Weekly Roundup: The Best of Pop Culture X Science

Burning Man, Kim Kardashian, Basquiat, HIV and magic mushrooms, all in a week’s worth of reportage from the world of pop culture meets science and technology. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

The Terminator

Researchers in Singapore have created a macromolecule that effectively uses electro static charge to suck in and kill multiple types of viruses such as zika and ebola. Happy days.

East Meets West

A fascinating sociological look at drag queens and how transgendered people in Asia are seen so differently in Western society.

 

HIV Gets Weaker

Researchers at National Institutes of Health (NIH) have discovered a weak area in HIV that vaccines are able to target.

$57,285,000

That’s right. That number right there is what an original Basquiat is worth these days. Check out the other 9 most expensive of his works.

The After Effects of Burning Man

We featured the wonderful work of Molly Crockett recently and she mentioned she was doing some work around the festival Burning Man. Well now some early data has been released which shows some startling figures around transformative experiences, such as “85% of people attending said the change they experienced at the festival was “still persisting” during the days and weeks after leaving.” A must read.

Psychedelics Once More…

This was news that made it all around the press this week and not so vaguely distant to our news on Burning Man. Word has it that magic mushrooms can seriously lift you out of a funk.

Google Goes ARTY VR’ty

 

Your VR Butler

Now that Amazon, Facebook and Google are all battling for the Virtual Realty market in the home, Google recently announced that they will soon be introducing voice activated home devices into the home which will be able to “summon a car from Uber, order pizza from Domino’s and get fitness information from Fitbit.” A slice of irony anyone?

Kim Kardashian is an Undercover Agent

Well if we could add anything to the list of already “incredible accomplishments” from Kim this would have to be high on the list. Apparently Kim Kardashian is an undercover agent “working with Instagram to corrupt Iranian women.” this comes from a verified source, the Organized Cyberspace Crimes Unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp.