I’ve Got Your Missing Links Right Here (30 August 2014)
Sign up for The Ed’s Up—a weekly newsletter of my writing plus some of the best stuff from around the Internet.
Top picks
H is for Hawk is the story of a woman who started training a goshawk to cope with the sudden death of her father. It is an autobiography, a natural history book, a biography of author T.B.White, and an exquisitely beautiful story about grief, love, and our connection to the wild. It is the best book I’ve read this year. Here is an extract.
For a profile of David Mitchell, you need a writer who can weave many elements into seamless cloth. That’s exactly what Kathryn Schulz has done. This is just masterful—writing that’s worth deconstructing as well as savouring.
An exceptional story about the seven scientists who were convicted of manslaughter after the devastating L’Alquila earthquake. David Wolman offers a textbook example of careful structure & brutally efficient storytelling
“Krulwich is probably not going to actually drink Abumrad’s blood…” Polymathic piece from Jess Zimmerman on the history and science of using young blood to restore health.
This week, Pluto-bound spacecraft New Horizons swept past Neptune’s orbit, 25 years to the day after Voyager II did. Images of Pluto to come next year. By Nadia Drake.
Watch as an ant colony forms a daisy chain to pull a millipede! Alex Wild has an update on their strange, known, but never formally described behaviour
A paean to the gorgeous Portuguese man-of-war, by Jane Lee
The Ebola virus is mutating rapidly in W. Africa, as discovered by a team that lost 5 co-authors to it. By Erika Check Hayden. Also, here is a superb and important portrait of African heroes fighting Ebola by Adam Nossiter and Ben Solomon, and biographies of the five people who died.
What happens when you raise a fish on land? An amazing study with important implications for the evolution of land vertebrates, covered by that sonofabichir, Carl Zimmer
Memories switch from negative to positive with a flash of light!
Nadia Drake’s ode to exploding stars is magnificent. Explanatory science writing at its best.
Science/news/writing
For insects, molting includes hacking up the lining of the lungs.
“Publication of non-replicable findings leads to enormous waste in science and demoralization of the next generation”
A beautiful profile of neuroscience power-couple Uta Frith and Chris Frith.
“I fall in love every time I look at a cheese rind.” That’s got to be inconvenient.
“The best thing you could do for the Amazon is bomb all the roads.”
Important reproducibility initiative: replicating 50 findings in cancer biology
Epigenetics are cool. Mind-controlling parasites, like Toxoplasma, are cool. Carl Zimmer fuses them together (with a lovely analogy about piano keys).
Scientists have finally spotted what moves the wandering rocks of Death Valley.
Birds sing the wrong tune when contaminated with mercury (scroll down to listen to the audio files)
How a super-fast fish inspired a super-fast car.
“If a complete history of autism is ever written, the 1950s and ’60s will be part of the dark ages.”
An image of Schrödinger’s cat made with entangled photons. The object was never directly photographed
Wolves may be vulnerable to contagious yawning
Pete Etchells on echo chambers and mental health stigma today
A rare glimpse of the dumbo octopus
Milk: it doesn’t just come from mums, and it doesn’t just come from mammals.
Pliny the Tosser, more like. The fantastically wrong legend of the fire-proof salamander.
These tiny scorpions would like to perform an important inspection of your old book collection, please
Baby fish swim towards the smell of a healthy reef.
Breeding deer to have more trophy-worthy antler sets
The world’s oldest muscle, from half a billion years ago.
“The Kitanemuk initiation ritual ceremony involves swallowing balls of live harvester ants…” Wonderful Vaughan Bell piece on how societies perceive hallucinations.
Well that’s intriguing. A book on cosmology, written in Upgoer Five text (only the 1000 most common English words)
A great talk on “WHY MODEL CLIMATE?” by Doug Mcneall
“We replaced Fredrickson[‘s] data with random numbers & continued to find… apparently statistically sig effects”. Absolutely brutal demolition of a positive psychology paper.
“Ecologists are testing more and more hypotheses, but their studies are explaining less of the world”
Gotterdammerung: Large Dams Just Aren’t Worth the Cost
Heh/wow/huh
This is the best possible sign in front of a volcano
The Ukraine Crisis Explained In GIFs And In-Depth Policy Papers From Esteemed Political Institutions
Slow-motion falling water balloons. Oh, well played, physics. Well played.
Oh dear, Batman
Science Headlines I Would Like to See More Of
First lines of novels as emojis
“Asian Human Rights Commission” and other things that can be sung to the theme of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Hitofude Ryuu: dragon paintings, finished with one, long, sinuous stroke
Internet/society/journalism
This London memorial commemorates people who died saving others.
Photos of Sri Lanka’s iconic stilt fisherman after the tsunami
The one word that shows up in women’s performance reviews, but never in men’s.
The Troll Slayer: A Cambridge classicist takes on her sexist detractors
There Still Isn’t One Good Way to Represent the Internet in Art
Maggie Koerth-Baker’s new newsletter—The Fellowship of Three Things—is brilliant. You should subscribe.
The worst part of the Ice Bucket Challenge is the people criticising it.
Go Further
Animals
- These 'trash fish' are among Earth's most primitive animalsThese 'trash fish' are among Earth's most primitive animals
- These photos are works of art—and the artists are bugsThese photos are works of art—and the artists are bugs
- The epic migration of a 6-foot long, 200-pound catfishThe epic migration of a 6-foot long, 200-pound catfish
- Frans de Waal, biologist who studied animal emotion, dies at 75Frans de Waal, biologist who studied animal emotion, dies at 75
Environment
- Are synthetic diamonds really better for the planet? The answer isn't clear-cut.Are synthetic diamonds really better for the planet? The answer isn't clear-cut.
- This year's cherry blossom peak bloom was a warning signThis year's cherry blossom peak bloom was a warning sign
- The U.S. just announced an asbestos ban. What took so long?The U.S. just announced an asbestos ban. What took so long?
- The most dangerous job? Inside the world of underwater weldersThe most dangerous job? Inside the world of underwater welders
- The harrowing flight that wild whooping cranes make to surviveThe harrowing flight that wild whooping cranes make to survive
History & Culture
- Meet the powerful yokai that inspired the demon king in ‘Demon Slayer’Meet the powerful yokai that inspired the demon king in ‘Demon Slayer’
- A surprising must-wear for European monarchs? Weasels.A surprising must-wear for European monarchs? Weasels.
- Meet the woman who made Polaroid into a cultural iconMeet the woman who made Polaroid into a cultural icon
- Inside the observatory that birthed modern astrophysicsInside the observatory that birthed modern astrophysics
Science
- LED light treatments for skin are trendy—but do they actually work?LED light treatments for skin are trendy—but do they actually work?
- NASA smashed an asteroid. The debris could hit Mars.NASA smashed an asteroid. The debris could hit Mars.
- Humans really can have superpowers—scientists are studying themHumans really can have superpowers—scientists are studying them
- Why engineers are concerned about aging infrastructureWhy engineers are concerned about aging infrastructure
Travel
- 2024 will be huge for astrotourism—here’s how to plan your trip2024 will be huge for astrotourism—here’s how to plan your trip
- Play and stay in the mountains of eastern Nevada
- Paid Content
Play and stay in the mountains of eastern Nevada - This couple quit the city to grow wasabi in Japan's mountainsThis couple quit the city to grow wasabi in Japan's mountains