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And Now, A Giraffe Eating An Impala Skull

From time to time, wild giraffes have been known to nom on the bones of other animals. The behavior is called osteophagia, and it’s… well… actually kind of common among ruminants, as Jason Goldman explains below.

Red Hot Nickel Ball vs. Brick of Butter: Cholesterol Choo-Choo

Red Hot Nickel Ball has taken on a lot of food challengers. And yeah, you sort of know implicitly that a ball of scorching metal is gonna decimate a brick of innocent butter. But I bet you a bucket of popcorn you’ll still watch. YouTube’s carsandwater says butter was one of the most popular suggestions…

Did You… Did You Know That Baby Sloths Squeak?

Because we did not. Had we known, we might have been prepared for the high-octane adorableness you, yourself, are about to experience. Who are we kidding? There is exactly nothing that can prepare you for the noises in this video. I mean come on – DID YOU HEAR THE ONE IN THE BASKET? This montage…

This week in Tech Reads, record-breaking mystery spacecraft, tricks to finding life on other planets, tweaking real-life toys to win kids’ attention away from apps, and more! Kyle Mizokami brings us the story of the U.S. Air Force’s X-37B, an experimental unmanned space shuttle that’s been orbiting earth for a record-breaking span of nearly 500…

Celebrate the Birth of Human Spaceflight, with Yuri’s Night!

Fifty three years ago today, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in history to venture into outer space. Below, Mika McKinnon talks about Gagarin’s incredible journey to Earth orbit (and how to best commemorate that journey: by finding the Yuri’s Night party nearest you!)

Heartbleed, Bubble Porn, Game of Thrones Streaming Woes, and More

This week’s news was absolutely dominated by Heartbleed—what it is, how it’s affecting people, and how to figure out if you’re safe. We’ve got all of that, plus a computer that perfectly ages you, a time capsule house untouched since the Mad Men era, and a sneaky subway camera used to steal credit card info,…

Book Review: Joshua Tree National Park Geology

I picked up a copy of Joshua tree National Park Geology while on an adventure in Joshua Tree National Park. I found my copy at one of the park entry bookstores, but you can also order it online. If you’re going to the park, you want a copy. The book is written for general audiences,…

And Now, A Giraffe Eating An Impala Skull

This impressive photo shows a curious behavior sometimes seen in wild giraffes called osteophagia. It literally means “bone eating.” Giraffes don’t consume the entire bone. Instead they just gnaw on it a bit, wearing it down, before moving on to a new section of bone. It is thought that the bones provide an additional source…

Instagram Crashed and it Caused a Global Food Crisis

It’s a springtime Saturday, with the weather finally warming up for a lot of folks. Sounds like the perfect day for brunch with friends, right? Wrong. Instagram is down, and it’s causing a panic among aspiring food photographers. Just look at these poor lost souls. All of this is to say nothing of the people…

Who Wins In A Fight: A Na’vi, The Alien Queen, Or The T-800 Terminator?

James Cameron hosted an AMA on reddit earlier today. Some blessed soul had the good sense to ask him the only question that really matters. “Mr. Cameron,” queried redditor ContinuumGuy. “A Na’vi, the Alien Queen and the T-800 Terminator get in a fight. Who wins?” To which Cameron responded: Is the T-800 armed or not…

Instagram seems to be having some technical difficulties updating its feeds right now. Guess you’ll just have to share your brunch pictures sans filter. [Instagram]

​Everyone’s Gone Baby Crazy In The Season’s Best Grimm

Wow. Who knew how good this show could be when it skipped the standard Wesen-‘o-the-week storylines, focused solely on the season’s biggest storyarc, and brought all its players together for one purpose? Well, I think we all did, actually. It’s a shame this doesn’t happen more often. But that doesn’t take away from the fact…

Smart Car Tipping and Thom Mayne: What’s Ruining Our Cities This Week

Someone’s doing dumb stuff with Smart cars in the Bay Area. A report says Los Angeles is beyond help. And did architect Thom Mayne’s new building damage a school’s legacy and the neighborhood it calls home? It’s all this week in What’s Ruining Our Cities. Smart car tipping is ruining San Francisco Little cars have…

God Can’t Get His Credit Report From Equifax

Dealing with credit agencies can be a real pain. A lot of times it feels like the credit bureaus just don’t care about regular folks like you and me. We’re not alone—turns out, even God can’t get an accurate credit report. Because Equifax doesn’t believe in Mr. God Gazarov. The New York Post brings us…

Trifids in Infrared

The Trifid Nebula is a stellar nursery, where baby stars are born. In this infrared image, the green is cooler hydrogen gas, while the multitude of bright blue and cyan stars are hot, young stars between us and the distant nebula. This image was captured by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The colours are…

Daytime Napping Linked to Increased Risk of Death

Today in unsettling news: Results published in a recent issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology suggest a correlation between daytime napping and increased mortality risk. Photo Credit: Ernesto De Quesada // CC BY 2.0 The study, led by University of Cambridge epidemiologist Yue Leng, looked at the associations between daytime napping and mortality in…

Yuri’s Night

Tonight is the annual worldwide party celebrating humanity’s past, present, and future in space. Commemorating the first crewed spaceflight in 1961, and the inaugural launch of the Space Shuttle in 1981, Yuri’s Night is a time for education, outreach, and flat-out partying. Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин) learned to fly in a biplane before…

Robot Eyes Replace Your Blank Stare With (Fake) Human Expression

Coming across as a socially functioning human who expresses real emotions can be such a drain. If only there was a high-tech way to replace your flat, expressionless gaze with a digital approximation of human warmth. Well, search no more. AgencyGlass is here. Invented by Dr. Hirotaka Osawa at Japan’s Tsukuba University, AgencyGlass takes the…

Attenborough’s Next Amazing Nature Documentary Will Play on Oculus Rift

Sir David Attenborough is the grand master behind epic nature documentaries like Planet Earth and Blue Planet. His productions take us deep into entirely new worlds that few humans have ever visited. His next project will do that even more convincingly, powered by the amazing virtual reality powers of Oculus Rift. Just imagine Borneo on…

The Science of Anatomy is Undergoing a Revival

Two decades ago, when I was starting my PhD studies at the University of California in Berkeley, there was talk about the death of anatomy as a research subject. That hasn’t happened. Instead the science of anatomy has undergone a renaissance, sparking renewed interest among researchers and the public alike. I may be biased, but…