The Ed's Up #80
Selfish Shellfish Cells Cause Contagious Clam Cancer "This cancer—this clam leukaemia—seemed to be transmissible. If you took the blood of infected clams and...
The Ed's Up #79
Shrub Attracts Pollinators By Glittering Under the Full Moon "On the cliffs of the Mediterranean, there grows an untidy, scrambling shrub called Ephedra...
The Ed's Up #78
One year in... Almost exactly a year ago, I got a deal to write my first book, an exploration of the incredible partnerships between animals and microbes....
The Ed's Up #77
Fish that Walks on Land Swallows With Tongue Made of Water Michel filmed Atlantic mudskippers with high-speed cameras as they sucked up pieces of shrimp that...
The Ed's Up #76
Sorry for the missing newsletter last week, folks. I was on a reporting trip in Chicago and all atomic motion in my hands had ceased. Anyway, I'm back and...
The Ed's Up #75
Food Additives Inflame Mouse Guts By Disturbing Microbes "These additives may confer stability to food, but they can also bring discord to the gut—at least...
The Ed's Up #74
Why Do Luna Moths Have Such Absurdly Long Tails? "Eyespots are visual defences, and bats—the main nemeses of moths—are not visual hunters. They find their...
The Ed's Up #73
There’s No Plague on the NYC Subway. No Platypuses Either. Several reports last week claimed that scientists had discovered Yersinia pestis, the bacterium...
The Ed's Up #72
On the Origin of Colourful Monkey Faces "The guenons are known for their beautiful and diverse faces. De Brazza’s monkey has a white moustache and beard, and...
The Ed's Up #71
How the Scorpion Lost Its Tail (And Its Anus) Here’s the problem. A scorpion’s anus isn’t where you think it probably would be. Instead, it’s at the end of...
The Ed's Up #70
Monkey With Better Social Networks Stay Warmer in the Winter "It’s three in the morning in South Africa, in the middle of winter. Temperatures have dropped...
The Ed's Up #68
Here's looking at you, squid It was a delight to profile the wonderful Margaret McFall-Ngai for Nature. Through her work on an adorable squid and its glowing...
The Ed's Up #67
A New Antibiotic That Resists Resistance "Teixobactin appears resistant to resistance. Bacteria will eventually develop ways of beating it—remember Orgel—but...
The Ed's Up #66
Cholera Bacteria Kill Each Other With Spears To Steal DNA The Highlander film series is about a race of immortal warriors who try to behead each other with...
The Ed's Up #65 - End of 2014 edition
In a break from journalistic tradition, I thought I’d put up an end-of-year list at the actual end of the year. I know! I promise to live less dangerously in...
The Ed's Up #64
Top Science Longreads of 2014 Every year, I pick my favourite science features—or ‘longreads’, as they have been rebranded as—from the previous 12 months....
The Ed's Up #63
Questioning a Hero Six years ago, I spent an hour at David Attenborough’s house, talking to him about wildlife, film-making and his career. Three weeks ago,...
The Ed's Up #62
The Long War Against the Iron Pirates "Disease is an act of piracy. When microbes infect us, they steal our resources so they can thrive at our expense. We...
The Ed's Up #61
Electric Eels Can Remotely Control Their Prey’s Muscles The electric eel can (in)famously create its own electricity. More than four-fifths of its two-metre-...
The Ed's Up #60
To Beat Malaria, We Need to See It as an Ecological Problem "Mosquitoes aren’t static, unchanging targets. They move around. They mate. They breed in some...