Why is play good for kids? Where is the new planet humans could live on? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of September 10-16 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

This week's best science posts include cute robots, a bizarre beauty treatment that Kim Kardashian regrets and a new way of looking at time. But there are many other topics touched on in ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise for the past seven days. Here is the full round-up of the ScienceSeeker Editors’ Selections:

• Food and Cancer: Where Does Our Collective Fascination Come From? by Gaia Cantelli 
• Scientists engineer a powerful new weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria by Jon Cohen at Science

How scientists developed the new antibiotic 

• Five Proven Benefits Of Play by Anya Kamenetz at KQED Mindshift
• Liberals and conservatives are narcissistic in different ways, study finds by Eric W. Dolan at PsyPost
• A new map reveals the causes of forest loss worldwide by Laurel Hamers at ScienceNews
• Searching for Life on Mars through the Lens of Greenland by Marco Tedesco at Scientific Amerian Observations
• The Closest Exoplanet to Earth Could Be "Highly Habitable" by Adam Mann at Live Science
• How long would it take to deflate the Earth's atmosphere out into space? by Jillian Scudder at Astroquizzical
• Forget Everything You Think You Know About Time by Brian Gallagher at Nautilus Magazine
• Saving Jack Skinner by Romeo Vitelli at Providentia
• Vampire facial update: Kardashian has regrets, others maybe infections by Peter Knoepfler at The Niche
• On the hunt for a silent salamander-killer by Benji Jones at Mongabay
• Venom resistance in kingsnakes by Andrew Durso at Life is Short, but Snakes are Long
• Turmoil erupts over expulsion of member from leading evidence-based medicine group by Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky at STAT News
• Podcast of the week: Undiscovered Presents: I, Robovie. Sept 11, 2018 by Annie Minoff, Elah Feder and Christopher Intagliata at Science Friday

Check back next week for more great picks!

When were dark matter and energy created? How do we learn from watching others? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of September 3-9 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

This week, the best science posts include what we can learn from dolphins walking on their tails, how maths helps learn music, and watching eagles online. But there are many other topics touched on in ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise for the past seven days. Here is the full round-up of the ScienceSeeker Editors’ Selections:

Jocelyn Bell Burnell. 

Credit: Breakthrough 

Prize Foundation

• Pulsar Discoverer Jocelyn Bell Burnell Wins $3-Million Breakthrough Prize by Lee Billings at Scientific American
• Opportunity rover still MIA as dust settles on Mars by John Timmer at Ars Technica
• Podcast of the week: Could a new force of nature reveal the universe's dark side? by Ian Sample and Graihagh Jackson with Andrew Pontzen and Jessie Shelton at Guardian Science Weekly
• Ask Ethan: When Were Dark Matter And Dark Energy Created? by Ethan Siegel at Starts With A Bang
• Earthquake And Typhoon Trigger Massive Landslides On Northern Island Of Japan by David Bressan at Forbes
• ‘It was a foretold tragedy’—fire destroys Brazil’s National Museum and its prized science collections by Gretchen Vogel and Herton Escobar at Science
• Super altruists (who’ve donated a kidney to a stranger) show heightened empathic brain activity when witnessing strangers in pain by Christian Jarrett at British Psychological Society Research Digest
• The Amygdala And Observational Learning by Kay M. Tye & Stephen A. Allsop at Science Trends
• The United Nations Is Considering Banning High-Seas Fishing by Marcus Woo at Hakai Magazine
• The conservation lesson of dolphins who walked on their tails by Brandon Keim at Anthropocene
• Ocean Acidification And Its Impact On Marine Environments by Xizhi Huang at Science Trends
• 5 Best Eagle Cams: Watch Live Eagle Feeds From Florida To Washington by Daniel Nelson at Science Trends 
• Adventures in Teaching: The Syllabus is Never Done by Dana Wanzer
• To Raise Confident, Independent Kids, Some Parents Are Trying To 'Let Grow'  by Deena Prichip at KQED Mindshift
• What Does Fluency Without Understanding Look Like? by Dan Meyer at dy/dan
• How Math Helped Me Learn Early Music by Evelyn Lamb at Roots of Unity
• Do we need an Open Science coalition? by Jon Tennant at Elephant in the Lab
• The Reproducibility Project by Alex S. Woodell at OncoBites
• Acupuncture versus breast cancer treatment-induced joint pain: Spinning another bad study by David Gorski at Science-Based Medicine
• A.I. to Identify Treatment Drivers for Colorectal Cancer by Alan Kotok at Science and Enterprise
• Nephro360: Virtual Reality & Gaming by Samira Farouk at Renal Fellow Network
• Why do people talk politics online? Because they don’t care what you think by Nils Gustafsson, Annika Fredén, Emma A. Bäck and Hanna Bäck at The Conversation
• The Backfire Effect — why you can never win an argument online at Book of Joe
• Trump adds physicist Will Happer, climate science critic, to White House staff by Hannah Northey at Science

Check back next week for more great picks!

How are apps changing kids' reading? What keeps partners faithful? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of August 28-September 2 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

This week, the best science posts include the lowdown on charcoal as a health supplement, plans to save Earth's biodiversity and an important quantum computing consideration. But there are many other topics touched on in ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise for the past seven days. Here is the full round-up of the ScienceSeeker Editors’ Selections:

Books still have an important role to play
Image credit: Franklin Park Library
Used via Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 Licence

• Activated Charcoal: Just Another Non-Scientific Wellness Trend by Lauren Parikhal at Science Summarized 
• Digital Text is Changing How Kids Read—Just Not in the Way That You Think by Holly Korbey at MindShift
• Leading With Learning On The First Day Of School To Build Class Culture by Katrina Schwartz at MindShift
• Study finds parents tend to be more socially conservative and judgmental than non-parents by Eric W. Dolan at PsyPost
• While your deliberate “monogamy maintenance strategies” probably won’t keep you faithful, your automatic psychological biases just might by Alex Fradera at British Psychological Society Research Digest
• Long-term study shows language’s role in easing autism features by Nicholette Zeliadt at Spectrum
• Can Fish Tell When a Diver Is Armed? by Jason G. Goldman at Hakai Magazine 
• Will protecting half the Earth save biodiversity? Depends which half by by Shreya Dasgupta at Mongabay
• Transgenic plants 🌱🌿on acid survive without water by Adam Phillips at It Ain't Magic
• Podcast of the Week: Brian Greene goes to 11 — again by Michelle Thaller, David Schulman. and Andrea Mustain at Orbital Path 
• Don't just count qubits by Philip Ball at homunculus

Check back next week for more great picks!

How can we be funnier? What's making animals smarter? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of August 20-27 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

This week, the best science posts include the discovery of an ancient lost city, a preteen who saved a river and how to cope with anxiety and stress. But there are many other topics touched on in ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise for the past seven days. Here is the full round-up of the ScienceSeeker Editors’ Selections:

• Watch Corals Form a ‘Wall of Mouths’ to Catch and Eat Jellyfish by Christie Wilcox at National Geographic
• Guest post: Using seawater to make bread! by Martin Haswell at Adventures in Oceanography and Teaching
• Podcast of the week: How To Be Funnier by Ginny Smith with  Dean Burnett, Tomas Engelthaler and Sophie Scott at PsychCrunch
• The Neuroscience of Laughter by Susan Lubejko at Neuwrite San Diego 
• Science is testing claims about psilocybin microdoses, and finding some truth by Sharon Begley at STAT
• Ancient Lost City Discovered In Field In Kansas by Alex Bolano at Science Trends
• Are Cities Making Animals Smarter? by Paul Bisceglio at The Atlantic
• 150 Years of Shifting Global Fishing by Gemma Conroy at Hakai Magazine
• For Birds, Life Is Different in a Metropolis by Larry Pynn at Hakai Magazine
• How One Preteen Saved a Contaminated River by Nicole Javorsky at CityLab
• Bioethanol: The Fuel of Tomorrow by Sana Yousaf at Techooid.com
• For some, experiencing trauma may act as a form of cognitive training that increases their mental control by Emma Young at British Psychological Society Research Digest
• What Were You Thinking!?: Teenagers show different processing of positive and negative consequences across adolescence by Jack-Morgan Mizell at Knowing Neurons 
• 11 Relaxation Techniques to Help You Cope with Negativity, Anxiety and Stress at Learning Mind
• Marques Brings the Ivory Tower to the Streets with Psychiatry Program at The Mass General Research Institute Blog
• How Can We Tell If a Comatose Patient Is Conscious? by Anouk Bercht and Steven Laureys at Scientific American
• Deliberate Vaccine Misinformation by Derek Lowe at Science Translational Medicine
• Scientists look to music of volcanos to better monitor eruptions by Jennifer Ouellette at Ars Technica
• Earth's Magnetic Field Could Flip Much Faster Than Previously Thought by David Bressan at Forbes
• Ask Ethan: Is Spacetime Really A Fabric? by Ethan Siegel at Starts With A Bang
• CERN Physicists Observe Lyman-alpha Transition in Antihydrogen at Sci-News.com
• The Philosophical Difference Between Original Art and a Fake by Anoop Verma at The Verma Report
• A Crash Course in Fighting Lab Contamination by Jordan Villanueva at Promega Connections
• Science's Bullying Problem by Neuroskeptic at Discover
• GAO report shows the continued NIH grant funding disparity for underrepresented PIs at Drugmonkey

Check back next week for more great picks!

Five tips on how to have a constructive science debate

Get your point across effectively, not aggressively.
Image credit: Circuito Fora do Eixo
via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0 licence

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

Whether you are a scientist, a science student or a science enthusiast, you probably like to talk about science with people in your life. A lot of science conversations, however, tend to turn into heated debates and, if you are not careful, into full-blown arguments. Many areas of science, such as evolution, stem cell research or global warming can be highly controversial because they clash with people’s moral, ethical or religious beliefs. If you are talking to another science enthusiast, you may disagree about a science article or a piece of science news andon the impact it may have on society.

Here are some tips for you to have a productive science debate with anyone, whether they are a lay-person or a professional in the field. Hopefully these will help you connect with people, get your point across and overcome your differences. 

Why are some people left-handed? What's behind the surge in celiac disease? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of August 13-19 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

This week, the best science posts include lessons on biology from large mammals, a plan to explore space that could devastate any alien civilisation it finds and what happens when we sleep. But there are many other topics touched on in ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise for the past seven days. Here is the full round-up of the ScienceSeeker Editors’ Selections:

• Are you in your right mind? The evolution of left handedness by Roising Coneely at Seeking Science
• Celiac disease: What’s behind the surge in diagnoses? by Andrew Porterfield at The Genetic Literacy Project 
• 2-Minute Neuroscience: Stages of sleep at Neuroscientifically Challenged
• Hospital superbugs are evolving to survive hand sanitizers by Beth Mole at Ars Technica
• Big Tech waves in Healthcare and The Death of EMR: Blockchain Technology and Its Likely Impact on Healthcare by Dr Fey at Digital Sky MD
• Cancer Is One Worry Elephants Can Feel Free to Forget by Katherine J. Wu at Smithsonian.com
• What a Grieving Orca Tells Us by Ed Yong at The Atlantic
• Hacking The Electric Grid Is Damned Hard by Maggie Koerth-Baker at FiveThirtyEight
• Exploring microfluidics…using Lego? by Emi Schutz at Chembites
• Researchers Discover New Molecular Properties of Water at Science-News.com
• Meteorite Bombardment Likely Created the Oldest Rocks on Earth by Meghan Bartels at Space.com
• Is Humanity About To Accidentally Declare Interstellar War On Alien Civilizations? by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang! 
• MIT scientists crack the case of breaking spaghetti in two by Jennifer Ouellette at Ars Technica
• LHC physicists embrace brute-force approach to particle hunt by Davide Castelvecchi at Nature News and Comment
• Podcast of the week: Heatwaves: the next silent killer? by Graihagh Jackson at Guardian Science Weekly
• Smokey superlatives: widespread wildfire impacts seen from as far away as a million miles from Earth by Tom Yulsman at ImaGeo
• Bird Species Collapse in the Mojave, Driven by Climate Change by Amanda Heidt at KQED Science
• U.S. energy research agency doesn't need a scientist at the helm, Congress tells nominee by Jeffrey Mervis at Science
• How To Make A Civics Education Stick by Emily Cardinali at MindShift 

Check back next week for more great picks!

How can you be invisible to infra-red cameras? How can you keep sperm superb? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of August 7-12 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

This week's best science stories include a way to save the coral reefs, the low down on NASA's sun-shot, and how scientists can tell how much chocolate you've eaten. But there are many other topics touched on in ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise for the past seven days. Here is the full round-up of the ScienceSeeker Editors’ Selections:

• Tight underwear really is linked to lower sperm counts in men by Sam Wong at New Scientist
• Dads Pass On More Than Genetics in Their Sperm by Katherine J. Wu at Smithsonian.com
• "Looking Cool" with an Infrared Invisibility Cloak by Eleanor Hook at Physics Buzz
• Mission to the Nearest Star: Fastest Spacecraft Ever Will Dare to Sample the Sun's Corona by Amy Thompson at Scientific American

• Your Viewing Guide To The Best Meteor Shower In Years: 2018’s Perseids by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang!
• The Most Famous Last Stand In History And How Geology Played A Role In It  by David Bressan at Forbes
• Podcast of the week: Scientists Finally Solved the Mystery of Antarctica’s Blood Falls by Kayleigh Rogers at Science Solved It
• Is CRISPR Gene Editing Doomed, Even As Gene Therapy Enters The Clinic? by Ricki Lewis at DNA Science Blog
• How CRISPR can save our coral reefs at A Backpacking Biologist
• Industrial fishing fleets traveling farther to reel in fewer fish by Mike Gaworecki at Mongabay.com
• How to Dismantle a Blue Whale by Jacqueline Windh at Hakai Magazine
• Chimp sanctuary created by World Bank threatened by World Bank-backed dam by Jonathan Watts at The Guardian
• Covering the coverage of the fox genome paper by Jessica Perry Hekman at Dogs! Brains! Science!
• Reward-system differences may underlie multiple autism features by Sarah Deweerdt at Spectrum
• Ban On The Use Of Bee-Killing Pesticides In U.S. Wildlife Refuges Overturned by Alex Bolano at Science Trends
• GC-MS Can Tell If You Are a Choc-a-holic by Inge de Dobbeleer at Chromatography Solutions
• Storm in a teacup: predatory journals are irrelevant by Arndt Leininger at Elephant in the Lab

Check back next week for more great picks!