What if None Of This is Real?

A simulated black hole of ten solar masses: Ute Kraus

Also in today's links: an endangered species is said to no longer be endangered, an extinct species is no longer extinct, and more.

• This idea makes my eyeballs hurt -- what if the world we live in is a hologram, a projection of events on a far-away two-dimensional surface?
• Forget cloning. This is a much easier way to bring back an extinct species: scientists have determined through DNA testing that extinct Caspian tigers and existing Siberian tigers were one and the same group until early in the last century, when they split off into two groups.
• Federal protection is so 2008: Gray wolves are set to be removed from the endangered species list, at least in certain states.
• Scientists have found that minerals can form rounded crystals without the aid of a biological agent, changing how certain structures in nature might be interpreted. Check out the pictures.
• Ode to a lady hyrax: O, I'll sing ye a song of social and sexual fitness. I'll tell my status with a snort, and my size with a chuck, and give a wail to tell ye my weightiness.