The Ed's Up #133
Book update
Most of the Tree of Life is a Complete Mystery
"Laura Hug and Jillian Banfield have sketched out a radically different tree of life. All the creatures we’re familiar with—the animals, plants, and fungi—are crowded on one thin branch. The rest are largely filled with bacteria. And around half of these bacterial branches belong to a supergroup, which was discovered very recently and still lacks a formal name. Informally, it’s known as the Candidate Phyla Radiation. Within its lineages, evolution has gone to town, producing countless species that we’re almost completely ignorant about. "This is humbling,” says Jonathan Eisen from the University of California, Davis, “because holy **#$@#!, we know virtually nothing right now about the biology of most of the tree of life." (Image: Robert Couse-Baker) 
Brain Prosthetic Allows Paralyzed Man to Move His Hand Again
"In April 2014, the team surgically implanted an array of microscopic electrodes in Burkhart’s motor cortex—the part of the brain that governs his movements. When Burkhart thought about moving his arm, the implant would decode the activity in his neurons and feed the signals to a sleeve of electrodes on his forearm. In theory, his arm would move. Surprisingly, it worked pretty much right away,” says Burkhart. In June, after some preliminary tests, he thought about opening and closing his hand. And after years of inaction, it obeyed." (Image: Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center / Batelle)
Thirteen Anonymous Genetic Superheroes Walk Among Us
"“I had an a-ha moment,” says Friend. “If you want to find a way of preventing disease, you shouldn’t be looking at people with the disease. “You should look at people who should have been sick but aren’t.” These people, unbeknownst to them, carry genes that all but guarantee that they’ll get fatal diseases. And yet, somehow, they’re completely healthy. They might carry other genes that mitigate their risk. Or perhaps, some aspect of their diet, lifestyle, or environment shields them from their harmful inheritance. Either way, Friend reasoned that if he could find these “genetic superheroes,” and work out the secrets of their powers, he could find ways of helping others to beat the odds." (Image: Wong Campion)
Birds on Islands Are Losing the Ability to Fly
"The call of the ground is a strong one, and it exists even when the skies are still an option. Natalie Wright from the University of Montana demonstrated this by collecting data on 868 species. She showed that even when island birds can still fly, they’re edging towards flightlessness. Compared to mainland relatives, their flight muscles (the ones we eat when we tuck into chicken breasts) are smaller and their legs are longer. To her surprise, the trend even applied to hummingbirds, for whom flying is an inextricable part of life." (Image: Stephen Belcher)
The Wood Wide Web
"In 1999, a team of scientists led by Christian Körner did what thousands of people do every Christmas: they wrapped Norway spruce trees in tubes. Except this was in March, not December. And the trees were 40-metre-tall giants in the middle of a Swiss forest, not 2-metre pipsqueaks in a living room. (The team had to use a crane). And the tubes had no lights or baubles on them. Instead, they had a series of tiny holes, which pumped out carbon dioxide. For years, the team fumigated five of these wild spruces. They wanted to see how trees will cope with the high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide that we’re pumping into the atmosphere. But in the process, and almost by accident, they showed that trees of different species exchange huge amounts of carbon via an internet of fungi—a “wood-wide web” that secretly connects their roots." (Image: Gorchakov Artem)
More good reads
- Trees "borrow the wings of birds", says Sarah Gilman. Beautiful essay and drawings.
- Superb storytelling in Maryn McKenna’s piece on avian flu, and the threat it poses to our poultry
- “A genetic technology that can kill off mosquito species could eradicate malaria. But is it too risky to ever use?” Antonio Regalado on gene drives.
- Inside a billionaire's new interstellar mission. This piece on Alpha Centauri and Starshot is Ross Andersen at his best—precise, joyful, evocative.
- “Oh, So Now I’m Bangladeshi?” Excellent NYT piece by Zia Haider Rahman on labels, belonging, and “Where are you from?”
- This is how scientists *should* react to data that contradicts their views. Michael Inzlicht on ego depletion.
- “The only achievement demonstrated was “a remarkable dexterity in page-turning.” Speed-reading isn’t biologically possible, writes Simon Oxenham
- Joel Sartore is aiming to document as many animals as he can—before they're gone.
- 5 Qs for billionaires throwing money at cancer research. Sharon Begley is great as ever on Sean Parker's new project and other such ventures.
- Julie Belluz asks a doctor why he wrote a diet book based on a pilot study of 237 people, with no controls. His answer is stunningly hubristic.
- Inky the Octopus Escapes From a New Zealand Aquarium
- Gideon Mendel’s portraits of the lives affected by flooding, bringing home the impact of climate change
- What will it take to save the world’s reefs and forests? Elizabeth Kolbert on a radical attempt to harness evolution to produce hardier corals and tougher trees.
- "The English language is the ultimate code-switcher, gaining multiple personalities when it travels." By Natalie Zarrelli
And that's it! Thanks for reading.
-Ed