The 7 Sunday links emails turned out to be the most popular over the past year. Each email was a small collection of often odd but educational stories. This post includes 125 links that I saved but never got round to publishing in Sunday emails. Feel free to browse and have fun reading and learning about STEM topics. The Sunday emails links were meant to start readers on a fun journey exploring the article topic. And maybe more if the destination site is equally interesting.
Music for pets? It’s a profitable business. The woman who built a business around music for pets
https://media.hubspot.com/music-for-pets-its-a-profitable-business
You’re probably brushing your teeth with toxic metals
https://bgr.com/science/youre-probably-brushing-your-teeth-with-toxic-metals/
If you wish to make a toaster from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
https://www.scopeofwork.net/toaster-project/
How to Set Your Thermostat—According to Science
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/smart-thermostat-science
“Astronomy is Facing an Existential crisis,” Says Researcher Who Solved Radio Telescope Mystery
Is your internet being throttled? Here’s how to find out (and stop it)
https://www.zdnet.com/article/is-your-internet-being-throttled-heres-how-to-find-out-and-stop-it/
Decommissioned wind turbine blades recycled into asphalt for new roads
https://newatlas.com/environment/decommissioned-wind-turbine-blades-recycled-asphalt-roads/
11 Exciting Astronomical Events in 2025—and How to See Them
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/astronomical-events-2025-how-to-see-them
Earth’s Rotation Is Slowing Down, And It Could Explain Why We Have Oxygen
https://www.sciencealert.com/earths-rotation-is-slowing-down-and-it-could-explain-why-we-have-oxygen
Magnetic confinement advance promises 100 times more fusion power at half the cost
https://phys.org/news/2025-04-magnetic-confinement-advance-fusion-power.html
Why Is The Ocean Salty But Lakes Aren’t?
https://www.sciencing.com/1835938/why-ocean-salty-but-lakes-not
Why Belly Fat Expands With Age, and How to Target It
https://neurosciencenews.com/aging-belly-fat-neuroscience-28743/
How Meaning Takes Shape Before We Speak
66 of the best Harvard University courses you can take online for free
https://mashable.com/article/free-harvard-courses-march-2025
How to Create a Recovery USB Drive to Fix Your Computer
https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-create-a-recovery-usb-drive-to-fix-your-computer
AI Thinks It Cracked Kryptos. The Artist Behind It Says No Chance
https://www.wired.com/story/plaintext-kryptos-code-artificial-intelligence
Max Scherzer has many more thoughts on robot umps: ‘What problem are we really solving?’
NASA Turns Off 2 Voyager Science Instruments to Extend Mission – NASA
Early ancestral bottleneck could’ve spelled the end for modern humans
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/999720
Researchers harness the sun to produce hydrogen gas from water
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-harness-sun-hydrogen-gas.html
AI Is Deciphering Ancient Inscriptions That Experts Have Struggled With for Centuries
Five years on: The countries that never locked down for Covid-19
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250304-the-countries-that-never-locked-down-for-covid-19
How to Build Your Own AI Assistant
https://hbr.org/2025/03/how-to-build-your-own-ai-assistant
Advanced Error Handling in Python: Beyond Try-Except
https://www.kdnuggets.com/advanced-error-handling-in-python-beyond-try-except
NASA Successfully Acquires GPS Signals on Moon – NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-successfully-acquires-gps-signals-on-moon/
Alarm call as world’s trees slide towards extinction
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c24558g69mgo
Vast ancient Mayan city is found in a Mexican jungle — by accident
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/ancient-mayan-city-found-mexico-jungle-campeche-rcna177762
Unwind and Watch This Misty New Zealand Sunrise From the Trail
Reckoning with generative AI’s uncanny valley | MIT Technology Review
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/10/24/1106110/reckoning-with-generative-ais-uncanny-valley
The Environmental Toll of a Single ChatGPT Query Is Absolutely Wild
https://futurism.com/the-byte/environment-openai-chatgpt
The Whistled Language of Greece and How it Could be Lost Forever
https://greekreporter.com/2023/11/08/whistled-greek-language
A Bear on Mars?
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia25709-a-bear-on-mars
An Old Conjecture Falls, Making Spheres a Lot More Complicated | Quanta Magazine
You can take a two hour tour of Ancient Rome in its glory
https://gizmodo.com/simulated-tour-ancient-rome-flyover-zone-yorescape-1851004033
Hackers have found an insidious way to attack you with malware — don’t fall for this
Largest-ever global smartphone study reveals surprising use patterns
https://newatlas.com/science/largest-ever-global-smartphone-study-addiction
Stunning Codex Documenting Aztec Culture Now Fully Digitized
NASA program appeals to public to crowdsource info about solar jets
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2023/11/09/nasa-solar-jet-hunter-program-restarted/7251699553448/
The Euclid Telescope Just Released Its First Images. They’re Incredible.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/telescopes/a45770087/euclid-telescope-first-images
Galileo’s observations of Jupiter changed how we view the Universe
https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/apple-news-ingest/galileo-observations-of-jupiter
Cephalopods Have Passed a Cognitive Test Designed For Human Children
https://www.sciencealert.com/cephalopods-have-passed-a-cognitive-test-designed-for-human-children
These are 2023’s most common passwords – make sure yours isn’t on the list
https://bgr.com/tech/these-are-2023s-most-common-passwords-make-sure-yours-isnt-on-the-list/
Solar-Powered Device Produces Clean Water & Clean Fuel At The Same Time
Northern lights webcams: Watch the aurora borealis online for free
https://www.space.com/northern-lights-webcams-watch-aurora-online
The 3 Secrets Behind Ancient Maya’s Super Strong Architecture
Underwater Kites Buoying The Prospect Of More Tidal Power Generation | Hackaday
Records reveal hidden history of female astronomers at Yerkes Observatory | University of Chicago News
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/records-reveal-hidden-history-female-astronomers-yerkes-observatory
Plastic Archeology
https://www.scopeofwork.net/plastic-archeology
The Entire Manuscript Collection of Geoffrey Chaucer Gets Digitized: A New Archive Features 25,000 Images of The Canterbury Tales & Other Illustrated Medieval Manuscripts
Self-healing concrete patches up cracks with dormant bacteria
https://newatlas.com/materials/self-healing-concrete-cracks-bacteria
The State of the Planet in 10 Numbers
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-state-of-the-planet-in-10-numbers
How long is a second?
https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/mathematics/how-long-is-a-second
This Sponge Pulls Gold from Electronic Waste
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/this-sponge-pulls-gold-from-electronic-waste
AI boom risks flooding planet with ‘millions of tonnes of e-waste’
‘Found’ Dataset Reveals Lost Maya City Full of Pyramids and Plazas, Hiding in Plain Sight Beneath a Mexican Forest
Claude AI was given access to Minecraft and it built a mansion with domes
https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/claude-was-given-access-to-minecraft-and-it-built-a-mansion-with-domes
3D printing buildings without cement
Math and Puzzle Fans Find Magic in Martin Gardner’s Legacy
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/math-and-puzzle-fans-find-magic-in-martin-gardners-legacy
Ancient Cuneiform Tablets Become Readable With New Automatic Text Recognition Tool
Groundbreaking stainless “Super Steel” generates sustainable hydrogen production from seawater
Water leaking into Earth’s core may have birthed a mysterious layer that churns out crystals
A Psychologist Explains What ‘Mind-Reading’ AI Can Do To Us
Tyrian purple: The lost ancient pigment that was more valuable than gold
Momentous Discovery Shows Neanderthals Could Produce Human-Like Speech
https://www.sciencealert.com/momentous-discovery-shows-neanderthals-could-produce-human-like-speech
Cambridge map reveals 2,000 years of hidden history
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-67497550
4 Tips to Spot Misinformation on the Web | WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/4-tips-spot-misinformation
Deep-diving robots checking for climate collapse in our oceans – BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-67359467
Covid Moonshot
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo7201
https://drruth.substack.com/p/covid-news-and-more-111123
NASA’s new AI map tool can forecast exactly how climate change will transform your street
http://www.sciencefocus.com/news/new-nasa-ai-tool-maps-climate-change
Detroit’s road of the future will charge your car as you drive on it
Napoleon’s Kindle: Discover the Miniaturized Traveling Library That the Emperor Took on Military Campaigns
https://www.openculture.com/2023/11/napoleons-kindle.html
An Easy-Sounding Problem Yields Numbers Too Big for Our Universe
A ‘runaway star’ could save Earth from extinction a billion years from now. Here’s how. | Space
https://www.space.com/runaway-star-save-earth-from-extinction
The catchiest song of all time, according to science
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-catchiest-song-of-all-time-according-to-science
This Device Might Be England’s Oldest Dated Scientific Instrument
You Can Now Take an Immersive Virtual Tour of the Lascaux Cave Paintings
https://mymodernmet.com/lascaux-cave-paintings-virtual-tour/
You can now access Apple’s official diagnostics tool online for DIY repairs
Name that whale! How AI aces animal spotting
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67649177
Scientists are working to save tiny ‘water monsters’ with medical superpowers: ‘Over 1,000 times more resistant to cancer than mammals’
https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/axolotl-water-monsters-evolution-inhabit/
Watch a Japanese startup test a rocket engine that will run on cow-dung methane (video)
https://www.space.com/japanese-startup-biomethane-rocket-engine-test-video
Astronomers stunned by six-planet system frozen in time | Science | AAAS
https://www.science.org/content/article/astronomers-stunned-six-planet-system-frozen-time
Company unveils bladeless ‘honeycomb’ wind turbines — here’s how this super-efficient technology could let clean energy take another leap forward
https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/honeycombs-solar-energy-panels-tiles/
Bizarre Fast Radio Burst Exhibits a Unique Signal Never Seen Before
https://www.sciencealert.com/bizarre-fast-radio-burst-exhibits-a-unique-signal-never-seen-before
The Dutch are riding their bikes on two new solar cycle paths
https://electrek.co/2023/12/18/dutch-riding-bikes-solar-cycle-paths/
Scientists Simulated Runaway Greenhouse Effect and It’s Horrifying
https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-simulated-runaway-greenhouse-effect
This small turbine can harness the power of passing cars
https://www.cnn.com/world/small-turbine-harness-power-of-passing-cars-scn-climate-spc-intl
Researchers have 20-minute “talk” with whale in the wild
https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/video/researchers-have-20-minute-talk-with-whale-in-the-wild/
“Flying dragon” robot harnesses the “crazy hose” effect to fight fires
https://newatlas.com/drones/flying-dragon-firefighting-robot/
Insightful Animated Video Sums up 4.5 Billion Years of Earth’s History in 60 Minutes
https://mymodernmet.com/animated-earth-history-60-minutes/
Physics, AI and music all share a common thread. You just have to look closely enough
https://www.sciencefocus.com/apple-news-ingest/physics-ai-music-common
The Biggest Discoveries in Computer Science in 2023 | Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-computer-science-in-2023-20231220/
We Just Got a Major Step Closer to Teleporting Images Using Only Light
https://www.sciencealert.com/we-just-got-a-major-step-closer-to-teleporting-images-using-only-light
10 Things Software Developers Should Learn about Learning
Eleven Kinds of Blue: Werner’s Pioneering 19th-Century Nomenclature of the Colors, Beloved by Darwin – The Marginalian
https://www.themarginalian.org/2018/02/06/werner-nomenclature-of-colours
The Great Wall of China Is Coated in a Living Substance That Shields It From Harm
The Revolutionary Plastic-Eating Boat Taking a Bite Out of Ocean Pollution
Students develop revolutionary technology that allows you to power devices with just your fingertips — here’s how it works
https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/finger-strip-electronics-solar-wind-energy/
AI made from living human brain cells performs speech recognition
Earliest ‘true’ saddle in east Asia discovered
https://phys.org/news/2023-12-earliest-true-saddle-east-asia.html
Why do people have wisdom teeth?
https://theconversation.com/why-do-people-have-wisdom-teeth-216148
Wild new NASA plasma tech reduces drag during hypersonic flight | Space
https://www.space.com/nasa-hypersonic-magnetohydrodynamic-control
Are Students’ Math Futures Being Unwittingly Set By Tracking? | EdSurge News
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-03-04-are-students-math-futures-being-unwittingly-set-by-tracking
Do Stars Outnumber the Sands of Earth’s Beaches? | Scientific American
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-stars-outnumber-the-sands-of-earths-beaches/
A Low-Cost, Scalable Way to Get More Women Into Tech | Stanford Graduate School of Business
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/low-cost-scalable-way-get-more-women-tech
Shields up: New ideas might make active shielding viable
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/03/shields-up-new-ideas-might-make-active-shielding-viable/
‘Missing’ houses offer a new perspective on Britain’s Roman period
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-houses-perspective-britain-roman-period.html
Why do trees need sunlight? An environmental scientist explains photosynthesis
Emissions hit a record high in 2023. Blame hydropower.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/03/07/1089585/hydropower-trouble-droughts/
New time crystal gets lifespan boost of 10 million times longer
https://newatlas.com/physics/new-time-crystal-10-million-times-longer-lifespan/
Scientists found a Stone Age megastructure submerged in the Baltic Sea | Ars Technica
Air Canada must honor refund policy invented by airline’s chatbot | Ars Technica
Team describes how to produce ‘green’ steel from toxic red mud
https://phys.org/news/2024-02-team-green-steel-toxic-red.html
Jupiter’s Supervolcanic Moon Io Dazzles in Photos from NASA’s Close Flybys
Humans Living in Cities Are Slowly Losing Their Ability to Digest Plants
Researchers gave AI an ‘inner monologue’ and it massively improved its performance
Social inequities and citizen science can skew our view of the natural world
When Did Dogs Become Our Best Friends?
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/when-did-dogs-become-our-best-friends
Supervolcano Eruption Reveals What Could Have Driven Humans Out of Africa
The World’s E-Waste Has Reached a Crisis Point
https://www.wired.com/story/e-waste-recycling-cant-keep-up-precious-metals/
7,000-Year-Old Neolithic Boats Were Incredibly Sophisticated And Surprisingly Modern
This Guy Just Found a Faster Way to Multiply
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a29514208/faster-way-multiply/
A Secret Code May Have Been Hiding in Classical Music for 200 Years
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2024/04/beethoven-code-dynamics-manuscript/677964
How to Tie a Knot: The 21 Essential Knots You Need to Know
The fine art of human prompt engineering: How to talk to a person like ChatGPT
How Wi-Fi sensing became usable tech | MIT Technology Review
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/27/1088154/wifi-sensing-tracking-movements/
If you’re wondering how I could find so many interesting STEM links, be sure to read My STEM/STEAM Resources and Tools post. It includes web browser bookmarks and an RSS feed file.