Mad Science Friday: Birds Make Their Own Booze In Their Gullets

What’s weird in science this week?

• The cedar waxwing has, it’s been discovered, the ability to let berries ferment in its esophagus, making it a perpetual drunk.
• Climate change has made the once-rare brown argus butterfly increasingly commonplace.
• Kids want their parents to act like lunatics at their sports games, according to psychologists who bothered to ask the kids what they wanted.
• Soon we’ll be transplanting neurons to cure chronic pain, something we’ve just done with mice.
• The brain will go to insane lengths to make you feel like you’re part of the group, according to neuroscientists.
• Ferns have a surprisingly weird and oddly compelling sex life.
• And we can now officially detect pH changes in the brain as they happen.

Oh, and we almost forgot: Dragon has successfully docked with the ISS, meaning that the SpaceX launch was a total success and private space exploration just got a major boost.

Anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!

Image via the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Flickr