CICADAS ARE COMING!
Cicadas have developed an amazing strategy for growth, survival, reproduction, and overcoming predation by…doing nothing. They do nothing for years (except sip at the juice excreted from root structures) before emerging in huge, simultaneous swarms.
The swarm is so huge that predators can’t consume even a fraction of it, but so rare that predator populations can’t sustain themselves between emergence events. Clever little things!
Human-Powered Helicopters and a Red Fox: SciShow Talk Show #8
Da Vinci imagined a helicopter powered solely by human muscles. Now more than 500 years later, two teams are using advanced materials to try and make that dream come true. Hank and Catilin discuss these two teams and the Sikorsky Prize that they are battling for.
Then Jessi from Animal Wonders shares Seraphina the red fox!
We’re Goin’ Asteroid Wranglin’
Hank has some good news about NASA.
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Sources
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/president-obama-to-direct-nasa-to-grab-an-asteroid-send-astronauts/2013/04/05/02aa0a60-9e2a-11e2-a941-a19bce7af755_story.html
http://www.kiss.caltech.edu/
http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_03_28_2013_p0-564163.xml
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/news/third-congressional-hearing-on-asteroid-threat-coming-up-next-week
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/08/us/nasa-asteroid/?hpt=hp_bn1
A Cure for Ebola, Rabies & Other Virus Villains?
Viruses are among humanity’s greatest threats and it seems like they’re always one step ahead of us. But this week, biologists say that they’ve discovered a new weapon we can use against some of our most nefarious virus enemies - and it comes from our friends the plants. Get the full story from Hank in today’s SciShow news.
Viking Sunstones and Mummy Health Secrets
Today on SciShow news, dead person wisdom is helping enrich our understanding of the natural world - how did Vikings manage to be such awesome navigators? And is heart disease inherent in human beings? Scientists think mummies may have the answer.
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Major Brain Dump!
This week on SciShow news, strap in for a trip through the frontier of the human brain. The human connectome is a years long venture to explore and map the pathways of the human brain, and this past week scientists released two terabytes of awesome quality pictures in an enormous data dump which is now freely available to be used in all manner of neurology research.
Plasma Rain?
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Last week, NASA published a jaw-droppingly beautiful and kinda terrifying video called “Fiery Looping Rain on the Sun” - Hank takes some time to explain why the video is awesome in today’s SciShow News.
Watch NASA’s video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFT7ATLQQx8
Check out the Solar Dynamics Observatory: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/
