Garlic, space-time and foliage

From Stephanie Warren:

Want an excuse to eat more delicious, garlicky foods? (I do.) Scientists have found that garlic has amazing antibacterial qualities. When they mixed garlic extract with E. coli, the garlic swiftly dismantled the bacteria.

All cockroaches have exoskeletons made up of chitin. In New York City, it makes them dull brown. But in Costa Rica, it makes them…silver and gold. How does this work?

This video shows how ant swarms can move like liquids. Whoa.

From Sarah Fecht:

Here’s a great profile of a guy who drops people off of towers in the name of science. He’s studying the perception of time.

And speaking of time, here’s proof that the Earth’s gravity bends space-time around it. It’ll also bend your mind!

Here’s a cool new breakthrough in the study of antimatter.

From Rose Eveleth:

A few weeks ago I picked this story from Robert Krulwich at NPR about a cosmonauts last minutes.  Turns out, the story is way more complicated.  Krulwich’s space historian readers wrote him to correct a few things.

The Civil War was tough, but the one thing that thrived amongst the violence was facial hair.  Vote for your favorite here.

The worst part about moving to NYC for me has been the lack of foliage.  Thankfully, there’s a blog that can help me scratch that itch.