Microbiologists compete to make the best petri dish bacteria art
Posted: October 28, 2015 Filed under: Art, Neat things, Weird Comments Off on Microbiologists compete to make the best petri dish bacteria art
I might not have thought that the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) was made up of super artistic types but there I go, being all judgy and stereotyping people.
Apparently they have an art competition that challenges scientists to get creative with agar, a gelatinous substance used to make biological cultures. Which makes them both weird and cool, and kind of gross, because bacteria.
“The petri dish paintings are created much the same way that stencil drawings or silk-screens are made. Bacteria and yeasts were laid into the agar, which serves as a soil-like surface for the microbes, which then begin to grow. Because many microbes synthesize molecules of pigment, we see them in a brilliant array of colors, from Spirillum rubrum purple to Pseudomonas fluoresces yellow.” So, like silk screens but with bacteria and yeast. EXACTLY THE SAME.
(via Nerdist and Incredible Things)
Awesome Halloween house light display set to Ghostbusters theme song
Posted: October 26, 2015 Filed under: Art, Good Times, music, Neat things, pop culture Comments Off on Awesome Halloween house light display set to Ghostbusters theme song
Here is a house decked out with lights that do some groovy stuff to the Ghostbusters theme song by Creative Lighting Displays, which is famous for their holiday display videos. It involves “4 singing pumpkin faces, tombstones, hand carved pumpkins, strobes, floods, 2 Matrix boards and thousands of lights.”
Every time I hear this song I try to remember who sued who, did Huey Lewis and the News sue Ray Parker Jr. or the other way around? Or did I imagine the whole thing? I could probably just Google it but by the time I get around to it I will have lost interest in the question.
(via Geekologie)
Man walks using his mind power after years of paralysis
Posted: September 28, 2015 Filed under: Neat things Comments Off on Man walks using his mind power after years of paralysis
Here is an inspiring and incredible video of a paraplegic walking for the first time since his spinal cord injury, using his own brain waves. I’m not sure what the mechanism is but it involves “brain-computer interface functional electrical stimulation.“
Artist recreates Van Gogh’s Olive Trees over 1.2 acres in a Minnesota field
Posted: September 24, 2015 Filed under: Art, Neat things Comments Off on Artist recreates Van Gogh’s Olive Trees over 1.2 acres in a Minnesota field
This is neat.
Sixty-four-year-old artist Stan Herd transformed a field in Eagan, Minnesota into Van Gogh’s 1889 Painting Olive Trees. You can only see it from the air. It took six months, covers 1.2-acres, and was sponsored by the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
“It’s an iteration of Van Gogh’s painting writ large in native plants and materials,” Herd told Star Media. And he told MPRNews, “It never looks like I want it to…I bit off a lot here, to try to pull this off. A few of the plants were eaten by deer, and a few were blown over. But that’s the dance of nature.”
I can draw a doodle of a dog.
(Via Bored Panda)
This guy made his kid an Optimus Prime cake that actually transforms. Boom.
Posted: September 2, 2015 Filed under: Good Times, Heroes, Neat things Comments Off on This guy made his kid an Optimus Prime cake that actually transforms. Boom.
Need proof that you suck the big one as a parent? I got your back. Here you go. An Optimus Prime cake that ACTUALLY WORKS AS A TRANSFORMER. What did you get for your kid’s last birthday? Some supermarket piece of junk with a train on it? Yeah. You suck.
This guy, on the other hand, rocks so hard Slayer has a shrine to him in their studio.
(via Incredible Things)
Girl spins nine hula hoops at once
Posted: September 1, 2015 Filed under: Neat things Comments Off on Girl spins nine hula hoops at once
I think my favourite part of this video of a girl spinning nine hula hoops might be how bored she looks, and then she’s all “Oh, right! I should smile. It’s a video!” Though maybe she’s just concentrating.
I can’t even spin one hula hoop. So, it’s nice to see someone is picking up the slack.
(Via Incredible Things)
Butterflies drinking turtle tears, and why turtles cry
Posted: August 12, 2015 Filed under: Animals, Neat things Comments Off on Butterflies drinking turtle tears, and why turtles cry
Here is a picture of Julia Butterflies (Dryas iulia) drinking the tears of turtles in Ecuador.
“The turtles placidly permit the butterflies to sip from their eyes as they bask on a log. This ‘tear-feeding’ is a phenomenon known as lachryphagy which is a type of mud-puddling.” Which leads us to the next question: What’s “mud puddling”?
Well, Wikipedia says, “Mud-puddling, or simply puddling, is behaviour most conspicuous in butterflies, but occurs in other animals as well, mainly insects; they seek out certain moist substances such as rotting plant matter, mud and carrion and they suck up the fluid.”
I have another question: why is the turtle crying?
According to Exploring Nature, “When Sea turtles cry, it is not because they are sad. They have a gland that empties into their eyes that helps them get rid of too much salt that they collect living in the salty ocean. You can only see their tears when they are out of the water on land, of course, and the tears also help keep sand out of the turtle’s eyes.”
OK. I’m glad he didn’t just get left by his wife or something.
I have no idea why I just assumed the turtle is a boy.
This photo was recently named Wikimedia Commons 2014 Picture of the Year.
(Via Twisted Sifter)
Uptown Funk as sung by 280 movies. WHO HAS THIS KIND OF TIME?
Posted: August 10, 2015 Filed under: music, Neat things, pop culture Comments Off on Uptown Funk as sung by 280 movies. WHO HAS THIS KIND OF TIME?
No, seriously. WHO HAS THIS KIND OF TIME???? If you devoted one tenth of the energy it took to create this to eradicating world hunger or I don’t know, finding a way to communicate with aliens or whales or mollusks or something, just think of what you could accomplish!!! JUST THINK.
Instead we have this. Which it cool too, I guess.
The crazy Tree of 40 Fruit grows 40 fruits
Posted: July 22, 2015 Filed under: Art, Food, Neat things Comments Off on The crazy Tree of 40 Fruit grows 40 fruits
This an artist’s rendition (not the actual tree) of the Tree of 40 Fruit created by artist Sam Van Aken. It’s a hybrid tree he created by grafting trees together, because there are people who do that sort of thing. It can grow over 40 varieties of stone fruits, hence the name.
The Tree of 40 Fruit is an ongoing series of hybridized fruit trees by contemporary artist Sam Van Aken. Each unique Tree of 40 Fruit grows over forty different types of stone fruit including peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, cherries, and almonds. Sculpted through the process of grafting, the Tree of 40 Fruit blossom in variegated tones of pink, crimson and white in spring, and in summer bear a multitude of fruit. Primarily composed of native and antique varieties the Tree of 40 Fruit are a form of conversation, preserving heirloom stone fruit varieties that are not commercially produced or available.
National Geographic recently interviewed Van Aken. Here’s video.
(via Laughing Squid)
A hummingbird feeder you wear on your face
Posted: July 21, 2015 Filed under: Animals, Cute, Neat things Comments Off on A hummingbird feeder you wear on your face
This is the Eye2Eye wearable hummingbird feeder from HeatStick. You wear it on your head and tiny little hummingbirds come and eat right in front of your face.
From the website:
“It is based on a Full-Face Face Shield with a miniaturized hummingbird feeding tube built into it on the inside. Hummingbirds feed right in front of your eyes, right between your eyes, about an inch above your nose …”
Yay.
Here is a video of it in action. What I can’t tell is how long that guy sat there waiting for a hummingbird to come and eat from his face feeder. Maybe it’s a trained hummingbird. I don’t know if that’s a thing, but it would be cool, right?
(via Incredible Things)
