These Microbes Drive The Planet’s Breath And Ocean’s Pulse

"A few years ago, a team of scientists took an expensive robot, attached it to a buoy floating off the coast of Hawaii, and left it there. From the outside, it would have looked like an elaborate garbage can. Inside, it was busy. As it bobbed and flowed with the currents, it sucked in some of the surrounding water and passed it through a small circular filter. It added preservative to the filter, moved it to one side, and put a new one in its place. It did this every two hours. After three days, the scientists came back for it. That was how they took the ocean’s pulse." (Image: Ed DeLong and Dave Karl) 

Hope Against The Frogpocalypse Fungus, But Just a Sliver

A doomsday fungus called Bd is ripping its way through the world's frogs and amphibians. Bd news is always bad news... but today, there's a sliver of hope. A study showing that the frogs can mount stronger immune responses after exposure to dead fungus suggests that conservationists might be able to vaccinate them one day. But how useful could that really be? (Image: Thomas Brown) 

Placenta Evolution and a Sexual Cold War

With their impressive fins and stunning colours, the poeciliids—a group of small fish that includes guppies, mollies and swordtails—are understandably popular in aquariums. Some resemble Kandinsky paintings given life. But some poeciliids are rare in aquaria, because they are relatively drab—silver-and-black oddities in a family known for extravagance. They also tend to share another weird and less obvious trait: they have placentas. (Image: Mark Hanford)

More good reads

• Animals Who Drink and the People Who Cut Them Open, by Adam Rogers.
• The Organ Detective: A Career Spent Uncovering Hidden Global Market in Human Flesh. By Ethan Watters
• She's Still Dying on Facebook. Heartbreaking piece by Julie Buntin
• Planetary smashup (and some incredibly good luck) left Mercury with a metallic heart. By Nadia Drake.
• "He rides around with a stack of mirrors, looking for people who have lost their limbs.” Fresh piece on phantom limbs by Srinath Perur.
• "It is sobering." Stem cell treatment causes nasal growth in woman's back. Chilling report by Clare Wilson.
• Oh, no biggie. Just vials of smallpox found in the back of some FDA freezer. Maryn McKenna considers what effects the vials might have on debates over whether to destroy the last smallpox stocks. Sara Reardon wrote this shockingly prescient Nature feature two months ago. And some of us had fun.

More good links will be released in tomorrow's linkfest on Not Exactly Rocket Science

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