California has been experiencing drought conditions for over a year, and now geological monitoring stations show that the drying ground is actually rising up. According to this article by Sarah Zielinski in Smithsonian Magazine, “Measurements of these subtle movements, made using GPS instruments, suggest that the western United States is missing some 62 trillion gallons of water, enough to cover the entire region six inches deep.” Alarming news for farmers and thirsty kitties alike.
Yeah, I’m not even going to try to explain. You can haz wikipedia.
Ohai. Professor Kitteh here to explain the topic of general relativity, in particular the concept of space-time curvature.
Wow, that is a remarkably succinct explanation. Thanks, Prof. Kitteh! We’ll ace that physics test now.
Our hoomin scicomm friends killed it on the interwebs this week, so all we needed to do was line up a few science kittehs to illustrate their great stories. First up, Bethany Brookshire (@scicurious) in ScienceNews explains the science behind gluten sensitivity, including the meaning of FODMAPS, which are, alas, some kind of carbohydrate and not maps to the fud.
Next, Matthew Francis (@DrMRFrancis) explains in Slate why quantum mechanics does NOT explain human consciousness. He can also explain why different kittehs spin in different directions, which may be more useful.
Finally, over at BoingBoing, Maggie Koerth-Baker (@maggiekb1) delivers a masterful explainer (with gifs!) on the science of faceplanting. If I have a tiny quibble with this piece, it’s that kittehs generally look upon faceplanting as more of an art.
All lolcats via Cheezburger.com
In four easy steps.
Ta-Da! Enjoy your beautiful garden-grown lolcat.
The Finch and Pea 