Picturesque, but maybe not practical. Photo by jimw.- Arsenic Life II: The Response-ening. Rosie Redfield responds to responses to her criticism of the “arsenic life” study, and considers how she’d go about testing the original claims; Carl Zimmer discusses how online criticisms like Redfield’s may have changed the way we review scientific results. And the original paper appears in print (alongside critical responses) for the first time this week.
- It’s a simple question of weight ratios. A transportation engineer explains why airships will probably never be widely used.
- The bright side is you get to write another review, right? The trouble with writing about the ethics of an emerging technology is that the state of the art changes very quickly.
- Life’s building blocks aren’t usually re-used to make models of the starship Enterprise. Biological systems’ use of a relatively small set of widely-available building blocks means that life is like LEGO.
- History matters. German towns that had anti-Jewish pogroms in 1349 were more likely to have pogroms in the 1920s.
- ‘Bout time. In the face of ongoing opposition, climate scientists are using stronger language to discuss global warming.
- She’s crossing the streams! Jen McCreight brings science blogging to Savage Love to address the mystery of the G-spot.
- Wait till you find out what works best. The next breakthrough in mosquito repellant might work by overwhelming the bloodsuckers’ antennae.
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