Is the emergence of life inevitable? What are zoonotic diseases and why is destroying the rainforest making them more dangerous? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of Feb 24 - Mar 1 2020 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

In this week's cream-of-the-crop from the world of science news, find out what the world should do about the seemingly unstoppable coronavirus, and explore a use for essential oils which you might not have thought of - food preservation! 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?

• The noninevitability of life by Caleb Scharf for Scientific American.

The inevitability of life is only true in a statistical, averaged sense. Evolution's directionality is an illusion.
Credit: Text taken from article by Caleb Scharf, Image: Hans Splinter via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

• What are zoonotic diseases and what does the destruction of rain forest have to do with it? by Solveig Boehme at A Tang of Science.
• Unsung Species: One of Earth’s rarest land mammals clings to a hopeful future (commentary) by Joel Berger with Alejandro Vila and Cristobal Briceño for Mongabay.com.
• The coronavirus seems unstoppable. What should the world do now? by Jon Cohen and Kai Kupferschmidt for Science.
• Using essential oils to preserve delicate fish fillets by Erica Curles at Sciworthy.
• Clear air, Calm Hospitals by Kristen Brown for Envirobites.
• Passing a heath and safety inspection: a terrible guide no one should follow by Matthew Partridge at Errant Science.
• Should we teach coding in high school? by Dick Lipton at Gödel’s Lost Letter and P=NP.
• Data + Design + Impact: A workshop on data sculptures and civic change by Rahul Bhargava at Civic Media.
• Most powerful supervolcano eruption in the last 28 million years had no effect on human evolution by David Bressan for Forbes.
• Rainy, energy-filled days by Lauren Nelson at A Short Scientist.
• Astronomers have discovered the biggest explosion in the universe by Down Here on Earth.
• Physicists observe three-atom collisions in ground-breaking experiments by Scinews.com.
• A neural network picks promising antibiotics out of a library of chemicals by John Timmer for Ars Technica.

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Check back next week for more great picks!