Cornell graduate student Jesse Silverberg observed mosh pit activity at a heavy metal concert, and was inspired to study the movements of the dancers. Those movements turned out to be a lot like how gas particles move.  

To investigate, the team simulated a mosh pit with a few basic rules: the virtual moshers bounce off each other when they collide (instead of sticking or sliding through each other); they can move independently; and they can flock, or follow each other, to varying degrees. Finally, the team added a certain amount of statistical noise to the simulated moshers' movements – "to mimic the effects of the inebriants that the participants typically use", says co-author Matthew Bierbaum.

They found that by tweaking their model parameters – decreasing noise or increasing the tendency to flock, for instance – they could make the pit shift between the random-gas-like moshing and a circular vortex called a circle pit, which is exactly what they saw in the YouTube videos of real mosh pits. Their simulation is available online.

"These are collective behaviours that you wouldn't have predicted based on the previous literature on collective motion in humans," Silverberg says. "That work was geared at pedestrians, but what we're seeing is fundamentally different."

"The fact that human beings are very complex creatures, and yet we can develop a lifeless computer simulation that mimics their behaviour, really tells us that we're understanding something new about the behaviour of crowds that we didn't understand before," says co-author James Sethna.

Read more about the research at New Scientist. Link -via Dangerous Minds, where you can see a video of mosh pit dancers acting like gas.

In 1973, the U.S. prison population was 330,000. Today, we have well over two million people locked up. What happened? NPR traces the beginning of the War on Drug to Nelson Rockefeller's decision to get tough on drug pushers, addicts, and users 40 years ago to combat a heroin epidemic in New York City.  

Rockefeller, New York's Republican governor, had backed drug rehabilitation, job training and housing. He saw drugs as a social problem, not a criminal one.

But the political mood was hardening. President Richard Nixon declared a national war on drugs, and movies like The French Connection and Panic in Needle Park helped spread the sense that America's cities were unraveling.

Late in 1972, one of Rockefeller's closest aides, Joseph Persico, was in a meeting with the governor. He says Rockefeller suddenly did a dramatic about-face.

"Finally he turned and said, 'For drug pushing, life sentence, no parole, no probation," says Persico.

That was the moment when one of the seeds of the modern prison system was planted.

In January of 1973, Rockefeller proposed mandatory sentences of 15 years to life for drugs charges, even for possession of small amounts of marijuana. The "get tough" laws spread across the country, and so did new prisons. Forty years later, almost half a million people are employed by the prison industry and private corporations make profits by running them. Read the whole story at NPR. Link

Find more statistics on incarceration at Wikipedia. Link

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The baker knows what he is doing, and he really enjoys it, baking the bread that makes up so much of what we eat every day. Starter, mix, knead, rise, knead, rise, shape, bake, dance! Once you've seen the video, tell us which do you want now: a piece of fresh-baked bread, or a job in a bakery? -via reddit

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This delightful animation is from Dina Velikovskaya of the Russian State University of Cinematography (VGIK). A child can't understand why her weird grandfather spends so much time picking up trash from the beach. Then his secret is revealed! It's lovely when children finally realize how wonderful it is to have strange grandparents. -via Metafilter

So now we are halfway through February and we've got the majority of its holidays behind us. Still, coming up Monday is President's Day, which is a big one, because banks will be closed and the mail won't run. President's Day used to be Washington's Birthday (which is actually the 22nd), but since Abraham Lincoln was born in the same month, that created some sort of competition between the two president's legacies until they were combined into President's Day, which since then has become a day to celebrate even more of the former leaders of our country. I'm all for that -there was even some discussion of how we need a movie about James K. Polk: we've already got a theme song for it. Some other neat stuff happened this past week at Neatorama, too!

John Farrier rounded up the ways people try to make the sport of kings even more challenging in 12 Bizarre Chess Variants.

We learned some video game history in Mr. Game Boy, courtesy of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.

The Annals of Improbable Research gave us a formula for a hit movie in Script an Astronomer, Then Reach for the Stars.

And 10 Ruthless Rock Managers came from mental_floss magazine.

Our exclusive "short subjects" from Uncle John's Bathroom reader this week were Ol' Jay's Brainteasers and Flubbed Headlines.

In this week's What Is It? game, the complicated-looking tool is is a bonde cutter - the bonde is the tapered wooden plug (often a soft hardwood such as poplar) that fits into the filling hole of a wine barrel. You can read more about it at the What Is It? blog. Finally, ladybugs came up with the answer, and wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! The funniest answer was by ColShorts, who said, "It looks like that thing that I made in shop class, to get out of making things in shop…" He wins a t-shirt for that! Thanks to everyone who participated, and look for another What Is It? game coming soon!

This week's posts with the most comments was Should Bookstores Charge You to Browse? followed by Stuck at 125mph for an Hour. But if we look back the previous week, the post about Coffee Enemas racked up a much bigger discussion since last week's update.

The most-viewed post of the week was 10 Candidates for the Next Pope, which was exactly was people were searching for Tuesday. That was followed by Ol' Jay's Brainteasers, What Nemo Did, and 12 Bizarre Chess Variants, in that order.

Usability tip of the week: If you're a registered user, you can use your profile page for all kinds of things. You can display something about yourself by going to "edit account," and add whatever you like to your bio field. And you can leave comments under your profile, or someone else's profile. When you open the comment field, you have the option of making your message private. Just click on a user's name to go to their profile page (see mine as an example). The same rules of civility apply to profiles as they do to the main page. It's a neat way to ask questions, hold off-topic discussions, and get to know your fellow Neatoramanauts.

At the NeatoShop, we've got something to make graduation, showers, and occasions like Mother's Day extra special: pageant sashes! Anyone can be a beauty queen with the proper sash -this one is my personal favorite.

When you get caught up on what's here at Neatorama, go see what's happening at our Pinterest board, Facebook page, and Twitter feed, where we put extra stuff for those who care to follow.

The blogs under Wired's umbrella are apparently trying to out-geek each other on Star Wars. First we saw an analysis of the Battle of Hoth at Danger Room, then Dot Physics determined that Darth Vader weighs at least 520 pounds. Now, Underwire shows how Han Solo is a time-traveler. This is determined by his famous line about how the Millennium Falcon “made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.”

According to Star Wars: The Essential Atlas, the Kessel Run was an 18-parsec (59 light-year) route used by smugglers to get around Imperial blockades. So why would Solo describe how quickly he traveled it using a word that described distance?

It turns out that the expanded universe of the Star Wars franchise — the additional books and content created within the Star Wars universe but outside of the films — contains an answer to that question. The Essential Atlas maps a Kessel Run whose path travels around “The Maw,” a cluster of black holes. To cut down on the distance traveled, pilots could dangerously skirt the edges of the black holes, while trying to avoid spaghettification. If Solo was a skilled enough — or crazy enough — pilot to deviate from the typical route and fly close enough to the black holes to cut nearly 20 light-years off his space odometer, then his ship was fast indeed — the power required to stay out of the gape of an event horizon is something worth bragging about.

So by being able to dance around singularities, the Millennium Falcon establishes itself as a fast ship — and Solo’s famous brag makes sense. But this brings up a bigger, more inherent problem: The Kessel Run that Solo completed covered nearly 40 light-years of cosmos. If the blasters and speeders and starships of Star Wars more or less follow the laws of physics, taking that famous run even once would change the entire chronology of Han Solo’s life.

And then author Kyle Hill goes on to explain exactly how this anomaly would have affected the timeline of Solo's life prior top the events of Star Wars: A New Hope. Link -via mental_floss

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Believe it or not, this is a frog. The Namaqua rain frog of South Africa. It inflates its body as a defense against predators, but I don't know how in the world that would deter anyone, since it's just cute as can be -and hear those little squeaks! -via Daily Picks and Flicks

Fighting 118th forum member Zipidi Doodah (Barry) built a diorama of the Battle of Hoth from the movie The Empire Strikes Back in his living room. It takes up the entire room -over 140 square feet! The effects include smoke and explosions, which are made with chicken wire, poly-fil, and lights. A video at the forum site explains how he made the explosions, and you'll see plenty of pictures of the battle. Link  -via Nerd Approved

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This finely-edited compilation of clips by Zapatou is heavy on extreme sports, featuring amazing athleticism and skill, odd POVs, and some heart-stopping moments. Not all of them are real. Don't blink, or you'll miss something crazy! -via Viral Viral Videos

The last thing you want to do is expose a wound, even a small skin abrasion, to an environment crawling with microbes. Then consider the alligator, which leads a rather violent life and lives in swamps. But alligators don't succumb to infection they way you'd think -they have a natural immunity in their blood. 

Chemists in Louisiana found that blood from the American alligator can successfully destroy 23 strains of bacteria, including strains known to be resistant to antibiotics.

In addition, the blood was able to deplete and destroy a significant amount of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Study co-author Lancia Darville at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge believes that peptides—fragments of proteins—within alligator blood help the animals stave off fatal infections.

Such peptides are also found in the skin of frogs and toads, as well as in Komodo dragons and crocodiles. The scientists think that these peptides could one day lead to medicines that would provide humans with the same antibiotic protection.

So far, one drawback has been identified: the peptides themselves are dangerous to humans in high doses. Read about the research into 'gator blood at Nat Geo News. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

(Image credit: Melissa Farlow )

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In the latest installment of Ze Frank's True Facts series, we learn about the mantis. If you known anything about mantises, I don't need to warn you that this contains insect sex and gore. Stay after the credits for pictures of posing mantises. -via Laughing Squid

When you first look at the the Las Lajas Sanctuary in Ipiales, Colombia, you wonder why such a massive structure was built over a river canyon. You also might think that it is very old, like similar European churches. But no -construction began in 1916 and was completed in 1946, making it fairly young as cathedrals go. The Guáitara river canyon spot it stands on was the site of miracle that legend says occurred in 1754. Read all about it and see more magnificent pictures at Kuriositas. Link -via the Presurfer

(Image credit: Flickr user onourownpath.com)

Gizmo, a ringtail lemur kept as a family pet, was taken from his home in Mobile, Alabama, during a burglary in January.

After Gizmo's owner offered a cash reward for the stolen lemur, investigators got a tip from someone who had seen the lemur in Welborn's possession. Investigators say Welborn thought he could ransom the animal, and had contacted its owner with information on Gizmo's whereabouts. But before Welborn's plan could pay off, authorities moved in and made an arrest.

George County police have charged Wellborn with possession of stolen property, and he is awaiting extradition to Mississippi, where other charges are pending against him. Gizmo was returned to his home, where he is doing fine. Link  -via Arbroath

(Image credit: George Co. Sheriff's Dept.)

In case you are wondering, this map overlay by redditor boredboarder8 was constructed to show scale, not ownership. However, we were the first to land and plant a flag. But back to scale: the circumference of the moon is 6784 miles and the widest distance in the lower 48 states is 2,892 miles (California to Maine). Incidentally, Pluto is smaller than the Earth's moon. Link -via Geekologie

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At about 9:30 this morning in Chelyabinsk, Russia, a big meteor burned up in the sky, close enough to be caught by many of the ubiquitous Russian dash-cams. The fireball caused a sonic boom, and there are reports of many injuries from shattered windows and falls, but no deaths are reported so far. Phil Plait is constantly updating a post at Bad Astronomy regarding the meteor, with links and lots more videos. Link