“To look at the evolution of modern bird feathers, we must start a long time ago, with the dinosaurs from whence they came. We see early incarnations of feathers on dinosaur fossils, and remnants of dinosaurs in a bird’s wish bone. Carl Zimmer explores the stages of evolution and how even the reasons for feathers have evolved over millions of years.”

“The process is called ‘enhanced geothermal engineering,’ or EGS, and as the name suggests, it’s a special form of geothermal engineering that relies on manufactured rifts in the ground to produce clean energy. With traditional geothermal engineering, you tap water and steam from naturally occurring hydrothermal reservoirs deep underground. But there aren’t that many hydrothermal reservoirs to go around; you find them primarily the Western United States or on other continents in the Ring of Fire, where volcanoes and other geological hot spots crop up. That places a ceiling on the size and number of traditional geothermal engineering projects that can be built. About 3,000 megawatts of energy were generated through traditional geothermal in 2010, which sounds impressive until you put that in perspective: it accounted for about half of a single percent of energy produced in the United States, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.” w/ photos

“We’ve come along way looks-wise from our homo sapien ancestors. Between 800,000 and 200,000 years ago, for instance, rapid changes in Earth climate coincided with a tripling in the size of the human brain and skull, leading to a flattening of the face. But how might the physiological features of human beings change in the future, especially as new, wearable technology like Google Glass change the way we use our bodies and faces? Artist and researcher Nickolay Lamm has partnered with a computational geneticist to research and illustrate what we might look like 20,000 years in the future, as well as 60,000 years and 100,000 years out. His full, eye-popping illustrations are at the bottom of this post.” w/ photos

“Speaking came thousands of years before writing. All writing that has developed since its invention can be traced back to two civilizations: Sumerian and Chinese. Matthew Winkler dissects the evolution of Sumerian cuneiform and explains the difference between writing those first symbols and simply drawing meaning.” — TED

“Not only is the demand for diamonds a marketing invention, but diamonds aren’t actually that rare. Only by carefully restricting the supply has De Beers kept the price of a diamond high. Countless American dudes will attest that the societal obligation to furnish a diamond engagement ring is both stressful and expensive. But here’s the thing – this obligation only exists because the company that stands to profit from it willed it into existence. So here is a modest proposal: Let’s agree that diamonds are bullshit and reject their role in the marriage process. Let’s admit that as a society we got tricked for about century into coveting sparkling pieces of carbon, but it’s time to end the nonsense.” w/ photos

“A team of researchers with the U.S. Forest Services looked at data from 1,296 counties, accounted for the influence of other variables — things like income, race, and education — and came to a simple conclusion: Having fewer trees around may be bad for your health. Their findings, published recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, suggest an associative rather than a direct, causal link between the death of trees and the death of humans. Geoffrey Donovan, a research forester at the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station, joined the NewsHour recently to discuss why.” w/ photos

“Dear Gentlemen, science has a confession. You were once… a female – which helps to explain where your nipples came from. Watch and learn.” — AsapSCIENCE

“Visit the Becton Sewage Treatment Works — one of Europe’s biggest plants — which processes sewage from 3.4 million Londoners into water clean enough to return to the Thames.” — NatGeo

“Equally ironic is the fact that rolling papers are so closely associated with marijuana. In fact, according to a Canadian study, the average tobacco smoker who rolls his own cigarettes consumes 12-and-a-half sheets of rolling paper a day, whereas the average marijuana smoker consumes less than half a sheet… The first rolling papers were produced as large sheets that users would fold and tear, which is how the standard, 1 1/4 size, sometimes called Spanish size, developed. Eventually a Dominican monk from nearby Xàtiva realized that the papers would be easier to use if they were cut to size and protected by a little booklet, and by 1703, a company in Alcoy, Pay-Pay, was exporting rolling papers in booklets outside of Spain… Click here to learn more on it’s history…” w/ photos + video

“When the government gathers or analyzes personal information, many people say they’re not worried. ‘I’ve got nothing to hide,’ they declare. ‘Only if you’re doing something wrong should you worry, and then you don’t deserve to keep it private.’ The nothing-to-hide argument pervades discussions about privacy. The data-security expert Bruce Schneier calls it the “most common retort against privacy advocates.’ The legal scholar Geoffrey Stone refers to it as an ‘all-too-common refrain.’ In its most compelling form, it is an argument that the privacy interest is generally minimal, thus making the contest with security concerns a foreordained victory for security.” w/ photos