The Ed's Up #203

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                            October 20, 2017

                The Ed's Up #203

I Contain Multitudes: The Series
Here's the first video from a series that's based on my book. There'll be at least 11 of these, with one coming out every fortnight. Enjoy!

Insects Are In Serious Trouble
By analyzing the Krefeld data—1,503 traps, and 27 years of work—Hallmann and his colleagues have shown that most of the flying insects in this part of Germany are flying no more. Between 1989 and 2016, the average weight of insects that were caught between May and October fell by an astonishing 77 percent. Over the same period, the weight of insects caught in the height of summer, when these creatures should be at their buzziest, fell by 82 percent. (Image: Todd Korol) 

Will the World's Most Worrying Flu Virus Go Pandemic?
"Kawaoka and his colleagues have now studied the new high-path strains collected from one of the people who died this year. They’ve shown that these strains reproduce efficiently in mice, ferrets, and monkeys, and cause more severe disease than their low-path ancestors. They can spread through the air between captive ferrets, and in some cases, kill the animals they land in. Perhaps most worrying, some strains have already evolved the ability to resist Tamiflu, a frontline drug that’s used to treat flu infections." (Image: Tyrone Siu) 

Flowers Have Secret Blue Halos That Bumblebees Can See
"Roses are red, violets are blue. Except they’re not. They’re, er, violet. True blue flowers are exceedingly rare, and not for lack of effort. Plant breeders have repeatedly tried to nudge roses and chrysanthemums into blueness, but doing so is really hard (at least, without the use of dyes). So imagine her surprise when she found that many flowers have secret blue halos in their flowers. The halos are rings at the bases of the flowers’ petals. Sometimes, they’re visible to us, especially if the petals are dark. But in most cases, they’re so faint that we can’t see them. Glover only detected them with the aid of laboratory equipment. And yet, they’re there—and they’re visible to bees, whose eyes are more sensitive to blue wavelengths of light than ours are." (Image: Howard Rice) 

How Domestication Ruined Dogs' Pack Instincts

"Sarah Marshall-Pescini, from the University of Vienna, has now found that dogs are terrible at a simple task that requires them to cooperate. Working together, they have to pull on two pieces of rope to bring a piece of distant food within reach—and they mostly fail. Wolves, however, are far more successful, dramatically outperforming their domestic peers. This simple experiment contradicts the common belief that dogs are just friendlier wolves. “The idea is that we’ve changed their psychology to make them into super-cooperative beings,” says Marshall-Pescini. But that’s only true for their relationships with us. By domesticating dogs (or rather, providing the conditions for them to domesticate themselves), humans ruined the pack instinct that makes wolves some of the most gregarious and cooperative hunters on four legs." (Image: Rooobert Bayer)

The Microbes That Supercharge Termite Guts
"The 19th-century American scientist Joseph Leidy has been described as the “last man who knew everything.” An extraordinary polymath, Leidy was a scholar of parasites, a discoverer of dinosaurs, a collector of gemstones, a curator of museums, an exceptional illustrator, and the first person to use a microscope to solve a murder mystery. But learned though he was, he was still shocked by what we saw when he cut open some termites in an attempt to find out what they ate." (Image: China Photos) 

More good reads in science and technology

Space writer Cassie Willyard confronts her apathy about space by reading some pieces about the recent neutron-star clash. 
This is an important piece by Susan Dominus on the replication movement and the toll it took on Amy Cuddy. It’s a good piece, although profiles always skew a little towards the protagonist. It’s also worth reading, then, this fair critique by Sanjay Srivastava, and this perspective from Daniel Engber.  
Vann Newkirk II went to Puerto Rico and found environmental horrors, and devastated communities trying to cope with them. 
"His comeback was so overwhelming that his junior opponent keeled over and began coughing up blood." Dawn Chan’s piece on the Go-playing AI "that has nothing to learn from humans" is really good!
“When you play Lantz’s game, you feel the AI’s simple, prosaic drive. You make paperclips. You destroy the world. There’s no why.” Adam Rogers on a surprisingly fun game involving paperclips and annihilation. 
BP, the company that brought us Deepwater Horizon, is now struggling over a series of dangerous accidents in Alaska. Great investigation by Zahra Hirji and Jason Leopold
What would happen if all bees went extinct? Rose Eveleth investigates
Twenty herpes sufferers flew to St. Kitts for a vaccine trial led by a researcher whose company is backed by Peter Thiel. What followed were side effects and renewed outbreaks.
From art to science to art again. A cool microbe story, involving me.
Finding herself in a dolphin tank, this beluga started speaking dolphin.
In a glyphosate review, a WHO cancer agency edited out non-carcinogenic findings—and won’t say why.
A woman went blind after stem cells were injected in her eyes. Sarah Zhang reports.
Science journalism and activism: Where are your boundaries? The Open Notebook asked 18 science journalists to weight in.
"Some meteorologists and geologists speculate that the collision would be like a pair of agitated gorillas" What would happen if a hurricane hit an active volcano?
Why does a local museum keep burying whales in Raleigh, over 100 miles from the nearest beach? By Bradley Allf.
Modern genetics undermines scientific racism, argues Adam Rutherford.
A brief but wonderful thread on whales.

More good reads in politics and society

As Gillian White reports, the Harvey Weinstein debacle has brought on a flood of stories about harassment and assault, and pieces encouraging men to speak up and take action. Good. As Lupita Nyong’o says (and do read her story because it’s one of the clearest out there):  "Now that we are speaking, let us never shut up about this kind of thing." And as Ann Friedman says, "For things to change, men have to want to know the truth... about their friends.” 
“His comments to the widow of a fallen soldier show precisely who Trump will not respect, under almost any circumstances.” By Jamelle Bouie
You may have seen that viral story claiming that Viking burial clothes bear the word “Allah.” It’s probably not true, but as Sigal Samuel shows, it’s revealing about modern cultural clashes. 
Robert Mugabe is appointed a WHO goodwill ambassador because wait what?
Emma Perrier was deceived by an older man on the internet—a hoax that turned into an unbelievable love story. By Jeff Maysh
Many Trump voters who got hurricane relief in Texas aren't sure Puerto Ricans should get it too.
A great thread on why we shouldn’t tolerate harassment just because harassers have created some good art.

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

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