I’ve Got Your Missing Links Right Here (9 May 2015)

ByEd Yong
May 09, 2015
5 min read

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Top picks

“Test results were chilling: The inside of Dr. Crozier’s eye was teeming with Ebola.” By Denise Grady

Meet the worm with the fractal nose glove. By Kyle Hill.

3-D printed rhino horns are a great example of tech “solving” problems it doesn’t understand. By Rachel Nuwer.

The history of (hypothetical) human head transplants. By Erika Engelhaupt

Empathy cards for people w/ serious illness. These are amazing & the sentiment behind them is so important.

You will not spot the snow leopard here. You won’t.

NatGeo profile of Pamela Ronald and her attempts to mend the rift between organic farmers and genetic engineers.

Just outside Reading, England, lies the greenhouse that has been built to save chocolate for the world. By Nicola Twilley.

“An avalanche of unnecessary medical care is harming patients physically and financially.” Atul Gawande on the critical problem of overdiagnosis.

2,147,483,647—the number that downed spacecraft and broke YouTube, Gangnam Style. A fascinating look at a problematic computing glitch, by Chris Baraniuk

The Central African Republic has gone from a million elephants to a few thousand. A tragic read from Peter Canby .

Science/news/writing

Why Scientists Are Upset About The Facebook Filter Bubble Study

Amazing bracelet, associated with Denisovans

Invasive species might not be entirely awful, after all. Sometimes. Depending. Maybe.

Lizard of great sleepiness” about to sleep permanently.

Octopuses have no rhythm, unlike every other animal, except possibly for that guy, you know that guy.

Lizards in Long-Term Relationships Can Skip the Foreplay

SHARK, a great new BBC documentary about… well, you know.

The thing about gastrulation: it’s important to remember that all of us started life as an a***hole.

Scientists stumble across previously unknown variety of pluripotent stem cell

A mysterious lake disappears down a hole

Mammoth genomes provide recipe for creating Arctic elephants

“In April, Joshua Quick boarded a plane to Guinea with three genetic sequencers packed in his luggage.”

Word of the day: “imping“. The act of implanting feathers back into injured birds of prey.

Is Captive Lion Hunting Really Helping to Save the Species?” Spoiler: no.

Glowing millipedes evolved bioluminescence first to cope with heat and drought, and THEN as warnings to predators.

Taking a picture of thunder

Spraying spiders w/graphene & carbon nanotubes makes them spin stronger silk—if they survive

Rare African plant signals diamonds beneath the soil

Will Tesla’s battery change the energy market? An explainer.

“We may not understand precisely why [he] chose to insert the bladder of a pig into a patient’s chest & inflate [it]”

An interview with Nick Lane about how life on Earth probably began

“That bird feeder in your yard? It’s a problem.”

An incredible photo series of a subadult hippo tossing a newborn into the air:

No, Smartphones Aren’t Making Children Autistic

RIP Alexander Rich, who confirmed DNA’s double helix.

David Hughes’ TEDx talk on ants laying siege to cocoa

“He had to open his own abdomen to take his intestines out. He didn’t know if that was humanly possible.”

BBC radio programme on the struggle to find meaning when a loved one has dementia.

Scientists solve evolutionary mystery of the evolution of the shark penis

Inside a pangolin “prison”: The mammal has become the most highly traded on black market—and one of most threatened

No one is exactly sure why over 100 lakes have formed amongst the tallest sand dunes on Earth

 

Heh/wow/huh

“Why aren’t I very, very, very, very, very, very, very famous and successful?” Every Q in every Q&A session ever

Jelly Baby Wave Machine

Explosive Splattered Ink Animal Paintings

Museum Of Repressed American History Conceals New Exhibit On Tuskegee Experiments

Above all else, you can count on the British to be morbidly self-deprecating even in the face of awfulness.

World Wildlife Fund Now Just Trying To Get Few Nice Photos Of Every Species For Posterity”

Clutching Her Head In A Field’

These whale jaws are a Danish monument

Biology vs physics

 

Internet/journalism/society

“You have to love the words more than anything” – Warren Ellis on life as a freelancer, 25 yrs on

Quentin Blake’s Great Ormond Street ‘end of life’ gift for families of dying children

A history of pen names and reasons behind them.

What happens when a Kickstarter fails to deliver and its backers get angry

Congrats! You have an all male panel.

“If you’re not a feminist, then you’re a problem.”

A new blog where writers make charming lists of things they like

 

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