Bill Hammock, the Engineer Guy, explains how fiber optic cables work. Fantastic!

Early morning on June 7, 2011, an amazingly massive and spectacular event took place on the Sun; a huge prominence eruption, marked by a solar flare and release of energetic particles. Daniel Pendick from the Geeked on Goddard blog described it as a "fountain of plasma that blasts out of the solar surface, spreads outward, and collapses to splat back down."

In the deep, dark ocean, many sea creatures make their own light for hunting, mating and self-defense. Bioluminescence expert Edith Widder was one of the first to film this glimmering world. At TED2011, she brings some of her glowing friends onstage, and shows more astonishing footage of glowing undersea.

Wall Street Journal's Katherine Rosman has the story of scientists learning more about how and why humans cry. Specifically, why men and women cry differently.

You first feel your bottom lip tremble as your work is critiqued in a meeting. Or maybe it's a clenching of your jaw. Or perhaps there is no warning at all. One moment you're composed and the next ... waterworks.

-"When Karen Butler went in for dental surgery, she left with more than numb gums: She also picked up a pronounced foreign accent."

"In the meantime, it's possible that Butler could get her American accent back through intensive speech therapy. But unlike other people with FAS who have become depressed by their change in accent, Butler quite likes her new one. She says it has made her more outgoing and is a good conversation starter."

Read the article and listen to the story at NPR-A Curious Case Of Foreign Accent Syndrome

Filmmaker Chris Abbas writes: "I truly enjoy outer space. It's absolutely amazing that we now have the ability to send instruments out into the void of the universe to observe all sorts of interesting things. Asteroids! Moons! Planets! Dark matter! This is the perfect opportunity for a Carl Sagan quote:

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."

The footage in this little film was captured by the hardworking men and women at NASA with the Cassini Imaging Science System. If you're interested in learning more about Cassini and the on-going Cassini Solstice Mission, check it out at NASA's website: saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.cfm"

1. We use only 10 percent of our brains.

Io: The Prometheus Plume

Credit: Galileo Project, JPL, NASA

This amazing tool gives you a small idea of the incredible scale of the universe.

Thanks Kimball!