Top picks
I’m compiling a list of my top 12 science long-reads of the year (defined here as features longer than 2,000 words). Here are one, two, three and four. Read them all and follow the series on twitter with the hashtag #12longreads.
“It’s quality and content of the information that matters to press freedom, not the people spreading it.” – wise words on bloggers and journalists by Becca Rosen.
From the Big Picture: the 50 best photos of the natural world from 2011
“We can see the unborn brain flowering into a neurally connected marvel” – My, Vaughan Bell writes beautifully.
“I watch as Christina controls Prof Haggard’s fingers like a marionette”- great Tom Chivers pieces on neuroscience & free will
Some tiny spiders have brains that are so proportionally big that they spill out into their legs. Also some of them have hundreds of fine hairs that are hundreds of tiny ears
“Dancing the American Smooth, will humpback whale and bottlenose dolphin please take to the floor”
“It takes a certain kind of Stockholm syndrome to see the Durban outcome as a significant breakthrough” – good Nature editorial on Entmoot the climate talks.
Lungfish can walk which means your ancestors may have walked underwater 400million yrs ago, before feet – great Carl Zimmer piece.
NASA Builds Six-Foot Crossbow to Harpoon Comets
“It’s bad for science, losing creative, diverse, potentially brilliant minds in favor of long hours & self-martyrdom” – SciCurious on the long-hours culture of science
“If you can’t notice a gorilla in plain sight, how can you testify as a witness?” asks Daniel Simons.
Very interesting comment thread discussion between a scientist who claims that leaning to the left makes the Eiffel Tower seem smaller, and another who thinks it’s bollocks. With a fuller critique from Andrew Wilson here
Possibly the greatest use of an infographic ever. Now to do something about that mountain.
The use of gene therapy to actually treat people with haemophilia B is one of those things that can reasonably be called a “breakthrough”.
Xeni Jardin’s beautiful, poignant piece on her own breast cancer diagnosis
It’s finally the future…our jet packs are here, and they’ll let you swim like dolphins.
“It’s the amplification of Grandma’s voice.” How technology is saving dying languages, not finishing them off
Brevetoxin – a beautiful caterpillar-like chemical. Also aerosolised weapon unleashed by red tides
A fascinating article about a transgendered child… who has an identical twin
Science/news/writing
Smallest frogs found—and each is tinier than an M&M
What’s the ‘value’ of a cancer treatment? The Venn diagram of patient/NHS/industry desires is genius.
Uncommitted newbies can foil a forceful few: “Whatever the ideal dose of ignorance may be, current levels clearly exceed it.”
Naked mole rat superpower #12 – they feel no pain from acid
Lessons from plants that eavesdrop on each other’s pain
Sweaty bums make mosquitoes cool
The age of Neanderthal personal genomics begins. (I’m 2.6% Neanderthal)
From Frank Swain: Scientists complete work on Daily Mail headline generator
Japan’s Prime Minister Declares Fukushima Plant Stable. Local teacher: “I feel no relief.”
Bacteria that could pass as X-Men: part 1 and part 2
3 dinosaurs for price of 1! Now Horner says Nedoceratops & Torosaurus are both Triceratops
The New Meanings of How and Why in Biology?
Alex Wild visits a Devil’s Garden, where ants kill trees
“Drawing is first and foremost an exercise in looking and noticing–two skills still vital for naturalists” – Why field notes are still important.
Institute of Medicine report: “invasive medical experiments on chimpanzees are largely unnecessary.” Although note an interesting counterpoint from Barbara King
More yeti crabs!
Rose Eveleth meets the world’s most successful tumbleweed saleswoman
In which David Eagleman scans his oldest patient, a 3,000 year old mummy
Cell Phone Cameras Capture Microscopic Images to Diagnose Malaria and other Diseases
The Weird Wingless Ant That Glides About Backwards, Leading With Its Rump
Apparently, mosquitoes will sometimes suck blood from other mosquitoes that have previously sucked blood
What Are The Chances Of Six Double-Yolkers? In a box of six eggs.
Awesome 17-Year-Old Girl Invents Nanoparticle That Kills Cancer Cells
How the Turkish government are using a porn filter to censor Darwin / evolution.
Acidic oceans threaten fish
Do Antidepressants Make Some People Worse? Complicated.
Mark Changizi bursts the bubble of human intelligence at the Crux
The physics of great white sharks leaping to catch seals.
Evolution among the echoes – a beautiful tale of bat evolution by Lucas Brouwers.
Outlook for Tassie devils looks bleak; scientists turning to sperm banks and artificial insemination
The origin of Monkeyman begins here – Monkeys to Be Released into Fukushima to Test Radiation
Actual snake oil! Smear pit viper venom onto your face so you can look weird for your age
Megavirus, the world’s biggest virus. I love the justification of the name at the bottom
Astounding Deep-Sea Sponges With Carnivorous Ways, ‘Jaws Of Sharks’
“Melanie’s Marvelous Measles” is an actual anti-vaccine childrens book
IQ is heritable, but we have no idea what the genes that influence it are
Interesting report from the Royal Society about the use of neuroscience in legal affairs.
Newspapers try to stir up storm of outrage over allegations that Frozen Planet polar bear footage was “fake”, even though the Beeb was totally transparent about it. Idiots like this first writer mistakenly say that it was CGI. Meanwhile, the lies stack up. This iconic footage was apparently faked, and more fake bear footage has emerged. And the Daily Mash: Attenborough died in 1972, admits BBC
Brilliant! Students aged 14-18 can submit ideas for experiments that’ll actually be flown on the International Space Station
In which I learn that soup accounts for 8% of all hospital burn admissions. Soup: threat or menace?
Phylo: Online Video Game Helps to Solve Genetic Origins of Diseases
Heh/wow/huh
They look like oil paintings – actually made of yarn
Here is a bearded dragon killing ants on a smartphone:
The people who comment under best-of lists.
Truffle detection by flying squirrels
George Takei calls for Star Wars and Star Trek fans to unite – against Twilight
For people disappointed by the CERN news, here are some pigs w/ bows on. Which is basically the same thing.
Orphaned baby sloths have melted by cold, cynical heart
Strange Weaponry Dept: The Piano Catapult
The Daily Mash on mammoth-cloning
Booty Call of Cthulu: Mimic Octopus mating
Your daily dose of schadenfreude: Pile-up writes off 8 Ferraris, a Lamborghini and 3 Mercedes. Only minor injuries
Journalism/internet/society
Amazon’s scummiest move yet – an app that lets you screw over bookshops
TIME’s Person of the Year is BULLSH*T. And with that, I have automatically become Time’s person of the year. Also Time’s #2 person of the year is Kate Middleton. Just wait till the #1 person of the year hears about that.
Forbes has a late candidate for the year’s stupidest op-ed. In response, a Forbes staffer implores us to ignore the trollish Forbes columnist. And Jess Zimmerman takes it all the way into full Onion op/ed with “If I Were A Rich White Man Pretending To Be A Poor Black Kid”
Cautionary tips for journalists who become authors
Loyalty card rewards coffee fans for being disloyal
Top Google searches of 2011. Utterly depressing. Facebook is in there. As is Google.
Attention Norway. I have butter. Repeat: I have butter. I’ll trade it for a working copy of Mjolnir, or a fjord
Alter Ego – portraits of gamers next to their avatars
This year’s Screenplay Blacklist (the favourite unmade movie scripts, chosen by execs)
Disney meets 28 Days Later – an abandoned fake disneyland in China.
News Deserts. “Places whose economies cannot sustain any established business model for journalism.”
The Knight Tracker wins the headline competition
Where do great nonfiction story ideas come from? (Strange places.) Must-read piece for writers.
H&M’s use of CGI model bodies (w/ real faces) causes uproar, as industry forgets about Photoshop
Maybe health news readers prefer longer stories. Matthew Herper has got more traffic for fewer, longer posts
The Huffington Post continues its ironic science journalism series; the Knight Tracker continues its lovely rebuttals
Are you unethical AND forgetful? If so, this is for you: a service to check YOUR OWN papers for plagiarism
“We’re in a renaissance of long-form writing” says Steve Silberman, picking his longreads for 2011.
“What if there were rules for science journalism?” asks Slate. Erm… there are. We’ve only been laying them out for last decade! The problem with this misguided idea is that good journalists already abide by the rules and there’s no way of enforcing rules on the crap ones, thus making the entire concept meaningless. The problem isn’t that there’s a lack of rules, but that some people can’t follow *basic* journalistic ethics.
Evidence! New media expands news diversity exposure by 60-98%. The “echo chamber” is leaky.
“If we are all journalists, should we all be protected?”
The Atlantic profiles @pourmecoffee, if that is even his real name.
“Is there much meaning left to one random web visitor hitting one random web page?”
Do yourself a favour – spare 5 mins to read Gaia Vince’s moving tribute to her grandfather
Sweden lets citizens take over official Twitter account. Either genius or insanity
December 17th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
The “gorilla in plain sight” link is wrong, needs a fix
December 17th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
In my defence, ‘bollocks’ is a technical term
Thanks for the links! It’s been nice to have the conversation about the ‘embodied cognition’ methods and data somewhere people might see. These types of results make great headlines, but poor science, I think.
December 17th, 2011 at 4:02 pm
William, it took me 3 seconds to find that link
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2011/12/14/if-you-cant-notice-a-gorilla-how-the-heck-can-you-testify-as-a-witness/
Perhaps your time would be better spent thinking why you are the sort of person who thinks smiley faces are a good idea
December 17th, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Outstanding, as usual, Ed. Thanks very much for this wealth of great links. You always curate a super selection.
p.s. Pete in NZ is a grouch.
December 17th, 2011 at 7:13 pm
You have a broken link at “gorilla in plain sight,” unless that is the joke!
December 17th, 2011 at 7:39 pm
“pigs w/ bows on.”
Worth the price of admission right there.
December 20th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Of the 50 best pictures, it seems an inordinate number of them are taken in zoos or parks. In another 100 years will most pictures (or holograms maybe) be taken in zoos and preserves?
Best.Blog.Ever. If I blogged, that’d be about what mine would look like too.
Mosquitoes sucking mosquitoes. I always wondered if that happened….as a child (and teen) I tried countless times to get them to suck each others’ blood by holding them together. But they wouldn’t…they don’t even suck my blood when I hold their wings and push their heads into my arm (gee, I wonder why).
Amazon app is evil. Browse Amazon for books, then buy them from local independent bookstores.