Should you eat raw cookie dough? What will be 2019's biggest breakthrough? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of December 17-23 2018 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm

The new film Aquaman is giving ocean scientists plenty to talk about, and we're gradually probing the mysteries of space. 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:

Tasty! But can you eat it raw?
Image credit: cwPhotography
Used via Flickr CC BY 2.0 Licence

• It's Probably OK to Eat Raw Cookie Dough — As Long As You're Smart About It by Brian Zikmund-Fisher at The Crux
• The Science of Aquaman: The Complete Anthology by Andrew David Thaler at Southern Fried Science
• 2019’s Science Breakthrough Of The Year Will Show Us A Black Hole’s Event Horizon by Ethan Siegel at Starts with a Bang!
• Supermassive black holes still dark and mysterious by Jens Wilkinson at It Ain't Magic
• Planets probably lurk in the gaps of these stellar disks. But how did they form so fast?  by Dan Clery at Science
• BioSignatures by Damond Benningfield at StarDate
• The physiological stress response is larger in the morning than evening by Emma Young at British Psychological Society Research Digest
• We Have Given People Amyloid Disease by Derek Lowe at In The Pipeline

Check back next week for more great picks!

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!

Space: the final frontier-of-the-year quiz

by Ananya Sen

The year 2018 saw several unusual discoveries that were made in our solar system and beyond. The findings ranged from explaining historical artifacts to confirming predictions that were made by science fiction enthusiasts. If you consider yourself a space trivia enthusiast or you want a summary of the exciting discoveries that have been made this year, this quiz is exactly what you’re looking for.

A note on how the quiz works: You choose the answer you prefer, and then carry on reading through the questions and check the answers at the end against your choices. There's no automated scoring, but we hope you enjoy the quiz! Please share how well you did!

1. Images taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby of Pluto showed the presence of dunes on Pluto’s surface. This discovery was surprising because there is not much of an atmosphere on Pluto’s surface. What were the dunes made of?

 Frozen methane
 Ice
 Sand

2. This year scientists were carrying out studies on the black hole that is at the center of our universe. What serendipitous discovery did they make?

 The collapse of a planet into the black hole
 Visual images of the black hole that show light bending away from it on all sides
 Bright flares from a superheated gas racing around the black hole

3. The Dark Energy Survey, an international research effort is a five-year project that ended in 2018. In August 2016 they detected something interesting as seen in the animation below. What does it show?

 The birth of a new star
 A supernova
 A distant planet that resembles Earth

4. Astronomers have discovered a planet revolving around 40 Eridani A, an orange dwarf star 16 light years from Earth. Which fictitious planet was predicted to be associated with this star?

 Tatooine
 Krypton
 Vulcan

5. Scientists believe they have finally discovered

 Hydrogen sulfide (farts)
 Methane (marshy land)
 Methanethiol (rotting vegetables)

6. How many new moons were discovered around Jupiter in 2018?

 5
 10
 15

7. In 1922 Howard Carter, a British archeologist, discovered King Tut’s tomb. Inside the tomb he found a breast plate which contained a winged scarab, made from a yellow, translucent gemstone. How was this gemstone formed?

 A comet exploded over the Libyan Desert and the resultant heat melted the sand glass forming bits of the gemstone
 It was formed when hot magma was expelled from deep inside the earth’s crust and cooled rapidly in the desert
 The gemstones were formed deep inside the earth and were encased in rocks. These rocks then made their way to the surface and the weathering process released the underlying gemstone

8. For the past three years two radio telescopes in Tasmania and continental Australia have been arranged to track the Vela pulsar, a neutron star associated with the constellation of Vela. What were the telescopes trying to detect?

 Radio emissions
 A glitch in its normal behavior
 Magnetic fields

9.Which satellite was launched in 2018 to detect rocky planets around nearby stars?

 TESS
 Horizons-3e
 Skylab

10. Where on Mars did NASA’s Curiosity rover find organic material in 2018? 

 In the debris of the Hellas Planitia crater
 The soil on the Olympus Mons volcano
 Mudstones on the slopes of Mount Sharp

The answers:

Question 1: Pluto's sand dunes are made of frozen methane.

Question 2: The scientists discovered bright flares from a superheated gas racing around the black hole.
Question 3: The Dark Energy Survey observed a supernova in 2016.
Question 4: Vulcan was predicted to be associated with 40 Eridani A.
Question 5: Uranus smells of hydrogen sulfide (farts).

Question 6: 10 new moons were discovered around Jupiter in 2018. 

Question 7: A comet exploded over the Libyan Desert and the resultant heat melted the sand glass forming bits of the gemstone.

Question 8: The telescopes were trying to detect a glitch in the Vela pulsar. 

Question 9: TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) was launched in 2018

Question 10: The Curiosity rover discovered organic matter in the mudstones on the slopes of Mount Sharp.

Ananya Sen is a grad student in microbiology at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She spends 80% of her time working on oxidative stress in the Imlay lab and the remaining 20% of her time blogging about science, exploring food, taking care of her dog.

How can you prevent holiday weight gain? How many genes do you share with your siblings? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of December 3-9 2018 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm

This week's best science posts include more awesome gravitational waves detected in space, a way to ensure all breast cancer cells are removed in surgery, and a more realistic humanoid robot. 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:

You can dissolve gold with aqua regia.
Image credit: Shor International.

• The science of holiday weight gain (and tips to prevent it) by Mikael Angelo Francisco at Flip Science 
• A new review looks into the optimum exercise intensity, type and duration for boosting mood By Christian Jarrett at British Psychological Society Research Digest
• Not Your Mom’s Genes: Mitochondrial DNA Can Come from Dad by Katherine J. Wu at PBS Nova
• Are You Genetically Closer to Your Parents or Siblings? by Chelsea Weidman Burke at Chemically Inquisitive
• Podcast of the week: Chemistry in its element: Aqua Regia by Tabitha Watson at Chemistry World 
• Can We Grow More Food on Less Land? We’ll Have To, a New Study Finds by Brad Plumer at New York Times
• A Robot in Human Skin by Shuin Park at Signal to Noise Magazine
• Physicists Detect Four New Gravitational Waves at Sci-News.com
• Three Ways Quantum Physics Affects Your Daily Life by Chad Orzel at Forbes
• Tumor detection during breast cancer surgery by Jens Wilkinson at It Ain't Magic
• Autistic children may mute perspective to grasp others' by Bahar Gholipour at Spectrum 
• Compulsive YouTube Use by Jane Klobas, Tanya McGill, Sedigheh Moghavvemi and Tanuosha Paramanathan at Science Trends
• How Does Social Enrichment Produce Health Benefits?  by Takefumi Kikusui at Reliawire.

• Geologists are measuring bullet damage to ancient Middle Eastern settlements by Sarah Wild at Nature
• Wild meat for today and tomorrow by Gloria Pallares at Forests News
• The Riddle of the Roaming Plastics by Matthew Halliday at Hakai Magazine
• Tiny bits of ocean plastic threaten the survival of sea turtle hatchlings by Katie Brown at Mongabay
• Why we should care about the language we use in science by Brigitte Nerlich and Carmen McLeod at Making Science Public

Check back next week for more great picks!

Global warming is not a distant nightmare anymore

by Ananya Sen

Climate change has been hotly debated in the past couple of decades, and while the evidence is clear that it’s a big problem, sometimes it’s hard to picture that in your head. But the visual evidence that scientists have gathered can be even more compelling than the climate change projections – take a look for yourself. Click on and move the big circle to slide the line dividing these two overlaid pictures of a glacier in 1909 and 2018, and compare and contrast:

Image credit: Eduard Spelterini/Kieran Baxter/University of Dundee

In October 2018 a team of photographers recreated a 1909 expedition that took stunning pictures of the Mer de Glace glacier in the French Alps. Eduard Spelterini, a Swiss aviation pioneer, took the original pictures during his voyage in a gas-filled balloon. The 2018 team embarked on the same trip to document the changes the past century has brought. What used to be an impressive glacier has now largely been replaced by an empty valley and debris.

That illustrates what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in its report on climate change and its predictions for the next few decades in October 2018. The report is sobering to say the least. Several land and ocean ecosystems have already changed due to global warming. For example, for an increase in 1.5 °C 6% of insects, 8% of plants, and 4% of vertebrates are projected to lose over half of the area they identify as home. A direr situation awaits coral reefs, which are projected to die out almost completely for the same temperature change. ScienceSeeker’s picks for 2018 include many articles that highlight such consequences of climate change.

Climate change has obviously changed marine ecosystems. Some reef fish have evolved to depend on coral reefs for food and protection. These fish are smaller and have less defensive spines, enabling them to live among the corals instead of the sea bed. Many reef-dwelling fish have vanished with the decline in reef ecosystems. Sea turtles represent another group of animals that have been adversely affected due to climate change. Although their ancestors survived the extinction event that wiped out dinosaurs, the modern descendants are among the most threatened groups of vertebrates in the world. Currently 61% of the population is threatened or extinct, which can have ominous consequences for their diverse ecosystems. 

Even land inhabitants that have been flourished for centuries are now struggling. For example, more than half of Africa’s giant baobabs, some of which are 1,500-2,000 years old, have died between 2006 and 2017. Other organisms have displayed the effects of climate change in a different way. Birds sing to attract mates and establish territories. The timing of the bird songs depends on the breeding season. Recent recordings by scientists have shown that the timing has been moving up four days per decade. This can result in a mismatch for migratory birds whose breeding and feeding patterns might become out of sync with their surroundings, leading to a population loss.

The effects of climate change will also have adverse effects on humans. It has been predicted that global warming will increase the number and intensity of tropical storms. For example, in New York City the return period will be reduced from 25 years today to five years in the next three decades. Analysis of the tropical cyclone data from 1980 to 2016 has shown a significant global increase in the number of storms with maximum speeds of 175 km/h. More troubling is the observation that the number of storms with speeds of 200 km/h has doubled, and of those of 250 km/h has tripled. Climate change is also shifting the location of the storms and expanding the affected areas. Regions near the poles that have been historically less threatened by these storms are going to be at risk.

Although the outlook is grim, all is not lost. The Paris agreement has made countries aware of the steps that need to be taken to reduce global warming, prompting efforts to reduce carbon emissions. To that end, California is seeking to create a blueprint for others to follow. In September 2018 the California Governor issued an executive order calling for the California economy to become carbon neutral by 2045. The measures include transitioning to clean energy, using electric cars for transportation, increasing carbon sequestration by farming, and changing livestock feeds to reduce methane emissions from cattle.

The most important step for all of us is to recognize that the reality of climate change is going to affect our generation. It is easy to feel resignation and remain idle but we need to take active measures, no matter how small. It has been estimated that only 100 companies are responsible for 75% of the global emissions. Together we can pressure these companies into making environmentally conscious decisions. We can also aim to reduce our own carbon footprints and adjust our living standards. It has been said that necessity is the mother of all invention. By reminding ourselves that the fate of the Earth and its future rests on our shoulders, humans can drive the changes required to bring our planet back from the brink of collapse.

Ananya Sen is a grad student in microbiology at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She spends 80% of her time working on oxidative stress in the Imlay lab and the remaining 20% of her time blogging about science, exploring food, taking care of her dog. 

What can we learn from animals about diet? Which country is heading back to the moon? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of November 26-December 2 2018 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm

This week's best science stories inevitably focus on the big gene-edited baby story, but also how we discovered water isn't an element and whether physics papers written by women are referred to more often than those by men. 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:

This is the first image taken by NASA's
InSight lander on the surface of Mars.
 The instrument context camera (ICC) mounted below
the lander deck obtained this image on Nov. 26, 2018,
shortly after landing. The transparent lens cover
was still in place to protect the lens from any dust
kicked up during landing. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

• NASA’s InSight Mission Triumphantly Touches Down on Mars by Ian O'Neill at Scientific American
• China sets out for the far side of the moon by Dennis Normile at Science
• Argue much? Hugs might help avoid bad moods after disagreements by Lisa Rapaport at Reuters Health
• Animals Can Help Us Rediscover Our Nutritional Wisdom by Fred Provenze at Scientific American
• Romaine, Oysters, and WGS - Balancing food freedom with public health by Austen Bouck at Fur, Farm and Fork
• What is Water? The Element that Became a Compound by Kat Day at Chronicle Flask
• Whales seen disguising themselves as ponds by Nice Carne at Cosmos
• Podcast of the week: Gene-Editing Humans, Asymmetry, Ancient Whale Ancestor. Nov 30, 2018, Part 2 by Ira Flatow at Science Friday
• Reports out of China suggest first human gene-edited babies have been born by John Timmer at Ars Technica
• The ‘Monstrous’ Immorality of Creating Genetically Engineered Babies by Arthur Caplan at Medium
• IVF clinics could get rid of embryos expected to have low IQs by Sam Blanchard at  Daily Mail 
• Lab-grown ‘mini brains’ produce electrical patterns that resemble those of premature babies by Sara Reardon at Nature 
• U.S. life expectancy declines again in sobering 'wake-up call' at STAT
• Do women in physics get fewer citations than men? by Sabine Hossenfelder at Backreaction

Check back next week for more great picks!

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!

Why aren't we immortal? What defies physics' standard model? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of October 22-28 2018 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm

This week's best science posts include an amazingly well-preserved ancient Greek ship, a profound explanation of why it's good that our Sun must die, and attempts to figure out why drinking leads to memory loss. 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:

Climate change is real and requires deep change, from us
and the world we live in. 

• This ancient Greek ship is the oldest intact shipwreck ever discovered by Kiona Smith at Ars Technica
• The Trouble-Makers of Particle Physics by Jon Butterworth at Cosmic Shambles 
• The Sun Will Someday Die, And That’s Why You’re Alive by Ethan Siegel at Starts With A Bang
• Oxygen-Rich Liquid Water May Exist on Mars by Nola Taylor Redd at Scientific American
• Buckle Up. Quantum Computers are Now a Reality by Dylan Rodgers for Innovation & Tech Today
• A pioneering scientist explains ‘deep learning’ by Angela Chen at The Verge
• Instagram Demo: Your friends are more popular than you by Seth Frey at Enfascination
• The Best Time Management Techniques for Living a Fulfilling, Satisfying Life by Margarita Tartakovsky at Psych Central
• What Causes Alcohol-Induced Blackouts? by Charles Zorumsky at Scientific American
• The Lobotomy of Rosemary Kennedy by Romeo Vitelli at Providentia
• Live Fast, Die Young: The Evolution of Aging by Jordan Pennells at Life Apps
• A new study offers a glimpse into the genetics of same-sex attraction by Meghana Keshavan at STAT
• Medieval Zoology by Fionn Ó Marcaigh for EcoEvo@TCD 
• Whales and dolphins change the way they communicate in a noisy ocean by John Cannon at Mongabay
• Tarantulas the Size of Your Head? Yeah, We Need to Save Them, Too by Jason Bittel at NRDC onEarth
• Reintroduction Of Wolves May Have Helped Yellowstone National Park's Ecosystem Recover by Daniel Nelson at Science Trends
• Climate Story — the great potential by Jenny O Hare at Medium 
• The Battle Over Europe’s Air by Corin Faife at How We Get to Next
• Why can leaves cause train delays? by Andy Brunning at Compound Interest

Image credit: Compound Interest

• Students, Don't Forget to Vote. You Too, STEM Majors. by Annalise Blum for Union of Concerned Scientists
• Anthropocene: why the chair should be the symbol for our sedentary age by Vybarr Cregan-Reid at The Conversation
• Font of despair: In the fierce competition for science funding, even a typeface glitch can be fatal by Eric Boodman at STAT

Check back next week for more great picks!

Which large animals start out with tiny babies? What's the surprising benefit of a flu shot? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of October 15-21 2018 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm

This week's best science posts explain why small talk is surprisingly important, good news on fish stocks, and American footballer John Urschel becoming a mathematics professor. 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:

You'll be surprised how tiny kangaroos start out.
Image credit: Stories So Wild

• Deceptive Sizing: 3 Newborn Animals Who Are Ridiculously Smaller Than Their Parents by Nisha Prakash for Stories So Wild
• Barndoor skates, once a textbook example of overfishing, have recovered enough to allow fishing by David Shiffman at Southern Fried Science 
• Extreme Botany: The Precarious Science of Endangered Rare Plants by Janet Marinelli at Yale Environment 360
• New Zealand's Ecological Identity: Should We All Kill Exotic Species to Protect our Natural Heritage? by Yolanda van Heezik at The Nature of Cities  #sciseekpicks
• The Smell of Fear by Miss Behaviour at The Scorpion and The Frog
• John Urschel Goes Pro by Jordan Ellenberg at Hmm Daily
• If correlation doesn’t imply causation, then what does? by Hussain Ather at Heuristic
• Computer Simulation Sheds Light on Supermassive Black Hole Mergers at Sci-News.com
• First stars spell trouble for dark matter by Sabine Hossenfelder at Backreaction
• Why Do We Emotionally Need ” Small Talk”? by Suzanne Phillips at PsychCentral
• Get the flu shot for your heart by Glen Pyle at Life Apps
• High Blood Pressure of Pregnancy Tied to Dementia Later in Life by Nicholas Bakalar in The New York Times
• The Cancer Stem Cell Saga by Derek Lowe at In the Pipeline
• Neanderthals, Denisovans and Modern Humans by Steven Mithen at London Review of Books
• Giant study links DNA variants to same-sex behavior by Michael Price at Science
• Sorry Gwyneth Paltrow, a lot of products and therapies offered on GOOP are pseudoscience by Dr. Jen Gunter 
• Will there be beer shortages as the world warms? Well, maybe by Michael Le Page at New Scientist 
• Identifying Barriers to Hand Hygiene Audit and Feedback by by Daniel Livorsi MD and Heather Schacht Reisinger at Controversies in Hospital Infection Prevention 
• Senescent cells, ageing and calorie restriction in 2018 by Mike at Qul Mind 
• When Times Are Good, the Gender Gap Grows by Emily Willingham at Scientific American
• The Impact of Politics on Workplace Productivity by Krystal D'Costa at Scientific American
• No black scientist has ever won a Nobel – that’s bad for science, and bad for society by Winston Morgan at The Conversation
• Henrietta Lacks: A Cellular Legacy by Madeeha Hoque at Seeking Science
• Time For A Social Media Headline Writers Ethics Panel at Mike the Mad Biologist

Check back next week for more great picks!

Five ways adults can get involved with local science

Being a test subject is one way to see how research is done
Image credit: NIAID

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

You love science. You think it’s cool. But science is not your job – so what can you do if you would like to find out more? Going back to college and getting another degree in molecular biology is probably not on the cards. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t get involved with science while balancing everything else you have going on in your life. Here are some hot tips on how to get started!

 

How pseudoscientific are products from Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP? What's the surprising way the US-China trade war might turn deadly? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of October 8-14 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

This week's best science news includes insights from space, including on how real Star Wars is and exciting new health prospects from gene editing and magic mushrooms. 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:

This artist's concept shows a hypothetical planet
covered in water around the binary star system of
Kepler-35A and B. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

• Is it possible to have a planet orbit two stars, like Tatooine? by Jillian Scudder at Astroquizzical  
• ALMA Discovers New Type of Stellar Collision at Sci-News.com
• Ask Ethan: Why Is The Black Hole Information Loss Paradox A Problem? by Ethan Siegel at Starts With A Bang
• Pluto's surprising dunes by Aditya Rup at Earth Magazine
• How NASA is Predicting Crop Yields with Satellites by Dusty Langdon at Innovation & Tech Today
• I reviewed all 161 of GOOP’s wellness products for pseudoscience. Here’s what I found. by Jen Gunter at Dr Jen Gunter
• Homo Sapiens May Have Inherited Defenses Against RNA Viruses From Neanderthals by Daniel Nelson at Science Trends
• Gene Editing: Freely You Have Received, Freely Give by Derek Lowe at In the Pipeline
• How orgasm faces differ between people from Eastern and Western cultures by Beth Mole at Ars Technica
• The average person can recognize 5000 faces by Frankie Schembri at Science
• Shame may feel awful but new cross-cultural evidence shows it is fundamental to our survival.
  by Emma Young at British Psychological Society Research Digest
• Psychedelic mushrooms are closer to medicinal use by Doug Powell at Barfblog
• Kadcyla: The Next Standard in Breast Cancer Therapy by Taylor A. Johnson at Oncobites
• A lethal game of chicken: the next trade war with China could be a matter of life and death by Robert I. Field at The Inquirer
• Baaaaad News For Fish by Marissa Land for Hakai Magazine
• Science and the Supreme Court: Cases to Watch in 2018 by Sara Reardon for Nature 
• Joining forces against the urbanisation of hunger by Albane Gaspard at Urban Food Futures
• Leveraging the Lore of 'Dungeons and Dragons' to Motivate Students to Read and Write by Paul Darvasi at KQED Mindshift
• The pursuit of science for art's sake by Hussain Ather at Heuristic
• The bioethics of wildlife intervention by Elvina Yau at Mongabay

Check back next week for more great picks!

What are we discovering beyond our solar system? Does turkey really make you sleepy? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of October 1-7 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

It's Nobel prize season - and we have two female winners! We've also got some important news about viruses, including Ebola, and advice on how to help young kids' brain development, and older kids' exam performance. 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:

• The 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Harnessing evolution to produce new enzymes and antibodies by Andy Brunning at Compound Interest
• Donna Strickland is the third woman ever to win a physics Nobel Prize by Douglas Heaven at New Scientist
• Interstellar Object "Oumuamua" Traced To Potential Place Of Origin by Alex Bolano at Science Trends
• Do we have evidence for an exomoon? Ask again in a year by John Timmer at Ars Technica
• Turkey Coma: Fact or Scapegoat? by Natasha at Schrodinger's Cat
• Eating Healthier, Plant-Rich Diet May Help Prevent Depression at Sci-News.com
• Indonesian Tsunami Was Powered by a Deadly Combo of Tectonics and Geography by Andrea Bresnan at Scientific American
• Selfies with the Dead: ‘Shadow of the Tomb Raider’ and the Dehumanisation of Human Remains by Alex Fitzpatrick at Animal Archaeology
• Officials fear Ebola epidemic may be spinning beyond their control at STAT 
• Inherited Neanderthal genes protect us against viruses by Jennifer Huber at Scientists Talk Funny
• Patient satisfaction ≠ quality, round ∞ by Orac at Respectful Insolence
• Students’ mistaken beliefs about how much their peers study could be harming their exam performance by Christian Jarrett at British Psychological Society Research Digest
• 5 Simple Ways To Encourage Brain Development In Your Little One by Elissa Nadworny at MindShift
• Podcast of the week: Kelly, the Sassy Dolphin by Rose Eveleth at Hakai Magazine
• This website helps ordinary people collect data to save snakes by Abigail Lewis at Envirobites

Check back next week for more great picks!

What's the best way to study and learn? Why do people love Instagram? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of September 24-30 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

This week's best science posts include some important health lessons on eating, drinking and sleep, findings that challenge our views on how planets form and black holes behave, and a 2018 Nobel prize. 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:

What do beer bubbles, ice and nanoparticles have in common?
Credit: Sustainably Nano/Giphy

• From Beer Bubbles to Nanoparticles: What is Nucleation? by Stephanie Mitchell at Sustainable Nano
• Is diet soda bad for you? by Mikael Angelo Francisco at Flip Science
• More Evidence That Nutrition Studies Don’t Always Add Up by Anahad O'Connor in the New York Times 
• What Drives Our Quest for the Perfect Instagram Picture? by Krystal D'Costa at Anthropology in Practice
• Should You Pet Your Dog Before an Absence? by Zazie Todd at Psychology Today
• Podcast of the week: How To Study And Learn More Effectively by Christian Jarrett, with Nate Kornell, Paul Howard-Jones and Abby Knoll PsychCrunch at British Psychological Society Research Digest
• The Brain of Charles Hinkley by Romeo Vitelli at Providentia
• Nobel for helping the immune system fight cancer by Steve Mirsky at Scientific American
• Study: Irregular Sleep Increases Cardiovascular and Cardiometabolic Risks at Sci-News.com
• Spinal Implant and Physical Therapy Help Paralyzed Man Stand and Walk at Sci-News.com
• Cosmic conundrum: The disks of gas and dust that supposedly form planets don’t seem to have the goods by Adam Mann at Science
• Hawking temperature of black holes measured in fluid analogue by Sabine Hossenfelder at Backreaction
• Why Aren’t Rays Of Sunshine Parallel? by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang! 
• Planet Earth Wobbles As It Spins, and Now Scientists Know Why by Stephanie Pappas at Live Science
• Atiyah Riemann Hypothesis proof: final thoughts by Katie Steckles and Christian Lawson-Perfect at The Aperiodical 
• Scientists urge world leaders to scale up ambitions to protect global biodiversity by Mike Gaworecki at Mongabay
• Meet the Innu Forester Working to Save Canada’s Boreal Forest by Nicole Greenfield at NRDC
• Biologists irate at NSF's new one-proposal cap by Frankie Schembri at Science

Check back next week for more great picks!

Why must dark energy exist? Why are good bugs dying? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of September 17-23 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

This week's best science stories include why many men feel sad after sex, exciting new pictures from a satellite that's hunting planets around stars far, far away, and a lot of old ideas being overturned. 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:

TESS took this snapshot of the
Large Magellanic Cloud (right) and
the bright star R Doradus (left)
with just a single detector of one
of its cameras on August 7.
Image credit: NASA / MIT / TESS

• NASA’s Planet-Hunter TESS Captures Its First Science 
• Images at Sci-News.com
• Spock’s home world has been discovered (sort of) by Dan Clery at Science
• This Is Why Dark Energy Must Exist, Despite Recent Reports To The Contrary by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang!
• The Shadows of Our Spacecraft by Caleb Scharf at Life, Unbounded!
• International survey finds over 40 per cent of men have experienced “post-coital dysphoria” by Emma Young at British Psychological Society Research Digest
• Scientists identify four personality types by Ben Guarino at Speaking of Science
• Magic Mushrooms For Your Mental Health by Lauren Parikhal at Science by Lauren
• Glioblastoma: John McCain’s final battle by Megan Kirchgessner at NeuWrite San Diego
• Google AI Tool Identifies a Tumor's Mutations From an Image by Megan Molteni at Wired 
• Podcast of the week: Infective Heredity by Soren Wheeler, with David Quammen at Radiolab
• World Alzheimer’s Day 2018 by Roisin Coneely at Seeking Science
• A Run of Contrary Results by Derek Lowe at In The Pipeline
• The importance of data in biomedical research. at Qul Mind
• California plans to show the world how to meet the Paris climate target by Dana Nuccitelli at Skeptical Science
• Levee and Super Levee at Science, Engineering and Sustainability
• Why Are Beneficial Bugs Disappearing? by Seth Borenstein at KQED Science
• As turtles go, so go their ecosystems by Shreya Dasgupta at Mongabay
• Is this the oldest animal on Earth? by Andrew Masterson at Cosmos 
• Stabilizing Selection: Examples And Definition by Daniel Nelson at Science Trends
• Titans of Mathematics Clash Over Epic Proof of ABC Conjecture by Erica Klarreich at Quanta Magazine
• NIH Policies to Address Sexual and Gender Harassment in NIH-supported Extramural Research by Mike Lauer at Open Mike
• Teachers' Strategies for Pronouncing and Remembering Students' Names Correctly by Gail Cornwall at KQED News

Check back next week for more great picks!

Five ways to reach out to your non-science friends

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

These tips will help avoid that glazed-over, unimpressed look.
Image credit: Quasimime, used via Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0 licence.

It’s every science enthusiast’s nightmare: the glazed-over look of the terminally uninterested. As you talk with your family and friends about current events, the news, things that interest you or even your day-to-day job you will sometimes face anti-science backlash. Whether the people in your life are skeptical or plain uninterested, it can be hard to communicate if they just switch off. Here are a few tips to help you draw them in:

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!