I’ve got your missing links right here (16 April 2011)
I’ve been on holiday this week, so here’s a somewhat truncated and uncategorised version of the usual weekly links.
In literature and mythology, heroes and villains are often mirror images of each other. Andrea Kuszewski looks at the science behind that
The Human Brain Atlas, a map of gene expression in the human brain
You should all be reading SciCurious’s excellent blogging from the Experimental Biology Meeting 2011. Her hands have probably fallen off by now.
Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can. Apparently, that includes being hunted, torn apart and eaten by children.
How Colin Firth became a published author in Current Biology, on a neuroscience study about brain differences between liberals and conservatives. Meanwhile, the Neurocritic pulls apart the results.
An amazing resource! Timetree lets you work out when any two species last shared a common ancestor. I last shared an ancestor with T.rex around 275 milion years ago…
When journalists do primary research, Ben Goldacre smashes.
Slate has a great two-part series on the top reasons for wrongful convictions: eyewitness misidentifications and false confessions
Eric Johnson discusses the allure of gay cavemen
The challenge of cryogenics – Jennifer Ouellette discusses zombie dogs, antifreeze proteins and, er, Demolition Man
How the psychology of blog commenting has changed in recent years
Cool transitional fossil shows how jawbones evolved into ear bones
Daemonosaurus? Really? Why not call it Evilsaurus, or Muhahahahahasaurus?
Atlantic writer taunts spammers; spammers hack his wife’s Gmail, send out mass requests for money
Duck sex: brighter-billed males are better catches because they have more sterile sperm
When Tim Radford gives you tips on science writing, you read them
Calls for more sharing of raw palaeontology data on the web
The genetic basis of a classic evolution example, the peppered moth
How a humpback whale song went viral
Why is polio so bloody hard to finish off?
How Fukushima is and isn’t like Chernobyl, by Geoff Brumfiel. Meanwhile, with Fukushima still in crisis and thousands of bodies still missing from the quake and tsunami, some guy decides it’s a great idea to create a video game of the whole affair
Heh. Everyone’s a critic. The first page of Infinite Jest, posted to Yahoo Answers, draws derision.
Great Scott! China bans time-travel movies. “Upset over a booming genre of movies and TV where Chinese citizens travel to a simpler time in the past, the government has put the kibosh on all forms of entertainment that make use of the plot device.”
Yes now you too can pay £215 to have a skeletal hand clutch at your neck
Scuttledfish: Noise in oceans leads to ‘severe acoustic trauma’ in octopus, squid
Nobel laureates in sciences at 25 times more likely than the average scientist to sing or dance, and 17 times more likely to be an artist
Extreme positions are the worst! A piece on why bloggers/columnists are pushed towards extremes
Turns out that grafting Steve Buscemi’s eyes onto any woman’s face sends you straight into the uncanny valley
The latest in Charles Q. Choi’s Too Hard for Science series – the meaning of dreams
Two bees or not two bees: on the genetics of bee sociability
Recreating Yuri Gagarin’s spaceflight on film. You should click on the link just to see that STUNNING first image.
You can attend Stanford’s Human Behavioural Biology course for free on Youtube, featuring Robert Sapolsky
A visual comparison of words in advertising for girls and boys’ toys. Unsurprising, but striking nonetheless
A fish-driven robot. This thing needs some sort of attack claw on the front
Gosh. How flattering/mortifying. People clearly don’t have enough to talk about.
Go Further
Animals
- This ‘saber-toothed’ salmon wasn’t quite what we thoughtThis ‘saber-toothed’ salmon wasn’t quite what we thought
- Why this rhino-zebra friendship makes perfect senseWhy this rhino-zebra friendship makes perfect sense
- When did bioluminescence evolve? It’s older than we thought.When did bioluminescence evolve? It’s older than we thought.
- Soy, skim … spider. Are any of these technically milk?Soy, skim … spider. Are any of these technically milk?
- This pristine piece of the Amazon shows nature’s resilienceThis pristine piece of the Amazon shows nature’s resilience
Environment
- Are the Great Lakes the key to solving America’s emissions conundrum?Are the Great Lakes the key to solving America’s emissions conundrum?
- The world’s historic sites face climate change. Can Petra lead the way?The world’s historic sites face climate change. Can Petra lead the way?
- This pristine piece of the Amazon shows nature’s resilienceThis pristine piece of the Amazon shows nature’s resilience
- Listen to 30 years of climate change transformed into haunting musicListen to 30 years of climate change transformed into haunting music
History & Culture
- Meet the original members of the tortured poets departmentMeet the original members of the tortured poets department
- Séances at the White House? Why these first ladies turned to the occultSéances at the White House? Why these first ladies turned to the occult
- Gambling is everywhere now. When is that a problem?Gambling is everywhere now. When is that a problem?
- Beauty is pain—at least it was in 17th-century SpainBeauty is pain—at least it was in 17th-century Spain
Science
- Here's how astronomers found one of the rarest phenomenons in spaceHere's how astronomers found one of the rarest phenomenons in space
- Not an extrovert or introvert? There’s a word for that.Not an extrovert or introvert? There’s a word for that.
- NASA has a plan to clean up space junk—but is going green enough?NASA has a plan to clean up space junk—but is going green enough?
- Soy, skim … spider. Are any of these technically milk?Soy, skim … spider. Are any of these technically milk?
Travel
- Could Mexico's Chepe Express be the ultimate slow rail adventure?Could Mexico's Chepe Express be the ultimate slow rail adventure?
- What it's like to hike the Camino del Mayab in MexicoWhat it's like to hike the Camino del Mayab in Mexico