Rümeysa Öztürk was grabbed off the street in my town one month ago.

https://explainxkcd.com/3081/

After initial tests created a series of large holes in the wall of the lab, the higher-power Scanning Tunneling Tennis Ball Microscope project was quickly shut down.

https://explainxkcd.com/3080/

'Wow, that must be why you swallow so many of them per year!' 'No, that's spiders. You swallow WAY more ants.'

https://explainxkcd.com/3079/

The biggest expense was installing the mantle ducts to keep the carbonate-silicate cycle operating.

https://explainxkcd.com/3078/

Our anti-de Sitter club is small at the moment, but I've started corresponding with the conformal field theory people.

https://explainxkcd.com/3077/

Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/49/

When you worry that you're missing out on something by not making both choices simultaneously by quantum superposition, that's called phomo.

https://explainxkcd.com/3076/

I have to pay with paper money.

https://explainxkcd.com/3075/

NOTIFICATION: Now dismissing a head of the Notification Hydra… NOTIFICATION: Success! You have dismissed a head of the Notification Hydra!

https://explainxkcd.com/3074/

[later] I don't get why our pizza slices have such terrible reviews; the geotextile-infused sauce gives the toppings incredible slope stability!

https://explainxkcd.com/3073/

We haven't actually seen a star fall in since we invented telescopes, but I have a list of ones I'm really hoping are next.

https://explainxkcd.com/3072/

If you have an old phone in a drawer, and you listen very carefully, you can occasionally hear the occasional tap of an emitted SIM card hitting the side of the drawer as the phone transmutes to a lower-end model.

https://explainxkcd.com/3071/

Most properties can only boast INDOOR heated floors.

https://explainxkcd.com/3070/

There has long been debate about Big Bird's species, with some experts claiming he was a canary, but recent genetic analysis places him firmly in Cariamiformes.

https://explainxkcd.com/3069/

'Is it worth anything?' 'I dunno, is the answer to that question worth another $5?'

https://explainxkcd.com/3068/

Unfortunately, SawStart is one-use-only. Once started, the blade cannot be stopped, and must be replaced with a fresh blade while the running one is carefully disposed of.

https://explainxkcd.com/3067/

This is the biggest breakthrough since astronomers noticed that the little crosshairs around red giant stars starting to burn helium are all the same size.

https://explainxkcd.com/3066/

The biggest I've seen in a published source in the wild is an 80-fold error in a reported distance, which I think came from a series of at least three unit conversions and area/length misinterpretations.

https://explainxkcd.com/3065/

I know having so many base pairs makes rebasing complicated, but you're in Bilateria, so shouldn't you at LEAST be better at using git head?

https://explainxkcd.com/3064/

Under the 'has cleared its orbital neighborhood' and 'fuses hydrogen into helium' definitions, thanks to human activities Earth technically no longer qualifies as a planet but DOES count as a star.

https://explainxkcd.com/3063/

It does come at the small cost of a LOT more off-by-40-or-50 errors.

https://explainxkcd.com/3062/

Alt text:

Update: The physics department has recruited an astronomer who studies meteor fireballs.

Explain: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3061:_Water_Balloons

It seems wrong that Fruit by the Foot is only sold by weight or by number of rolls.

https://explainxkcd.com/3060/

Your homeowner's insurance might cover it, but be sure to check the subductible.

https://explainxkcd.com/3059/