The Ed's Up #176

"Next to us is a white metal crate—four feet high, and six feet long. The FedEx logo is emblazoned on the top. On the side, there’s a sticker that reads “Contents: one panda,” and some “This Way Up” arrows. On February 21, Bao Bao will be ushered into this crate for a 16-hour flight to China. It’ll be the only flight she ever takes, and the first time she’ll venture out of the zoo where she was born. She will travel as she has always lived—in the bright gleam of the public eye." (Credit: Connor Mallon)
 

This Beetle Bites an Ant’s Waist and Pretends to be Its Butt

"Army ants are so vast in their legions, and so destructive in their appetites, that they have been billed as “nature’s Mongol’s hordes” and “the Huns and Tartars of the insect world.” The comparison in apt. But then again, neither Genghis Khan nor Atilla the Hun rode around with people sitting behind them, clamped around their waists, pretending to be their butt. Eciton burchellii, the best-studied species of army ant, does have one such hanger-on. It’s a newly discovered beetle that hitchhikes on ants by clamping its jaws around their waists. This bizarre stowaway is red and spherical—exactly like the ant’s backside. From above, the ant looks normal. From the side, it looks like it has a bustle. A prosthetic posterior. A gluteus extraneous. A beetlebum."" (Image: Daniel Kronauer) 

What Mirrors Tell Us About Animal Minds

Sea Turtles Are in Much Worse Shape Than Previously Thought

"A single female will lay her eggs at several places within the same nesting ground—a reproductive spread-bet that prevents her from losing an entire generation to, say, a storm or an industrious predator. Scientists have assumed that green turtles lay an average of 3.5 clutches each, and counting these clutches helps scientists estimate the global turtle population. But after tagging green turtles in the Indian Ocean, Nicole Esteban from Swansea University has shown that each female lays around twice that number. And if that holds true across other nesting beaches, it means that we might have overestimated the population of this endangered and declining animal by a factor of two." (Image: Beawiharta Beawiharta) 
 

More good reads in science and technology 

• Rose Eveleth and Daniel Engber talk about a ridiculous paper on dancing that got widespread coverage.
• Rebecca Robbins spent a month examining what Patrick Soon-Shiong's cancer moonshot has done in its first year. Here’s what she learned.
•  “Even with the best possible telescope, you’ll never get a perspective like this from the earth.” Marina Koren on a new view from Jupiter.
• Equality in science: a mission not yet accomplished. Astrophysicist Katie Mack reflects on Hidden Figures. And a similarly good Twitter discussion by Abigail Nussbaum
• The CRISPR patent dispute has come to an end, and Sharon Begley discusses what it means.
• The oceans have lost 2% of their dissolved oxygen since 1960 and are headed for 7% by 2100, writes Chris Mooney.
• Amy Harmon on a wonderful attempt to reduce racial inequalities in school-level maths.
• What can you do with the world’s largest family tree? Scientists are beginning to find out, says Sarah Zhang.
• The anti-vaccine movement is gathering momentum
• New Way to Fight Superbugs Found in Noxious Weed
• Seagrass protects against disease-causing microbes, and is disappearing. Carl Zimmer has the story.
• Research shows that immigrants do not increase crime rates.
• “She can paint, but not name a painting; learn new music without knowing a tune. Lonni Sue is teaching us much about memory.” Read this extract from Michael Lemonick’s new book.
• The Marianas Trench is deeper than Everest is tall. It's very bottom is still extraordinarily polluted.
• As sea levels rise, the quality of entries in this already amazing underwater photo competition will surely only get better.
• Very excited to dig into Alan Burdick’s Why Time Flies, after this rave NYT review

More good reads in politics and society 

• This new ad starring Michael K. Williams captures what the Atlantic is about. Question your answers.
• After a Flynncriminating piece of reporting from the Washington Post, revealing that National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had contact with Russia’s ambassador despite his claims to the contrary, Flynn resigned and the White House Flynnagled. Here is a full timeline of the deFlynnestration. Eliot Cohen has a razor-sharp analysis of why the White House will continue to be dysfunctional, even after the Flynntervention. It’s not a Flynnale, says David Frum, who asks how high Russian influence extends into the Trump administration. David Graham lists 5 questions to ponder during the Flynnterregnum.
• The bureaucracy, the press, the judiciary and the public are pushing back against Trump--with success, writes Peter Beinart. “Trump is facing effective questioning from virtually every counterforce, at home and abroad, that can constrain a president,” adds Ronald Brownstein.
• ““I’m not ranting and raving,” he ranted and raved.” The new President doesn’t seem to like his job very much.
• “This is a lost opportunity for anyone who cares about environmental protection.” Robinson Meyer on the comparative lack of attention to Scott Pruitt, the potential future head of the EPA.
• Clear evidence that voter ID laws lead to suppression of minority votes.
• Trump's 'global gag' aid rule endangers millions of women and children, Bill Gates warns
• Dara Lind explains what’s new, and what’s business-as-usual, about the immigration raids of the Trump era.
• A U.S.-born NASA engineer was required to unlock his phone at the border. Kaveh Waddell on one of many immigration infringements.
• Five possible futures for the EPA under Trump
• “We have at most one year to defend American democracy, perhaps less,” says Timothy Snyder, historian, author of Black Earth, a bestselling book on the Holocaust.  
• And finally, a linguist's guide to shitgibbons and other fuckfauna.