Rice. Photo by tamaki.

• More on “pox parties.” They’re really a bad idea and almost certainly illegal.
• Paging Dr. Roughgarden. Some male marsh harriers look like females—and coexist peacefully with “regular” males as a result.
• We are what we eat, part 2,357. MicroRNAs from rice migrates into your tissue in the course of digestion, and may alter your own gene expression.
• Giving that Thanksgiving “hand turkey” a new significance. The success of sumo wrestlers can be predicted from their handprints.
• Rats on a rising tide. The expansion of humans across the globe is closely tracked by the expansion of rats.
• In which Siri exorcises the ghost of HAL. The iPhone’s new virtual assistant, considered anthropologically.
• Another reason to buy organic. Up to three quarters of honey sold in the US doesn’t contain any pollen—possibly to cover up illegal imports.

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