Photo courtesy of NASA / SDO.
Hi friends. This week’s Webcrawl is coming in a little late, but it’s been no less raucous a science party than usual. Wind down your weekend with the following lovely reads:
- Jane Goodall has written a new book, but this one is about plants rather than chimps. Here’s a fabulous interview at the Smithsonian. If you read only one thing from this week’s webcrawl, let it be this.
- My mentor George Johnson has a new blog at Discover and this week, in addition to a series on fluoride in New Mexican water, he had a post on the mathematics of rock and roll. This was also the subject of a recent arXiv paper on the emergent behavior of moshers, which reminded me of this study about the attractiveness of Mick Jagger’s hips from a couple weeks ago.
- Carl Zimmer had a great post about the possible shapes brains can take on National Geographic Phenomena, where Ed Yong had his on great piece on the news that bees can sense electric fields
- PLOS blogged about a recent study in ONE that suggests reading fiction gives us a boost in our power for empathy.
- Here’s a wonderful video of a 3D printer making an implantable ear.
- Mesmerizing: plasma shower on the sun
- What does the future hold for fusion research? Take a tour of a nuclear fusion lab for some context.
- Chagas disease is an infectious disease that doesn’t get much attention, but turns out it’s costing us more than we may realize.
- Secret video cameras reveal the secret lives of animals while researchers wonder whether dolphins call each other by name.
- Weekly Canine Science Update: dogs recognize other dogs in a crowd and, surprise, steal food when no one’s looking.
- US kids are finally eating fewer calories but our current calorie counting methods may not be quite right.
- The US government made a big step toward open source science and PLOS approves.
- Time Magazine published the longest story by a single author this week, by Steven Brill about the cost of healthcare. Here are David Dobbs’ and Paul Raeburn’s responses.
- Northeastern network scientists’ work was recognized in Scientific American and the Economist in two great pieces this week: Influential Few Predict Behavior of the Many and Dr. Seldon, I presume.
- Along those lines, the Internet is approaching its limit. What are we to do?
- The most wonderful underwater photography you’ve ever seen. It’s not only fun and hilarious, but also educational.
- A sad period in science history
- I knew it! Men and women see color differently
- When I was in college, one of my English professors confessed to hypnotizing his girlfriend. It was a funny, if discomfiting, story. But if you don’t want to hypnotize, perhaps you’d be interested in implanting false memories into the minds of your friends and loved ones?
- Three-year-olds know better
- A Scientific American writer has been living on Mars time for a few weeks now. These are her hilarious posts on the experience.