The Ed's Up #100
6 Tiny Cavers, 15 Odd Skeletons, and 1 Amazing New Species of Ancient Human "That 18-cm gap was all that separated them from the bones of a new species of...
The Ed's Up #99
The $1 Pocket Microscope "It took about six months for the jungle to kill Aaron Pomerantz’s microscope. Thanks to the sweltering humidity, water started...
The Ed's Up #98
How Reliable Are Psychology Studies? My first piece in my new job at The Atlantic! No one is entirely clear on how Brian Nosek pulled it off, including Nosek...
The Ed's Up #97
Hi, I wrote a book! This Monday, I submitted the complete draft of my book I Contain Multitudes, about the fascinating partnerships between animals and...
The Ed's Up #96
This Frog Uses Its Spiky Face to Deliver a Venomous Headbutt When Carlos Jared was first ‘stung’ by the venomous face of the Greening’s frog, he didn’t...
The Ed's Up #95
Why Do Glowing Sharks Glow? "There are about 550 species of shark in the oceans. Around twelve percent of them glow. Claes has been studying these elusive...
The Ed's Up #94
I've Got a New Job! Before I hand you over to your regularly scheduled dose of stories, some news! I'll be joining The Atlantic as their new full-time...
The Ed's Up #93
This Beetle is Ruining Your Coffee With the Help of Bacteria "I am writing a book about partnerships between animals and microbes. In the process, I have...
The Ed's Up #92
With Sonar-Reflecting Leaves, Plant Lures Bats to Poo in it "Imagine a bat flying through the jungle of Borneo. It calls out to find a place to spend the...
The Ed's Up #91
Single-Celled Creature Has Eye Made of Domesticated Microbes "The strangest eyes in the ocean—eyes so weird that we can’t even be sure that they are...
The Ed's Up #90
Scientists Finally Decide Which Bit of This Weird Animal is the Head "In 1977, British palaeontologist Simon Conway-Morris discovered the fossil of a truly...
The Ed's Up #89
Baboon-Trackers Herald New Age of Animal Behaviour Research "By fitting wild olive baboons with sophisticated GPS collars, which automatically record their...
The Ed's Up #88
How Do African Grasslands Support So Many Plant-Eaters? "Across the savannahs of Africa, millions of stomachs are busy converting plant tissue into animal...
The Ed's Up #87
The Dragon Autopsy Last month, I watched a team of four dragon-flayers dissecting a Komodo dragon. Here's what happened, featuring Game of Thrones, some...
The Ed's Up #86
Octopuses, and Maybe Squid, Can Sense Light With Their Skin "Each chromatophore is an elastic sac of pigment, surrounded by a starburst of muscles. If the...
The Ed's Up #85
Can The Microbes You Leave Behind Be Used to Identify You? "When you touch a surface, you leave behind fingerprints—distinctive swirling patterns of oils...
The Ed's Up #84
New Loki Microbe is Closest Relative to All Complex Life "Loki’s Castle lies midway between Greenland and Norway, around 2,300 metres below the ocean...
The Ed's Up #83
Chinese Dinosaur Had Bat-Like Wings and Feathers "In full, it is Yi qi, which comes from the Mandarin for “strange wing” and can be roughly butchered as “ee...
The Ed's Up #82
Consider the Sponge "Even some professional biologists disregard sponges as lowly, primitive proto-animals, sitting at the bottom of an evolutionary ladder...
The Ed's Up #81
Oxytocin Makes New Mouse Mothers Focus on Cries of Lost Pups This week: a two-parter of cool science about a much-hyped molecule. "Bianca Marlin from New...