig teams up with actress Melissa McCarthy once again for the new espionage comedy Spy. McCarthy plays a CIA analyst who snags her first mission in the field. As it turns out, spying isn’t easy — though it is pretty funny. McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, a CIA analyst who…

These Amazing Temporary Artworks Are Made Of Sand

When an artist creates a beautiful work of art, she or he usually wants it to last forever — or at least, to outlive its creator. But sometimes, an artist just wants to create a work of beauty that will last a short time, and then be gone forever. Here are the loveliest short-lived works…

What Lord Tantalus Could Have Looked Like In Guardians of the Galaxy

Storyboard artist for Guardians of the Galaxy has released some very, very early storyboard art from the Marvel movie, giving us a possible look at the lost character Lord Tantalus. Artist Thomas Nelson unleashed a slew of storyboard art for James Gunn’s GOTG movie revealing some not-so-similar looks for our favorite band of misfits, including…

How Does Genre Affect Popular Musicians’ Life Expectancy?

Do all popular musicians live hard and fast, take risks and die young? Image Credit: Surian Soosay via flickr | CC BY 2.0 This article is the third in a series examining mortality in popular musicians. To recap, the first article examined longevity, suicide, murder and accidental death rates in pop musicians compared with population…

Bad Reviews May Actually Be Good For Sales

We’ve all spent some time checking out online reviews. While businesses want nothing but good reviews, a new study shows that sometimes mixed reviews can actually help drive up sales. Here’s why. Review systems and review sites come under fire regularly for the ways their reviews do and don’t fairly represent the products and services…

Astronomers have been at a loss to explain Mercury’s excessively dark and unreflective surface. But a new study published in Nature Geoscience suggests the innermost planet was painted black by a steady stream of comet dust. The process took millions of years as comets disintegrated close to the sun, shedding carbon onto Mercury’s surface. Image:…

Which Movie Can You Abandon For A Pee Break Without Missing Anything?

We always feel guilty and ashamed — like bad movie-lovers! — when we have to take a pee break in the middle of a long movie. What if we miss the best bit? But certain films make it easy, with long stretches that you can safely miss. Go to the bathroom. Get a soda refill,…

The Real-Life Science Behind Orphan Black

In addition to being incredibly entertaining and provocative, the popular Orphan Black series is absolutely teeming with science. From human clones and genetic engineering through to DNA barcodes and genetic patents, here’s what you need to know about the science behind the show. For the uninitiated, Orphan Black is a conspiracy thriller that stars Tatiana…

Before-And-After Pics Show Vanuatu Stripped Bare By A Category 5 Cyclone

On March 17, Cyclone Pam swept through the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. NASA has now released a disturbing set of before-and-after photos captured by the Lansat 8 satellite. These images were taken a mere three days after the storm hit the islands. As you can see in the image below, the island of Erromango,…

Why Did A Group Of Medieval Monks See Part Of The Moon Explode?

In 1178, a group of monks at Canterbury saw the moon suddenly explode into sparks, “writhe,” and “take on a blackish appearance.” What the hell did they see? Throughout history people were always mistaking astronomical events for supernatural signs. Sometimes the signs were interpreted as good omens. More often, strange lights in the sky were…

The Long And Terrible History Of DC Comics Mistreating Batgirl

Batgirl has been in the media forall the wrong reasonsrecently — but this is nothing new. The iconic heroine has long been a source of controversy for DC, thanks to a series of strange decisions. Here’s the story of DC’s Batgirls, and the controversies that have come to define them. Strange Beginnings Barbara Gordon was…

Someone Is Blogging Late 1950s-Early 1960s Science Fiction In Real Time

What if there was a blogger tackling the history of science fiction at the end of the Golden Age, as it happened? It would look a lot like the Galactic Journey blog, over on Dreamwidth. The blog started on Oct. 21, 2013 — covering events on Oct. 21, 1958 as if they were happening now.…

New Episode VII Trailer Debuting With Obscure Indie Flick Age Of Ultron

In news that is rocking the movie entertainment industry to its very core, it has been announced that the new trailer for Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens will be attached a little-known film titled Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, set to debut on a mere 5-3,000+ screens on May 1st. Age of Ultron,…

The One Mathematical Concept That Richard Feynman Had Trouble Grasping

In the latest installment of the animated interview series The Experimenters, physicist Richard Feynman gives a fascinating account of his childhood, explaining how his father interested him in science, his mother’s reaction to his experiments, and the one time he had trouble understanding a concept in math. This series from Blank on Blank, which adds…

Mad Max Trailer Reveals Its Big Bad Villain — And His Big Bad Plan

Mad Max: Fury Road isn’t all sand and explosions. There’s a plot in there… somewhere. And now, this latest trailer has finally revealed the beast behind the mask. Find out what Mad Max: Fury Road is finally about, now. From the looks of it, Charlize Theron and her batch of supermodels escape from the insane…

10 Practical Tips for Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse

When the zombie apocalypse strikes, will you be ready? How can you prepare now to survive the undead onslaught? We got the inside scoop from the Green Light Anti-Zombie Squad, a group that’s dedicated to protecting you from zombie attacks. Here are 10 practical tips on how to survive an encounter with the walking dead.…

Doctor Who‘s Rory Is Time-Traveling Again In The Flash/Arrow Spinoff

Arthur Darvill, best known as the companion of the Doctor’s Companion Amy Pond, has joined the increasingly busy Arrow/Flash spinoff as Rip Hunter, a lesser-known time-traveling DC superhero. So two things of note here: 1) it looks like Booster Gold isn’t part of the show, and 2) more Rory! The choice for DC to include…

This Video Will Explain Something You’ve Always Seen But Never Noticed

This slow motion video explains an phenomenon called “buckling instability” – the crimped edges of a splash of water. More importantly, it shows us how much familiar physics we don’t notice until it’s pointed out to us. Every person reading this has been observing splashes ever since they first mustered enough coordination to throw a…