Autor: Marta

Videobeschreibung:

„These animations show cellular biology on the molecular scale. […] All animations are scientifically accurate and derived from molecular biology and crystallography research.“

Kommentare aus dem Penny-Arcade-Forum, in dem ich es gefunden habe:

„these processes are a lot more wiggly and floppy than I envisioned them
the squishy splorpy sound effects are a bit hilarious“

„that’s what she said“

Weitere fantastische Formen: Kugel, Würfel, Eimer

Fantastische Formen: Kreis, Dreieck, Viereck

„MIT’s Mini Cheetahs […] frolicking, back-flipping […] and generally acting fun and cute“

Der „mysteriöse Blob“ aus dem Pariser Zoo ist momentan in allen Medien präsent, hier meine Lieblingsauszüge:

Herkunft:

• „Blobs are normally found on forest floors in Europe“³
• „a Texas woman discovered a rapidly-expanding yellow blob growing in her backyard“³

Fähigkeiten:

• „can move without legs or wings“²
• „When separated from oatmeal, the Blob’s favorite snack, the slime mold learned to cross a bridge filled with a bad-tasting chemical“⁴
• „You can even put it in the microwave for a few minutes“¹
• „Just add a few drops of water, and „voila!“ the blob comes to life again“¹
• „Blobs of any size can be created, there is no known limit“¹
• „can solve mazes, help make music“⁴

Rezeption:

• „It is not pretty, unless you like yellow“⁴
• „People complain that the yellow blob looks like dog vomit“⁴
• „sloth-like propulsion does not make it an obvious crowd-puller“¹
• „Visitors to the exhibit should try to place themselves in the mold’s metaphorical shoes. They should try to become a slime mould. They should try to imagine what does Physarum ‚think‘, what dreams Physarum sees when it sleeps […] They might try to invent a joke which sounds funny from the slime mould’s point of view.“⁴

Quellen: 1, 2, 3, 4

Alles, was man gerne von Borisov (weniger berühmt und weniger zigarrenförmig als der erste interstellare Eindringling, ʻOumuamua), wissen würde, u.a.: kommt er wirklich aus einem anderen Sonnensystem?

„[S]ix suggestions have been made as to how this might be something else. Four of them are quite definitely wrong. The other two would be really unlikely.
[…]
So this object almost certainly got sent to us long, long ago, from a star far, far away. (But as stated above, not from a galaxy far, far away.)“

Bold claims:

„In this contribution I will argue that the manuscript is in fact not interesting at all for language nerds.“
„The mere fact that it has not been decoded, means that it is not decodable.“

Wie immer sind besonders die Kommentare auf dem LanguageLog lesenswert.

Im Moment übernehmen wechselnde Comedians jeweils für kurze Zeit Tig Notaros (Jett Reno in Discovery) Twitter-Account. Alle Posts sind von kondensierter Qualität und manchmal sci-fi-ig, wie diese Kurzgeschichte von @cambrewhaha:

„The year is 2050. The climate has collapsed. The rich live in floating mega structures above a constant super storm. The rest of human race is slowly dying from Vape Lung. The only thing that connects us all….. are the sick ass clouds.“

Mit einem wunderbar futuristisch-alltäglichen Satz:

„Nasa is reported to be investigating a claim that an astronaut accessed the bank account of her estranged spouse from the International Space Station, in what may be the first allegation of a crime committed in space.

[…]

Ms McClain has since returned to Earth.“

„An anthology of utopian and dystopian fiction starring 2SQ (Two-Spirit & Queer) heroes by Indigenous writers“

„Spivack was faced with a distressing question: Did he just smear the toughest animal in the known universe across the surface of the moon?“

:-o

„Spivack says there’s no reason to worry about water bears taking over the moon.“

:-/

(Danke an Kathrin für den Link!)