The Best Videos of 2012, From People Who Have the Best Taste in Videos

2012 was a big year for internet video. But with more than 70 hours of video uploaded every minute to sites like YouTube and Vimeo, finding the cool stuff can be hard. I mean, maybe you missed that video up above, Neil deGrasse Tyson and “The Most Astounding Fact”? Now you can make sure you watch it, because it’s amazing.

Thankfully, the folks at The Atlantic have you covered when it comes to some of 2012’s best (check the link for the full list). I mean, there’s no such thing as a definitive best list, but this is certainly chock full of awesome.

Oh, and did I mention that I got to pick one? :) It shouldn’t surprise which was mine … enjoy!

Source: The Atlantic

It’s Okay To Be Smart - Best Posts of 2011 Don’t know if they are my best, but here’s my most popular posts of 2011 (via): December: Mars rover Opportunity confirms liquid water on Mars (runner-up: The heroic story of some special identical twins - one’s trangender) November: This GIF is the reason I get out of bed in the morning (runner-up: Ladybugs are changing color due to climate change) October: Discovery of ozone layer on Venus (runner-up: The unfortunate mummy with an ancient case of prostate cancer) September: Humans fire laser into sky, sky laughs, responds with lightning (runner-up: The creepy yet fascinating skull of an ancient child showing a skull full of adult teeth) August: Geohysterical reaction map of the 2011 Virginia earthquake (runner-up: Blueprints of famous NASA equipment) July: Neptune turns one year old (also my most popular post ever, with almost 23,000 notes as of this writing) (runner-up: A living fire ant bridge) June: SUPERnova! (runner-up: An oddly attractive arrangement of belly-button bacterial growth) May: An explosives detector made of bee venom and nanotubes (runner-up: How to see the green flash at sunset … and what is it?) April: Eiji Watanabe’s paper butterflies March: How tsunamis work February: Inside an abandoned particle accelerator January: Science valentines Of course, this separates them by month, and there were lots more favorites lost in the mix (actually, too many to count). What are yours? Before we move on into 2012, take a look through my archive, and let’s walk down memory lane and bask in the glow of all the science we love. What will this year bring? (Edit: Starting in April or May of this year, I noticed that a ton of my old posts have had their notes reset to zero. ZIlch. Nada. What’s going on, Tumblr? So the rankings after that are iffy at best.)
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It’s Okay To Be Smart - Best Posts of 2011

Don’t know if they are my best, but here’s my most popular posts of 2011 (via):

  1. December: Mars rover Opportunity confirms liquid water on Mars
    (runner-up: The heroic story of some special identical twins - one’s trangender)
  2. November: This GIF is the reason I get out of bed in the morning
    (runner-up: Ladybugs are changing color due to climate change)
  3. October: Discovery of ozone layer on Venus
    (runner-up: The unfortunate mummy with an ancient case of prostate cancer)
  4. September: Humans fire laser into sky, sky laughs, responds with lightning
    (runner-up: The creepy yet fascinating skull of an ancient child showing a skull full of adult teeth)
  5. August: Geohysterical reaction map of the 2011 Virginia earthquake
    (runner-up: Blueprints of famous NASA equipment)
  6. July: Neptune turns one year old (also my most popular post ever, with almost 23,000 notes as of this writing)
    (runner-up: A living fire ant bridge)
  7. June: SUPERnova!
    (runner-up: An oddly attractive arrangement of belly-button bacterial growth)
  8. May: An explosives detector made of bee venom and nanotubes
    (runner-up: How to see the green flash at sunset … and what is it?)
  9. April: Eiji Watanabe’s paper butterflies
  10. March: How tsunamis work
  11. February: Inside an abandoned particle accelerator
  12. January: Science valentines


Of course, this separates them by month, and there were lots more favorites lost in the mix (actually, too many to count). What are yours? Before we move on into 2012, take a look through my archive, and let’s walk down memory lane and bask in the glow of all the science we love.

What will this year bring?

(Edit: Starting in April or May of this year, I noticed that a ton of my old posts have had their notes reset to zero. ZIlch. Nada. What’s going on, Tumblr? So the rankings after that are iffy at best.)

The Top 5 Astounding Animal Videos of 2011

The PsiVid blog over at Scientific American (curated by the awesome Carin Bondar and Joanne Manaster) has picked their top five awesome animal videos of the year. It features Snakes in a Cave (above), about some strange bat-hunting snakes, as well as our old swaggin’ friend the peacock spider. And of course the mesmerizing murmuration of starlings and a walking octopus to round it out.

As for the fifth video … it’s so special I had to turn it into its own post.

(via PsiVid)

Source: blogs.scientificamerican.com