I know I should be off doing something fun instead of sitting at home on my computer, reading the news and eating spaghetti, but 1) I’m too tired, 2) everyone’s left for winter break but me and the security guy, 3) okay, maybe not quite everybody, but it feels like it, and 4) spaghetti is awesome, okay?
Anyway. Guys: I cannot get over this headline. This headline wins my world.
“Scientists Accidentally Create Mouse That Sings” *
I think it’s the ‘accident’ part of it that gets me. It really sells me on science. (Note to self: good choice of career!) Also, I know they’re joking about the mice forming little societies now that they have the beginnings of language- but… well, maybe. I don’t believe we’ve ever observed the beginning of language – who knows how long it takes in a relatively intelligent animal like a mouse? A couple cheeps to mean “danger” and, next thing we know, we’ve suddenly got mice with the communication capacity of birds.
Oh, and there are already hundreds of them. For the record. So I guess if humans get hit with a near-nuclear annihilation sometime soon and that lab building escapes it, we’ll have a new candidate species for dominance of the earth.
You know what else is scientifically awesome? There was an article yesterday about a bunch of 8 year olds who got published in Biology Letters, fairly legitimately. While the science was apparently valid and interesting, what really impresses me is that they managed to write the paper themselves (granted, with awesomely 8-year-old headers like “Training phase 2 (‘the puzzle’ . . .duh duh duuuuhhh)”. Whether little asides like those are minor annoyances or actual improvements on the standard journal paper is up for debate.** ) Regardless, it’s pretty cool.
Action Potential 
You’re awesome!