The Ed's Up #161

First, a word on politics

After the last newsletter, one reader wrote in asking me to stop linking to political pieces. He felt it "inappropriate" and said that he comes here to escape from politics. To people who share that view, some suggestions: Recognise how privileged it is to be able to "escape from politics". Be grateful that it isn't constantly in your face, and a matter of life and death. And consider scrolling to the bottom of this email, and click on the magic blue letters that say "Unsubscribe"; there lies your escape, because after the events of this week, and this year in general, the volume of political content in this newsletter will only be going up, not down. 

To everyone else, thanks for staying. Let's move on. 
 

Scientists Now Know Why Some Seabirds Eat So Much Plastic

"Gabrielle Nevitt remembers the first time she noticed the smell. It was sometime in the early 1980s and she was an undergraduate, heading out to sea on a research trip. “Hey, can you smell it?” a fisherman said to her. “It smells like a productive area for fishing.” She didn’t know what he meant at the time, but the odor has been a familiar part of her life for the last few decades. It’s hard to describe, but it’s unmistakably marine: Nevitt calls it “like oysters” or “kinda seaweed-y.” It’s the scent of dimethyl sulfide, or DMS—a gas that’s been described as a keystone molecule, because it influences everything from the presence of birds to the formation of clouds." (Image: NOAA)
 

Planet Earth II Puts Stunning Images Above All Else

"In the opening episode—Islands—a pygmy three-toed sloth paddles in search of a partner. Two titanic male Komodo dragons slam into each other. Two Buller’s albatross, having reunited after six months apart, engage in a tender greeting ritual. And it’s all visually spectacular. The greens are that much greener, the blues are that much bluer. There are more sunsets than a Michael Bay movie, and more lens flares than a J. J. Abrams one. And yet. As with many modern wildlife documentaries, there is no connective tissue between these disparate scenes, no overarching narrative to link the individual dramas together. They could appear in any order." (Image: Guillermo Granja)
 

Surprise! British Red Squirrels Carry Leprosy

"In 2006, Anna Meredith came across a dead red squirrel with a weird skin disorder. Its ears lacked the characteristic red tufts, and were instead swollen, smooth, and shiny, like the cauliflower ears of boxers and rugby players. Its nose, muzzle, and eyelids were similarly swollen and hairless. Meredith, a professor of conservation medicine at the University of Edinburgh, had never seen anything like this before. But she soon saw the same problems again—in six more squirrels over the next six years. She and her colleagues analyzed tissue samples from the dead animals. And to their surprise, they discovered that the squirrels had leprosy." (Image: Lisi Niesner)
 

More good reads

• Narwhals, Tusked Whales of the Arctic, See With Sound. Really Well. By Joanna Klein
• Cuba's Innovative Cancer Vaccine Is Finally Coming to America. By Sarah Zhang
• Erik Vance, an exceptional writer, has a new book out this week—Suggestible You, which explores the world of placebos, hypnosis, false memories, and neurology to reveal the groundbreaking science of our suggestible mind.
• Dark energy could force the universe to gradually unzip itself. By Rebecca Boyle.
• Some reflections
  • The Cinemax theory of racism, by John Scalzi
  • A Twitter thread on political nihilism and apathy.
  • "This is who we are", by Vann Newkirk III
• Some rallying pieces:
  • Finish your ugly-crying. Here’s what comes next. By Ann Friedman
  • How to Channel Your Post-Election Anger, Sadness, and Fear Into Action, by Slate.
  • Don’t panic, by David Wong
  • Rules for survival in an autocracy, by Masha Gessen
• Three lists:
  • How to respond to everyday bigotry: an extensive guide by the Southern Law Poverty Center.
  • A compilation of resources for vulnerable communities in times of prejudice and violence, by Petra Boynton.
  • A List of Pro-Women, Pro-Immigrant, Pro-Earth, Anti-Bigotry Organizations That Need Your Support, by Joanna Rothkopf

You can also follow me on Twitter or find my writing at The Atlantic. My New York Times-bestselling book, I Contain Multitudes, is out now. If someone has forwarded this email to you, you can sign up yourself.

And that's it! Thanks for reading.