How can you simply prove the Earth is a sphere? Can pets treat depression? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of November 19-25 2018 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm

This week's best science stories include fascinating details about that strange asteroid 'Oumuamua and our festive turkeys, and a way to scrutinise scientific AI claims. 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:

An old tradition - but just when did humans domesticate turkeys?
Image credit: Chris Burke via Flickr CC BY 2.0 Licence

• The turkey on your Thanksgiving table is older than you think by Michael Price at Science
• 6 Strange Facts about the Interstellar Visitor 'Oumuamua by Abraham Loeb at Scientific American
• Physics can explain the fastball’s unexpected twist, new study finds by Jennifer Ouellette at Ars Technica
• Pendulums, spheres, and the spinning Earth by Gregory J. Gbur at Skulls in The Stars
• Machine Learning: Be Careful What You Ask For by Derek Lowe at Science Translational Medicine 
• For these people with depression, all treatment approaches had failed, but then they adopted a pet … by Christian Jarrett at British Psychological Society Research Digest
• "Everybody's Brain Knows How to Run a Tail" E. Glen Weyl at Logic Magazine
• The hidden price of Iceland’s green energy by Henner Busch at ScienceNordic
• The bad bugs of the Anthropocene by Sarah DeWeerdt at Anthropocene
• Open Science in Africa by Justin Sègbédji Ahinon and Jo Havemann at Elephant in the Lab 

Check back next week for more great picks!

How can you slay seasonal affective disorder? What happens when climate sceptics have a point? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of November 12-18 2018 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm

This week's best science stories include a nanoscale journey across your tabletop, Spain banning alternative medicine in state health centres, and a crater the size of Paris. 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:

An aerial view of northwest Greenland, with the location of 

what appears to be a giant impact crater circled in red.

Credit: Natural History Museum of Denmark

• Zack’s Nano Adventure by Zachary Jones at Sustainable Nano
• Scientists Spot What May Be a Giant Impact Crater Hidden Under Greenland Ice by Meghan Bartels at Space.com
• New paper claims that LIGO’s gravitational wave detection from a neutron star merger can’t be right by Sabine Hossenfelder at Backreaction
• Kilogram to be defined by Planck constant instead of a lump of metal by Leah Crane at New Scientist
• A Grading Strategy That Puts the Focus on Learning From Mistakes by Katrina Schwartz at KQED/Mindshift
• Four Tips for Slaying Seasonal Affective Disorder by Kate Harveston at HeadStuff
• Students who limit use of Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram see significant reductions in loneliness and depression at PsyPost
• Relationship between the need for cognitive closure and multitasking by Ewa Szumowska at Science Trends
• Podcast: Babies and Chimps Share a Laugh by Christopher Intagliata at Scientific American
• Spain Seeks to Ban Alternative Medicine by Steven Novella at NeurologicaBlog
• Is Cancer Elimination Really a Mission Impossible? by Jason Tetro at Oncobites
• Science vs. Superbugs: A New Wave of Solutions Is On the Way by Peter Rejcek at SingularityHub
• Is there such a thing as the "placebome"? by Orac at Respectful Insolence
• WHO director-general: Violence in DRC is allowing Ebola to spread by Helen Branswell at STAT
• With machine learning, researchers get new clues in the hunt for the source of mysterious viruses by Drew Joseph at STAT
• Immune system ‘negotiations’ stop mom’s body from attacking her fetus by Elizabeth Pennisi at Science
• Researching Humanitarian Affairs: Normative Issues, Research Gaps, and Methodological Challenge by Sassan Gholiagha at Orders Beyond Borders
• When climate change contrarians actually have a point by Greg Fish at World of Weird Things
• The many ways climate change worsens California wildfires by Dana Nuccitelli at Skeptical Science

Check back next week for more great picks!

Which historic king had a gem from space? What might prevent wildfires? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of November 5-11 2018 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm

This week's best science stories include advice on how to change your personality, the mind-boggling implications of electrons being round, and health news about coffee. 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:

Tutankhamun's breastplate features a scarab carved
from Desert Glass.
Credit: Wikipedia/J.Bodsworth

• Gemstone Found In King Tut's Tomb Formed When A Celestial Body Collided With Earth by David Bressan at Forbes
• Study: Hot Brew Coffee Has More Antioxidants than Cold Brew at Sci-News.com
• Could rewilding help prevent big wildfires? by Brandon Keim at Anthropocene
• A Eulogy for a Cow by Kathryn Gillespie at Nautilus
• Where Have All the Passenger Pigeons Gone? by Matthew D'Ambrosio at Sciworthy
• Many Shark Repellents Don’t Work by Munyaradzi Makoni at Hakai Magazine 
• How pollution is turning men sterile by Greg Fish at Weird Things
• Study: Exposure to nature improves well-being by expanding space perception and reducing impulsivity by Eric W. Dolan at PsyPost
• Merely desiring to alter your personality is not enough, and may backfire unless you take concrete action to change by Christian Jarrett at British Psychological Society Research Digest
• Should Childhood Trauma Be Treated As A Public Health Crisis? by Erin Blakemore at KQED/MindShift
• Sequencing is the new microscope by Laura Deming 
• How do pregnancy tests work? by Andy Brunning at Compound Interest

• Why Physics Needs, And Deserves, A Post-LHC Collider by Ethan Siegel at Starts With A Bang
• Physicists report electron is round—what does that mean? by Chris Lee at Ars Technica
• Philosophy Has Made Plenty of Progress by John Horgan at Cross-Check
Citizen science projects around the world by Thamarasee Maheshika Jeewandara at EuroScientist
• Special report: The Science of Falling Walls at Scientific American

Check back next week for more great picks!

Is anti-gravity real? What do you need to know about cannabis-derived CBD? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of October 29-November 4 2018 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm

This week's best science posts explore whether jellyfish are taking over the world, watch cockroaches fight for their lives and describe the crazy ways the gene editing technique CRISPR is being used. 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:

Box jellyfish, some of the most venomous animals in the
world, swim in the waters off Cape Town. But are they taking
over the world?
Photo by Peter Southwood

• This ball of gas is racing around the black hole at our galaxy’s heart by Dan Clery at Science
• ‘Oumuamua, Thin Films and Lightsails by Paul Gilster at Centauri Dreams
• Is Anti-Gravity Real? Science Is About To Find Out by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang 
• Requiem for a Revolutionary Space Probe by Michael D Lemonick at Observations
• What if the Earth rotated backwards? at The Planetary Mechanics Blog #SciSeekPicks
• The 7 Craziest Ways CRISPR Is Being Used Right Now by Emily Mullin at The New New
• CBD, the super-popular cannabis compound, explained by Dan Nosowitz at Vox
• Cocaine of the sea, ‘epic failure’ and how following the money can limit illegal wildlife trade by Mike Shanahan at Under the Banyan
• Are Jellyfish Taking Over the World? by Ellen Johnson at Currentsea
• Cockroaches Karate Kick Parasitoid Wasps to Avoid Becoming ‘Zombies’ at Sci-News.com
• Bog bodies: the chemistry behind natural embalming by Jaya Borgatta at Sustainable Nano
• Examining the current paradigm of artificial intelligence (with help from philosopher Thomas Kuhn) by Hussain Ather at Heuristic
• On Being Queer in STEM by Ive Velikova at Stories in Science
• The combinatorics of authorship in the biological sciences by Lior Pachter at Bits of DNA

Check back next week for more great picks!