Contaminomics: Why Some Microbiome Studies May Be Wrong

This is arguably one of the most important microbiome studies this year. A team of scientists has shown that DNA extraction kits, and other lab reagents commonly used in microbe studies, are almost always contaminated by low levels of microbial DNA. This cabal of contaminants, which I’m going to call “the Brady Bunch”, poses a problem for studies of microbe communities, or microbiomes. It raises the haunting possibility that many published results in the field are just wrong. (Image: Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier)
 

Pregnant Snake Prepares For Motherhood By Eating Toxic Toads

"Some expectant mothers prepare for the arrival of their babies by reading books of parenting tips, painting nurseries, and buying a pram. The tiger keelback snake takes a different approach. When females get pregnant, they slither into the forest to eat as many poisonous toads as they can find." (Image: Yasunori Koide)
 

Talks

• On 20th November, I'll be at Mind Hacks Live, an event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of one of my favourite blogs. I'll be talking about the hype and myths of oxytocin.

• On 26th November, I'll be at Story Collider, talking about my love of David Attenborough, but also about my distate for having science heroes.

• On 12th December, I'll be at Bristol University talking about science writing.

• On 16th December, I'll be doing Science Showoff, revisiting whichever one of those earlier talks goes best

More good reads

• This week, we put a robot on a comet. Randall Munroe of XKCD live-cartooned the whole thing (here’s a GIF). Matthew Francis and Megan Garber wrote great explanations. Wired had the best headline. Monica Grady’s reactions to the comet landing were the absolute best thing. And Alice Bell explained why people are rightly mad about the Rosetta scientist’s sexist shirt.
• Astonishing sequence of hunting dogs doing their thing, filmed from the air
• “We may think of them as silent, but fish make many sounds that are rarely appreciated by the human ear.” Emily Anthes on the noisy world of fish.
• A fantastic story about The Knowledge – the ridiculously hard test that London cabbies have to take. By Jody Rosen.  
• Mapping error puts national reserve in wrong place, endangers 1,400 chimps and a rare plant. Astonishing story by John Platt.
• Frank Swain becomes the first person who can hear Wi-Fi, after hacking his hearing aids
• In an era of big projects, a plea for more theory in neuroscience

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.

-Ed