After two big Antarctic ice shelves broke off several years ago, a world of new species was found underneath. Pictures and a press release came out yesterday, showing spindly orange starfish among other interesting creatures. Here is some more information on the expedition. The fact that the shelves melted when they did is most likely a result of global warming, but having them out of the way gave researchers a golden opportunity to study what lives beneath the ice. Other occassions where a disaster has simultaneously been a great research opportunity include radioactive fallouts: at Chernobyl the evacuated area has been monitored for the past decades to see which species move in and how they thrive (previously on Metafilter)
posted to MetaFilter by easternblot at 1:29 PM on February 26, 2007 (22 comments)

Vox is the newest project by blog magnate Six Apart. It's currently in test mode and not yet open to the public, but a select group of people has been trying it our for the past few weeks, including MeFi's own #1. Vox looks like it wants to combine blogging and social networking, and aims to be compatible with different online services.
posted to MetaFilter by easternblot at 3:41 PM on August 4, 2006 (76 comments)

Call the Future let's you send a phone message in the future. It sounds scary, but it could be useful for reminders. Or for pranks. The site creator's own prank was not that great, though.
posted to MetaFilter by easternblot at 1:07 PM on July 16, 2006 (15 comments)

LabLit.com is about scientists, but not so much about science. In the most recent update is an interview with Daniel Glaser about his involvement behind the scenes of the BBC documentary Under Laboratory Conditions. Older articles on LabLit.com are about iPods in the lab, sex in the lab, basically anything besides science that still relates to lab life. "LabLit" is short for "lab literature", and the about page explains the connection between the two and the idea behind the site.
posted to MetaFilter by easternblot at 3:53 PM on April 25, 2006 (6 comments)

The Sixth Annual Weblog Awards aka the Bloggies have started their nomination rounds. The drama! The excitement! The pure gold statues! (Or maybe that was another award...) Yes, this was previously featured on MeFi, as is the case with those yearly events. But I found it through the projects page this time. I first discovered Metafilter a few years ago through the Bloggies website, so it's only fair that I now link to this year's Bloggies on Metafilter.
posted to MetaFilter by easternblot at 1:08 AM on January 3, 2006 (11 comments)

Harry Potter and the Recessive Allele is a short letter to Nature, suggesting using the concept of wizarding heritage in the Harry Potter series to explain genetics to children. It's the latest forwarding fad among biologists. The cartoon in this newspaper version of the story sums it up best... The idea isn't new, however, because a quick Google search finds the same theory in a British newspaper article from 2003.
posted to MetaFilter by easternblot at 7:33 AM on August 17, 2005 (14 comments)