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Week in Geek: Post-Apocalypse Holiday Edition

On the off chance that there isn't enough pie at your holiday festivities, here's some for your brain instead of your stomach.

On the off chance that there isn't enough pie at your holiday festivities, here's some for your brain instead of your stomach. As the video explains, the song was created from the irrational number π by assigning each number 0-9 a note on the A harmonic minor scale. The right hand then plays the never ending digits of π while the left plays the harmony. In a sense, this is an ideal pi(e): you can never fill up on it and it can never make you sick!

More holiday science:

  • Have you decorated your home with the requisite holiday poisons?
  • Dickens had a fascination with chemistry. If only there had been a ghost of science past.
  • If you were really "Home Alone" and faced off with burglars as Macauley Culkin, here's how they would have fared, medically speaking.

  • If you don't already know xkcd, you should check it out. Even cooler is the xkcd what if blog that scientifically and mathematically prods some pretty incredible thought experiments. For example, what if three wise men really did walk towards a star at fixed speed? Here's where they might end up.
  • And speaking of the magi, the gift of gold can now be located by using insects in Australia.
  • Some thoughts on the science and evolution of our perception of color, especially red and green (wink, wink).
  • These molecules are talking to you and wishing you happy holidays!
  • Token apocalypse geek:
  • If you really need to know why we are still here today and not blown to smithereens by some apocalyptic catastrophe, read this.
  • On the other hand, if you are craving some apocalyptic visions, here's the year in volcanoes.
  • Oh, and start preparing for the next possible apocalypse in 2018.
  • And lastly geek for the sake of geek:
  • Check out this selection of 20 amazing infographics of 2012.

Happy Geekmas! @Summer_Ash