This is a photograph of a phytoplankton bloom that occurred in the South Atlantic taken by the Envisat satellite last month. That link includes a much, much larger hi-resolution image you can download, if you’re so inclined.

Astronomer and blogger Phil Plait explains that scientists observe phytoplankton blooms as an indicator of climate change impact, but that these large blooms can be toxic and can take too much oxygen out of the water where they occur

Oobleck is the name given to the non-Newtonian fluid made out of water and cornstarch. In the right proportions, oobleck demonstrates some unique properties — it is possible to walk across the surface of oobleck without sinking, and, as this video shows, it has some wicked dance moves.

You can make oobleck at home following this recipe.

Even though most Republicans these days reject the basic tenets of science, that doesn’t mean scientists have given up on them. There’s new research to suggest that chimpanzees who fling their poop are smarter than those who don’t.

Which certainly helps to explain the resurgence of one Newton Leroy Gingrich in the polls. He’s the SMART Republican candidate!

Writer Sy Montgomery went mano-a-tentaculo with a giant Pacific octopus at the New England Aquarium last spring and lived to tell the tale. Actually, it’s more than the tale of meeting the octopus, named Athena, it’s several stories of the interactions between humans and octopodes (yes, you read that right, octopodes) and of the amazing level of intelligence that the king of the cephalopods possesses.

But intelligence is not their only remarkable ability. This listicle offers the Ten Superpowers of Cephalopods, several of which should cause you to lose quite a bit of sleep considering the imminent demise of humanity as the dominant species on this planet.

Check out this bug courtesy of a few pictures at Dark Roasted Blend.com. It’s a Brazilian treehopper, and is related to the cicada. Entymologists aren’t even sure what those balls on the top of its head are for, although apparently they are not antennae.

Me, I don’t even mess with them dudes.

The map above shows the parts of the Northeast Atlantic that are the primary bottom-fishing areas (map via NEAFC.org). This Fast Company article reports that in addition to the drastic declines in fish stocks due to overfishing, climate change is having a dramatic effect on stocks as well, although not entirely a negative one. The warming of the ocean has led to an increase in populations of fish species that prefer warmer water, such as hake and dab, even as cold-water species such as cod and haddock have plummeted. The spread of warmer water has also led the warm-water fish into areas where they were not previously found, meaning that Scandinavian fish production might actually increase. Cod and haddock stocks have seen some small improvements in the last few years due to intense regulation of fishing, but the climate changes are likely to mitigate any significant increase.

Do you remember maybe three or four years ago there was a flurry of interest in something called “miracle berries”? They’re a small fruit that has a protein in it that makes sour things taste sweet. You rub the berry on your tongue, and then lemons take like candy, pickles are sweet, etc. You can’t really get the berries legitimately in the U.S., but people found a source and had “taste tripping” parties. Finally, somebody got smart and started making miracle berry tablets, and the novelty wore off and we all forgot about it.

Well, it’s probably due for a rebound, especially because of this Wired story today that explains how the protein, called “miraculin”, does its trick.

Here’s a clip from the Graham Norton Show from 2008 featuring none other than Gordon Ramsay trying the miracle berry, and he doesn’t seem all that impressed with the effect:

I’ve posted about the evolving understanding of the symbiotic relationship between humans and bacteria in the past, so I was intrigued by a story that I chased back to this medical news release site that says scientists have established a link between using probiotics and brain function.

Probiotics is a term used a bit vaguely and in a variety of contexts. Wikipedia says probiotics are “live microorganisms thought to be beneficial to the host organism”. In the public vernacular, we associate the word “probiotics” with things like yogurt with active yeast, or the lactase pills that people with lactose intolerance take when they consume dairy to counteract gastric distress (a situation I am all too familiar with these days). You probably have seen those ads for a brand of yogurt pitched by Jamie Lee Curtis where they basically plug the stuff for helping people poop more regularly.

The new study concludes that mice who consumed soup that had the lactobacillus found in those yogurt products had lower levels of stress hormones and exhibited less anxious or depressed behavior. The scientists confirmed their hypothesis by severing the vagus nerve in the mice — the vagus nerve is the primary nerve connection from the brain to the gut — and observing the return of stress hormones in the mice who got the special soup.

If eating Jamie Lee Curtis’s yogurt will reduce stress, depression and anxiety, maybe they’ll stop running those embarrassing ads where all the women make that gesture about pooping.

This time it will kill us all, FOR SURE! We promise!

Recently, Asia Times ran this story recapping and analyzing what actually happened at Fukushima during the minutes of the March earthquake that led to the even greater disaster as the tsunami hit. The entire Fukushima site was in trouble with safety inspectors for years, coming to a head in 2002, but problems persisted for years afterward. Even without the one-two punch of the natural disasters, it seems likely from this story that a serious accident at Fukushima was merely a matter of time. Also, if you missed it last week, the IEEE has republished blog posts made by an anonymous cleanup worker who operates a robot in the facility to remove materials where the radiation is too high for humans. The posts, which were extremely critical of TEPCO management of the cleanup operations, were deleted from their original website after drawing attention, but the IEEE recovered the posts and republished them to much attention. Last week, Naoto Kan, the prime minister of Japan, resigned because of criticism of the government’s handling of the crisis.

If you get your news from the American news media, you probably didn’t hear this tidbit: the U.S. government has negotiated an agreement to leave up to 25,000 troops in Afghanistan until 2024. You hear a lot about the troops coming home in 2014, but not so much about the “special advisors” staying for at least another full decade in the single biggest waste of money and materiel in the history of humankind. That, of course, presumes that we haven’t completely bankrupted ourselves before then.

PZ Meyers had this story about a “pastor” who thinks it would be great if there could be a national registry of all of us atheists just like they have for “convicted sex offenders, ex-convicts, terrorist cells…” and other undesirables. It would be for “information purposes”:

Now , many (especially the atheists ) , may ask “Why do this , what’s the purpose ?” Duhhh , Mr. Atheist , for the same purpose many States put the names and photos of convicted sex offenders and other ex-felons on the I-Net – to INFORM the public ! I mean , in the City of Miramar , Florida , where I live , the population is approx. 109,000 . My family and I would sure like to know how many of those 109,000 are ADMITTED atheists ! Perhaps we may actually know some . In which case we could begin to witness to them and warn them of the dangers of atheism . Or perhaps they are radical atheists , whose hearts are as hard as Pharaoh’s , in that case , if they are business owners , we would encourage all our Christian friends , as well as the various churches and their congregations NOT to patronize them as we would only be “feeding” Satan .

Gee, wouldn’t it just be easier if we all wore a patch or something?

Former BBC producer Jo Glanville has written an in-depth piece for the London Review of Books chronicling the battle over the future of one of the (if not THE) pre-eminent broadcasting institutions, the BBC World Service. While the mission of the World Service unquestionably needs to be re-evaluated in the era of the Internet, British domestic politics may have more to do with its fate than the information age.

Anything else I can help you feel bad about today? I’ve got plenty of links.