Emo Science

(via Stellar Humor / Awwww. No group planet hug for Pluto.)

wtfevolution:

A parasitic louse that crawls into your mouth, vampirizes your tongue, then clamps itself onto the withered stub so it can ride around inside you and drink your mucus for the rest of your mutual lives? Why, yes. It’s called symbiosis and it’s beautiful.

What? Relax. It’s going to be fine. This isn’t going to hurt. You won’t even miss your tongue—once the louse is latched onto the muscle, you can simply use its body as a tongue instead. These are exactly the kind of details that evolution has worked out for you, because evolution loves you and it wants you to be all right.

WTF Evolution is a pretty Emo Science-like Tumblr. We approve.

wtfevolution:

So you’ve got this fish. And it’s got eyes on either side of its head, like any normal, self-respecting fish should have. Then you decide to start keeping it on the seafloor, where it can lie flat on its side and camouflage in the sand. Smart move! But now one of its eyes is on the ground!

You could just make your fish a new body that’s oriented flat-wise, like a stingray’s. You could do that. Or you could take the fish that’s born vertical and, during its most vulnerable developmental years, slowly move one of its eyes across to the other side of its head until the poor bastard looks like something Pablo Picasso dreamed up after a scuba-diving accident. 

As if puberty weren’t bad enough already. Thanks a lot, evolution.

Earth will become Mars in 700 years! Spoiler: it’s not a good thing.

crownedrose:

Scientific American Image of the Week #39, April 23rd, 2012: Fatal Spirotrich Sex

A stunning DIC (differential interference contrast) microscope photo by Scientific American Blogs’ own Ocelloid shows glittering jewel-like creatures literally having sex to death. These beautiful spirotrichs have unfortunately fused at the mouth while reproducing, which you can see at the right of the image, with all the cilia. The ability for scientists to image microfauna such as these is essential, and DIC has the advantage of imaging these organisms while leaving them unstained and alive (unless they have fatal cilia mouth sex).

From: Pond water ‘microforay’: amoeba and ciliate sex gone horribly wrong by Psi Wavefunction at The Ocelloid.
Source: Psi Wavefunction

(via Nerdy Dirty - Illustrations for Nerds in Love on the Behance Network)

- Biology Doesn’t Support Gay Marriage Bans

cwnl:

How About No?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for being realistic but this is actually not entirely true. I don’t mind looking a bit foolish explaining this if this is actually a joke but whatever.

I don’t really believe in wishing upon a star, but on the defense of those that do believe in that; Stars vary in shapes, sizes, energy output, and even chemical composition which allows it to either grow really old before it dies or die a youngster. With this in mind, you’re only a few million lightyears late if the star was rather young and weak or old and at the end of its life and perhaps really distant from your position, and even then you ought to consider a few of the following..

For instance our star, the sun, has a couple billion years of life to go before it turns into a white dwarf star and dies collapsing under its own gravity. Our star is an average star, and average stars are a plenty in this universe.. that’s why they’re called average. So if some hypothetical alien was wishing upon this star, our star, and it was a mere few million light years away, this star would still be alive and kicking off its energy since our star still has some couple billion years to go before it dies. Also, light years are measured by time not distance.

So when you say “FUCK YOU AND YOUR DREAMS YOU’RE A FEW MILLION LIGHTYEARS LATE DOHOHOHOHO >:]” it does not imply that the star is dead but rather that the star you’re viewing now in real-time is but a baby picture of what the star actually is now. It may dead, it may be kicking its few bits of energy, it may still be energy abundant or in its prime. But know this, not every star you view in the night sky is dead.

Just like not every wish or dream you make is dead. Keep dreaming the good dreams and make em’ happen!

Science: 1 Pessimists: 0

PS: I really need to stop arguing with pictures..