The Ed's Up #181

Bill and Ed's Excellent Adventure

Apparently, when you're the richest man in the world, and you like someone's book, you can fly them over for a chat! Which is what Bill Gates did with me. The result is this lovely review, and video. "In I Contain Multitudes, Yong synthesizes literally hundreds and hundreds of papers, but he never overwhelms you with the science. He just keeps imparting one surprising, fascinating insight after the next. I Contain Multitudes is science journalism at its best." 
 

No, We Can’t Say Whether Cancer Is Mostly Bad Luck

"The other challenge lies in going from the abstract world of statistical models and population-wide studies to the concrete world of individuals and patients. In reporting the recent paper, CNN wrote that “bad luck mutations increase cancer risk more than behavior” and that “dumb luck plays a more significant role than either environmental, lifestyle or hereditary factors in causing this disease.” That’s arguably accurate when you’re talking about mutations in a statistical model. But readers will look at that and think about themselves in their daily lives. They’ll hear that their personal cancer risk is determined more by the vagaries of fate than by their own choices. And they’d be wrong to do so." (Image: Kim Kyung Hoon)
 

A Tiny Fish With Terrifying Fangs and Opioid Venom

"Think about a venomous fang, and you’ll probably conjure up an image of a snake or spider. But perhaps you should also spare a thought for group of unassuming reef fish that are appropriately called fangblennies. They are finger-sized, colorful, and rather cute—that is, until they open their mouths. Their lower jaws bear two upsettingly large canine teeth, capable of delivering a deep bite. And the evolution of those teeth, according to a new study by Nicholas Casewell at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, took the fangblennies down a path of subterfuge, double-crossing, and chemical warfare." (Image: Alex Ribiero)
 

The Game-Changing Technique That Cracked the Zika-Mosquito Genome

"This milestone is about more than mosquitoes. The team succeeded by using a technique called Hi-C, which allows scientists to assemble an organism’s genome quickly, cheaply, and accurately. To prove that point, the team used Hi-C to piece together a human genome from scratch for just $10,000; by contrast, the original Human Genome Project took $4 billion to accomplish the same feat. “It’s very clear that this is the way that you want to be doing it,” says Olga Dudchenko, who was part of Aiden’s team. “At least in the foreseeable future, there’s no method that can compete,” adds her colleague Sanjit Singh Batra." (Image: Juan Carlos Ulate)
 

Shazam for Mosquitoes

"A mosquito’s buzz reveals not only its presence, but also its identity. Each species seems to hum at its own distinctive pitch, and Mukundarajan and Prakash have shown that cellphone recordings are good enough to classify these insects. They’ve essentially created Shazam for mosquitoes. “I tell people there are 3,500 species of mosquitoes and they laugh,” says Prakash. “To them, it’s just a mosquito. We need to change that if we’re to fight these diseases properly.”" (Image: Paulo Whitaker)

More good reads in science and technology

• “Turns out that when you live with a federal symbol up close and personal, day in and day out, it’s a little harder to think of them as majestic. “ Laurel Braitman on a town where bald eagles are pests. Absolutely amazing photographs.  
• “Science knows more about coffee, wine and tomatoes than it does about breast milk.” Check out Katie Hinde’s wonderful TED talk on breast milk
• Excellent piece from Azeen Ghorayshi on the Science March’s attempt to fix its white-dude problem.
• Both of these bills, which would gut the EPA in the name of alleged transparency, passed the House this week. It’s worth learning about what they do.   
• Smith “expressed support for writing legislation that would punish scientific journals that publish research that doesn’t fit standards of peer review crafted by Smith and the committee.” The war on climate change science is about to get very real. By Jeffrey Mervis.
• A billion+ mosquito nets have been distributed to fight malaria. They may be changing the insects' behavior. Veronique Greenwood reports.
• This Object Has Been Sprayed With the World's Blackest Material, and It's Freaking Us Out. By Bec Crew
• "His focus is on cutting science programs." Trump is proposing significant cuts to medical research this year. Here’s how that would harm medical research.
• The quest to kill the superbug that can survive in outer space
• An octopus that eats jellyfish
• EPA chief, rejecting his own agency’s science, chooses not to ban a harmful insecticide.
•  “I am an Arctic researcher. Donald Trump is deleting my citations.” By Victoria Herrmann
• Earth’s newest cloud is terrifying
• Airstrike monitoring group overwhelmed by claims of U.S.-caused civilian casualties.
• Tadpoles learn to see from transplanted butt-eyes.

 

More good reads in politics and society 

• “The Britain of multiculturalism, open to the world, is now in real danger, replaced by one keen to blame migrants, progressive politics, and diversity, for its ills. The country I wanted so much to belong to is a memory.” Heartbreaking piece on Brexit by Ismail Einashe. And here’s Krishnadev Calamur on what’s next.
• Trump's giant climate executive order will set U.S. climate action back years, says Robinson Meyer. And Julia Belluz reminds us that Trump’s war on climate policy is also a war on public health
• The Writer of Groundhog Day Lived His Movie for 24 Years. A really charming piece by S. I. Rosenbaum.
• Lately, so much polite and impolite racism has been seen and heard, in such a way that you can’t un-ring a bell.” Rich Benjamin on Get Out and the death of white racial innocence.
• "If men like Pence won’t engage w/ women 1-on-1 in informal settings, it’s the women who miss out.” On the Vice-President’s bizarre attitude to women.
• Twitter’s strategy is like the time a really drunk friend said we could cure all diseases by renaming them.
• "Mike Flynn is seeking an immunity deal from the FBI... in exchange for an interview on the Russia investigation.” But what does that mean?
• “A new American fascism will adapt to the present.”
• Ashley Feinberg hilariously tracks down James Comey’s Twitter account.
• The intelligence Devin Nunes brought to the White House reportedly came from the White House.
• Republicans passed a bill allowing ISPs to sell customer Web surfing data. Here’s how to set up a VPN in 10 minutes for free (and why you urgently need one). But be warned that encryption isn’t enough. 

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.

- Ed