I’ve Got Your Missing Links Right Here (19 March 2016)

ByEd Yong
March 19, 2016
5 min read

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Top picks

From me at The Altantic:

Welcome to the CRISPR zoo. A look to the future, from Sara Reardon.

A New 50-Trillion-Pixel Image of Earth, Every Day. By Robinson Meyer

“We’re looking back 13.4 billion years, through 97 percent of all time, to the galaxy when it was forming.” By Nadia Drake.

Ego depletion, another prominent psychological theory, may just have been debunked. Great coverage by Dan Engber.

1 Across: Passing someone else’s work or ideas as one’s own (10). By Jessie Guy-Ryan

The quest to save the world’s coral reefs. By Meehan Crist

Most popular theories of consciousness are worse than wrong. In which Michael Graziano talks about phlegm a lot.

Rose Eveleth imagines a future with no pets.

Delightful: “My Dinosaur’s Jet Lag Helps Explain Why a Time Change Is Hard.” By Heather Murphy

Things that can spread conjunctivitis: scuba masks and tiny flies. By Rebecca Kreston.

How gender neutral is “guys,” you guys? By Stan Carey

Under Pressure: Will Deep-Sea Animals Explode or Implode on the Surface? The answer is neither, and the reasons are really interesting. By Craig McClain.

It’s Okay to Cry at Work: fascinating on the biology of crying, by Olga Khazan

Meet the winners of the 2016 Wellcome Image Awards

Science

Good grief. The microbiome nonsense engine is firing on all cylinders.

No one deserves this prize more than Carl Zimmer. Congrats, mate.

R2D2 and C-3PO are the first ever grey seal pup twins found in the wild

Methane has never looked so beautiful

It’s arms crawl away from each other until [its] insides spill out.”

Lab-grown brain balls something something Zika but seriously brain-balls

American Statistical Association issues statement about p-values, but is it significant?

With womb transplants a reality, transgender women dare to dream of pregnancies

‘Essential’ genes may not be so essential after all

New research shows how Zika could be causing microcephaly

Genetic denialism is unhelpful – genes play a role in who we are

This student adds a woman in science to Wikipedia every time she’s harassed online

Did you know that ants flow like melted cheese?

Science Question From A Toddler: Why Am I Right-Handed?

Ambry’s putting (aggregated) genetic information from 10,000 customers with ovarian cancer into a publicly open database. A win for open science.

On the great unknowns in deep-sea mining.

“My first reaction was just utter confusion followed by anger.” On conflicts of interest among genetic counselors

Half of inventions “arise unexpectedly” from serendipity—not direct research

For self-defense, these plants build armor out of sand.

No, We Can’t “Upload Knowledge To Your Brain”

Pathological joking is a thing

Why you forget what you came for when you enter the room

Meet the Tiny, Parasitic “Corpse Flower” That Smells Like Coconuts

Is do-it-yourself CRISPR as scary as it sounds? Stat gets five perspectives.

5 strange disease outbreaks that still puzzle scientists

Does knowing genetic risk actually motivate people to make healthier choices? Nope.

Don’t think about a polar bear.

Bonobos just want everyone to get along

38andme

Should All Research Papers Be Free?

One horse-sized tyrannosaur or a hundred tyrannosaur-sized horses…

Warthogs let mongooses eat ticks off their bodies

The CRISPR patent fight has begun — and it’s not pretty

Scientists infected people with dengue — and see it as a model to beat back Zika

Sexing a dinosaur.

An invisible illness: dysphagia, or the inability to swallow. “It’s like being constantly waterboarded”

‘Sci fi’ eye experiments improve vision in children — and rabbits

“That would seem to imply that he wasn’t best placed to represent humanity this week” –

How one male spider defends itself against sexual cannibalism

Giant Flesh-Eating Koala of Legend Was Real.

“We are really reaching the limits of what is possible.” 430,000 year old DNA details dawn of Neanderthals.

Miscellaenous

Reminder: you don’t own your ebooks

What a baby

“You know what else has an earthy, bitter note? Lies about bay leaves.”

Amazing drone images of swarms of sharks spotted at a Seychelles atoll

The future will be quiet. Fascinating, if US-centric, piece

The long, slow death of Twitter

Applicants should “enjoy being under the spotlight”. That is the opposite of ninja.

Sky gradients on Instagram: how “a silly joke became a serious habit.”

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