What even are birds, really? How could Fool's Gold have helped spark life on earth? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of Sept 21 - 27 2020 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

This weeks best from the world of science sees a resurgence in Covid-19 news as several places around the world prepare for a second wave. Luckily, Michael Tabb is here to tell us what we learned from studying isolation in researchers in Antarctica. Good lockdown reading! 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?

• Birds are just a bunch of different dinosaurs we lump together an interview with Jingmai O’Connor by Maddie Bender for Massive Science.

To some taxonomists, the group 'Birds' is just a convenient grouping of a lot of different types of dinosaurs.
Credit: Stefan W. via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

• Podcast: Birds Flutter Their Feathers To Send A Message by Alexa Lim, Valentina Gomez-Bahamón, and Christopher Clark for Science Friday at WNYC Studios.
• Could "Fools' Gold" have helped assemble the building blocks of life? by Marcos Jusino-Maldonado for Sciworthy.
• The accidental tree killers by Stephanie Pain for Knowable magazine.
• 2020 Road from Paris: Climate ambition is not canceled by Anjali Jaiswal, Madhura Joshi and Marie McNamara for NRDC.
• Decades-old theory on how ears work is wrong by Josseline Ramos-Figueroa for Massive Science.
• Why is it so hard to study Covid-related smell loss? by Sara Harrison for WIRED.
• The Universe Knows Right from Wrong by Philip Goff for Nautilus magazine.
• What research in Antarctica tells us about the science of isolation by Michael Tabb for Scientific American.
• Something to sneeze at: Hunger-induced sneezing? by Susan Lubejko for NeuWrite San Diego.
• So that’s what the claustrum does! by Joel Frohlich for Knowing Neurons.
• New research uncovers neural and genetic connections to romantic love in newlyweds by Eric W. Dolan for PsyPost.
• Podcast: Orgasms: Come for the Science by Wendy Zukerman and Gimlet at Science Vs.
• Is artificial intelligence worsening COVID-19's toll on Black Americans? by Rod McCullom for Massive Science.
• Can fitness bands predict COVID-19 infection before you show symptoms? Probably not by Matthew Bomkamp for Massive Science.
• How the PCR test works and why it’s such a critical weapon against Covid-19 by Siouxsie Wiles for Sciblogs.
• Laboratory methods behind the polio vaccine discovery by Gina Misra for Sciworthy.
• Watch white blood cells swim with microscopic ‘paddles’ by Lucy Hicks for Science magazine.
• Covid on the brain by Lauren at A Short Scientist.
• ALMA sees complex stellar winds around Red Giant stars by Sci-News.com.
• The short weird life—and potential afterlife—of quantum radar by Adrian Cho for Science magazine.
• Data Sonification: Sounds from around the Milky Way by Chandra X-ray Observatory.

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Could there be life on Venus? Are some of the stars in the sky already dead? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of Sept 14 - 20 2020 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

In this week's very existential selection of the best in science news from science newsmakers, explore the first life on land, as revealed by an ancient microbial fingerprint, and revel in chaos, fractals and complexity as Hannah Pell explores the science behind uncertainty. 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?

• Life on Venus? Breakthrough initiatives fund study of possible biosignature by Mike Wall for Scientific American.

“The next step is to do the basic science needed to thoroughly investigate the evidence and consider how best to confirm and expand on the possibility of life.”
Credit: European Southern Observatory via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

• Are any stars visible in the night sky already dead? by Ethan Siegel at Starts With A Bang.
• Mathematical ‘Hocus-Pocus’ saved particle physics by Charlie Wood for WIRED.
• Chaos, fractals, and complexity: Big ideas in the Science of Roughness by Hannah Pell for Physics Central.
• New evidence for the first life on land comes from an ancient microbial fingerprint by Rebecca Dzombak for Massive Science.
• New artificial intelligence could save both elephant and human lives by Claudia Geib for Mongabay.com.
• Superbugs in the ocean: what beached whales can teach us about antibiotic resistance by Ma. Francesca Santiago for SciWorthy.
• New video of peccaries mobbing a jaguar shows predator-prey interactions go both ways by E. Melanie Watt for Massive Science.
• Your brain is plastic! by Neuwrite San Diego.
• Surprising insights into sleep’s purpose by Natalie Parletta for Cosmos magazine.
• Scientists discover brain cells that remember where escape routes are by Samuel J Walker for Massive Science.
• Connections between the gut and the brain: the key to reducing pain after chemotherapy? by Kate Secombe for OncoBites.
• Direct printing of wearable health sensors onto skin by Michael Berger for Nanowerk.
• Intestinal organoid built that looks and functions like real tissue by Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology.
• Inside the never-ending debate on the origins of viruses by Rafael Ambag at Flip Science.
• Superspreaders of SARS-CoV-2  by Vincent Racaniello at Virology Blog.
• Viruses that come to stay by Amber Dance for Knowable magazine.
• COVID-19 does not discriminate, but some get hit harder: Nutrition-related health disparities by Ru Liu for NutriBites.
• New studies confirm weakening of the Gulf Stream circulation (AMOC) - translated from German by Stefan Rahmstorf at Real Climate.
• Ig Nobel Prizes reward research on helium-huffing alligators and knives made of feces by Rasha Aridi for Science.
• Supercooled water is two liquids in one, study shows by Sci-News.com.
• Podcast: #574 - State of the Heart: Science for the People by Rachelle Saunders and Haider Warraich for Science for the People.
• Podcast: Diffusion Science radio: Organo-metallic chemist by Ian Woolf and Liam Burt for Diffusion Science radio.
• Creating a package to infer species coexistence by Daniel Caetano for Methods.blog.

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What (maybe) dictates men's sex drive? What can a smoky bar teach us about social distancing? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of Sept 7 - 13 2020 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

In this week's edition of the very best from science news around the world, explore how our unique vaccine responses affect vaccine design and testing, and travel to Mars to visit the ancient neighbours, who may have used sulphur as an energy source. 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?

• Mens' sex drive may rise and fall due to one brain enzyme by Christopher Bergland for Psychology Today.

Male sexual desire may be driven by the brain's aromatase (CYP19A1) enzyme.
Credit: jazzmoon12 via Flickr (CC-BY 2.0)

• 5 ways our immune responses to COVID vaccines are unique by Paul Gill and Menno van Zelm for The Conversation US.
• What a smoky bar can teach us about the '6-foot rule' during the COVID-19 pandemic by Byron Erath, Andrea Ferro, Goodarz Ahmadi, and Suresh Dhaniyala for The Conversation UK.
• Education promotes cognitive reserve against dementia… but only if you’re white. by Justina Avila-Rieger for AlzScience.
• Mediterranean diet can improve glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes by Douglas Badenoch for The Diabetes Elf.
• Protein affects 10 billion blood cells a day by Vered Smith for Science Connected magazine.
• Early Martian life may have used sulfur as an energy source by Brooke Carruthers for Sciworthy.
• Podcast: How do we know what things in space are made from? by Allen Versfeld at The Urban Astronomer.
• New gravitational-lensing study hints at problems for dark matter models by John Timmer for Ars Technica.
• Path dependence and tipping points by Sabine Hossenfelder at Backreaction.
• One of quantum physics’ greatest paradoxes may have lost its leading explanation by George Musser for Science.
• A barcode of Earth’s climatic past by Cosmos magazine.
• Leftovers are a food-waste problem by Christopher Intagliata for Scientific American.
• Nectar robbery by short-tongued bees is throwing off delicate pollination cycles by Lila Westreich for Massive Science.
• You can't tell a chimpanzee's age by its gray hairs by Laura Martinez-Inigo for Massive Science.
• Mapping extreme microbes in the Amazon’s Boiling River by Attabey Rodriguez Benitez for Massive Science.
  
• Symbiotic fungi can save farm crops during droughts by Niko Carvajal Janke for Sciworthy.
• Today in chemistry history: August Kekulé and the structure of benzene by Andy Brunning for Compound Interest.
• Finding answers in the secretive carbon fibre industry by Miklos Bolza at Lab Down Under.

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How far away is quantum internet? How should we decide who gets a Covid-19 vaccine first? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of August 31 - September 6 2020 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

In this week's bumper edition of the very best on what's happening in science around the world, find out how implementing indigenous wisdom could have helped to prevent the coronavirus, and find out just how pseudoscientists get away with spreading misinformation. 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?

• Physicists create city-sized ultrasecure quantum network by Anil Ananthaswamy for Scientific American.

The development of quantum networks has been hard going, but scientists have demonstrated a new model that connects users 8km away.
Credit: IBM Research via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

• Podcast: Meet GW190521—a black-hole merger for the record books by Jennifer Ouelette for Ars Technica.
• Clean energy path to economic recovery in rural India by Anjali Jaiswal and Madura Joshi for NRDC.
• Conductive cables control carbon by Jesse Noar and Vincent Scholz at BacterioFiles.
• How to drive a car upside down: The physics of Formula One racing by Hannah Pell at Physics Central.
• Space X Dragon: Engineering of the Dragon that conquered human private spaceflight industry!!! by Ratnadeep Das Choudhury for The Dynamic Frequency.
• How to decide who should get a COVID-19 vaccine first by Jim Daley for Scientific American.
• Coronavirus caused by ‘unbalancing’ of nature: Q&A with Indigenous leader Levi Sucre Romero by Francesca Edralin for Mongabay.
• Can you catch COVID-19 from your neighbor’s toilet? by Jocelyn Kaiser for Science magazine.
• Yeast could soon make psilocybin cheaper than their magic mushroom cousins can by Sarah Laframboise for Massive Science.
• Microbial secrets of sourdough by Bob Holmes for Knowable magazine.
• Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) by Natalie Fey and Chris Adams at Picture It Chem.
• New wireless monitors let premature babies have skin-to-skin contact even in the NICU by Akshata R. Naik for Massive Science.
• Excess weight may increase your risk of dementia by Nicholas Bakalar for The New York Times.
• New wireless monitors let premature babies have skin-to-skin contact even in the NICU by Akshata R. Naik for Massive Science.
• Why you should be adding salt to your cocktails by Celine Bossart/Saveur for Saveur.
• How pseudoscientists get away with it by Stuart Firestein for Nautilus magazine.
• Severe cyclones may have played a role in the Maya collapse by Lakshmi Supriya for AGU EOS.
• Podcast: 074 Actual Cannibal Salamanders by Tom Major and Benjamin Michael Marshall at Herpetological Highlights.
• American mastodons migrated across vast distances due to warming climate, DNA study says by Sci-News.com.

To indulge your curiosity even more, follow us on Facebook or Twitter for honourable mentions of great posts that didn't quite make our #SciSeekPicks list this week. Want #SciSeekPicks to help satisfy your scientific curiosity every week? Sign up here for regular notification emails.

Check back next week for more great picks!