How is a high-fat diet bad for your brain? Is time real? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of Oct 12 - 18 2020 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

In this week's edition of the best science news from around the world, explore the Coronavirus vaccine being grown in tobacco plants, and discover the new room-temperature superconductor that could revolutionise energy. 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?

• Eating a high-fat diet could change your brain for the worse by Samuel J Walker for Massive Science.

This study suggests that exposure to a high fat diet alters the brain’s response to food so that only high-calorie foods are rewarding and satiating.
Credit: Nenad Stojkovic via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

• Bigger questions: Is time real? by Lauren Nelson at A Short Scientist.
• Immunity and re-infection by Derek Lowe at Science Translational Medicine.
• A drug trio for COVID-19: Precedents in Cystic Fibrosis, HIV/AIDS, and Hepatitis C by Ricki Lewis for DNA Science.
• A virus-like COVID-19 vaccine is being grown in tobacco plants by Hayley McKay for Massive Science.
• The preexisting conditions of the Coronavirus pandemic by Adam Rogers for WIRED.
• Excess deaths from pandemic higher than official numbers by Steven Novella for Neurologica.
• A new take on the marshmallow test: children wait longer for a treat when their reputation is at stake by Sofia Deleniv for BPS Research Digest.
• Liquid air energy storage (LAES): putting air to use by Rohit Imandi for Energy.io.
• First room-temperature superconductor could spark energy revolution by Leah Crane for New Scientist.
• Death by black hole: Astronomers spot flare from “spaghettification” of star by Jennifer Ouellette for Ars Technica.
• Melting candy gives mathematicians insight into how some landscapes form by Clara Moskowitz for Scientific American.
• A brief history of scientific racism by BenchPress for Mass General Research Institute.
• Turning to frog skin for new biologic peptide drugs by Sean Lim for The Skeptical Chemist.
• Neuroscience study finds non-deceptive placebos lead to genuine psychobiological effects by Eric W. Dolan for PsyPost.
• New type of brain immune cell implicated in Alzheimer’s disease by Maya Gosztyla at AlzScience.
• Why is Mars so bright? And other things to see in the October sky by Never Trust An Atom.
• The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020: Andrea Ghez by Briley Lewis for Astrobites.
• Economists are more like storytellers than scientists – don't let the Nobel for 'economic sciences' fool you by Carolin Benack for The Conversation UK.
• Noisy, high-speed recreation disturbs sensitive wildlife by Elyse DeFranco for Massive Science.
• Fossilised teeth reveal first mammals were far from warm blooded by Elis Newham and Pam Gill at The Conversation UK. 
• Rain really can move mountains by Lauren Fuge at Cosmos magazine.
• New view of Tweed Valley’s attraction by Lauren Fuge at Cosmos magazine.
• Bacteria produce green bio-plastics by Rachel Burckhardt for Bacterial World.

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Check back next week for more great picks!