Way back in the year 775, it looks likely that the Earth was slammed with a massive burst of gamma rays, briefly soaking the planet in quite a bit of radiation. This radiation spike was measured by studying tree rings in Japan and rocks in Antarctica, pinpointing it to 775, the year when Baghdad was the world’s biggest city.


The brave, space-faring spider that debuted at the Natural History Museum on Thursday after its 100-day stint at the International Space Station died yesterday. The museum announced the sad news Monday on its Facebook page, telling fans, “The loss of this special animal that inspired so many imaginations will be felt throughout the museum community.”

Google recently released this cool little educational tool/show off thing for Google Chrome. It’s the nearest 100,000 stars from Earth and you can scroll and zoom through this entire chunk of galaxy. Trippy.
This is a fascinating read about why Obama has strange swath of strong supporters in the South that happens to exactly mirror the coastline of the southeast corner of America during the Cretaceous era, 129 million years ago. Yes, ancient geology still plays a role in modern American politics.



The intricate circular pattern above wasn’t made by any manmade source, nor through some alien undersea device. Instead, it was made by a very ambitious puffer fish off the coast of Japan.
It’s an absolute fact of nature that dinosaurs are fucking awesome. And it seems like every time someone discovers a new dinosaur, it ups the awesome bar. Like this beauty, with fangs and spikes like a porcupine. I want one of these as a pet.