I was nominated in this viral fundraising scheme you may have heard about, and I did it my way.
Author Archives: jby
Requiescat: Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough died Sunday, aged 90. Most of my generation probably know him best for Jurassic Park, but I’ve always favored his role as the mastermind of the Great Escape:
Stuff online, rare genetics and bees edition
Photo by Danny Perez Photography.
- Essential reading on Ferguson: Jamelle Bouie’s detailed recounting of the events following Michael Brown’s killing, and just how much it would take to make things right; Ta-Nehisi Coates on the historical historical context; Dahlia Lithwick on the laundry list of constitutional violations in law enforcement responses to the protests.
- And, if you want to help: Chip in to provide classroom supplies for teachers in and around Ferguson.
- Self-diagnosis works, with enough research. How an extreme athlete found the single genetic variant responsible for her two rare genetic disorders.
- Evo-bollocks of the week. No, PMS isn’t an adaptation to prompt women to find more fertile partners.
- Innovation! South Africa’s new surveillance drone will be piloted by humans.
- Yep. On hunting for a faculty job while not straight.
- Steve Rogers isn’t your grandfather. Or, turning to the history books to understand Captain America.
- Less-bad news on bees. They’re doing better in cities.
- All in the game. The democratic melodrama of The Wire.
- No word on how many of them would pay to never again hear from ResearchGate. Nature surveys scientists’ social media habits.
Neither rain
Fresh summer rain. Marathon in six weeks. Gotta do the miles. Running shoes squish and suck all the way down the empty trail to the lakes. The few other runners wave in solidarity. One reaches out for a high-five, shouts “Fuck the weather!” with a grin. But the rain patters on the trail, on the leaves of the ash trees, on Lake Calhoun, like a thousand running feet.
Stuff online, leftovers and lactation edition
Photo by Joanne C Sullivan.
- This week, at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! The natural history of Ebola.
- Guess I need a “sunrise lamp.” How to make yourself a morning person.
- Search me. When everyone can have a blog, why does anyone need a comments section?
- Cuisine des perdus. The worldwide phenomenon of recipes that use up food scraps.
- Timing is … well, a lot of things, anyway. When you nurse determines what you get.
- As in, contains actual falsehoods. The Discovery Channel’s Shark Week has abandoned any pretense of education.
- No cable subscription necessary! Build a better Shark Week on YouTube.
- It’s not getting better. The current state of efforts to contain the white-nose syndrome devastating bat colonies.
- Good job, folks! After some 23 million rides, there still hasn’t been even one deadly accident on a bike-share bike.
Stuff online, funny five fingers edition
Photo by Melanie Holtsman.
- This week, at The Molecular Ecologist: The many loci of stickleback speciation.
- Your weekly grammatical rabbit hole. Sussing out the rules of adjective order.
- High five! The molecular development of fingers.
- Taking natural history back to the future. By publishing field reports as preprints.
- Against the Great Man theory of science spokespersons. Or, what comes after Richard Dawkins?
- But the EPA is just an anti-buisness red tape machine. Drinking water bans in Toledo due to a nutrient-pollution-enhanced algae bloom
- Don’t panic. A rundown on why not to worry about Ebola, from an expert in actually-scary microbes.
- Not bad, eh? How Ontario gave coal the boot.
- And sends back photos. A European probe establishes orbit around a comet.
- Hmm. On making the jump from academics to private-sector data science.
- Wow. Genetic chimerism might (might!) promote cooperation in marmosets.
- Almost 300,000. The number of people on the U.S. Government’s “terrorist watch list” with no recognized affiiliation with terrorists.
Stuff online, LED at the end of the tunnel edition
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen … Photo by Antony Storo
- This week, at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! The vital importance (to a grass) of fungal infection, and the results of a quick poll about that unfortunate Science cover.
- In the form of a “satire” about scientists on Twitter. Your weekly reminder that the failure mode of “clever” is “asshole.”
- Nifty! A cleverly made sponge generates steam in a glass of water.
- Turning the corner? Improvements in energy efficiency and distributed solar panels are starting to substantially impact power demand.
- Mazel tov! Natural Current Events celebrates 200 arthropods identified.
- Sounds familiar. People work harder when they have someone to compete against.
- And it’s not the furry livestock. Why the desert planet in Star Wars doesn’t make ecological sense.
- Sure, why the hell not? Could beaked whales have internal antlers that are only visible to sonar?
- First, do no harm. Why the Tuskegee syphilis study still matters.
Stuff online, untrammeled woodrat guts edition
Still worth it.
- Uncharted territory. How medical research tackles a never-before-seen disorder.
- Muir lives! Evaluating the value of wilderness, ahead of the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Wilderness Act.
- Take note, Science. The Lancet’s infographic on sex work and HIV risk.
- Worst indigestion ever? If you give a desert woodrat antibiotics, it’s going to want something to eat instead of creosote.
- How are we just getting to this? Accounting for genetic drift in microbial experimental evolution.
- The page is mightier. How the promises of speed reading never quite materialize.
Stuff online, feet of clay edition
And pretty much everything else of clay, too.
- This week, at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! Dismantling A Troublesome Inheritance, part III: has natural selection created differences between racial groups?
- And at The Molecular Ecologist: Further thoughts on peer review.
- Not a great week. A series of not unrelated reminders of how poorly scientific workplaces can treat women: from Richard Feynman’s lechery to harassment during field work to the actual cover of Science.
- Now that’s a lizard of a different color. A lizard can change color for camouflage because it can (kinda) see with its skin.
- #MinnesotaSmug How my home state is steadily cutting its carbon emissions.
- Are you ready? Next week is moth week.
- Being wrong != being ignorant. The recent study that shows many people who deny evolution understand it pretty well anyway.
- The Facebook feed of evil. Digging into the demography, and the online likes and dislikes of white supremacists.
- And, appropriately, we’re freaking out. The World Health Organization recommends prophylactic antiretrovirals for all gay men.
Stuff online, vampire barnacles edition
Every recommended route through Vancouver will go through Stanley Park. Photo by Christopher Porter.
- This week, at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! No, some human populations aren’t more genetically prone to violence than others.
- Take note, Runkeeper. A crowd-sourced algorithm to find the scenic route between point A and point B.
- Pretty much. Evolutionary psychology as frat-boy science.
- It takes two to bareback. The case of a college wrestler points up the many problems with criminalizing HIV transmission.
- In Australia. Solar power is on track to out-compete coal.
- You don’t buy a cake for an abortion. Or, why women’s reproductive rights are losing in the culture wars while gay marriage wins.
- So. Much. Stupid. A Harvard psychology professor makes the dumbest statement possible about scientific replication.
- Worst zit ever? A barnacle that leaches its nutrients from the flesh of sharks.
- So good. The best teachable moments in the now Emmy-nominated reboot of Cosmos.