Saturday evening science links

• Prof E O Wilson’s 2007 TED Prize acceptance speech video (via Seed);
• How to simulate of spiral galaxy formation with wood alcohol (methanol) and machine oil;
• What is a chemical bond, and how many of them can be formed between two atoms? A must read essay–There is also some interesting information about the valence bond method, and how increasing numerical accuracy lead to “supercomputers dissolving the chemical bond”. The answer to the questions posed at the beginning of this paragraph (as I understand) is as follows: a chemical bond is an electron-electron interaction that holds atoms together, and at present, it seems that six is the maximum number of electron pairs that can form chemical bonds.
• Here is a review of Jonathan Smith’s Charles Darwin and Victorian visual culture; apparently, the book attributes the fact that Darwin’s Origin is unusually devoid of illustration to the hurry in which it was published to avoid being scooped by AR Wallace; take a look!
• Finally, here is a news report on the use of ultrashort laser pulses to see inside the body.

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