The essentials: The eclipse, whisky and the origin of life, all in our August 14-20 2017 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

Each week, the ScienceSeeker editors pick their favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise. Here is a round-up of the Science Seeker Editors’ Selections for the past week:

Compound Interest on climate archaeology

• Eclipses show wrong physics can give right results by Tom Siegfried at Context
• The Best—and Quirkiest—Maps of the 2017 Solar Eclipse by Betsy Mason at All Over The Map
• Three Myths About Solar Energy and the Eclipse by Mike Jacobs at Union of Concerned Scientists
• The Hormone Myth by Harriet Hall at Science-Based Medicine
• Artificial vision: what people with bionic eyes see by Matthew Petoe, Lauren Ayton and Mohit Shivdasani at The Conversation
• What does the statement “we don’t understand how artificial intelligence takes decisions” mean? by Julián Estévez at Mapping Ignorance
• The origin of complex life on Earth just got a little less mysterious by Annalee Newitz at Ars Technica
• DNA Barcodes Reveal Two Distinct Butterflies Are Male and Female Of Same Species by Grrl Scientist
• Why adding a drop of water can make whisky taste even better by Sophia Chen at New Scientist
• Podcast of the Week: Preventing genetic diseases in China, a red supergiant star's mystery, and the algal boom by Kerri Smith and Adam Levy at Nature Podcast
• The science of ice cores: Atmospheric time machines by Andy Brunning at Compound Interest 
• There are almost 100 new volcanoes hiding under Antarctic ice by Andy Coghlan at New Scientist
• Scientists, Insta-Fix Thy Public Image by Paige Brown Jarreau at From the Lab Bench
• The comet that created the Perseids might bring an end to humanity by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang!
• A Look at Russian Reindeer Herders’ Battle with the Bottle by Lauren Kaljur at Arctic Deeply
• White nationalists flock to genetic ancestry tests. Some don't like the result by Eric Boodman at STAT News
• Book Review: The Mind of God by Dr. Jay Lombard by Oné R. Pagán at Baldscientist

Check back next week for more great picks!

What are dogs thinking? Can we trust self-driving cars? Find out in our August 7-13 2017 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

Each week, the ScienceSeeker editors pick their favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise. Here is a round-up of the Science Seeker Editors’ Selections for the past week:

Landslides can trigger tsunamis Credit: JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty




• What Does Your Dog Really Want? by Gregory Berns at Scientific American
• 5 Dangerous Cancer Myths by Gaia Cantelli 
• How to catch the Perseids and defeat the almost-full Moon and Ask Ethan: What’s the quantum reason that sodium and water react? by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang!
• When the sun goes dark: 5 questions answered about the solar eclipse by Shannon Schmoll at The Conversation
• The total solar eclipse has a dark side by Tabitha Powledge at On Science Blogs
• Nuclear reactors on rockets may fuel future crewed trips to Mars by Leah Crane at New Scientist
• Mystery of missing tsunamis explained by geological model by Kate Ravilious at New Scientist
• Podcast of the week: Furthering Female Fertility Research with Functional 3D Printed Ovaries - Dr. Teresa Woodruff  by Marie McNeely at People Behind the Science Podcast - Stories from Scientists about Science, Life, Research, and Science Careers
• Greenland, the Land of Ice and Snow, Hit By Wildfire by Eric Holthaus at Arctic Deeply
• The Nitrogen Problem: Why Global Warming Is Making It Worse by Richard Conniff at Yale Environment 360
• ‘Loneliness epidemic’ set to become a public health crisis by Andrew Masterson at Cosmos Magazine
• Female Brains Are More Active? by Neuroskeptic at Discover 
• Would a Self-Driving Car Kill You If it Had the Chance? by Gina Riggio at Sciworthy
• Your kitchen sponge could have more bacteria than a toilet seat by Sarah Kiley Watson at Popular Science

Check back next week for more great picks!

Prepare for the upcoming eclipse and learn about embryo editing in our July 31-August 6 2017 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

Each week, the ScienceSeeker editors pick their favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise. Here is a round-up of the Science Seeker Editors’ Selections for the past week:

• 

  If not, can you help a human out?

  The sights, safety, and science of the great American eclipse by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang!
• The disco lights of nature – Aurora! by Sai Nazare at Perk Science
• How Big is the Biggest Possible Planet? by Corey S Powell at Out There! 
• We can now design humans — but should we? by Vivek Wadhwa at VentureBeat
• An introduction to gene editing by Anastasia Stefanidou at The Biochemist Blog
• Charlie Gard Post-Mortem: Could He Have Been Saved?  by Ricki Lewis at DNA Science Blog
• DNA Analysis Sheds Light on the Mysterious Origins of the Ancient Greeks by Brigit Katz at Smithsonian SmartNews
• When kids imitate others, they’re just being human by Laura Sanders at Growth Curve
• Got allergies? Scientists may have finally pinpointed the cells that trigger reactions by Mitch Leslie at Science
• A Third of Dementia Cases Could Be Preventable by Maya Gosztyla at AlzScience
• How can the biophysics of pecking help humans avoid head injuries? by Sanjoy Som at Sciworthy
• On Healing Sick Ecosystems by Lee Dietterich at Union of Concerned Scientists
• Non-model organisms are so hot right now by Kelle Freel at The Molecular Ecologist
• Making sense of the natural world at Cosmos Magazine
• Understanding Sea Level Rise by Tamino at Open Mind
• Coral reefs are not dead... Yet. by Mariam Zaki at Crystals and Catalysts
• Is Syria really a 'climate war'? We examined the links between drought, migration and conflict by Lina Eklund and Darcy Thompson at ScienceNordic
• Proposed Arctic Railway Would Cut Through Lapland Reindeer Habitat by Emily Gertz at Arctic Deeply
• Stock traders' algorithm finds slow earthquakes by Bethany Augliere at Earth Magazine 



Hunting earthquakes through maths Credit: Mike Gottlieb, UNAVCO.

• After 43 years, gentle touch of a neutrino is finally observed by John Timmer at Ars Technica!
• A paper on field theory delivers a wake-up call to academics by Andrew Grant at Physics Today
• ¿Hubo otros Big Bangs antes que el nuestro? by José Manuel Nieves at ABC Ciencia

Check back next week for more great picks!

What are coffee's benefits? Where might alien life hide? Find out in our July 24-30 2017 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

Each week, the ScienceSeeker editors pick their favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise. Here is a round-up of the Science Seeker Editors’ Selections for the past week:

Young Martian volcanoes could have supported life
Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Arizona State University Wikimedia

• Scientists find some of Mars’ youngest volcanoes – and discover they could have supported life by David Rothery at The Conversation US
• Eight other worlds in our solar system might have life beyond Earth by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang! 
• When the Moon and Sun Align: The Great American Eclipse, Part I by Kendra Redmond at Physics Buzz
• Coffee health benefits – what does the science say? by The Original Skeptical Raptor at Skeptical Raptor
• Should You Complete That Course of Antibiotics? by Steven Novella at Neurologica Blog
• Testosterone and bad judgments by José Ramón Alonso at Mapping Ignorance
• Brain cells found to control ageing by James Anderson at Reliawire
• Meta-analysis finds sperm counts dropped 50%, media predicts human extinction by Beth Mole at Ars Technica
• The chemistry of soaps and why it matters by Solveig Böhme at A tang of science
• Scientists Discover Possible Genetic Link for Mesothelioma in Young Adults by Jackie Clark at The MCA Blog
• Men’s sweet tooth may increase risk of anxiety and depression by Aylin Woodward at New Scientist
• First proof that Facebook dark ads could swing an election by Timothy Revell at New Scientist
• Maryam Mirzakhani, 1977–2017 by Ken Regan at Gödel’s Lost Letter and P=NP
• A Carbon-Free City Is Being Built from Scratch by John Fialka at Scientific American
• Urban Life of Bees: A Pollination-Parasite Trade-Off by Jonathan Trinastic at GotScience.org
• Ancient Fungus Gives Trees a Better Chance at Surviving Hotter Temperatures by Cynthia Wallentine at Invisiverse
• Does doom and gloom convince anyone about climate change? by Erika Engelhaupt at ScienceNews 
• Why Pockets and Waves of De-Feminization in Science’s Past Matter Now by Hilda Bastian at Absolutely Maybe

Check back next week for more great picks!

The secrets of good sex and reading people's minds in their eyes are among the July 17-23 2017 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

Each week, the ScienceSeeker editors pick their favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise. Here is a round-up of the Science Seeker Editors’ Selections for the past week:

• The Science of Passionate Sex by Scott Barry Kaufman at Beautiful Minds
• How Salvador Dalí’s Mustache Endured Death by Aggie Mika at The Scientist
• You can now see what's happening on the International Space Station in Google Street View 

  

  But can Google Maps get you there? 

• Space 'Shrooms: NASA Identifies What Kind of Fungi Could Grow in a Mars Habitat by Cynthia Wallentine at Invisiverse
• Are Tardigrades Really That Tough? by Caleb Scharf at Life, Unbounded
• How scientists invent new colours by Colin Hall at Cosmos Magazine
• Talking in a Bubble: Using Physics to Explain Dialects by Kendra Redmond at Physics Buzz
• Meet the scientist who turns data into music—and listen to the sound of a neutron star by Giorgia Guglielmi at Science
• How open data can help the Global South, from disaster relief to voter turnout by Stefaan G Verhulst at The Conversation
• How we learn to read another’s mind by looking into their eyes by Tobias Grossman at Aeon
• How Horseshoe Crabs Are Saving Us from Healthcare-Associated Infections by Miranda Stewart at Invisiverse
• Most Patients Get No Benefit from Most Drugs by Harriet Hall at Science-Based Medicine
• Are stem cells to blame for cancer re-growth? by Bill Stallcup at Beaker Blog
• What is the Gut-Brain Axis? Can What We Eat Affect How We Feel? by Arpit Sharma at Sciencepalooza
• 5 Bad Tips About Sugar by Olivier Bernard at The Pharmafist 
• Tail That Whale: Researchers Track Orcas in Arctic’s Warming Waters by Rhiannon Russell at Arctic Deeply
• Where have all the megasharks gone? by Rocío Pérez Benavente at Mapping Ignorance 
• How Turning Up The Heat Turns Male Dragons Into Females by GrrlScientist 
• African Wild Dogs Can't Take The Heat, Face Extinction From Climate Change - Science Sushi by Christie Wilcox at Science Sushi
• The darker side to global warming? by Sabrina Hossain at The Biochemist
• Citizen Science: biohacking its way into the mainstream at ScienceLED

Check back next week for more great picks!

Why are we conscious? Can you pull things out of a black hole? Find out in our July 10-16 2017 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

Each week, the ScienceSeeker editors pick their favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise. Here is a round-up of the Science Seeker Editors’ Selections for the past week:

Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Credit: NASA/SwRI/MSSS

• Is it possible to pull something out of a black hole? by Ethan Siegel at Starts With A Bang!
• Check out the closest ever view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot by Mary Beth Griggs at Popular Science
• The Quest To Destroy Science's 'Magic Rock' by Brian Koberlein at Forbes
• Google is using AI to create stunning landscape photos using Street View imagery by Nick Statt at The Verge
• Lights, Cameras, CRISPR: Biologists Use Gene Editing to Store Movies in DNA by Heidi Ledford at Scientific American
• Veganism, Microbes and Overconsumption by Jacob Dykes at BioCultured
• Taking steps to learn more about obesity with smartphones by Jennifer Huber at Scope Blog 
• How E-Cigarettes May Lead Youth to Cigarette Smoking in 200 Words by Brian Jenssen at Policy Lab
• Toxic vaccine chemicals – the dose makes the poison at Skeptical Raptor
• Why Are We Conscious? by Steven Novella at NeurologicaBlog
• What’s going on in our minds when language shapes how we think? by Rose Hendricks
• Brain circuitry linked to social connection and desire to cuddle by Amielle Moreno at Lab Land
• Want a Robot That Can Really Feel? Give It Whiskers by Matt Simon at Wired
• Ravens can plan ahead & barter for food, abilities believed to exist only in primates by Cosmos Reporter at Cosmos
• Why Can Lavender Be Used to Repel Moths? – The Chemistry of Lavender by Andy Brunning at Compound Interest

Image copyright Compound Interest, used via Creative Commons license.

• Green method developed for making artificial spider silk by Sarah Collins at The University of Cambridge
• Arctic Nations Agree to Work Toward Curbing Use of Heavy Fuel Oils by Jillian Kestler-D’Amours at Arctic Deeply
• Citizen journalism: A phenomenon that is here to stay by Anthony King at EuroScientist

Check back next week for more great picks!

How does Nature inspire us? How does marijuana work? The answers are among our July 3-9 2017 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

Each week, the ScienceSeeker editors pick their favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise. Here is a round-up of the Science Seeker Editors’ Selections for the past week:

How a Jupiter-type planet might form. Credit: ESO/L. Caláada

• Science uncovers the origin of the first light in the Universe by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang! 
• LHC pops out a new particle that could test the strong force by Jacob Aron at New Scientist
• Earth’s Seven Sisters by Tom Barratt at Absolute Science
• Jupiter-Type Planets Come In Regular And Supersize by Brian Koberlein at Forbes
• An Algorithm Helps Protect Mars Curiosity's Wheels by Andrew Good at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• A huge scanner that can read body language in real situations by John Biggs at TechCrunch
• New map of world’s most toxic countries by Ekbal Hussain at The Pale Blue Dot
• Biological control: birds vs. (insects vs. insects) by Fred Singer at Fred's Ecology and Environmental Tales 
• Cystic Fibrosis Among Asians: Why Ethnicity-Based Genetic Testing is Obsolete by Ricki Lewis at DNA Science Blog
• Ancient-genome studies grapple with Africa’s past by Ewen Callaway at Nature
• The 100 000 Genomes Project by Leanne Edermaniger at ScienceLED
• Scientists Map the Receptor That Makes Weed Work by Nick Stockton at Wired
• Absurd alkaline ideas – history, horror and jail time by Kat Day at The Chronicle Flask
• Untreatable gonorrhoea on the march worldwide, says WHO  by Phil Taylor at PMLive
• Custom cancer vaccines safely fight and kill tumors in early human trials by Beth Mole at Ars Technica
• You don’t have to climb a mountain for a “peak experience” in nature to be life-changing by Emma Young at British Psychological Society Research Digest
• Here’s how a child sees a Van Gogh painting by Laura Sanders at Growth Curve
• Postpartum psychosis: “I’m afraid of how you’ll judge me, as a mother and as a person” by Catherine Carver at Mosaic
• Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science? by Stephen Buranyi at The Guardian
• What’s the return? Or…how is it possible that Open Library of Humanities works? by Cameron Neylon at Science in the Open
• Sweeping Sands by Dana Hunter at Rosetta Stones

Check back next week for more great picks!