The Ed's Up #41
Extinct Humans Passed High-Altitude Gene to Tibetans
"Tibetan people can survive on the roof of the world—one of the most
inhospitable places that anybody calls home—thanks to a version of a
gene that they inherited from a group of extinct humans called
Denisovans, who were only discovered four years ago thanks to
41,000-year-old DNA recovered from a couple of bones that would fit in
your palm. If any sentence can encapsulate why the study of human
evolution has never been more exciting, it’s that one." (Image: Antoine Taveneaux)
Newly Discovered Wasp Plugs Nest With Cork of Ant Corpses
"Here’s a great home security tip from nature: if you don’t want people breaking into your house, stuff your hallway with corpses. Ideally, use the corpses of dangerous and foul-smelling people." (Image: Merten Ehmig and Michael Staab)
One Lichen Species Is Actually 126, And Probably More
"Until ten years ago, scientists talked about the lichen Dictyonema glabratum as if it were a single species. But until Robert Lucking started looking at its genes, no one realised the most startling truth about D.glabratum: it’s actually 126 different species of lichen, and possibly hundreds more."
Nature’s Most Amazing Eyes Just Got A Bit Weirder
"The mantis shrimp didn’t just evolve an absurdly over-engineered way of seeing, it did it twice." (Image: Mike Bok)
How A Microbe Became A Living Supplement For A Tiny Vampire
"Bedbugs have been sucking our blood for millennia and after a brief retreat
following World War II, they are back and more numerous than ever.
Infestations are rising, hotels are worried, and people are very, very
itchy. But the bedbug isn’t solely responsible for its success. It has
an accomplice." (Image: Takema Fukatsu)
More good reads
- Presley, the second-to-last wild-born Spix's macaw, who may have influenced the movie Rio, has died. Beautiful story by Nadia Drake.
- "I can't believe that's a living thing." Scientists find incredible purple jelly. I love how excited they are.
- What it will take to get the largest Ebola outbreak ever under control? Dick Thompson reports.
- Fascinating post on loss, forgetting, and what it really means to delete an email. By Jacqui Shine.
- Researchers stimulated a single part of a woman's brain (the claustrum) & she became unconscious, but still awake
- Sentences you don't often read: "We should be glad that it was only anthrax." An op/ed on worrying pandemic flu research. On the flipside, Debora Mackenzie debunks a scaremongering story about more flu research.
- How do you make an exoplanet? Ann Finkbeiner reports
- The (surprisingly limited) solid surfaces of the Solar System
- Chris Chambers analyses whether Facebook’s mood manipulation experiment was a breach of ethics. “Were it not so amateurish, one might be tempted to think this is all a ruse.”
- Time to redraw the map of the brain? Excellent write-up by NeuroSkeptic
- Of the 200 cases of leprosy diagnosed annually in the US, most are thought to stem from contact with armadillos. Natalie Angier doing what she does best.
More good links will be released in tomorrow's linkfest on Not Exactly Rocket Science
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And that's it! Thanks for reading.