The Ed's Up #49

When You Move House, Your Microbial Aura Moves Too

As soon as we move into a space, we inject microbes into it, and those bugs colonise the area within 24 hours. You are constantly overwriting the microbes in the world around you with your own. When we move house, our microbial aura moves too. And these microbes that we imprint upon our homes also carry our identity. If you create a database of just one microbial profile per individual, you should be able to swab a doorknob and work out which of those people touched it, and (since the microbes decay over time) when they last did so. (Image: RPG Master)
 

You Almost Certainly Have Mites On Your Face

Think of all the adults you know. Think of your parents and grandparents. Think of the teachers you had at school, your doctors and dentists, the people who collect your rubbish, and the actors you see on TV. All of these people probably have little mites crawling, eating, sleeping, and having sex on their faces. (Image: USDA)
 

One Species Becomes Two, Inside an Insect

A bacterium called Hodgkinia has split into two distinct species, while living in the cells of an insect. There is no barrier. Sardines in a can have nothing on Hodgkinia. These bacteria are crammed into the same tightly packed microscopic structures, but somehow, they’ve managed to become two distinct species. (Image: Dendroica cerulea)

More good reads

• For a profile of David Mitchell, you need a writer who can weave many elements into seamless cloth. That’s exactly what Kathryn Schulz has done. This is just masterful—writing that’s worth deconstructing as well as savouring.
• An exceptional story about the seven scientists who were convicted of manslaughter after the devastating L’Alquila earthquake. David Wolman offers a textbook example of careful structure & brutally efficient storytelling
• "Krulwich is probably not going to actually drink Abumrad’s blood..." Polymathic piece from Jess Zimmerman on the history and science of using young blood to restore health.
• This week, Pluto-bound spacecraft New Horizons swept past Neptune's orbit, 25 years to the day after Voyager II did. Images of Pluto to come next year. By Nadia Drake.
• A paean to the gorgeous Portuguese man-of-war, by Jane Lee
• The Ebola virus is mutating rapidly in W. Africa, as discovered by a team that lost 5 co-authors to it. By Erika Check Hayden. Also, a superb and important portrait of African heroes fighting Ebola by Adam Nossiter and Ben Solomon
• What happens when you raise a fish on land? An amazing study with important implications for the evolution of land vertebrates, covered by that sonofabichir, Carl Zimmer
• Memories switch from negative to positive with a flash of light!

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

You can also follow me on Twitter, find regular writing on my blog. If someone has forwarded this email to you, you can sign up yourself. 

And that's it! Thanks for reading.