The Ed's Up #151
New York Times Bestseller!
Exceeding my wildest expectations, I Contain Multitudes is a New York Times bestseller, and not just in the science-specific list but in the general non-fiction one! It snuck in there at #20. Over the last week, it also received wonderful reviews in the Guardian, The Spectator, The Times, and Bigthink. And if you'd like to hear me talk about the book, check out the NYT Book Review podcast. 
Come hear me talk in London
Next week, I'll be doing two talks in London. If you're around, do come to one! On 31 August, I'll be at the Science Museum, speaking at the Basement Studio from 8.15pm to 8.55pm. And on 1 September, I'll be at the Royal Institution talking from behind the famous Faraday desk. I'm really excited about this; the talk for this book is pretty much the best one I've ever written, so if you like my TED talk, or just want to hear more about microbes, please come! I'll also be doing book signings after both events. And if you're not in London, here's a list of other events coming up, in both the USA and UK.
Book Excerpt: Gut reaction: the surprising power of microbes
"‘So, what’s in the thermos?” I asked.
I was standing in a lift at Washington University in St Louis, with Professor Jeff Gordon and two of his students, one of whom was holding a metal canister.
“Just some faecal pellets in tubes,” she said.
“They’re microbes from healthy children, and also from some who are malnourished. We transplanted them into mice,” explained Gordon, as if this was the most normal thing in the world.
The lift doors opened, and I followed Gordon, his students, and the thermos of frozen pellets into a large room. It was filled with rows of sealed chambers made of transparent plastic. Peering inside one of these chambers, I met the eyes of one of the strangest animals on the planet. It looked like just a mouse, and that is precisely why it was so weird. It was just a mouse, and nothing more."
A Tiny Jellyfish Relative Just Shut Down Yellowstone River
"The press statement and all the subsequent news reports referred to the organism behind the fishes’ woes as a “microscopic parasite.” A few select outlets actually named the thing—Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae. But none of them realized how extraordinary it really is. It is part of a group called the myxozoans. They spend most of their lives as microscopic spores that are made of just a few cells. Despite their appearances, these creatures are animals. And although they are obscure, you have definitely heard of their closest relatives—jellyfish, corals, and sea anemones. Yellowstone River is now closed because more than half a billion years ago, a jellyfish-like animal started transforming into a parasite." (Image: Reuters)
The Thirsty Little Snake That Swam Across the World
"It eats at sea, mates at sea, and gives birth to live young at sea. It has special valves in its nose to stop water from getting in, and can even partially breathe through its skin. It hunts by sitting amid flotsam and picking off small fish that gather beneath it. And it swims by propelling itself with a flattened, paddle-like tail. And yet, in some ways, it is so ill-suited to life in the ocean that its existence borders on poetic tragedy. For example, a few years ago, Brischoux and his colleague Harvey Lillywhite from the University of Florida showed that the yellow-bellied sea snake is almost constantly thirsty and dehydrated." (Image: Aloaiza)
The Strange Case of the Butterfly and the Male-Murdering Microbe
"By then, the sex ratio on Upolu was completely equal, and whatever was causing it had spread to Savaii. On the far side of the island, the males were still in the minority but on the near side, they equalled the females in number. In barely ten generations, they had gone from virtual non-existence to equality. That was, and still is, one of the fastest evolutionary changes ever observed—almost a century of stagnancy, and then one year of extreme change. The team were extraordinarily lucky to have been there, watching, at exactly the right time." (Image: Comacontrol)
More good reads
- “In Room 901 of New Scotland Yard, the police had assembled half a dozen officers who shared an unusual talent: they all had a preternatural ability to recognize human faces.” Patrick Radden Keefe on super-rememberers.
- How natural are nature documentaries? Elizabeth Lopatto’s piece on this issue is the best I’ve read by some margin.
- Luke Dittrich’s new book Patient HM is causing a stir; here are two fair takes on the debate, one from NYT reviewer Jennifer Senior, and another from neuroscientist John Borghi.
- Mites, mayflies, backswimmers, leeches, tadpoles: John Platt on the worlds that live within elephant footprints.
- “It’s as if a giraffe can pass to an elephant its gene for a long neck.” Wudan Yan on the social network in your gut.
- A fun thought experiment on the feasibility and ethics of jump-starting life elsewhere in the galaxy. By Ross Andersen
- A Magical Mushroom Powder Blocks Bitterness in Food—But at what cost? From Megan Molteni
- Here’s what won’t make a good headline: “Small and Spurious Correlation Shown to Have Been Backward, but It Doesn’t Matter That Much, Because the Point of the Paper Was That There Is No Underlying Causation After All.” Maria Konnikova on the shaky science of personality and politics.
- “No one will ever find a closer exoplanet—now the race is on to see if there is life on its surface.” Rebecca Boyle on an “epochal discovery”. Meanwhile, Nadia Drake considers whether we should search Proxima B for glowing aliens.
- “The arms belonged to someone else. Grueling work made them his own.” Karen Weintraub on a double arm transplant.
- The Most Inaccessible Places in the World People Desperately Want To Visit. By Meg Neal
- All-Women 'Army' Protecting Rare Bird in India. By Moushumi Basu
- The Surprising Way Marine Mammals Are Poisoning California Condors. By Jason Goldman
You can also follow me on Twitter or find my writing at The Atlantic or on my blog. If someone has forwarded this email to you, you can sign up yourself.
And that's it! Thanks for reading.
-Ed