I’ve Got Your Missing Links Right Here (12 December 2015)
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Top picks
By me at the Atlantic:
- That Time Europe Air-Dropped Vaccine-Loaded Chicken Heads to Bait Rabid Foxes
- The Quest to Make CRISPR Even More Precise
- What Can You Actually Do With Your Fancy Gene-Editing Technology?
- Gene-Editing Humans Edit Statement on Human Gene-Editing
- Meet the Necrobiome: The Waves of Microbes That Will Eat Your Corpse
- Make Science More Reliable, Win Cash Prizes
- How a Jellyfish-Obsessed Engineer Upended Our Understanding of Swimming
- Rival Scientists Cast Doubt Upon Recent Discovery About Invincible Animals
A beautiful read about the death of a whale, by Rebecca Giggs.
Wonderful piece on the glory of “Bitten by orca“, “Rough housing and horseplay”, and other ICD codes. By Alastair Gee
Carl Zimmer profiles a Russian refugee who figured out how to find important new antibiotics by making bacteria happy
Who makes the rules for outer space? Maggie Koerth-Baker on space law, space mining, and space pirates
Meet The Woman Who Made The Military Care About Climate. By Dan Vergano.
Language Log on Uhs, Ums, and other verbal quirks, featuring a table with a column called “UM per kiloword”.
The troubled quest to make an artificial heart. By Joaquin Palomino
The smartest thing I’ve read on driverless cars, by Adrienne LaFrance
“The world is on fire but at least we got a scrumptious acronym in the process.” Robinson Meyer with the funniest piece about the Paris climate talks. (And here he is again with one of the most helpful.)
How to Stop a Bird-Murdering Cat. Cool story about intuitive amateur solution, later validated by research. By Conor Gearin.
The Absurdly Complete History of Animals Parachuting From the Sky. By Andy Wright
Plants and lichens on a concrete wall used to be a sign of decay, but soon they might be a sign of sophistication. By Rose Eveleth.
The wonderful Story Collider gets some love at the Guardian. Congrats to my friends Ben Lillie, Brian Wecht, Erin Barker, and Liz Neeley.
11 Amazing Ways The World Is Dealing With A Hotter Planet. By Virginia Hughes
They Helped Erase Ebola in Liberia. Now Liberia Is Erasing Them. By Helene Cooper
A wonderful history of, and philosophical musing on, encyclopaedias. By Justin Nobel.
Science
Those blasts of radio waves from deep space? Not aliens. Instead, “flares from magnetars”. MAGNETARS.
Another study on trans-generational epigenetics. Getting a little sad when you can call for a study involving hundreds of people and it’s “bold”.
How loneliness wears on the body
The little fish that dies of old age a few months after hatching.
Syphilis is bouncing back. (Also, you own that problem, Spain)
Hawaii Supreme Court suspends permit to build giant R2-D2 head on sacred mountain
From starlings to Syrian refugees: Helen Macdonald writing beautifully about flocks
The Murky Origins of the Largest Dinosaur Museum in the World
How solar and wind got so cheap so fast.
Wisdom the albatross, banded in 1956, makes its return.
“Whatever differences exist “don’t add up in a consistent way to create ‘female brains’ and ‘male brains’”
How a 5-Ounce Bird Stores 10,000 Maps in its Head
The first ‘neurolaw‘ case took place in 1924.
Soooo, what the US is looking for in the Paris climate negotiations is a legally binding… snooze button?
Whales are dying from a bizarre cause: Fish getting stuck in their blowholes
Very interesting on attitudes among Chinese citizens to cloned meat
Like me, these ants can jump with their legs and their faces.
Chris Hadfield in conversation with XKCD’s Randall Munroe
“You can generally avoid someone else’s bodily fluids, if you know you need to. But breathing is not optional.”
The incremental nature of science, quantified
“To those who might be inspired to try baking with vaginal yeasts, Dr Roberts simply advises “don’t””
Open Season in Gene Editing of Animals
Driverless cars are like lifts
World’s Biggest Fly Faces Two New Challengers
Your happy friends will die just as early as you.
“I can still feel a ghost of its pressure thirty years later.” Jenny Rohn on sexism in science
This obscure law brought us nasal flu spray, the nicotine patch and the HPV vaccine
This Lonesome George doppelganger breeding project seems… dunno, like an exercise in denial?
Alligators Can Turn Armor Into Eggshell
On Pluto: “These are images where features smaller than a football stadium are visible.”
Global summit reveals divergent views on human gene editing
“I’m trying to teach the roboticists to think like a baby. And I mean that in a good way.”
A flesh-eating fungus that wrecks lives but that no one cares about
Fascinating examination of what foetal tissue is used to research
“Protecting the organ that defines who we are as human beings”
Why Is the Human Vagina So Big?
Stumbling block on the road to a universal flu vaccine
Ruh-roh. Evidence of significant off-target effects for optogenetic studies?
No, suicide rates don’t peak during the holiday season
On the challenge of conveying scale in science writing
First dinosaurs arose in an evolutionary eye-blink
Infectious disease specialists – an endangered species
Microbiology labs face agar shortage due to dwindling seaweed harvests
A lake at the bottom of the ocean
How to control antibiotic misuse on farms: set international standards?
Public health experts guess the next Ebola
Biosensor-as-temporary tattoo that monitors vitals through your skin.
What makes Tom Hanks look like Tom Hanks?
Miscellaneous
Hulk smash puny committee
What Really Happens When You Get Shot
Star Wars: The Merch Awakens
Atlantic staffers choose the best books they read in 2015
Stop rebranding months as causes
An ode to the lightsaber
The Internet Isn’t Available in Most Languages
When Driverless Cars Were Deadly
Incredibly detailed paper sculptures resemble natural microbes
Go Further
Animals
- 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
- Octopuses have a lot of secrets. Can you guess 8 of them?
- Animals
- Feature
Octopuses have a lot of secrets. Can you guess 8 of them?
Environment
- 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
- This ancient society tried to stop El Niño—with child sacrificeThis ancient society tried to stop El Niño—with child sacrifice
- U.S. plans to clean its drinking water. What does that mean?U.S. plans to clean its drinking water. What does that mean?
History & Culture
- 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
- The real spies who inspired ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’The real spies who inspired ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’
- Heard of Zoroastrianism? The religion still has fervent followersHeard of Zoroastrianism? The religion still has fervent followers
- Strange clues in a Maya temple reveal a fiery political dramaStrange clues in a Maya temple reveal a fiery political drama
Science
- 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?
- Can aspirin help protect against colorectal cancers?Can aspirin help protect against colorectal cancers?
- The unexpected health benefits of Ozempic and MounjaroThe unexpected health benefits of Ozempic and Mounjaro
- Do you have an inner monologue? Here’s what it reveals about you.Do you have an inner monologue? Here’s what it reveals about you.
Travel
- Follow in the footsteps of Robin Hood in Sherwood ForestFollow in the footsteps of Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest
- This chef is taking Indian cuisine in a bold new directionThis chef is taking Indian cuisine in a bold new direction
- On the path of Latin America's greatest wildlife migrationOn the path of Latin America's greatest wildlife migration
- Everything you need to know about Everglades National ParkEverything you need to know about Everglades National Park