The Ed's Up #207

Hummingbirds Are Where Intuition Goes to Die

"“This has been going on literally under our noses for the entire history of our association with hummingbirds and there it was,” says Rubega. “We were the first to see it." In hindsight, the surprising reality of the hummingbird tongue should have been entirely unsurprising. Almost everything about these animals is counterintuitive. Hummingbirds are the bane of easy answers. They’re where intuition goes to die." (Image: Mike Blake)
 

How Coral Researchers Are Coping With the Death of Reefs

"The continuing desecration has taken an immense toll on the mental health of people like Colton who have devoted their lives to studying and saving these ecosystems. How do you get up and go to work every day when every day brings fresh news of loss? When everything you are working to save is collapsing, how do you stop yourself from collapsing, too? Maybe everything isn’t going to be fine, after all. Maybe we can’t do this. “Are we going to lose an entire ecosystem on my watch? It’s demoralizing. It’s been really hard to find the optimism,” she says. (Image: David Gray)

Scallops Have Eyes, and Each One Builds a Beautiful Living Mirror

"For millions of years, scallops have been gazing at the world using dozens of eyes, each of which has a segmented mirror that’s uncannily similar to those in our grandest telescopes. And scientists have just gotten a good look at one for the first time. Yes, those scallops—the pan-seared pucks of white flesh that grace our dinner plates. Those pucks are just the muscles that the animals use to close their beautiful shells. Look at a full, living scallop, and you’ll see a very different animal. And that animal will be looking right back at you, using dozens of eyes that line the fleshy mantle on the inner edges of its shell. Some species have up to 200 eyes. Others have electric-blue ones. And inside the eyes, the weirdness deepens." (Image: Dan-Eric Nilsson)
 

What to Do When a Patient Has a 'Do Not Resuscitate' Tattoo

"When the doctors peeled back his shirt, they found a tattoo, running along his collarbones. It said: DO NOT RESUSCITATE. The NOT was underlined. There was a signature under the final word. Holt was shocked. “We’ve always joked about this, but holy crap, this man actually did it,” he says. “You look at it, laugh a little, and then go: Oh no, I actually have to deal with this.”" (Image: Gregory Holt)
 

The Decades-Long Quest to Make Virus-Proof Mosquitoes

Here's the fourth of the video series that adapts stories from my book. This one's about the decades-long quest to stop mosquitoes from spreading dengue (and now Zika) by harnessing the power of an extraordinary bacterium. 
 

Friends of the Ed’s Up

This is a new section where I'm going to promote the work of people I care about--people who make incredible art that I think is worthy of your attention and support, but whose fierce intelligence is also match by a genuine warmth of spirit. 

Story Collider features true personal stories about science. The latest episode of the podcast features tales of hallucinogens. Directors Liz Neeley and Erin Barker also run workshops teaching storytelling skills to scientists. And there are live shows coming up in New York (Dec 5), DC (Dec 7), Boise (Dec 8) and New Orleans (Dec 14).

Flash Forward is a podcast about the future run by Rose Eveleth. It's part radio drama, part science journalism, and a lot of fun. The latest episode features an AI that binged on religious texts. 

Gastropod is a food, science, and history podcast run by Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley. The latest episode is on women, food, and power throughout history. 

The Brain Scoop is a video show about natural history, museums, and occasionally taxidermy, hosted by Emily Graslie. The latest episode features glow rocks. 

Climate Stories is a newsletter by Alice Bell, in which she writes wonderful weekly histories about the people of climate science. It's lively and fascinating. The latest one is about wind.

Terrestrial is an environmental podcast by Ashley Ahearn about how people are coping in a world that is changing. It's top-notch journalism that brings fresh perspectives to a vital topic, The latest episode is about replicating life on Earth. 

 

More good reads - read these two first

• If you read one piece from this newsletter this week, let it be The Nationalist’s Delusion by Adam Serwer. It’s about white denialism, and the nationalism that gave rise to Trump. It is one of the single best pieces that The Atlantic has published this year. 
• Maggie Koerth-Baker tells the story of Pan Pan, the panda from whom 130 of the 520 captive pandas are descended. It is easily one of the best bits of science writing this year. It’s a masterclass in voice, structure, metaphor, nuance.

And even more good reads

• New York has separate populations of uptown and downtown rats that don't mingle very much, and I cannot stop laughing. By Sarah Zhang.
• Here’s what trophy hunting does to the elephants it leaves behind. By Virginia Morell
• Meet the people with chronic pain who are caught in the crosshairs of the opioid debate. By Dan Vergano.
• "The doctor says, 'You need to stay away from bees.' I explain that that’s actually not possible. I am a graduate student in biology studying honeybees so it is literally my job to be near honeybees." A story by Rachel Bonoan
• This is a really fascinating piece about the weird historical relationship between Boston, USA and Guangzhou, China. By Veronique Greenwood. 
• "Due process? Women would love ANY process. They would love to even be heard." By Ijeoma Oluo
• "Often elided from this conversation is the fact that people of color and women of all races have been consuming racist and sexist art for generations... and developing their own responses to it, responses that are often deeply nuanced." Really fascinating story on what happened when a woman translated The Odyssey, by Anna North. 
• Mueller’s investigation snares Michael Flynn. Here’s what that means, by David Graham.  

• “When I had to reveal to them that okay, these are bears, I was excited about that because it was my initial motive to get into this,” says Lindqvist. “They obviously were a little disappointed.” DNA reveals that yetis are actually just a bunch of bears.
• Female eggs might select certain sperm.
•   “The belief endures, from Armstrong’s time and before, that visible, affluent African-American entertainers are obliged to adopt a pose of ceaseless gratitude.” Jelani Cobb on “ungrateful” as the new “uppity”. See also Vann Newkirk II: "Trump is a savant when it comes to knowing how to harness white resentment and hostility towards outspoken people of color.
• “There has never been a more outrageous, revolting, unfair process to pass a corrupted bill in the history of Congress.” On the absurdity of the Republican tax bill.
• "Instead of reaching out to that Mr. Very Important man who is always quoted, find the woman who can speak to the issue at hand, who can write an intelligent piece of commentary. She exists."
• Note-perfect: “Hey it’s me, a woke misogynist sliding right on into your DMs.”

 
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