1. Mapping New York's languages, we see more Portuguese than one would expect. 

"We have visualised the geography of about 8.5 million geo-located tweets collected between Jan 2010 and Feb 2013. Each tweet is marked by a slightly transparent dot coloured according to the language it was written in. Language was detected using Google’s translation tools."

2. Creating cyberspace.

"inFORM is a Dynamic Shape Display that can render 3D content physically, so users can interact with digital information in a tangible way."

3. "The botany of empire" in the 18th century. 

"John Ellis (1710–1776) was the most successful plant transporter of the eighteenth century. His book, Directions for bringing over Seeds and Plants from the East-Indies and Other Distant Countries, explains his methods of collecting seeds and plants and keeping them viable on long journeys."

4. Some bacteria in the soil form electrical networks with tiny nanowires. And no one is really sure how this works. 

"Researchers and engineers would like to take advantage of this wiring. Bacteria produce electrons while respiring and use the wires to run electrons out of their little bacterial bodies. Normally the electrons build up or break down minerals in rock, but the system can also be used to clean up toxic heavy metals or to run a bacterial fuel cell."

5. Melrose Place, annotated with a new form of closed captioning for the "emotionally impaired."

Thanks Bibliodyssey. 

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