I only know about this because of XKCD, but it's still pretty awesome...
"A common use of Flickr is to find photos. But what about finding a new species of insect? Insect biosystematist Dr. Shaun Winterton discovered a photo on Flickr of a green lacewing taken by Hock Ping Guek (known as Kurt on Flickr). The insect was not identifiable as a known species to Winterton, and after collaborating with the photographer, a specimen was collected in the Malaysian rainforest. Further examination showed that this indeed was a new species. The discoverers named it Semachrysa jade. The discovery was published in ZooKeys and the abstract reads: A charismatic new species of green lacewing discovered in Malaysia (Neuroptera, Chrysopidae): the confluence of citizen scientist, online image database and cybertaxonomy."
Important new news on mako sharks. For those of us that follow these things.
I generally want to never link to TED content, but the animation of DNA at around 3:30-4:00 minutes in is pretty awesome.
This is nuts. The studies these inferences are based on have known errors and statistically insignificant results. See, for example, this: http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2009/06/of_beauty_sex_a.html How do people keep publishing this crap?
