How much information does each sperm carry? How much sperm in an ejaculation? An Austrian Facebook page offers answers: each sperm carries DNA worth about 37.5 MB of data. If you assume that an ejaculation contains 200 - 300 million sperm that means that each ejaculation is a loss of 7153 TB to 10,729 TB. Have these factoids ready for your next cocktail party.
I agree with Jennifer Ouellette that it is healthy to periodically reconsider the extremely small place that human beings occupy in the context of the entire universe. She has collected several of my favorite videos and images in this post at Scientific American.
Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer at Discover Magazine, describes the danger of asteroids are, then tells us how to keep them away from the Earth. Here's a hint: it does not involve the use of nuclear weapons. This is an entertaining and informative talk.
I learned this from National Geographic:
[Gary] Hack and co-author Andrew Gallup, of Princeton University, propose that yawning causes the walls of the maxillary sinus to expand and contract like a bellows, pumping air onto the brain, which lowers its temperature. Located in our cheekbones, the maxillary are the largest of four pairs of sinus cavities in the human head. Like a computer, the human brain is "exquisitely" sensitive to temperature and must stay cool to work efficiently . . . "
I sometimes hear that science is a threat because it turns humans into "machines," and otherwise removes the magic of life. I've sometimes had a fleeting thought of this type, for instance, while first encountering "Terror Management Theory" (I got over it). Does science ruin the magic of life? In this entertaining TED monologue, BBC radio show host Robin Ince argues more science teaches us about the astonishing behavior of the universe, the more we stand in awe. Understanding does not remove the wonder or the joy. He offers many anecdotes and thought experiments. For instance, one of the atoms that is now part of you was once part of Napoleon's knee; "We are all totally recyclable."