Someone just saw his report from “23andMe,” I guess. Photo by CHRISTOPHER MACSURAK.

• At Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! God fails a standard information-theoretic test.
• At the Molecular Ecologist: Reduce sequencing error with a new “duplex tag” method.
• The only thing we have to fear is variation at adrenaline receptor loci. Against fearmongering over personal genomics.
• Encouraging words for job application season. You don’t know how your story ends.
• We’re number one? Study by Dunkin’ Donuts concludes that scientists drink more coffee than members of any other profession.
• So say we all. Space operas, graded by accuracy of physics portrayed.
• Three out of four cases. A large majority of scientific paper retractions are due to fraud.
• Jumping gigawatt! Experiments that are so crazy, they just might work.
• Proposed, then scuttled in Congressional absurdity. A multi-location National Park to commemorate the Manhattan Project.
• Or, you know, human. Ayn Rand’s individualism doesn’t work so well if you’re a hunter-gatherer.
• The early bug gets the bite. The use of insecticide-infused bed nets at night prompts mosquitoes to bite during the morning.
• Historical contingency. What killed the electric car, the first time around.

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Don’t roast all those pumpkin seeds—save some to plant. Photo by satakieli.

• This week, at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! The evolutionary origins (or lack thereof) of type II diabetes.
• Caveat: adaptive evolution requires (1) heritable variation and (2) time. Make your home garden more self sustaining, and maybe better adapted to a changing climate by saving seeds.
• In which “functional” means about 80% of what you thought it means. Further complaints about the spinning of ENCODE.
• Wait, what? Yes, colonoscopies can (rarely!) cause patients to explode.
• Yeah, you’re probably going to need to declare that in your conflict-of-interest statement. When your new study linking cancer and GMO corn is also central to your new book and documentary film.
• Size labeling matters. People eat more cookies when they’re labeled “medium”.
• But probably not, you know, a causative one. An association between type II diabetes and gut bacterial profile.
• Paging Dr. Jones … Paging Dr. Indiana Jones. A Tibetan statue brought to Germany by the Nazis was made from a meteorite.
• Wallace’s online. A new online archive of the work of Alfred Russell Wallace.

Video for the week: “Plants are cool, too!” is a botannical YouTube series. And yes, it’s cool. Here’s an episode featuring University of Idaho (go Vandals!) biologist Dave Tank, who acts as a tour guide through a famous fossil site not far from the UI campus.

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You’re not hydrated—you’ve got two empty halves of coconuts and you’re banging them together. Photo by Minette Layne.

• This week at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! Sarah Hird reports on a workshop, The Ecology and Evolution of Host-Associated Microbiota.
• And at The Molecular Ecologist: Making maps with R.
• Applying sports psychology to an academic career, part I and part II—and further thoughts on that theme.
• Prepare for a whole week of Friday Weird Science. Scicurious gets ready to blog the Ig-Nobels.
• Endangered species, catfish, and—gasp—American ginseng. What a DNA barcoding study found in dietary supplements.
• Bird brains. The only thing that drives Creationists crazier than fossils is fossils of feathered dinosaurs.
• The stuff from the tap still wins. Running the nutritional—and hydrational—numbers on coconut water.
• Maybe if they drink enough coconut water? Could humans become photosynthetic?
• Splitters v lumpers, round eight thousand. The arguments, pro and con, on whether to split genus Anolis.
• Convenient. Turns out that many of the most-sustainable and least-mercury-laden fish species are also better for you.

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These two mammalian species evolved bigger brains via changes in the same gene. Photo by Sagolla.

• You say “tomato,” I say “pomato.” Yes, you can make a plant that grows a whole fruit salad.
• Time dilation is just the start. Your new guide to the weirdness of special relativity.
• Objections biological, and non-. Evolutionary psychology takes a drubbing in The New Yorker.
• Sure, why the hell not? Shiny! Are these structurally-colored berries “the strongest iridescent [color] in nature?”
• Convergence: the smart thing to do. Selection on the same gene is associated with the evolution of larger brains in both primates and cetaceans.
• Oops? A study of “spin” in popular science coverage traces the hype back to the abstracts of the original journal articles.
• “Blame” is such an unscientific word. The full picture on the connection between a father’s age and his childrens’ risk of autism.
• Peer pressure works. Experimental evidence from the 2010 U.S. election shows that Facebook can prompt people to vote.

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Organic strawberries. Photo by VancityAllie.

• In case you missed it. I’m starting a new blogging gig, and here’s my inaugural post.
• We’re finally done calling it “junk DNA.” Or are we? A user’s guide to the user’s guide to the human genome.
• Science ruins everything. Adorable kid cavorting with marmots isn’t really that special.
• Not so much a golden, as a gold-plated, ring. Tenure isn’t as great/terrible as you’ve been told.
• Worse than we thought. Jonah Lehrer’s journalistic misdeeds, enumerated.
• In which a debate arises … organically. A new study finds that organic vegetables aren’t any more nutritious than non-organics—but is that the right question to ask?
• Who says it’s compromising? More on the question of whether women’s wider pelvises are a compromise between locomotion and childbirth.
• A Christian perspective. Why it doesn’t make sense to say you “believe” in evolution.
• Because Bob knows, you can’t just ask. Using a Markov model to determine whether your prof’s in a romantic relationship.
• Money talks. How Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring was immediately politicized, even though she didn’t do any politicizing.
• If they’re monogamous Finnish farmers. Do human women have an evolutionary conflict with their mothers-in-law?
• In llamas! Researchers identify a component of semen that may help induce ovulation.
• Sampling matters. A new study of kids raised by lesbian parents studies actual lesbian households, finds out their kids are doing great.

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Neil Armstrong on the Moon. Original image from NASA Goddard Photo and Video.

• Requiescat. Neil Armstrong, the first human being to walk on the Moon.
• This week at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! The evolutionary history of lizards on Indian Ocean islands and the problems with the Paleo Diet.
• Bees need somewhere to buzz. Cultivating hedges between fields to save pollinators.
• Maybe not as complex as we think. How complex does a brain need to be to become self-aware?
• We’re working for the weekend. Also over the weekend. Download statistics from Springer’s journal archives provide real-time evidence of workaholic scientists.
• Sure, why the hell not? Do people become vegetarians because they’re more prone to disgust reactions?
• This seems like a bad idea. A kennel club is attempting to breed dogs into a recreation of prehistoric dire wolves.
• This seems like a worse one. Engineering a strain of bacteria that will eat plastic.
• This increasing energetic investment will not stand, man. A long-standing hypothesis about human gestation comes into question.
• I’ll have seconds now, please. Although abstemious diets can lengthen lifespan in other animals, they don’t work for primates.

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What’s in your mitochondria? Photo by photogism.

• Shutting Todd Akin down, with data. The actual science on prengancy following rape, the weird idea that a particular pregnancy complication could be triggered by unfamiliar sperm, and on the psychology that might lead people to think rape can’t lead to pregnancy.
• Population genetic pollution? Modern populations of North American bison still carry the genetic results of a historical attempt to cross breed them with cattle.
• Woah. Aphids may be photosynthetic.
• Make sure they never prosper. How punishing cheaters may be necessary for the evolution of cooperation.
• “… the pressure to publish has reportedly been a source of stress for Mokoko …” The Onion reports on a study in which a chimpanzee learns to conduct studies on chimpanzees.
• Woah. Aphids may be photosynthetic.
• Meet Trogloraptor. A new spider species found in the Pacific Northwest is so different from known species it’s going to get its own family.
• Probably not. Did komodo dragons grow that big so they could hunt miniature elephants?
• Spiking the green ball. Power companies are starting to worry that electric car owners may all plug in for a charge at the same time of day.
• All it needs to eat earthworms, apparently. A new newly discovered species of rodent has only four teeth.
• Great—now I’ve got a biological clock, too. Older fathers are more likely to pass on mutations to their children.
• In birds and humans. How climate change may increase the rate of West Nile virus infections.
• Peter Abrams. An annotated (and opinionated) bibliography.
• You may upgrade to the companion scent “Complacency” only with written permission from your tenure committee. The new fragrance for academics: DESPERATION.

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Cocoa pods on a tree in Uganda. Photo by sarahemcc.

• Meet Homo rudolfensis. New fossil finds establish a previously undiscovered species of early human. See also the report in Nature.
• Ironically, it didn’t involve any dramatic transformations. How insects evolved the developmental process of complete metamorphosis.
• Okay, NOW global warming is an emergency. Half of cocoa-producing countries in Africa may be too hot to grow chocolate by 2060.
• Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean your coffee won’t turn green. Ten ways to spot a modern-day poisoner.
• As simple as 2x + 2 = 6. The last word(s) on the importance of algebra.
• Funniest deadly disease ever? A previously undescribed class of virus is responsible for making snakes tie themselves in knots.
• Not coming to the Discovery Channel any time soon. It’s Cow Week!
• Replication for 10% of first-attempt cost? A new startup will take contracts to try to reproduce scientific results.
• i.e., opiate addiction not cured. Cool science, poorly represented by a press release.
• Certainly not me, anyway. Why we really shouldn’t leave it to individual scientists to do their own archiving.
• Well, that’s something. Increasing use of natural gas has apparently led to a siginficant drop in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.

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An apt pupil. Photo by thraxil.

• So. Freaking. Cool. NASA successfully landed a car-sized, nuclear-powered, laser-equipped exploratory rover on Mars—for a fifth of the cost of the 2012 Olympic Games.
• Meanwhile, in the life sciences. Thousands of ecologists converge on Portland, Oregon for the Ecological Society of America meeting. Check Dynamic Ecology and EEB & Flow for coverage.
• What is the difference between wheelchair racing and cycling, when you think about it? The line between human athletic achievement and technological advancement is fuzzier than you might think.
• Next: NOM announces that pupil dilation is a “lifestyle choice.” A new approach to testing sexual orientation measures pupil dilation. See also good discussion by Scicurious and Deborah Blum.
• Yet another microbiome. Examining the bacteria living on the surface of plant roots might be as informative as examining the ones living inside plant roots.
• Commitment to innovation? Apparently the fundamentalist textbooks for Christian schools are now opposed to set theory.
• FACT: Wearing a bike helmet all day = 80% reduced risk of death by meteor. How to clearly explain risk, with an illustrative story.
• Because we only think they think they’re people. Why it’s important to avoid anthropomorphizing when discussing the sexual habits of non-human animals.
• Cool! Google Scholar will now identify new articles for you to read based on your own publication list.
• That … sounds like a problem. Some of the world’s most important food-producing regions are living on non-renewable water.

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Save your Starbucks card, and have a cup of ocean instead. Photo by nicadlr.

• You say potato, I say Solanum tuberosum. When does specialized vocabulary indicate specialized subject matter, and when does it indicate obfuscation?
• Not such a fine line, actually. When does the failure to mention contradictory evidence become a lie of omission?
• Spoiler alert. The ending of The Dark Knight Rises is not very realistic.
• Guess which group is leaner. A (small) study of daily activity in tribal hunter-gatherers finds they expend about the same amount of energy as people living “modern” lifestyles.
• Quelle suprise. That study on gay parenting that interviewed almost no gay couples? A new review suggests it probably shouldn’t have passed peer review.
• Or, the biology of personal tragedy. On the causes, and consequences, of a pregnancy that doesn’t end in a birth.
• “It makes a duck’s back look like a sponge.” A new anti-bacterial coating works by being really, really slippery.
• Immodest proposals. As long as we’re giving up on algebra, why not ditch reading, too?
• Not an “Onion” headline. Caffeine pollution reported off the coast of the northwestern U.S. (Also other places.)

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