In today’s episode of 1-minute science, we look up. The sun is the source of, well, just about everything that we need. It would be an insult to our readers to go over the details of how important the Sun is to our very existence, so suffice to say that we need it. This graphic by 1bog puts that all into perspective and offers facts and figures that may be helpful if you ever make it to Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. Is that show still around? Click to Enlarge. Home Solar Power Discounts – One Block Off the Grid…

Alright, before you read too far into that headline, let me immediately reassure you that we’re not talking about that kind of tweet. Indeed, a mouse that could post inane quips and lulzy links to Tweetdeck would be a marvel of science indeed, but this is infinitely more basic (and infinitely more complex). Science hath wrought a mouse that quite literally tweets. Like a bird. The absolutely adorable mouse came about purely by chance, as researchers at the University of Osaka carried out their ‘Evolved Mouse Project’, which had them breeding mutation-prone mice willy-nilly, unsure of what the…

Google should seriously rethink its doodles. Nobody is ever going to get anything done! This is the worst thing for productivity since their Google Pac-Man. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the ‘buckyball’ (Buckminsterfullerene, for you chemistry buffs), a form of carbon composed of 60 atoms arranged into a soccer ball shape, Google has wizarded their logo, as they have done so many times before, into an animated, interactive buckyball tribute. I’ve seriously been sitting here for ten minutes spinning this damn thing. Google must seriously be trying to collapse the economy….

We’ll get back to Googles and stuff in a few minutes – this is way, way, way more important. Doubtlessly you’ve wasted no less than several nights of your life, lying awake, debating in your head whether or not the chicken came first. Chickens come from eggs, though. Can’t have a chicken without one. But where the hell did the egg come from? Let’s be honest – this obsession is ruining your marriage. It’s ruining your marriage and you need to end this once and for all. But wait! Put the gun back in the drawer. There’s a better way: the question has been answered! It’s true – British researchers have done a…

Once upon a time we’d take fast fairground rides to get a sense of it, nowadays we can actually, you know, just do it: head off into the wide blue yonder of zero gravity sensation. Sensation seekers these days have this new option on their itinerary, for when those picnics and beach holidays get a little tired, why not get a sense of life on Mars? Space.com talks up the holidays offered by Zero Gravity Corporation, who are taking people up and out in a G-Force One airplane to experience weightlessness. These are all part of the many ongoing 21st-Century experiments attempting to assess the scientific…

I’ve been hearing this concept tossed around for years now, but apparently, it has now happened: Science (and may I point out that I capitalize ‘Science’ intentionally) has built robots out of DNA, and has put them to work. Nadrian Seeman, a professor at NYU and his team have developed a sort of ‘factory’ where they’re currently experimenting with having the nanobots build particles of gold. Each robot is composed of a few molecules, instructed by DNA. “We have the three robot stations lined up in a row, and the walker walks by them. Depending on how we program the system, the walker will or will not…

My friends and I have always talked about how arcade driving is so much more satisfying than real-world driving; you know, the unrealistically responsive steering, the third-person camera angle. It would be a dream. What? Yeah, I’ve got friends. Can’t blog all the time. Anyway, it seems the crew at Rooster Teeth have actually gone and given this concept a real-world shot by blacking out the windows of a pickup truck and securing a camera to the back of it via a really long pole. I won’t spoil anything, but I will say I am now officially content with real-world driving. There’s a bit of sailor-talk…

This image is not a painting of a scene from the world’s worst vineyard – it’s a molecule of chlorophyll as seen through the eyes of New York artist Alexander Kobulnicky, whose body of work deals with capturing the essence and unique character of the building blocks that make up us and the world around us. “Underneath the colorful spheres of molecular diagrams is a deep symbolism,” explains Kobulnicky on his website. As a fellow artist, I’m kicking myself for not thinking of this first. Below are some more examples of Kobulnicky’s explorations: Glucose, Heme, Alcohol, THC, and my personal favourite,…