The Care and Feeding of Nerds: chemistry

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This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

Hi everyone. Woo boy. We're all still a bit worn out from PAX East 2016, but there's plenty of content to help push us through that post-con fatigue. No worries, you'll get all the goodness from PAX in the very near future! In the meantime, let's get down to the Week in Geekdom.

Comics

DC has fired Shelly Bond, executive editor of Vertigo, and announces a not-yet-detailed 'restructuring of the label.

Games

Blizzard comes clean about their cancelled successor to World of Warcraft.

Video games are estimated to garner nearly $100 billion USD this year.

Meet Project Nova, the first-person shooter by CCP that's trying to establish a solid foundation for itself. Oh, and, by the way, it's an Eve game.

Sony hasn't come right out and said as much, but it has dropped some strong hints that the PS4 may be the last console it ever produces.

The Xbox 360 received its official death notice from Microsoft this past Thursday.

Kerbal Space Program gets 'Turbo Charged' in the first large-scale update since the game's release.

Red Dead 2 seems as though it is a very, very real (eventually playable) possibility.

Movies/TV

Somewhere on this planet there exists 39 episodes of a Star Wars-based animated series that we may never get to see.

The showrunners have confirmed that they are approaching the end of the narrative for Game of Thrones.

The latest companion for Doctor Who has been revealed.

Science/Technology

Is it possible that the entirety of the known and unknown universe is actually just an elaborate computer simulation? Neil deGrasse Tyson and some of the other brightest minds in science concede that there's a chance this could be the case.

On a similar note: is it possible for scientists to prove that a multiverse exists?

The potential physical states of water are some of the best known in science, but, given the results of this study in the latest edition of Physical Review Letters, there may be a whole lot more to the molecule than previously believed.

While we're on the subject of water and the amazing things that we're just discovering it can do, researchers at Kyoto University have managed to isolate a dimer of the substance using a technique called molecular surgery.

Image credit

A robot monk? China's Longquan Temple now counts a mechanical member among its monastical ranks.

Vulcanologists are adopting a new type of statistical analysis in their studies, one typically employed by economists.

Need a few moments of beauty? NASA has you covered with these videos of the Aurora Borealis as seen from space.

Obi-Wan may have believed them to be an elegant weapon, but lightsabers would actually be far more dangerous in real life than their cinematic depiction would have you believe them to be.

Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory are producing AI Squared: an AI protocol capable of stopping cyberattacks.

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

NomNoms: Epic Gingerbread (Two Ways)

Posted by Kel

Say what? A non-This-Week-in-Geekdom post? I'm getting to the point in this not-semester's worth of studying where burnout is beginning to loom large. The brain takes in a tableau of equations for the umpteenth time, turns in on itself and meekly requests, "Could we please just not right now?"

It's been...ehm...a few years since undergrad, but I've found that I revert readily to what had once been tried-and-true study break behavior. This primarily takes the form of baking; it's edible chemistry! It's also a great way to address any and all cravings. In my case, it was the desire for the deep, spice-laden flavor of gingerbread even though the holidays have come and gone. The following recipes both began at one of my favorite online purveyors of make-your-own deliciousness, SmittenKitchen.com, and got a few tweaks partially borne from chemistry and partially due to the availability of ingredients I had on hand.

Both recipes are a little involved, but yield some seriously bold, fluffy, cakey gingerbread. Bonus: your kitchen will be redolent with awesome for several hours post-baking.

Difficulty: Medium

Availability of Ingredients: Common

Gadgetry: None

Feeds: 6-10 nerds

Time Till Noms: 60-75 minutes, but at least 30-35 of those minutes are passive while the gingerbread bakes.

Required Equipment: A saucepot, a large glass or other heatproof bowl, a heatproof mixing spoon, measuring cups, measuring spoons, a large glass or metal baking pan.

Optional Equipment: A spice grater, a sifter

Ingredients

1 cup of water

1.5 teaspoons of baking soda

8 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, plus a few more if you're using them to grease your pans.

2/3 cup of brown sugar

1 cup unsulfured molasses (not blackstrap)

2.5 cups flour, plus a little more if you're using it to flour your pans

2 large eggs brought to room temperature

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

0.5 teaspoons ground cloves

0.5 teaspoons ground nutmeg

0.5 teaspoons of salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

A small quantity of confectioner's sugar for dusting over the finished bread

Parchment paper or cooking spray
1 Tablespoon of freshly ground ginger (optional)

*heat your oven to 350 degrees (176.67 Celsius)

Step 1) Line your baking dish with parchment paper, then butter and flour the dish. Alternatively, you can coat it liberally with your cooking spray. If you're using spray, you may want to give the measuring cup that will be holding the molasses a spritz, as this will help release all of the sticky goodness later. Cut the remaining butter into small chunks and, if you haven't already, bring your eggs out so they can come up to room temperature.

Step 2) In your saucepot, bring the water to a rapid boil, then add your baking soda. This will produce a fun fizzy/foamy reaction for a few seconds. Woo, chemistry! Remove the water/soda mixture from the heat source and leave it to stand for five minutes.

Step 3) Once your soda-water has settled, add your butter into the mix and swirl everything together until the butter has completely melted. From here, add the brown sugar and molasses and stir until you have a nice, homogeneous mixture. If you're using fresh ginger, now would be the time to grate that over your saucepan and incorporate that into the mixture.

Step 4) Add the following to your heatproof bowl: the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, ground ginger, and nutmeg. If you have a sifter and want to get fancy, you can sift these together or, if you're really into not doing dishes and your saucepan is large enough, you can sift these directly into the saucepan. If your saucepan isn't quite big enough, pour the contents of it onto the dry ingredients in your heatproof bowl and stir until until everything is uniform.

Step 5) If the resulting mixture feels hot to the touch, let it cool for 10-15 minutes. If it doesn't, add your eggs and give everything one last good stir to ensure homogeneity.

Step 6: Pour your batter into your baking dish, then bake for 30-35 minutes. Once the gingerbread has finished its sojourn into the oven, let it cool completely. If you'd like, you can sprinkle some confectioner's sugar over the top once the gingerbread is cool to the touch. Yay!

Difficulty: Hard

Availability of Ingredients: Somewhat Common

Gadgetry: None

Feeds: 6-10 nerds

Time Till Noms: 70-85 minutes, but up to 50 of these minutes are passive as the gingerbread bakes.

Required Equipment: A saucepot, a large glass or other heatproof bowl, another mixing bowl, a heatproof mixing spoon, a whisk, measuring cups, measuring spoons, a glass or metal baking dish.

Optional Equipment: A bundt pan, a spice grater, a sifter

Ingredients

1 cup of Irish dry stout or oatmeal stout (I used Guinness stout and it worked very well)

0.5 teaspoons of baking soda

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup of unsulfured molasses (not blackstrap)

2 cups flour

1.5 teaspoons of baking powder

2 Tablespoons of ground ginger

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

0.25 teaspoon ground cloves

0.25 teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg

a pinch of ground cardamom

3 large eggs, brought to room temperature

0.75 cups of vegetable, canola, or safflower oil

Parchment paper or cooking spray

A small amount of confectioner's sugar for dusting over the finished bread

*heat your oven to 350 degrees (176.67 Celsius)

Step 1) Line your baking dish with parchment paper, then butter and flour the dish. Alternatively, you can coat it liberally with your cooking spray. If you're using spray, you may want to give the measuring cup that will be holding the molasses a spritz, as this will help release all of the sticky goodness later. **Note: if you're trying to make this in a bundt pan, be especially liberal with the buttering/flouring. This batter ends up extremely sticky.**

Step 2) In your saucepan, combine your molasses and stout, then bring that mixture to a boil. Once it's boiling, add your baking soda, stir, and remove the whole shebang from your heat source.

Step 3) Add to your heatproof bowl the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cardamom. Stir these gently to combine.

Step 4) Add the three eggs and both types of sugar to your other mixing bowl. Whisk these together, then add your oil and whisk that into the mix as well.

Step 5) Give the molasses and stout mixture a quick feel test. If it's close to room temperature (or at least isn't hot), then add the contents to the bowl with the eggs/sugar mixture and stir everything together. Once you have a homogeneous blend, toss that in with the flour and spices. Stir the whole shebang together until everything is uniformly combined.

Step 6) Pour the resulting batter into your pan and give the pan a few sharp raps on your countertop to eliminate any air bubbles that may have formed. Place the pan in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes if you're using a rectangular baking dish and 50 minutes if you're using a bundt pan.

Step 7) Once the gingerbread has finished its sojourn into the oven, let it cool completely. Sprinkle some confectioner's sugar over the top once the gingerbread is cool to the touch. Yay!

FAQs

Does it matter what type of brown sugar I use?

Not really. Dark brown sugar tends to jive a little better with the ingredients in these recipes, but there's no real reason why you couldn't use light brown sugar. Just ensure that it's brown sugar you're using and not, say, cane or some other form of raw sugar.

Why shouldn't I use blackstrap molasses?

Honestly you could, but your gingerbread would turn out with an extremely intense, somewhat bitter flavor that would likely be overwhelming for most palettes. If you like your gingerbread to be incredibly bold and on the less sweet side, then go right ahead and use blackstrap.

What's with the boiling of liquids? Can I just skip that step and add those ingredients directly to the others?

This step is what gives the gingerbread its fluffy, cakey texture. If you skip it the results will be quite different than if you hadn't.

Best of luck on your kitchen experimentations!

This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

Holy December Batman. Seriously, how are you here already? Apparent distortions in the space-time continuum notwithstanding, I hope you're all having great weekends and wonderful holiday seasons thus far. Before we all dive back into our respective yuletide preparations let's get down to the Week in Geekdom.

Comics

Neil Gaiman's landmark graphic novel, the Sandman, turned 27 on November 29th. Here is why said work remains in a class all its own nearly three decades after its publication.

The city of Cleveland has some concrete, or potentially Kryptonite, plans to honor the Man of Steel.

Games

Behold the first trailer for the Final Fantasy VII remake!

Movies/TV

We gave this announcement plenty of love over on our social media pages, but it's definitely worth revisiting. 2016 will see the return of Samurai Jack!

Speaking of returns in 2016, DC would like to remind us that Batman vs Superman will be coming our way in the not-so-distant future.

Science/Technology

Check out these incredible images/videos of Italy's Mt. Etna, which erupted in spectacular fashion earlier this week.

It's been a few weeks since we had some new images of Pluto from New Horizons. Well, if you're a fan of the dwarf planet it was worth the wait, as the latest batch of pictures are the sharpest we've seen yet.

When you think of commonly occurring elements in the known universe, you may think of Hydrogen and Helium, but would you correctly guess that this is the element that would come next in that sequence?

While we're...sort of...on the subject of helium, the ultralight element is proving to be the key ingredient in next-generation high-capacity storage drives.

We talked last week about the burgeoning 'war' of privatized space exploration, but here's a far less bellicose facet of the Blue Origins side of things guaranteed to make you smile: the reactions of the 400 scientists and researchers that worked on their firm's reusable rocket.

We've talked a bit over the past few weeks about the centennial of the publication of Einstein's Theory of Relativity but, if we get right down to it, what is spacetime...really?

For decades researchers have been stymied by the concept of cosmic microwave background radiation, as it has proven incredibly difficult to detect by direct means. The latest edition of Nature presents what may be the solution to this mystery.

Potentially commercially viable synthetic diamonds. Bonus: they glow in the dark.

Turns out that your appendix may not be a useless evolutionary vestige after all.

General Awesomeness/Real Life Superheros

In honor of 'Giving Tuesday' Jason Gidman, the host of 'DC All Access', launched a campaign to send 10,000 comic books overseas to provide some much-needed escapism and entertainment for actively serving military personnel. Want in? Here's how you can get involved.

Ever wonder just how much either of the Death Stars cost or just would have happened to the Galactic economy following the destruction of said superweapons? The School of Engineering and Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis gave their best crack at coming up with a comprehensive response.

Mattel has brought back the Viewmaster in time for the holiday gift-giving season and the latest incarnation of this classic toy is a bit different than what you may remember.

This Lego-based kinetic sculpture of Sisyphus is both stunningly realistic and somehow very soothing to watch.

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

Happy weekend everyone and best wishes for a happy con to all you lucky nerds attending SPIEL and New York City Comic Con right now. One of these days we really should make the trip over to Germany and see all that Essen has to offer or get down to New York to get our comic con fix. Things have been a bit on the slow here in terms of new content here on the Care and Feeding of Nerds, but all that will change in the not-so-distant future (I promise!). In the meantime, let's get down to the week in geekdom.

Games

Bluepoint Games and Naughty Dog have pooled their resources to rebuild and release UNCHARTED: The Nathan Drake Collection for the newly repriced PS4. While this is, in itself, pretty exciting, it opened up the line of thought, "What other classic games should be rebooted for the PS4?"

Insurance policies, in my Metal Gear Solid Online? Here's the lowdown on this microtransaction and how it may impact future games.

Disappointed by Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5? Here's how EA is trying to learn from its competition and what it may have in store for Skate 4.

Movies/TV

Marvel is gung-ho to keep plowing ahead with its plans for Phase 3. The latest planned addition to the cinematic universe is Ant Man and the Wasp, which is slated to hit theaters in 2018.

Science/Technology

Some of the biggest headlines of the week came courtesy of the newest class of Nobel laureates. Meet your 2015 prize-winners in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, and all of the other awardable arenas.

Image Credit: NASA. Here's some additional detail about the research that captured this year's Physics Nobel

Turns out that Mars isn't the only one of our solar system siblings that plays host to water. Thanks to the image cache sent back from New Horizons, NASA has been able to confirm that Pluto not only contains ice, but boasts blue skies as well.

And that's not all. Here are the next five missions NASA would like to embark upon.

Construction isn't slated to begin until 2018, but scientists are already atwitter with excitement about the Square Kilometer Array (a.k.a. what may be our best tool in the search for intelligent alien life).

If you were ever a student in a U.S. high school, you likely had to make use of a TI-83 graphing calculator at some point in your academic career. The computational behemoths are still widely used throughout the country, and here's why.

The latest edition of Nature Communications contains the details of this effort out of MIT to produce the first fully-functional prototype of a miniature particle accelerator.

Speaking of particles, ever wonder how photons experience time?

For decades astronomers and physicists used gravitational effects to determine the mass of celestial bodies. New research from the University of Amsterdam, however, indicates that other methods may be just as, if not more, effective.

The most recent edition of Science Advances sounds like something straight out of science-fiction. Researchers at Lehigh University were able to control a fly's heartbeat using a laser.

While we're on the subject of supervillain-esque research, Nature details the research of George Church, his Harvard brethren, and a clutch of geneticists in China who have edited the genomes of pigs in order to allow them to be the perfect organ donors for humans.

Peto's Paradox described the phenomenon of the incidence rate of cancer being inversely correlated to an animal's size. Here's how a trip to the zoo spawned a detailed study at the University of Utah investigating this phenomenon.

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of This Week in Geekdoms. We're trying to squeeze all the summer we can out of these next few weeks before things take a turn for the dark and chilly. Gah, can't believe Labor Day crept up on us so quickly! The upcoming change in seasons will translate to more posts, if everything goes according to plan. In any case, let's get down to the Week in Geekdom!

Books

After much hemming, hawing, and drama, here are your 2015 Hugo Award winners.

Comics

Secret Wars is slated to draw to a close this October and Marvel has stated that there will be a full-on reboot of their entire comic universe in the immediate aftermath. Here's what you need to know to be prepared for this "All New, All-Different Marvel."

Games

As a follow-up to June's announcement that Kerbal Space Program will be coming to PS4, developer Flying Tiger confirmed this week that they are also working on a port of the game to Xbox One. Neither port has a release date yet.

Konami would like to know which of its classic games you'd like to see get a modern-day makeover.

Forgotten Realms: the Archives are now wholly available (and completely DRM-free) on Gog.com.

If you were alive during the 1990s and ever visited an arcade, you likely were exposed to some not-so-subtle anti-drug propoganda. Ever wonder why various agencies chose to spread their message in arcades? Well, now you can find out.

Movies

We have a new trailer for the Martian. Let us bask in its glory

Science/Technology

While we're in a Red Planet state of mind, check out these self-portraits that Curiosity snapped earlier this week.

It may not be capable of causing rifts in the space-time continuum, but physicists from the University of Barcelona have successfully crafted a wormhole (that bores through electromagnetic fields).

Thoth Technology has been given a U.S. patent for space elevators.

It's a device straight out of the annals of science fiction, but more than one organization is seeking to at least attempt to make them a reality. What would happen if we could make a functional electromagnetic thruster?

Speaking of stuff that's straight out of science fiction, researchers at Ohio State University are claiming that they've grown a full-sized human brain in their laboratories (insert sinister cackling here).

Engineers at the University of Bristol may have a solution to one of the major limiting factors of quantum computing (and computing in general): the first quantum interconnect.

Image Credit

Meanwhile, over at MIT, engineers believe they've come up with a functional and commercially viable solid-state electrolyte, which may well produce the "perfect" battery that would last for decades.

That whole Gravitational Constant is a Constant thing? Yeah, we're a little more sure that it's actually constant.

On the subject of constants, it takes 26 of them to adequately describe the known universe and those still leave us with some pretty gaping holes in our scientific narrative.

Stephen Hawking's speech software has been released for public use and is absolutely free.

You know what the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo could use? An artificially created meteor shower.

It hasn't even been a full month since the launch of Windows 10 and Microsoft has already released three patches to support the new operating system. The problem? Microsoft refuses to tell us what's in those patches.

A team of researchers at the University of Texas (at Galveston) believe they have isolated a new drug that can counter the deadly effects of acute radiation exposure.

It was arguably the single most viral phenomenon of 2014, but we're now learning just how much good the has come from the funds raised by the Ice Bucket Challenge.

Crowdfundables For Your Consideration

Back in June we talked about a potential epic battle involving actual giant robots. Now one of the makers of said robots needs our help to make that fight happen. Visit their Kickstarter page for all the dream-fulfilling details.

There are just five days remaining to get in on the Button Shy Wallet Game series. This (completely funded) Kickstarter provides backers with three highly portable and fast-playing games.

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

Happy weekend everyone! We're in the very last stages of preparations for Gen Con 2015, which itself is a little surreal. The countdown now somehow stands at single digits, costume pieces need to be shipped, and bags will soon need to be packed. At this point next week Steampunk Hawkgirl will be 100% complete and, hopefully, on her way out to Indianapolis. In the interim, there will be at least one or two more posts that speak to the making of that costume and probably one other post describing where you can find the GIR and I if you're going to be joining us out at Gen Con. In the meantime though, let's get down to the week in Geekdom.

Books

Star Wars: Aftermath, one of the first new canon novels in the Star Wars universe, depicts the tragic fallout after the destruction of the second Death Star. The book will be available on September 4th.

Comics

Did the concept for Spider-Man's costume come from a 1950s era child's Halloween costume?

Archie Comics will be bringing the Ramones into their paper-and-ink world in 2016.

10 actually comics-based announcements from San Diego Comic Con.

Games

The Escapist feels that these are the 8 worst video game villains of all time. Do you agree?

Movies/TV

We posted the trailer on our social media pages earlier this week but, in case you missed it, here's our first glimpse of the X-Files reboot.

Artificial Intelligence has been a recurring theme in movies for decades now, but which films treat this technology correctly?

The saga of Dr. Doom's struggle to break into the Marvel cinematic universe.

Science/Technology

One of the biggest science stories of the week was undoubtedly the first images of Pluto that were sent back to us from the New Horizons probe. Here are some of the incredible pictures from our most distant neighbor in this solar system.

Speaking of NASA-originated awesomeness, these are the ideas being bandied about for a post-Hubble deep space telescope.

The other headline-grabbing bit of science news we were treated to this week was this discovery out of CERN that researchers have discovered a new subatomic particle: pentaquarks.

It's nothing like the summer camp your parents may have been sent to: this is the NSA's cybersecurity summer camp.

Buckyballs, not just a fun desk toy that's been pulled off the US market, but a tool that is still helping researchers unravel long-standing mysteries concerning interstellar space.

Image Credit

The latest edition of Nature Communications includes this bit of research about a novel type of ceramic developed at the University of Tokyo that holds onto heat until the release of such is purposefully triggered.

Speaking of novel substances, scientists at Rice University have successfully combined titanium and gold to create the first itinerant antiferromagnetic metal.

We talk a lot on here about the sometimes-unsettling advances in the field of robotics. Well, researchers at the University of Hertfordshire are trying to allay our fears a bit with their efforts to teach robots to play soccer.

General Awesomeness/Feats of Nerdery

San Diego Comic Con, the Musical.

If you've been reading here for a little while, you're likely aware of just how much we love Mad Max around here. So we were extra giddy when we came across this fan-made, Doof Warrior inspired ukelele.

Adam Savage and Chris Hadfield went to Comic-Con incognito while cosplaying as astronauts. Jaime Lee Curtis did the same at EVO 2015 while cosplaying as a Rule 63 version of Vega from Street Fighter.

This Week In Geekdom

Posted by Kel

Hi everyone. We're closing in on one month out from Gen Con 2015! Between our con preparations and keeping abreast of the news streaming out of E3 it was a busy, busy few days. So, without further ado, let's get down to the Week in Geekdom.

Comics

DC has confirmed that perennial villainesses Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn are officially a couple.

Games

Redacted Studios gave us this trailer for Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma. The game will be available on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 later this year.

Watch the AI Marl/O introduce itself to Super Mario Bros. and teach itself to play the game.

Blizzard announced that it will release a completely free three-mission single-player mini Starcraft 2 campaign titled Whispers of Oblivion. The missions will bridge the narrative gap between Heart of the Swarm and the forthcoming Legacy of the Void. Blizzard did not provide a date of availability for Whispers, but you can follow the game's development (and sign up for the Legacy beta) here.

Need a little post-apocalyptic fix to get you through to November and the release of Fallout 4? If you have an iDevice, you can give Fallout Shelter a try.

Speaking of Fallout, if you're a fan of modding your games then you may be pleased to know that your PC mods will be fully transferable to the Xbox One.

And while we're on a Bethesda streak, here are the first five playable minutes of Doom.

Thirteen years after we last saw an installment of the Pro Skater franchise, Robomodo will be bringing us Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5.

Shenmue 3 became the fastest Kickstarter project to reach the $2 million funds raised mark.

We'll be getting a remake of Final Fantasy VII.

Movies/TV

It's official: Starz has greenlit a TV series based on Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods.

38 years after it was first screened, Episode IV was finally released to cinemas in China.

Science/Technology

Curious about how the Earth might look, climatically speaking, in the year 2100? NASA has put together these projections to show us exactly that.

This Vermeer is not what it seems

In addition to those thermal maps, NASA put together this composite to celebrate the 20th birthday of the Astronomy Photo of the Day (APOD).

The Philae comet lander called home to Earth this week not once, but twice.

Joris Laarman is on a quest to put his company, MX3D, at the forefront of 3D printing technology with his line of robots that can print bridges in mid-air.

In what may be a revolutionary leap for the creation of prosthetic limbs, researchers at Linz University in Austria have developed an artificial leg that's capable of 'feeling' sensations.

Amazon has launched their new review system that is inherently intelligent and capable of learning. If anyone had Amazon in their 'Will be the source of real-life Skynet' pool, go collect your prize.

Universities throughout the U.S. are on a quest to bring back fully flavored and satisfying strawberries.

The BBC is developing the BBC Concept, a headset that will allow TV viewers to change the channel with a mere thought.

RIP iPad mini.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have developed a cellulose-based, biodegradable semiconductor chip. Yep, that's a computer chip made of wood.

The latest issue of Cancer Discovery includes this research on a novel test for prostate cancer.

Physicists at MIT have been able to get the gaseous form of sodium potassium to within a hair's breadth of absolute zero.

General Awesomeness

Behold the Hot Wheels garage where you can see the real-life counterparts to your favorite models.

The evolution of the pinball machine.

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

Happy weekend guys. Hope you've all had a great week and a suitably excellent weekend (and that you're not broke as a result of the Steam Summer Sale). There are a few hours left to get in on our Street Fighter IV giveaway too! Ok, you got your entry in? Let's get down to the week in geekdom!

Books

The onslaught of all things Star Wars ahead of the release of Episode VII is building to a crescendo. Disney and Lucasfilm will be adding to this on September 22nd, at which time they will release three new novels retelling the original trilogy from new viewpoints. You can get a sneak peek of this forthcoming goodness by reading this excerpt.

The daughter of the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett has confirmed that Shepherd's Crown will be the last novel in the Discworld series.

Comics

If you're a Star Wars fan you will almost assuredly enjoy this web comic depicting the backstory of Green Leader.

Secret Wars #3 let us finally see the face of Dr. Doom.

Games

Are your dice balanced? The following video will show you how to determine if you've got a fair die or if your complaints that said die was cursed and plotting against you were true all along.

Movies/TV

Have a tissue or three ready for Peter Jackson's tribute to Sir Christopher Lee.

On Monday we got the first episode of Bruce Timm's new animated series: Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles on Machinima. If you haven't seen it already, here's a sample of what the series is offering. Also, here is Mr. Timm's take on making the series and taking some of the most classic DC heroes into brand new territory.

We've known it all along, but now we have definitive, written proof that Han shot first.

This was a week of awesome new movie trailers. We now have a look at Hunger Games: Catching Fire Part 2 and the Martian.

Science/Technology

The Large Hadron Collider has been successfully running at full capacity for a bit now (and already giving us astounding data). Given that we haven't been plunged into the depths of a black hole as a direct result, maybe we can take some time to discuss the philosophy underpinning this lancet into scientific discovery.

Or, if philosophy isn't your thing, there's these findings in the latest edition of Nature that detail the discovery of the Bs0 meson.

It's been 39 years since Carl Sagan proposed the concept of a solar sail, but this week that musing became a reality (and Bill Nye is psyched about it).

Think you've exhausted all that Google Maps has to offer (and mastered Geoguessr as a result)? Google is upping their live mapping game by expanding into the sea.

Speaking of new visual frontiers, NASA will be bringing us video feed to YouTube in 4K resolution.

Thanks to SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket the DSCOVR module has gone from very expensive space junk to fully functional monitor of solar storms.

Until that channel is launched, however, we can content ourselves with this set of images from Ceres.

The new Nature Scientific Reports details the work of Chinese and Singaporean physicists who appear to have demonstrated violations of local realism.

The latest edition of Nature Nanotechnology includes this research out of Harvard that allows for scientists to 'spy' on the functionality of individual neurons.

We're inching closer to the release of Oculus Rift, but we're getting more virtual reality goodness in the interim. Introducing the Oculus Touch controllers.

Ever wonder why the trip home usually feels shorter than the journey to get to your destination? Here comes the science.

We've talked at length about Elon Musk's proposed Hyperloop, but now we're getting sneak peeks of what it might look like.

IBM's supercomputer Watson: excellent at Jeopardy, terrible at biomedical research.

General Awesomeness/Feats of Nerdery

We have our first official glimpse of the toys associated with The Force Awakens.

Real life Grand Theft Auto V. Enough said.

There's being a fan of Elder Scrolls and then there's investing $50,000 USD into a remodel that transforms your basement into Tamriel.

This Magic: the Gathering card sold for nearly $15,000 USD.

I'll leave you guys with this footage from YouTuber styropyro and his latest creation: a functional 40W laser shotgun. As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead.

This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

Hi guys. Hope you're all having a great weekend thus far. The past few days have been a nice respite from the hustle and bustle of the past few weeks (and the torrent of amazing gaming news coming out ahead of E3). It's giving me a chance to push ahead with Steampunk Hawkgirl and for all of us to tackle the last few entrants to the Playtesting Lab before we put the latter into Gen Con hiatus (the Lab will open again on August 11th). Gah, Gen Con is so soon! But ok, let's get back to the Week in Geekdom.

Comics

This week Marvel undid one of its most controversial decisions and Spider-Man may never be the same.

Not content with just that change, Marvel is on the cusp of launching the reboot of its entire roster. We got a glimpse of what the new incarnations of our favorite characters will look like earlier this week.

The horrified gasps you may have heard (or uttered yourself) earlier this week were doubtless from readers of the new Marvel Star Wars comic line. Star Wars #6 gave us the first real taste of what life will be like in the new Expanded Universe (warning: link contains spoilers).

Action Comics #41 gives us this look at the newest incarnation of Superman.

Games

The past week has been chock-full of gaming news, not least of which was 2K's enormous announcement that XCOM 2 is not only very real, but will be coming our way later this year. We got a few more details about humanity's struggle with the alien invaders. And, if you missed it, take a gander at the announcement trailer.

We also got our first look at Fallout 4. As the Care and Feeding of Nerds is based in Boston, we were particularly fascinated by how Bethesda depicts our fair city post nuclear apocalypse.

Just in time for the forthcoming Summer Sale, Steam put forth a new refund policy that's sure to make our wallets weep just a bit less.

The policy was only one bit of big Steam news this week. Valve also released long-awaited details concerning its controller and Link system. Both items are now available for pre-order and will allegedly ship in October.

Turbine confirmed on Tuesday that it will be shutting down the free DC-centered MOBA Infinite Crisis. The game will go dark on August 14th.

The first peek we'll get of the Episode VII universe will come from Star Wars: Uprising, a mobile game.

Movies/TV

Big Trouble in Little China will be the subject of a remake and the Rock will be in the starring role.

Mega Man is already prepping for his 30th birthday celebrations. The diminutive Capcom icon will be getting a 26-episode animated series airing in 2017.

George R.R. Martin gives us 5 characters from a Song of Ice and Fire that he wishes weren't missing from Game of Thrones.

Science/Technology

We've been following the upcoming release of Windows 10 for a bit now, but this week we got an official release date. You'll be able to upgrade beginning on July 29th (and can put in your 'order' for the free upgrade right now if you're running a Windows OS by clicking on the little icon in the lower right-hand corner of your UI).

Physicians in Brazil have pushed the boundaries of what's possible with 3D printers after implanting a portion of a human skull printed in pure titanium.

What would you see if you were to fall into a black hole?

At first glance, it may seem like ordinary black paint but this substance may be the key to harnessing solar energy like never before.

The latest edition of Science includes details concerning this test that can reveal every virus you've ever contracted.

We may have already developed pharmacological weapons against the Ebola virus and just didn't know it.

If you're one of the millions of people for whom sleep doesn't come easy, MIT would like you to try on this hat.

Beginning this past Wednesday, the Large Hadron Collider ran (and will continue to run) at full power.

A group of British doctors have released data indicating that dual-faceted treatment with a pair of drugs is immensely effective against melanoma.

Feats of Nerdery/General Awesomeness

Meet Boyan Slat, the Dutch 20-year-old whose ambitious plan may be humanity's best hope to rid our oceans of man made debris.

ASUS, Republic of Gamers, and In Win have combined their powers to create this gobsmacking 'transforming' PC tower.

After years of a decidedly antagonistic relationship, Godzilla and Tokyo have officially buried the hatchet as the former was made a citizen and ambassador of the latter.

I'll leave you guys with this video footage of a remote-controlled R2-D2 fridge! As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead.