New Scientist magazine shows us their most popular science videos of 2007; some of them are pretty bizarre. A species of squirrel that lives in the desert can tell the difference between a rattlesnake and a gopher snake, and heats its tail appropriately. The rattlesnake, which eats squirrels, and which sees using an organ that is sensitive to infrared light, can see the heated tail and is tricked into thinking that the squirrel is bigger than it actually is. With gopher snakes, which do not eat squirrels, the tail remains unheated.
The next most popular video deals with an unusual mind trick: someone sits at a table with one of their own hands resting on the surface, but hidden, and looks at a rubber hand placed in front of them. The researcher then brushes a paintbrush up and down the fingers of the real hand and the rubber hand simultaneously, until the subject begins to sense that it is the rubber hand that belongs to them, instead of their real hand. This happens even though the subject is fully aware that the hand they’re looking at is fake.
The second- and third-place videos deal with hedgehogs’ four-headed penises and giant attacking squids, respectively. The most popular video of 2007 is about what may be the theory of everything: an elegant mathematical model called E8, developed by a theoretical-physicist-turned-surfer named Garrett Lisi. The model does what others have been unable to do: it unites the force of gravity with the other universal forces. It remains to be seen if the theory can stand up to testing, but it does produce a very pretty geometric pattern.
