A safer DEET successor can’t arrive soon enough. Photo by Sanofi Pasteur.

• At The Molecular Ecologist: An interview with Loren Rieseberg and an introduction to ultra-conserved genetic elements.
• And at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! The evolutionary history of pork. As in, pigs.
• But at least poor people aren’t getting subsidized health insurance. Wait, what? Science in the shutdown.
• Wrong in so many ways. How Lysol got its start as a birth control agent.
• Because of course. Looking forward to the end of daylight savings time? Thank a New Zealand entomologist.
• The great Toxoplasma debate: Is the parasite’s fabled host manipulation greatly exaggerated?
• Hurray for chemistry! New understanding of how DEET repels mosquitoes could lead to a safer alternative.
• But they’ve filed a patent to do it anyway. 23andMe says they’re not interested in helping couples select their babies’ genetics.

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