How can you discover new worlds? Why would you want a snail to crawl on your face? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of December 10-16 2018 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm

This week's best science posts include the benefits of knowing a second language, and of teens starting school later, and the love story between humans and neanderthals. 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:

Junk food: Do we like it, or 'need' it 

without even really liking it? 

• How I discovered new worlds (and how you can, too) by Arvin Joseff Tan at FlipScience 
• How your smartphone is eliminating the checkout line by Greg A. Fish at World of Weird Things 
• Podcast of the week: "The Good Bad Food" by Adam Rutherford and Hannah Fry at BBC Radio 4
• How a second language can boost the brain by Ramin Skibba at Knowable Magazine
• Humans and Neanderthals were frequent lovers, genetics reveals by Dyani Lewis at Cosmos Magazine
• How the brain’s face code might unlock the mysteries of perception by Alison Abbott at Nature
• How A Later School Start Time Pays Off For Teens by Patti Neighmond at KQED/Mindshift
• History of the Conservation of Energy: Booms, Blood, and Beer (Part 1) by Greg J. Gbur at Skulls in the Stars 
• Does snail slime in skincare really work??  by Trina Espinoza at Ms. Beautyphile

Snail slime - there's chemistry in this weird cosmetic fad,
but that doesn't make it scientific. 

• You Can't Save a Species If It Doesn't Have a Name by John R. Platt at Extinction Countdown
• COP24: Nations complicit in ignoring bioenergy climate bomb, experts say by Justin Catanoso at Mongabay 
• Dutch banks’ customers ‘unknowingly’ profit from palm oil companies by Thessa Lageman at Mongabay.com
• ​Organic food worse for the climate at mynewsdesk
• Can Hypothermia Save Gunshot Victims? by Nicola Twilley at The New Yorker
• Gender Imbalance in Cancer Research Grants by Suze Kundu at Digital Science

Check back next week for more great picks!