What shape is the Milky Way? What Dark Energy discovery is shaking up the physics world? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of February 5 - February 11, 2019 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

You can get inside the brain of an introvert and find out how you can deal with eco-anxiety in this week's selection of the best and brightest posts from the science blogosphere. But there are many other important topics touched on in the ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts of the week within their respective areas of interest and expertise. Here is the full round-up of the ScienceSeeker Editors’ selections:

We all need time alone, but for introverts it's when they're
most creative.
Credit: Katia Romanova, used via Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0

• The brain of an introvert by Viatcheslav Wlassoff for Brain Blogger.
• Helping mothers recover when the psychological trauma of giving birth lingers by‎ the Mass General Research Institute Blog.
• Attachment anxiety heightens aversion toward pattern deviancy, according to new psychology research by Eric Dolan for Psypost.
• Eco-anxiety isn’t new, and it’s time to deal with it by Glynis Ratcliffe for Asparagus Magazine.
• New 3D map of milky way reveals true shape of its stellar disc | Astronomy by Sci-News.com.
• Dark energy may not be a constant, which would lead to a revolution in physics by Ethan Siegel for Starts With A Bang.
• Is Sweat Up To Batt? Sweat as a Power Source for Screening by Elizabeth Joseph at Chembites  
• Heat-sensitive fabric cools you on hot days and warms you in the cold by Donna Lu for New Scientist.
• This is why global warming is responsible for freezing temperatures across the U.S. (and elsewhere) by Ethan Siegel for Starts With A Bang.
• 2018 ranks as fourth-warmest year for globe by Scott Johnson for Ars Technica.
• Cutting through the doom and gloom – how psychology can be used to promote climate action  by Pernilla Borg for Envirobites.
• Fancy some salt & vinegar with your shark?  by Harry Baker for Marine Madness.
• To grow or not to grow? Bacteria make seeds think! by Radhika Desikan for GotScience.
• [Commentary] Rewilding is an exciting, new narrative of recovery and hope by Prerna Singh Bindra for Mongabay-India.
• The Cancer Genome Atlas: A Roadmap for Cancer Research  by Rachel Cherney for OncoBites.

Check back next week for more great picks!

How does your brain look on acid? What do Minke whales talk about? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of January 28 - February 4, 2019 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

This week's best posts from the science blogosphere include a commitment from Germany to cleaner energy, the science behind the star-nosed mole's eyes and the effect of 'screen time' on children's brains. But there are other important topics touched on in the 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 they talking, or just wailing?
Credit: Majestic Whale Encounters, used via Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0

• Stars for Eyes – The Neurological Wonder of the Star-Nosed Mole by Seraphina Solders for NeuWrite San Diego.
• Watching brains on acid using an MRI by John Timmer for Ars Technica.
• The science of screen time by Jena Doom for Science with Dr. Doom.
• Enemy Infiltration of the Blood-Brain Barrier by Sarah Price for ImmunoBites
• When two forces join to make imaging brains more amazing than ever! by Rosa García-Verdugo for Mapping Ignorance.

Synaptic proteins and their associations to neuronal processes in layers IV-V of mouse primary somatosensory cortex from HHMI NEWS on Vimeo 

• AI has predicted a new subspecies of archaic human ancestors that have not been discovered yet by Kristine Moore for The Inquisitr.
• Wiretapping Minke whales by Larry Pynn for Hakai Magazine.
• A faster way to find illicit fins by Alistair Bland for Hakai Magazine.
• Germany to phase out coal by 2038 by Martin Keiner for Unearthed.
• Sustainable bricks made from sewage by Prachi Patel for Anthropocene Magazine.
• Ten of the best books about climate change, conservation and the environment of 2018 by GrrlScientist for Medium.
• New device can desalinate seawater  by Megan Nichols for Schooled By Science.
• ‘Metallic wood' throws down a challenge to titanium by Nick Carne for Cosmos Magazine.
• Take a virtual tour through the history of the periodic table by Jake Yeston, Nirja Desai, and Elbert Wang for Science Magazine.
• Today is the bittersweet 15th anniversary of NASA’s Opportunity Rover landing on Mars by Ethan Siegel for Starts with a Bang.
• NASA’s Parker solar probe completes its first orbit of sun by SciNews.
• NASA’s Curiosity Rover weighs a mountain on Mars by Michael Wall for Space.com.
• Does intermittent fasting work? by Monica Reinagel for Scientific American.
• Obesity tied to higher cancer rates in younger people by Nicholas Bakalar for The New York Times.
• Precision medicine real soon now by Derek Lowe for Science Translational Medicine.
• From bad air to mosquito-borne disease: How folks found out malaria was transmitted by mosquitoes by Gibbs Nasir for Public Health United.
• Policies reducing prescription opioids have limited effect on overdose deaths. Interview with Dr. Qiushi Chen and Jagpreet Chhatwal for Medical Research.
• "Rectenna" Converts Wi-Fi to Electricity by Christopher Intagliata for Scientific American.
• Hydroponics? by Frans Mäyra.
• The beautiful magic of bioluminescence in A Backpacking Biologist.

Check back next week for more great picks!

How can you avoid cracking up under pressure? Do men feel pain more? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of January 21-27 2019 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm

This week's best science posts include a happy ending for an endangered frog, a less happy ending for hedgehog lovers and tough questions for particle physics. But there are other important topics touched on in the 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:

Romeo's Juliet is not actually a little girl.
Credit: Gordon, used via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0

• A new gravitational wave detector is almost ready to join the search by Emily Conover for Science News.
• Particle physics may have reached the end of the line by Sabine Hossenfelder for Backreaction. 
• Scientists are building a quantum computer that "acts like a brain" by John Christian for futurism.com. 
• The Brain Maps Out Ideas and Memories Like Spaces by Jordana Cepelewicz for Quanta Magazine. 
• Men React to Repeated Painful Experiences Differently than Women Do by Diana M. Kwon for The Scientist. 
• A Surprising New Way To Avoid Choking Under Pressure – Imagine You Have The Prize And Are Performing To Keep It by Christian Jarrett for British Psychological Society Research Digest. 
• Podcast of the week: Creative Differences: The Benefits Of Reaching Out To People Unlike Ourselves by Jennifer Schmidt, Parth Shah, Shanka Vedantam, Tara Boyle, Maggie Penman and Max Nesterak for NPR Hidden Brain. 
• Nature Shapes Faithful and Unfaithful Brains by Sarah Jane Alger for The Scorpion and the Frog.
• Romeo finally found his Juliet, and an endangered frog has new prospects for survival by Mongabay.com. 
• Why I don’t bite everyone that stresses me out: The cost-benefit analysis of predators by Michelle Jewell for Southern Fried Science.
• After a year of no babies, three right whale calves spotted off U.S. coast by Mongabay.com. 
• Don’t Kiss Your Pet Hedgehogs, C.D.C. Warns by Julia Jacobs for The New York Times. 
• Inside Earth, Microbes Approach Immortality by Jennifer Frazer for Scientific American. 
• A New Infectious Mechanism for Alzheimer’s? by Derek Lowe at In The Pipeline 
• Is This Tiny Copepod the Key to Sustainably Producing Omega-3s? by Erica Cirino for Hakai Magazine.
• Coffee crisis? 60% of wild species could go extinct, some within decades by Carol Cruzan Morton for Science. 
• Study: Keep craft beer cool and drink in three months for best flavor by Jennifer Oullette for Ars Technica. 
• Examining Food Cravings In Women During Their Menstrual Cycle by Sridevi Krishnan for Science Trends.
• Pesticides on Our Plates: Is Our Food Safe to Eat? by Monica Reinagel for Scientific American. 
• Finding eco-friendly alternatives to cotton — in the forest by Nancy Bazilchuk for Science Nordic. 
• How to Reduce Your Plastic Use by Beni Kolenovic for InnoTechToday. 
• Earth’s Essential Elements for Life Probably Came from Another Planet at Sci-News.com. 
• The Periodic Table by Alex Bolano for Science Trends.
• Building Teamwork and Perseverance in Early Elementary Students with Breakouts by Katrina Schwartz for KQED News. 
• One more reason to remove letters of recommendation when evaluating candidates for jobs or scholarships by Andrew Gelman for Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science. 
• The landscape of MRSA in America's largest healthcare system: Acquisition carries a 1-4% chance of infection in the following year! by Daniel Morgan for Controversies in Hospital Infection Prevention. 
• Reversing an MD5 hash by John D. Cook at John D. Cook Consulting

Check back next week for more great picks!

How can you age gracefully? Should you worry about artificial sweeteners? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of January 14-20 2019 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm

This week's best science posts include new treatment hope for kids with cancer, a positive use for old oil industry equipment, and the birth of a planetary system weirder even than anything from Star Wars. But there are other important topics touched on in the 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:

A timeline of the discoveries of the chemical elements by Andy Brunning at Compound Interest

Credit Andy Brunning, Compound Interest

• Want to age gracefully? A new study says live meaningfully by Scotty Hendricks at Big Think
• For Children With Cancer, Hope for New Treatments (registration required) by Lucette Lagnado at The Wall Street Journal 
• Despite rampant internet fear mongering, artificial sweeteners are safe by Greg A. Fish at World of Weird Things
• Does grape age impact the smell of your wine? by Mary Sabuda at Sciworthy
• Coffee in trouble: 60% of wild coffee species threatened with extinction by Shreya Dasgupta at Mongabay
• Podcast of the week: Ants Stick to Cliques to Dodge Disease by Lucy Huang at Scientific American
• This Weird Star System Is Flipping Awesome by Ian O'Neill at AstroEngine 
• What Moon Craters Can Tell Us About Earth, and Our Solar System by Meghan Bartels at Space.com
• Supermoon Lunar Eclipse To Become The First Pan-American Total Eclipse In 19 Years by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang!
• A weird type of zirconium soaks up neutrons like a sponge by Emily McConover at Science News
• Fossil fuel's leftover infrastructure may have a surprising new ecological role by Sarah De Weerdt at Anthropocene
• Fuel Tankers Help Highlight Illegal Fishing Hotspots by Kimberley Riskas at Hakai Magazine
• Canada Announces New Drone Laws That Allow Recreational and Commercial Pilots to Operate Under Same Rules by Isabella Lee at UAV Coach

Check back next week for more great picks!

The ScienceSeeker Awards 2019 are open for entry!

After a successful relaunch of the ScienceSeeker Awards last year, we're delighted to announce that it now returns for its third iteration! We hope that these awards will be a way to feature several of the most outstanding blog posts, podcasts, or videos from the past year, and highlight the widespread talent in the science blogosphere that ScienceSeeker seeks to promote.

There will be a total of nine categories, from each of which there will be one winner. We will then pick the overall winner from among the winners from each category. The posts will be judged by the ScienceSeeker editorial team. There will be no prizes other than a badge for your website and the kudos of knowing that the ScienceSeeker team liked your post most. The categories are:

• General science posts and graphics: Including posts from sites that correspond to our art, photography, general science and science communication bundles
• Cells and molecules: Including posts from sites that correspond to our biotechnology, cell biology, chemistry, and microbiology bundles
• Humanities: Including posts from sites that correspond to our development, economics, ethics, gender, history, language, law, philosophy, policy, political science, religion and atheism, social science and sociology bundles.
• The environment and our place in it: Including posts from sites that correspond to our anthropology, archaeology, climate science, conservation, evolution, geography, geosciences, oceanography, palaeontology and oceanography bundles.
• Health, medicine and brain science: Including posts from sites that correspond to our clinical research, clinical psychology, health, medicine, neuroscience, nutrition, psychiatry, psychology, public health and veterinary medicine bundles. 
• Academia: Including posts from sites that correspond to our academic life, student life, grants, career, education, publishing and library science bundles.
• Podcast: Including posts from sites that correspond to our podcast bundle.
• Physical sciences and technology: Including posts from sites that correspond to our artificial intelligence, astronomy, computer science, energy, engineering, mathematics and physics bundles.
• Big biology: Including posts from sites that correspond to our behavioural biology, biology, ecology, marine biology and plant science bundles.

How does the nomination process work?

The nomination process will run from January 17, 2019 through midnight Pacific Standard Time on March 1, 2019, so, really, the evening of February 28 is the time for last minute nominations.

Please use this form for nominations.

Individuals can nominate their best post of the year in only one category. The first nomination received from any individual will be the only one considered. Multiple posts can be nominated from the same site – prizes will be awarded to the individuals that created the post. In the event that there is a joint post, that will be the only post considered by the individuals involved. So, you can submit a post you created by yourself or jointly, but not both.

The ScienceSeeker team will collectively determine the winner for each of the nine categories, as well as the overall grand prize winner. The winners will be announced on April 1, 2019.

What posts, or podcasts, or videos, are eligible?

Any post, podcast episode, or video that was first published between January 1, 2018 and January 1, 2019 are eligible for the ScienceSeeker Awards. The post can be from anywhere, be it a personal blog, an institutional website, or a large media organisation. If you’re entering and are not already in our bundles, why not submit your site here?

Podcasts should only be entered in the podcast category. Infographics and sci-art should enter in the general science and graphics category. Videos and text posts can enter in whichever subject category is most applicable.

Any questions?

Feel free to leave a comment on this post, use the contact form, or tweet us @SciSeeker. For more detailed questions only, email us at sciseekers at gmail dot com. 

What's the good news on cancer? Should we colonise Mars? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of January 7-13 2019 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm

This week's best science posts include more bad news for our oceans, a rethink of how we look at genetics, and a way to rewire our brains. But there are other important 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:

Tsunami aftermath in Aceh, Indonesia, December 2004.
Credit Wikipedia/AusAID CC BY 2.0.AUSAID

• US Cancer Death Rate Continues to Decline by Steven Novella at Science-Based Medicine
• It’s the End of the Gene As We Know It by Ken Richardson at Nautilus
• Podcast of the week: Should We Colonize Mars? Michael Robinson talks to Lucianne Walkowicz at Time to Eat the Dogs
• Mainland China Was Struck By Large Tsunami A Thousand Years Ago by David Bressan at Forbes
• Ocean warming projected to accelerate more than four-fold over next 60 years: Study  by Mike Gaworecki at Mongabay
• Endangered bluefin tuna sold for record fee in Tokyo market by Harry Baker at Marine Madness
• Guest post: Alice shows magic tricks and explains refraction of light in water by Alice Langhans at Adventures in Oceanography and Teaching
• Shredded Star Leads to Important Black Hole Discovery at Chandra X-ray Observatory
• All Sand on Earth Could Be Made of Star Stuff by Shannon Hall at Scientific American
• From toxin to tonic: improving cone snail toxin stability for medical use by Andy Brunning at Compound Interest
• When Recycling Pays the Bills ... and When It Doesn't by Jessica Placzek at KQED News 
• Is there space for nature in man-made jungle? by Anna Filyushkina at Envirobites
• Observant Crows Make Weighty Decisions by Mary Bates at Psychology Today
• Researchers Tried To Explore Why “Stereotype Threat” Harms Performance, But Found It Didn’t Harm Performance At All by Jesse Singal at British Psychological Society Research Digest
• Neuroscientists Uncover Way to Restore Cortical Plasticity in Mature Brain at Sci-News.com
• How fixing particle colliders’ discarded data problem could bring us a better internet by Greg Fish at World of Weird Things
• Top 10 Most Embarrassing Data Breaches by Jack Foster at Innovation and Technology Today
• New year, new trends: What to watch for in healthcare in 2019 (Part 2) by Atif Kukaswadia at Public Health Perspectives
• Nature’s first article: Huxley on Goethe by Brigitte Nehrlich at Making Science Public
• For minority students, the pipeline to an M.D. is leaky. Here’s how I managed to make it through by Paula Magee at STAT
• Trump falsely claims ‘drug prices declined in 2018’ by Casey M. Ross at STAT 

Check back next week for more great picks!

What destroyed the world's first empire? How do dogs recognise humans? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the fortnight of December 24 2018-January 6 2019 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm

Happy new year! This week's #SciSeekPicks cover the fact that 2019 is the International Year of the Periodic Table, debunk the idea that all inanimate objects can be conscious, and the difficulties of diagnosing psychiatric disorders. But there are other important 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:

2018 saw many exciting scientific developments

• How climate change caused the world's first ever empire to collapse by Vasile Ersek at The Conversation
• Worst mass extinction event in Earth’s history was caused by global warming analogous tocurrent climate crisis by Mike Gaworecki at Mongabay 
• Symbols of science: 150 years of the Periodic Table of Elements by Mikael Angelo Francisco at Flip Science
• Podcast: Water on Mars, lab-grown lungs and more: The biggest science stories of 2018 by Bob McDonald at CBC Radio
• 2018 in review: Compound Interest's Top 5 graphics by Andy Brunning at Compound Interest
• 2018 in limericks: The highs and lows from the life sciences by Meghana Keshavan at STAT News
• Back by popular demand . . . The Greatest Seminar Speaker contest! by Andrew Gelman at Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
• Gardens with too many nonnative plants threaten populations of insect-eating birds, study finds by Hannah Hagemann at Mongabay
• Penguins Love Jelly by Elizabeth Preston at Hakai Magazine
• The EPA, Mercury, and Air Toxics, Oh My! by Kathleen Rest at Union of Concerned Scientists
• Is there lightning on Mars? by Jillian Scudder at Astroquizzical
• Ultima Thule: Preliminary Science Results from New Horizons at Sci-News.com
• What Was It Like When The Milky Way Took Shape? by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang
• Electrons don’t think by Sabine Hossenfelder at Backreaction
• Measuring the Strength of a Person's Gaze by Karen Hopkin at Scientific American
• Researchers have identified an area of the dog brain dedicated to processing human faces by Christian Jarrett at British Psychological Society Research Digest
• It's Not All In Your Head: Sometimes It’s In Your Legs by Lauri Nummenmaa at Reliawire
• Making Up Symptoms by Huw Green at Imperfect Cognition
• ‘Neglected diseases’ are anything but neglected by the billion-plus people living with them by Jerome H. Kim at STAT News
• Cellular Antivirus: How Foreign DNA is hushed by Stephanie DeMarco at EpiBeat
• Bad news for all haters of Staphylococcus aureus disease by Scott Fridkin at Controversies in Hospital Infection Prevention 
• The hottest reflections from 2018 by Jon Otter at Reflections on Infection Prevention and Control
• Machine learning can offer new tools, fresh insights for the humanities by Jennifer Ouellete at Ars Technica

Check back next week for more great picks!