How are colds unlocking secrets about life on other planets? How are the Australian bushfires affecting biodiversity? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of Dec 30 2019 - Jan 5 2020 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

In the first edition of ScienceSeeker picks of the decade, explore how the predictions surrounding climate change are beginning to be proved right, and how your biodegradable coffee cup may not be as good for the environment as you thought. ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise also cover many other important and exciting topics. Why not have a read, inform yourself, and indulge your scientific curiosity?

• How colds are unlocking secrets about life on other planets by Justin Dingman for Sciworthy.

  

  Modern day viruses could hold the key to a viroid-first panspermia theory about the origins of life on Earth.
  Credit: William Brawley via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

• Ask Ethan: Did God create the Universe? by Ethan Siegel for Starts with a Bang.
• Are novae producing the Milky Way’s lithium? by Graham Doskoch for Medium.
• How acoustics might help prevent car accidents by Kendra Redmond at Physics Central.
• This was the decade we knew we were right by Kate Marvel for Scientific American.
• How are the Australian bushfires affecting biodiversity? Australia reflections part 4 by Jeff Ollerton.
• The first animal cloned into de-extinction (that promptly went extinct again) by Mikael Angelo Francisco for Flip Science.
• The problem with PFAS: How your biodegradable coffee cup might be wreaking havok in the compost bin  by Laine Farber for Envirobites.
• What do birds do in a hurricane?  by Jenny Howard for Hakai Magazine.
• Anxiety: Brain evolution changes potentially make us more prone by Science Beta.
• Scientists spot addiction-associated circuit in rats by Simon Makin for Scientific American.
• Oganesson: The periodic table’s final element(?) by Andy Brunning at Compound Interest.
• Doctors find hundreds of tapeworms in Chinese man's head by Romeo Vitelli.
• Health care providers are unrecognized victims of mass killings by Elizabeth Métraux for STAT news.
• How liquid biopsies could help monitor cancer treatment by Alejandra Canales for Oncobites.
• Inside a Game: Using games as a metaphor for deconstructing the oppressive nature of reality by Sindi Breshani for SERRC.
• Chinese scientist who produced genetically altered babies sentenced to 3 years in jail by Dennis Normile for Science.

Check back next week for more great picks!