The Ed's Up #166

"Built in 1982, the facility has space for 28 inmates, and has held over 2,000 to date. When the time is right and the weather clears, the wardens tranquilize the animals, bundle them in nets, strap them to helicopters, and airlift them to a site 70 kilometers north of Churchill. But conflicts are becoming increasingly common. This year, the program staff have so far responded to 386 calls to their hotline—the busiest on record. More bears are encroaching into human spaces, and not just in Churchill. These conflicts can be managed, but they are the harbingers of a more unsettling trend. The Arctic is changing, affecting even places like Churchill which lie further south. The ice the bears depend on is disappearing. And the bears are struggling." (Image: Iain Williams) 
 

When an Animal's Sex Is Set by a Microbe

"Pillbug. Roly-poly. Woodlouse. Doodle bug. This endearing creature, which goes by many names, is common throughout North America and Europe. It seeks moisture, scurries from light, and rolls into a ball when threatened. And it often finds itself embroiled in an evolutionary war with a bacterium. At stake is its very sexual identity. In pillbugs, sex is determined by two chromosomes: Z and W. Individuals who inherit two Zs develop as males, while ZW individuals become female. But in some populations, these rules are overwritten by a microbe called Wolbachia." (Image: Gallhampshire) 
 

More good reads on science and technology 

• I’m proud to be on Longform’s list of Best Science Pieces of 2016, for my National Geographic feature about eye evolution.
•  “Whales have a history that is among the strangest and least-understood of any animal—and barnacles might be the key to unlocking their secrets.” By Peter Brannen
• “Who is doing the science affects what kind of science gets done.” By Caroline Van Sickle
• “Neuroscientist Rebecca Brachman is working late one night alone in the lab when she accidentally sticks herself with a needle full of deadly toxin.” Here’s her story.
• One patient, two cancer tests, two different results. Sarah Zhang on what happens when cutting-edge medicine offers up conflicting answers.
• The National Park Service has been tasked with protecting public lands, but is failing to protect its female employees. By Lyndsey Gilpin
• New case study for how destroying the environment can spread diseases to humans. By Chelsea Harvey
• This lake just killed thousands of geese, but might hold useful microbes.
• Climate skepticism decreases if the message is past-oriented. By Cathleen O’Grady
• Ross Andersen and Megan Garber geek out over first contact movies.
• There’s a genetic condition that gives you uncombable hair. By Veronique Greenwood.
• The world’s oldest pool of water is 2 billion years old. By Sarah Laskow
• Why conflicts are so intractable when morality is involved. By Julie Beck
• NASA is unprepared to defend the Earth from comets. (Check out the URL of this.)
• College students try to build a gene drive, prompting new safety rules at a competition. By Ike Swetlitz
• Helen Branswell on finding the world’s unknown viruses before they find us.

 More good reads on politics and society 

• The CIA said that Russia was trying to help Trump win the White House. The FBI agreed. A bipartisan group of senators called for both parties to unite. Kathy Gilsinan and Krishnadev Calamur have a good FAQ about what we know, David Frum lists five unanswered questions about the hacks, Eric Lipton, David Sanger, and Scott Shane have the full story about how the hacking was done, and Kaveh Waddell considers what a proportionate response would look like.
• “A black president would always be a contradiction for a government that, throughout most of its history, had oppressed black people. The attempt to resolve this contradiction through Obama—a black man with deep roots in the white world—was remarkable. The price it exacted, incredible. The world it gave way to, unthinkable.” Settle down and take in Ta-Nehisi Coates’ astonishing new opus about the legacy of Barack Obama.  Then follow up with Tressie Mcmillan Cottom’s reaction piece.
•  “What is the precise moment, in the life of a country, when tyranny takes hold? It rarely happens in an instant; it arrives like twilight, and, at first, the eyes adjust.” Evan Osnos on the lessons we can draw from China.
• "This is one of the first speeches of the Resistance era that actually makes me feel better." The governor of California on the state’s commitment to truth, science, and fighting climate change.
• The Aleppo crisis deepens.
• Could Trump dismantle the internet as we know it? By Adrienne LaFrance
• Sophie Gilbert on how Teen Vogue became a force for journalism
• The Department of Energy holds the line, rejecting Trump’s request to name climate-change workers.
•  “If Black Lives Matter is “identity politics,” then identity politics has provided one of the most significant political mobilizations in defense of freedom in the United States in my lifetime.” By Jacob Levy
• The NYT editorial board looks at the rough legal ride ahead of Donald Trump’s nominees.
• How Trump’s government could mess with government data. By Clare Malone.
• Davey Alba looks at the movement to kill fake news by taking away their ad revenue. Fascinating look at the convoluted maze behind online ads. And Kaveh Waddell looks at whether Facebook’s fake news alert will become a badge of honour.
• Will populism kill your jetpack? Scott Smith and Georgina Voss look at self-driving cars, renewable energy, and tech innovations in the era of Trump and Brexit.
• "I’m a scientist who has gotten death threats. I fear what may happen under Trump." By Michael Mann
• Philip Bump made a Chrome extension that lets you fact-check Trump’s tweets in the tweets themselves
• “As an exercise of public diplomacy, it will certainly confirm the assumption of many people around the world that American power is best understood as a raw, neocolonial exercise in securing resources.” Steve Coll on Rex Tillerson, the CEO of Exxon, and America’s future Secretary of State.
• Journalists must go beyond fact-checking every misleading tweet. By Brendan Nyhan.