@sciencemug

Oh-oh-oh! Dear listener, here for you the second and final part of the Xmas tale about a solitary space-probe named Kepler, and its stubborn, heroic quest for the ultimate decoration to put on the Cosmic Xmas Tree: the "Ridiculously Low Albedo ball"!

A tale told by an alien Santa. To alien jellies. On an alien world. In an alien language [meaning that the language spoken by the narrator -and used in this summary- is not exactly one of this planet, although similar enough to be (hopefully) understandable...]

Here you can find the corresponding text: http://goo.gl/x739LK

Oh-oh-oh! Dear listener, here for you the Xmas tale about a solitary space-probe named Kepler, and its stubborn, heroic quest for the ultimate decoration to put on the Cosmic Xmas Tree: the "Ridiculously Low Albedo ball"! (Part 1).

A tale told by an alien Santa. To alien jellies. On an alien world. In an alien language [meaning that the language spoken by the narrator -and used in this summary- is not exactly one of this planet, although similar enough to be (hopefully) understandable...]

You can find the corresponding text here: http://goo.gl/KkFDUj

Episode number 5 of @sciencemug podcast tells you that Beijing's urban extent quadrupled in the first decade of 2000, and that this created a "ring of impact" around China's capital. The ring causes meteorological changes which, in turn, lead to an increase of urban temperature and pollution. The discovery has been published on the "Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres" by a team of scientists from 'Stanford', 'Cal Tech' and the 'University of Southampton' (indeed there would have been also other two authors, one from the 'University of Kaleidoscopic Town' and the other from the 'Institute for Rolling Dices and Eating a Marshmallow in The Middle of a Tropical Storm', but they were too shy to put their names on the paper...)

Read the text and see the comics here: http://goo.gl/8r0lFG

Ciaz

SM

An (audio) promo - for @sciencemug's next podcast episode - that is as sensible as a pizza topped with pineapples and würstels (yeah yeah, I know it exists and yet, J'ACCUSE!)

The episode n°4 of @sciencemug's podcast tells you, in Engh?ish, that a pig’s pheromone, the androstenone, can calm excessively anxious super barking and jumping dogs when sprayed on them. The discovery, made by a group of researchers of the Texas Tech University, has been published in the journal "The Professional Animal Scientist". (the twin journal of "The Amateur Plant Theologian", cousin of the magazine "The semi-pro quasi-experiment planner").

Read the text here: http://goo.gl/5vyLA3

Ciaz!

SM

The third episode of @sciencemug's podcast tells you, in Engh?ish, that size does matters, as usual. At least when it comes to brains and the ability of surviving predators' attacks and when you are a female, hence not a male, of Poecilia reticulata, a species of small tropical fishes called guppies. The discovery, made by a group of scientists from the universities of Stockholm and Vienna, is reported in the journal Ecology letters, right after the one of a Malaysian cayman that reads the tarot cards (naaa, just joking, it can only play black jack...) Read the text here: http://goo.gl/JAHV54

ciaz SM

Il terzo episodio del podcast di @sciencemug ti racconta che avere un cervello grande aumenta la capacità di sopravvivere ai predatori nelle femmine, ma non nei maschi (sic!), di Poecilia reticulata, una specie di piccoli pesci tropicali detti guppy. La scoperta, fatta da un gruppo di scienziati delle università di Stoccolma e Vienna, è riportata sulla rivista scientifica Ecology letters, subito dopo quella di un caimano malese che fa i tarocchi (naa, scherzo, si limita a fare solitari...) Leggi il post in inglese qui: http://goo.gl/JAHV54

ciaz SM

The second episode of the podcast by @sciencemug tells you that a direct link can exist among catastrophic geologic events, comet impacts, mass extinctions and the Earth crossing, every 30-40 million years, the Milky Way’s mid-plane and its clumps of dark matter. And then buy you donuts to cheer you up...

Read the text here: http://goo.gl/wqItu8

ciaz

SM

Il secondo episodio del podcast di @sciencemug ti racconta che è possibile che esista una relazione diretta tra le estinzioni di massa, la caduta di comete e gli sconvolgimenti geologici che si sono verificati sulla Terra nel corso del tempo e il passaggio ciclico, ogni 30-40 milioni di anni, del Sistema Solare attraverso il piano della Via Lattea e lo strato di materia oscura che esso contiene. E poi ti offre una ciambella per consolarti...

Leggi il post in inglese qui: http://goo.gl/wqItu8

ciaz

SM

Ooooooh well well, dear PodcastMachinin' happily ever after (whatever this means), please, dive yourself for a few minutes into this first odoriferous episode of @sciencemug podcast and listen to how three friendly scientists of a German university discover that ants of the species Lasius niger create, within their nests, actual toilets where our fella insects go number two [in technicolor (you'll understand if you listen to the episode) and without necessarily bringing their smartphones with 'em!]

Read the text here: http://goo.gl/PnMOlu

ciaz

SM