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!

What do dating apps do to our brains? What are the important physics facts you probably don't know? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of July 30-August 6 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

This week's best science stories include even faster internet, what the latest moist Mars findings mean, and predictions of what life will be like by the end of the century. 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:

• Love at First Swipe | Your brain on dating apps by Alice Gray at Mindful of Science

• Loss, Love, and Science by Sirisha Asuri at Stories in Science
• 10 physics facts you should have learned in school but probably didn’t by Sabine Hossenfelder at Backreaction
• 661Tbps through a single optical fiber: The mind boggles by Chris Lee for Ars Technica
• This Simple Thought Experiment Shows Why We Need Quantum Gravity by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a BangRadioactive Molecule Found in Stellar Merger Remnant at Sci-News.com
• Water On Mars, But Still No Water Martians by Lauren Parikhal at Science Summarized
• Hitting the pause button on life by Brittney Borowiec at Lateral
• New Modeling Techniques Could Be Key To Developing Antibiotics To Combat Superbugs by Alex Bolano at Science Trends
• Pharmaceutical companies are backing away from a growing threat that could kill 10 million people a year by 2050 by Charlotte Hu at Business Insider
• Crowdfunding for unproven stem cell procedures spreads misinformation by Jeremy Snyder, Leigh Turner, and Valorie A. Crooks at STAT
• Dr. Kristi Funk: Angelina Jolie’s surgeon is spreading misinformation about breast cancer by Orac at Respectful Insolence
• Podcast of the week part 1: Epidemiology (DISEASES) by Alie Ward and Steven Ray Morris, with Erin Welsh and Erin Allmann-Updyke at Ologies
• Podcast of the week part 2: Life in the year 2100 by Chris Smith and Georgia Mills at The Naked Scientists
• Babies Learn About Eye Contact Early in Life by Stefanie Rosado at Sciworthy
• Snake Eyes: The Fear That Built Your Brain by James R. Howe VI at NeuWrite San Diego
• The Centrality of Character to Storytelling in the Brain by Lisa M. P. Munoz at Cognitive Neuroscience Society
• Composing a Narrative by Sarah Kearns at Annotated Science
• The president names a science adviser by William Hooke at Living on the Real World
• Trophy-hunting foes sue to shut down Trump wildlife board by Jonathan Stempel at Reuters 
• Researchers not thrilled to see their work cited by Trump car mileage proposal by Maxine Joselow at Science
• Droughts, heatwaves and floods: How to tell when climate change is to blame by Quirin Schiermeier at Nature
• Downpour in a dry land by Krista Langlois at The Last Word on Nothing 
• The science of thunderstorms – thunder, lightning, and chemical reactions by Andy Brunning at Compound Interest 

• On the Limits of Any Scientism by Bernard Wills at Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective

Check back next week for more great picks!

How does saving nature pay off? Which movies do time travel right? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of July 23-29 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

This week's best science stories include a poisonous item that sounds like it's straight out of a murder mystery, the latest news on Alzheimer's disease, and a podcast with a brilliant story about a pet snail. 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:

Captive-bred baby giant pandas in the 

captive-breeding facility in Chengdu province, China.

Image credit: Joshua Doubek/CC-BY-SA 3.0 

• Pandanomics: What Is Giant Panda Conservation Worth? Billions Every Year by GrrlScientist at Forbes
• How we discovered three poisonous books in our university library by Jakob Povl Holck and Kaare Lund Rasmussen at ScienceNordic
• Milky Way’s black hole provides long-sought test of Einstein’s general relativity by Alexandra Witze at Nature
• Ask Ethan: Which Movies Get The Science Of Time Travel Right? by Ethan Siegel at Starts with a Bang! 
• Scientists Create Atomic Solid-State Drive With Potentially 1000x More Memory Than Conventional Devices by Alex Bolano at Science Trends
• Food cravings peak twice nightly, in countries all around the world by Frankie Schembri at Science
• Biogen and Eisai: Let the Alzheimer's Arguing Commence by Derek Lowe at In The Pipeline
• Podcast of the week: Loneliness: Stories about finding friends by Cindy Joe and Patrick Honner at The Story Collider
• Acrobotics: a revolutionary movement by Cathal O’Connell at Cosmos

Credit: Boston Dynamics

Check back next week for more great picks!

What happens to our mind when we sleep? Which nearby planet have we found new moons around? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of July 16-22 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

There's loads happening in space this week, with stars eating planets and fighting their way through clouds of dust - and a new 'oddball' in our solar system. 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:

When we sleep, we are not as inactive as we look.
Image credit: Travis Swicegood, used via Flickr
CC BY-SA 2.0 licence.

• While We Sleep, Our Mind Goes on an Amazing Journey by Michael Finkel at National Geographic
• Podcast of the week: Creating God by Shankar Vedantam, Rhaina Cohen, Parth Shah, Jennifer Schmidt, Thomas Lu, Laura Kwerel, Adhiti Bandlamudi. and Tara Boyle at Hidden Brain
• Ten new moons—including one ‘oddball’—discovered around Jupiter by Paul Voosen at Science
• Forget Alien Megastructures, New Observations Explain Tabby’s Star With Dust Alone by Ethan Siegel at Starts With A Bang
• Star’s dimming and brightening may indicate it’s eating a planet by John Timmer at Ars Technica
• First snake found in amber is a baby from the age of the dinosaurs by Michael Le Page at New Scientist
• No need for slime panic: it’s not going to poison anyone by Kat Day at The Chronicle Flask
• Can CRISPR be dangerous in gene therapy? by Mike at QulMind
• Can mowing less promote a suburban bee utopia? by Kari St. Laurent at Envirobites
• The Endangered Species Act is Itself Endangered by Charise Johnson at Union of Concerned Scientists
• In the Columbia–Snake River Basin, Salmon Are Losing Their Way by Jodi Helmer at NRDC
• Lava Boat Bombed by Kilauea and Other Volcanic News by Dana Hunter at Rosetta Stones

Check back next week for more great picks!

Five reasons why a career in STEM can change your family's trajectory

STEM careers span many parts of life: These scientists
at KU Leuven in Belgium help brewers make better beer.
Image copyright: Andy Extance 

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

Have you ever thought about a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)? You may know that jobs in manufacturing and farming are not predicted to do too well in the coming years. Such change is scary, but it could also be a great opportunity for yourself and for your family. More and more jobs require additional qualifications after high school, so you might be considering going to college, or getting a diploma in something that can help you. This is where thinking about STEM comes into play. Becoming a scientist or a doctor, however, may seem out of your league or too expensive. There are other options that seem more focused on landing you a good job – a job that can help you live a better life than your parents did. A business degree, for example, would scream “employable” from the top line of your resume, right?

Wrong. While in the US business and finance are predicted to open up around 900,000 more jobs by 2022, healthcare jobs are going to create over a million new jobs for nurses and physicians assistants alone. Meanwhile, the same studies showed that there are 1.7 open computing jobs for every unemployed computer science professional, which means that we need more computer scientists! Not only are there going to be many more science and technology jobs in the future, but these jobs are going to be secure and relatively high-paying. They may be your ticket to changing your family’s trajectory altogether.

Working in science is not what TV would have you believe – a bunch of egg-heads nerding out on a university campus. Most STEM professions are normal jobs for normal people. No matter how much time and money you are able to invest in your education, investing in STEM training is a great way to land yourself a bright future. 50% of US STEM jobs are available to those without a four-year degree and can therefore be very efficient and very wise investments, even if your means are limited. In the US, graduates of STEM programs earn on average 10% more than those with similar qualifications in other fields. They also enjoy the security of knowing that their skills are going to be in demand.

Here are a few ideas on how you can start working towards your STEM career right now, no matter where you are in life:

Is lab-grown meat really meat? Should DNA donors get to see their genome? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of July 9-15 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

This week's best science posts include stories about weird particles occasionally passing straight through us - some we know are real, called neutrinos, and others we're less certain of, called dark matter. They also include the latest studies on new ways to produce food, and what we should eat and take for health. 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:

Photodetectors under the South Pole  light up when neutrinos
travel through the ice. Credit: NSF/IceCube

• Supermassive black hole shot a neutrino straight at Earth by John Timmer at Ars Technica
• This Is How Much Dark Matter Passes Through Your Body Every Second by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang 
• Kilauea Produces a Stunning Lava Whirl! by Dana Hunter at Rosetta Stones 
• The Floor Is (Usually) Not Lava by Arianna Soldati at Scientific American Observations
• To Understand the Growing Wildfire Threat, Look to the Tree Rings by Larry O'Hanlon at NRDC
• Rising ocean waters from global warming could cost trillions of dollars by John Abraham at Skeptical Science
• Australia’s Recycling Crisis by Jesse Crowe at Into The Void Science
• As Reefs Disappear, Some Fish Find Themselves Defenseless by Richard Kemeny at Hakai Magazine ‏
• Salamanders have ‘tricks up their sleeves’ for weathering climate change by Morgan Erickson-Davis at Mongabay
• New research proposes solutions for reducing environmental costs of feeding Earth’s 7.6-billion human population by Mike Gaworecki at Mongabay
• The Cattle Industry Is Having a Cow Over Whether Lab-Grown Meat Should Be Called Meat by Rose Eveleth at Slate
• If you give your DNA and tissues to science, should you get a peek at what they might contain? by Jennifer Couzin-Frankel at Science
• Healthy Diet May Lower Risk of Age-Related Macular Degeneration by Enrico de Lazaro for Sci-News.com
• An unusual method by Thomas Morris 
• Podcast of the week: The Chemistry Behind Nerve Agents with Ira Flatow and Rick Sachleben at Science Friday
• Polymer synthesis gets a jolt of caffeine Using the stimulant as a catalyst, researchers create new gels for drug delivery. Polymer synthesis gets a jolt of caffeine by Anne Trafton at MIT News
• Exposure to "Fentanyl" in the Field by Kevin Shanks at The Dose Makes The Poison 
• CRISPR-Enhanced Cancer Cells Induce Tumor Cell Killing by Dan Modano at Reliawire
• Mindfulness training increases strength of right insula connections. by Deric Bownds at Deric's Mindblog
• Unique brain 'fingerprints' may narrow search for autism subtypes by Damien Fair and Oscar Miranda Dominguez at Spectrum News 
• 1920s infoviz, and “Flapperism” as the culmination of Western Civilization by Seth Frey at Enfascination

Check back next week for more great picks!