I’ve Got Your Missing Links Right Here (31 October 2015)

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Top picks

From me at the Atlantic:

• Hey Obama, Can We Have a Unified Microbiome Initiative?
• Electric Eels Put Their Prey in a Killer Sleeper Hold
• Beefing With the World Health Organization’s Cancer Warnings

“At first glance, the “sonic chip” experiment, as Spence fondly refers to it, does seem trivial.” Nicola Twilley on the collision between sound and taste.

Greenland is melting away. Solid piece backed by incredible visuals, by Coral Davenport, Josh Haner, Larry Buchanan & Derek Watkins.

A story about how the first galaxies eventually made something that could see the first galaxies. By Ross Andersen

This is a really interesting story on the science of sports bras, and the physics of breasts. By Rose Eveleth

Climate change may not drown Kiribati, but its residents might be forced to leave anyway. By Kenneth Weiss

Really interesting piece on the sexism of heart disease diagnosis. By Vidhi Doshi

How my generation of Brits became the heaviest drinkers in a century: Chrissie Giles on the climb to Peak Booze

Bug nerds: the truly hardcore among us. By Erik Vance

A “eureka moment” in diagnosing a genomic chimera. Great story by Dan Vergano.

XCKD on polio eradication and unrealistic scientific approaches

Here’s me, waffling on at ScienceFriday

Science

Great news! Cases of these horrifying, 31-inch parasites are dropping sharply.

Here are some remnants of a supernova that exploded 8,000 years ago.

“When Dutch architects started to work on a new bridge in a small town called Monster, they had two users in mind: People who would bike and walk across it, and bats.”

An obscure whale species with an asymmetrical face finally swims into view

On “madness”, “neurosis”, and the changing vocabulary of mental health

Who owns the patent on nutmeg?

On the racial inequality of sleep

Criticism mounts of a long-controversial chronic fatigue study

Explaining science and technology in museums

Problem when studying bias: our bias in interpreting and evaluating the studies of bias.

“The Hunt“, by Attenborough and Fothergill

“Almost everything we ‘know’ is based on small, flawed studies.”

Comet found spewing booze out into space

The best explainer on that big meat and cancer story

Are cats domesticated or just “semi-domesticated”?

A landmark Academy of Medical Sciences report on Reproducibility and Reliability of Biomedical Research

An obscure whale species with an asymmetrical face finally swims into view:

Lion population to halve within 20yrs. “If there is an overall bias in our results, it is probably toward optimism.”

The Dino Pet, a micro-aquarium filled with bioluminescent sea creatures!

On decapitation, YouTube, and cockroaches without heads

Epic eel migration patterns have been mapped for the first time

Studying the science and culture of fear by hanging out at a haunted house

Phytoplankton loss as oceans warms has been overestimated by a glitch in models

What do children know of their own mortality?

“It’s just that almost everything that could go the cyclone’s way, did.” On how Patricia got so strong.

This fish leaps out of water—and temporarily stays on land—to cool itself

NIH to throw money at chronic fatigue syndrome research

Atacama desert covered in pink flowers after freak rain

Miscellaneous

What makes up the microbiome of a werewolf?

Here’s my mate Alex Marshall giving a talk about his amazing book REPUBLIC OF DEATH!

Glorious posters from the golden years of the London Tube

Every hit song in four chords

Waiting for Benedict Cumberbatch

London monuments + paper cut-outs