Top picks
In India’s lush Kaziranga National Park, a new policy allows rangers to shoot rhino poachers on sight. As a result, rhinos and tigers are thriving. An absolutely stonking piece of journalism.
Plant RNAs switch genes on and off in mammals. Wow. We really are what we eat.
“Somebody else can clean up this mess.” But no one did.” New study challenges the role of so-called longevity genes
Robert Krulwich’s paean to the awesome bar-tailed godwit, the toughest little bird you’ve never heard of
A useful rape analogy.
Singapore is growing by importing sand, at other nations’ environmental expense
Science “partially retracts” XMRV-chronic fatigue paper, and a nine-lab study fails to confirm the link. More from the NYT
This week a team of London surgeons separated twins joined at the head. How did they do it? Great explainer by Ferris Jabr
Premature particles perplex physicists. Phil Plait pontificates
Data – what the military have and what scientists get to see, from Geoff Brumfiel
Why being relaxed makes us spend more money, by Jonah Lehrer
With “utter disregard for the extraordinary environment”, a shrimp swims through liquid CO2. By Calbeb Scharf
“Don’t start bathing in the blood of virgins just yet,” advises Scicurious. Could a single injection make your older or younger? No. But the science is still awesome.
“In many respects, the history of technology is a history of failed machines”- Alice Bell on how the fridge got its hum
Good debate here on whether journos should ever fact-check content with sources. Hosted by David Kroll.
Science museums are failing grown-ups. And it’s a failure we can’t afford. Spot-on piece by Maggie Koerth-Baker
Brain scanner can recreate movie scenes you’ve watched. What this does do: after recording your brain activity as you watch movies, it can predict what scenes you’re watching later based on your brain activity. What this doesn’t do: record fresh brain activity and tell you what you’re looking at. Cool though.
Pretty. Emission spectra of the elements. Check out thallium and tungsten.
Science/news/writing
“It’s not the bad apples, it’s the bad barrels that corrupt good people.” Philip Zimbardo on evil
Neuroscience of the intense Amazonian hallucinogen ayahuasca. Featuring a vomiting Vaughan Bell
NASA monitors over 20,000 bits of space junk circling Earth?
Heh. 50 Reasons I Reject Evolution
Neutrino stories move faster than the speed of science, by Martin Robbins
Don’t believe what other people think they see. Eyes (and Minds) Deceive: Witness Unreliability Casts Doubt on Death Penalty Rulings.
Newly Discovered Plant Bows Down and Buries Its Own Seeds
“No fewer than seven possible explanations for eggshell color”
The first Aboriginal genome has been sequenced.
Scientists Successfully Induce Hibernation in Animals for the First Time
Chemistry’s 10 grand challenges. Misses out No. 11, which is getting people to care about chemistry.
“Eye movement is one sign that things have gone wrong.” On unvetted drugs & the death penalty
Pack Your Umbrella: Friday’s Weather is Sunny, with a 1-in-21-Trillion Chance of Getting Hit by Orbital Debris
Measles cases in California reach 10-year high, mostly due to unvaccinated kids.
DEET scrambles insects’ sense of smell
Resurrected Woolly Mammoth Protein Proves to Work Well in the Cold
Too Hard For Science? Might investigating brains of conjoined twins helps shed light on consciousness?
How to Resurrect a Terror Croc.
The mind-blowing cost of patent trolling – £500bn since 1990.
Former Trainer Says Killer Whale Captivity Causes Attacks. Or mebbe making an apex apex predator do tricks is bad idea?
“How should we make hard decisions?” asks Jonah Lehrer. I DON’T KNOW, JONAH. WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS?
Stubbornness Increases the More People Tell You You’re Wrong. And thus was the internet explained HT
How do you sequence bacteria that you cannot grow, without relying on Macgyver?
Why does the antlion make a larger deathtrap during the full moon? (Spoiler: We don’t know)
Synchronized Swimming: Patrolling for Pollution with Robotic Fish. We’ve come a long way since Billy Bigmouth
5 antique versions of modern social media – from Edison’s YouTube to Voltaire’s Facebook
Doodle app turns your Kindle into An Etch-a-Sketch
Deborah Blum’s post on Dr Oz is great for this line: “the higher the valence bond number, the grabbier the compound”
41% of primatologists have been bitten by a non-human primate; 10% injured by needles containing bodily fluids/tissue
Global map of the world’s submarine cables
Researchers Find Out How Pigeons Make the “Milk” They Barf Into the Mouths of Their Young. This is all sounding a little “molecular”. I wonder if pigeon milk could make pigeon cheese? Or if pigeon cheese would go with pigeon?
How quirks of language can reveal subtle ‘Daily Mail’ racism. I say “subtle”. It’s all relative.
How do you counter a honeybee’s waggle dance? With a waggle song, of course
On Oct 31, the 7 billionth human being will be born. Where, who?
Bottom of Form
There are nine US medical insurance codes for being attacked by a killer whale. Here are some other good ones.
The brain as a slum – nice metaphor via David Dobbs.
Genomics research by twitter: we need people who’ve had severe altitude sickness.
The Psychology Of Yogurt, or what probiotics can teach us about the mind-body problem
New ways to fund research, including crowdfunding and SciFund.
Heh/wow/huh
A phylogeny of bread clips
Things I like: misrepresenting airline safety cards. “In emergency, throttle your baby. Then grieve”
We really have to start doing this (XKCD on neutrinos)
A swimming feather-star. Utterly mesmeric
Around World In 60 secs on International Space Station. Love the yellow line of the ionosphere
New Yorker cartoon made me laugh.
Beauty in mundanity. A Year of Mornings – how photographers do long-distance friendships
AskReddit’s “Hotel Workers, What’s The Weirdest Thing You’ve Ever Caught Guests Doing?”
Heh. “Scientists assume pupils are listening”
Journalism/internet/society
A journalist’s guide to Google+
A sad but fascinating tale about the human punching bag – a boxer who wasn’t very good but simply couldn’t be knocked out
Jay Rosen versus “he said, she said” journalism at NPR The Guardian live-blogs reading a book. I should live-blog reading their live-blog. No. No I shouldn’t.
“Facebook is killing taste… it’s somehow eluded Zuckerberg that sharing is fundamentally about choosing”
Amazon lets you borrow Kindle books from your local public library
Is Branded Journalism Still Journalism? No. Why not just call it PR?
Is Amazon Running a Sweatshop in Pennsylvania?
A woman next to me on a plane excitedly raved at her husband about this Daily Express headline: NEW ARTHRITIS JAB GIVES HOPE TO MILLIONS. She didn’t read paragraph 18, where you learn that it’s based on mouse experiments, or paragraph 21, which mentions an increased risk of bone cancer.
Nearly 40% of people online look for health info, but 90% think what we find is accurate!
What does getting “off the beaten path” really mean? Great travel blogging.
Astonishingly bad coverage from misogynistic media. Somehow, this study turns into bollocks about bossy women.
- I Spy With My Little Eye… - November 7th, 2009 [November 7th, 2009]
- A Crack Opens in the Ethiopian Landscape, Preparing the Way for a New Sea | 80beats - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Politics of Addiction | The Intersection - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Finally! An iPhone App That Lets You Track Your Bathroom Habits | Discoblog - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Don’t Pack Your Bags Yet—New Planet-Finder Hobbled by Electronic Glitch | 80beats - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- In Controversial Scent Lineups, a Dog’s Nose Picks Out the Perp | 80beats - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Are You a Cognitive Miser? | Cosmic Variance - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Secret Lives and Loves of Great White Sharks | 80beats - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Britain’s New Protected Minority: Tree-Huggers | Discoblog - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Inspired by Maple Seeds, a Robotic Whirligig Takes To The Skies | Discoblog - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- New Statesman on Accommodationism | The Intersection - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Laser-Powered Robot Climbs to Victory in the Space-Elevator Contest | 80beats - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Checking Back In With SEAPLEX | The Intersection - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Podcast: An Embarrassment of Genomes | The Loom - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- A Baby Neutron Star, Swaddled in a Carbon Atmosphere | 80beats - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Butterfliiiies… iiinnnn… SPPPAAAAACCCCEEEEE! | Bad Astronomy - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- My Slate Dialogue with Michael Specter Begins | The Intersection - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Musical, Fahrvergnügen-Inspired Staircase Makes Commuters Less Lazy | Discoblog - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Laser-Etched Fruit Is an Answer in Search of a Problem | Discoblog - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Ares and the carnivals | Bad Astronomy - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Toddler Gets a Telescoping, Prosthetic Arm Bone That Grows With Him | 80beats - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Neutered HIV Virus Delivers Treatment to Fatally Ill Boys | 80beats - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Specter’s First Reply: Denialism Kills People | The Intersection - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- LRO sees a Moonslide | Bad Astronomy - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Al Gore’s New Book: A Focus on Solutions | The Intersection - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Universe Has Us in Its Crosshairs | Bad Astronomy - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Makers of Universes | Cosmic Variance - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Can Your Pet Catch & Spread Swine Flu? Yes, If Your Pet’s a Ferret | 80beats - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Droid 2.0 Vs iPhone | The Intersection - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Tangled Bank News: An Excerpt and More | The Loom - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- LHC Shut Down By Wayward Baguette, Dropped by Bird Saboteur | Discoblog - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Careidolia | Bad Astronomy - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Slate Reply to Specter Up–We Need a National Dialogue on Synthetic Biology | The Intersection - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Pray this doesn’t get passed | Bad Astronomy - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- You Can’t Make This Stuff Up | Cosmic Variance - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Mother Tongue, Indeed: Newborn’s Cries Mimic Mama’s Accent | 80beats - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Ripped From the Journals: The Biggest Discoveries of the Week | 80beats - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Alternative Landscapes | The Loom - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Can an iPhone App Decipher Your Baby’s Cries? | Discoblog - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Reminder: Carl Sagan Day | Bad Astronomy - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Are There Pesticides in Your Soup? Dunk a Pollution Dipstick to Find Out. | 80beats - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Log in and Join the Conference - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Conference Ends - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Conference Archive Opens - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Galaxy Zoo - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- .Astronomy 2009 Dates - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- .Astronomy 2009: Programme and venue details - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- .Astronomy Gets Some IYA Love - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- 2009 Posters and Imagery - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- 2009 Sponsors - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- When in Holland… - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The WHAT Cloud? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Jewel Box - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Happy Halloween! - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Ares 1-X Launch - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Confessions of an Alien Hunter - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- LRO Spies Apollo 17 Site - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Mercury in Color - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Hubble and M83 - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Cassini Flyby of Enceladus - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Preserving A Moth [Science Tattoo] | The Loom - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Another Russian rocket spiral lights up the sky | Bad Astronomy - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- A (Very Gentle) Riddle to Complete Your Saturday - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Darwin Gets Swine Flu: The YouTube Edition | The Loom - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Happy Slothy Holidays | The Loom - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Jetting to Copenhagen | The Intersection - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Michael Gerson Attempts Thoughtfulness on “ClimateGate,” Then Gives it Up | The Intersection - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Incredible VISTA of the cosmos | Bad Astronomy - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Bundle up Sunday Night to Watch the Geminid Meteor Shower | 80beats - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- “ClimateGate” a PR Disaster That Will Be “Taught in University Communications Courses” | The Intersection - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Is Google the Guardian Angel of Rainforests? | 80beats - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- La ciencia es importante. Una vez mas. | Bad Astronomy - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Sensenbrenner Pulls an Inhofe, Asserts Global Warming is an “International Conspiracy” | The Intersection - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Let Kids Eat Dirt: Over-Cleanliness Linked to Heart Disease | 80beats - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- What Are The Best Science Papers Of The Past Decade? | The Intersection - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Finally! Math Shows How to Cut Evenly Sized Pizza Slices | Discoblog - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Half-baked math | Bad Astronomy - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Can “Biological Passports” Save Sports From Doping? | 80beats - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Aiiiieeee! Slow down! | Bad Astronomy - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Weekly News Roundup: Bad Headlines, Martian moons, and Rotating Houses | Discoblog - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]