Some big fans of seafood may have experienced the bizarre phenomena that takes place when soy sauce is poured on a freshly killed octopus. If the animal is dead, then why do its tentacles writhe about? Discovery’s youtube channel tackles the science behind one of the latest viral videos.

This video, by artist Isao Hashimoto, plots every nuclear bomb explosion from 1945 to 1998. Despite its relatively long duration of 14 minutes, this video is extremely effective. It’s both unsettling and sickening to see all the areas contaminated and resources wasted in the name of “domestic security.”

YES. Moping has never been both so nostalgic and enjoyable.

Scientists and engineers have been fascinated with spider silk’s amazing and unimaginable capabilities, as it is one of the toughest, yet most delicate materials in existence. The latest use has been in a bow of a violin, enabling musicians to play profoundly soft and versatile melodies.

Venus Flytrap

My friend sent this to me today. Behold the greatness.

Is the Woolly Mammoth Still Alive?

A video has recently surfaced on the internet, purportedly displaying a woolly mammoth, a species long confirmed extinct, alive and well in Siberia. But could this really be a reappearance of an animal considered extinct for thousands years?

Probably not. (And when I say probably, I mean definitely. Unless that scheme to clone the wooly mammoth has already proven successful) Let’s see the evidence:

1. Michael Cohen, who posted the video on the internet, is a paranormal enthusiast who has been involved with a few other videos of phenomena that have been deemed of “questionable authenticity.”
2. The segment is very awkwardly brief, as it only displays an out-of-focus figure. And in the words of an analyst who is responsible for busting many faked UFO tapes, the video appears intentionally blurred, as “even low-resolution cameras can focus fairly well on something, but there’s really nothing in this video in focus. The rocks in the foreground have a blur to them that doesn’t seem natural.”
3. The videographer shot the video last summer and is only releasing it to the public now.
4. The animal pictured is much too small to be the aptly-named woolly mammoth. Thus, a second theory has surfaced, suggesting that the figure is “just a bear with a large fish in its mouth,” which could have somehow been confused for an entirely different, and extinct, species.

One explanation, combining these four points, could be the answer. Perhaps the videographer was aware that the animal was simply a bear, but decided to take a short and blurry video and sell it as a woolly mammoth to garner publicity.

But in summary: unfortunately, we are not seeing the return of the woolly mammoth.

And just for comparison:

A mesmerizing video of the movement and growth Hydra viridian, at 40x to 200x Magnification, by Charles Krebs. This video won an honorable mention in the Nikon Small World Video Competition.

What a lovely rendition of our National Anthem.