Photo by The Tedster.

• This week at The Molecular Ecologist: How realistic are the non-overlapping generations assumed by lots of ecological models? And doing population genomics without a reference genome.
• Inflatable moth-butt feather dusters. They’re not genitalia—but they’re just as important.
• Cryptic variation put to adaptive use. Or, how Mexican cave fish went blind.
• Data science. It’s about the science, first.
• Yay! The FDA cracks down on antimicrobial consumer products in hopes of slowing the evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
• Requiescat. The space robots lost in 2013.
• I think yes. Can we make grad school better by training fewer grad students?
• Including the excellent Kate Clancy! Nature picks ten people who mattered this year.
• Ancient DNA sequencing means even a piece of toe-bone contains Us Pleistocene. The new reconstruction of hanky-panky among ancient human species.

And finally, a video I may very well use in class a few weeks from now: some thoughts on how to read science news.

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No big deal for some animals? Photo by Will Clayton.

• This week, at The Molecular Ecologist: An interview with Richard Lenski.
• And, at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! Should peer review be more subjective?
• Everyone’s all, “why do we need to fund ant taxonomy?” until they’re covered in ants. What that story about “crazy ants” tells us about U.S. science funding.
• Drat. Bone marrow transplants have failed to clear two patients’ HIV infections.
• Also on searches for “is my husband gay”? A new estimate for the size of the U.S. gay population is based on Google searches for porn.
• Deal with it. You are, in fact, the sum of physical things happening inside your own skull.
• Really depends what you mean by “age.” Are there such things as living things that don’t age?
• Vaccinate, please. Measles cases in the U.S. tripled in 2013.
• Not sure I’d call it “scary” so much as “sobering.” The story of Easter Island may be both an ecological disaster and an exemplar of human resilience.
• Data for the masses, but what about interpretation? A geneticist on the case of the FDA versus 23andMe.
• Better than nothing? The FDA finally kinda, sorta moves to restrict agricultural antibiotic use.
• “… it was like an addiction.” How scientists make the transition from lab work to programming.

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It was probably all because Eve’s brain is so different. Photo by Sebastian Bergmann.

• This week, at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! How to get (scientifically) published, in ten rules and two cents.
• Technically, the selfish gene != single-gene thinking, but still. Looking for new language in a world of non-Mendelian genetics. But see also; and then also.
• In twenty easy steps? How non-scientists should interpret scientific claims.
• Want to buy an authorship? Apparently doing that is shockingly direct.
• Bad news gets worse. On funding rates for the NIH.
• Here we go again. No, the fact that men’s brains are detectably different in structure from women’s doesn’t mean the differences are not learned.
• “But anyway, the ants.” This is the best story about invasive ants you will read all year.
• Creationism: bad for bunnies! Based on plans published so far, the creationist “Ark Encounter” theme park is going to be an animal welfare catastrophe.

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Barnacles. Photo by Minette Layne.

• Personal genomics should be “entertainment,” not a “medical test.” The personal genotyping service by 23andMe got smacked down by the U.S. FDA; but it probably won’t slow down the rush to consumer genomics.
• Freaky, but cool. How to cure cancer using altered HIV particles.
• Chemotherapy with a side of probiotics? The effectiveness of some anti-cancer drugs may depend on your gut bacteria.
• “… the reasoning employed here is primitive, at best.” Ow. Yet another evolutionary psychology study mistakes the modern university campus for the prehistoric savannah.

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Is it cold in here? Photo by Ikayama.

• This week at the Molecular Ecologist: Making the jump from postdoc to faculty, part one, and part two.
• Privilege check. An attempt to joke about sexism in science fails badly, and prompts some good discussion about what, exactly, it means to be an ally. Also, one pretty clever new metaphor.
• And blames the students. Classy! One of the earliest champions of online college courses admits they don’t really work.
• How the early air-mail planes crossed the U.S. Guided by lighthouses.
• Broad-minded, our ancestors. Analysis of early human genomes suggest interbreeding with a previously unknown proto-human species.
• Serving in Starfleet is basically a high-prestige hobby. How economics might work in the United Federation of Planets.
• “No, he has no family. He’s perfect!” On the infamous two-body problem.
• No, seriously. Thousands of studies on lab mice might be confounded by chilled mice.
• The “red edge”. How we might detect life on another planet using only light.
• For the umpteenth time. That welt on your leg is probably not a brown recluse bite.
• Oh, Florida. Green anacondas, which can grow to be 20 feet long, seem to be settling right into the Everglades.
• No one can cite you if no one can find you. The calculus of journal prestige for authors who need to get noticed.
• Antibiotics! U.S. states with higher rates of antibiotic prescription have more obesity. The evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria could dramatically restrict modern medicine. Here’s what working physicians are doing to prevent that.

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Photo by dreamingyakker.

• This week, at the Molecular Ecologist: Build a version-controlled workflow with GitHub and RStudio.
• And at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! A new fossil find illuminates the history of hummingbird flight, and it turns out that Little Red Riding Hood has a phylogeny.
• It involves my new favorite German word. How we learned that birds migrate.
• With great visualizations. A brief simulation study of genetic ancestry.
• No, but really. Here is a picture of a fruit fly with pictures of ants on its wings.
• Even with on-site comments, Twitter, PubMed Commons … On the difficulties of calling attention to potentially serious flaws in a published scientific paper.
• Ugh. A new Republican bill to revise science funding practice looks exactly as dodgy as you’d expect.
• Meanwhile … A survey of U.S. research universities shows that sequestration is already hurting science.
• Well, that’s a new one. Is it possible that Archaeopteryx was in the process of losing the ability to fly?
• Sure, why the hell not? Are these high-altitude grasslands in Venezuela the fastest-evolving communities on Earth?
• Sort of a filter for critical thinkers. The “Ark Experience” creationist theme park is going to be financed as a nonprofit, by selling junk bonds.
• Yum? Bamboo-eating beetles soften up their host plants by giving them yeast infections.
• Of course, how many protein shakes do they encounter in the wild? If it’s protein, ants assume they need to chew it.

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Photo by mjsmith01.

• This week, at The Molecular Ecologist: I reviewed Craig Venter’s new book.
• And, at Nothing in Biology Makes Sense! Stressful conditions make mutualism stronger.
• Now available for free. An award-winning report on fracking.
• The “gore king.” A new species of tyrannosaur sounds like a character in “Game of Thrones.”
• In, of all places, the abortion debate. How Nazi-era anatomy work haunts us to this day.
• Listen up! Oyster larvae identify good places to put down roots based on sound.
• Too good to be true is still too good to be true. In this case, meaning $10,000 college degrees.
• Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a venture capitalist. A new X-prize seeks prototypes for a medical tricorder.
• Depends what you mean by “life.” Is there life after graduate school?
• Love everlasting. The oldest-known fossils of insects in copula.

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