The Ed's Up #63

Questioning a Hero

Six years ago, I spent an hour at David Attenborough’s house, talking to him about wildlife, film-making and his career. Three weeks ago, I spent 20 minutes in a London bar, telling people about the experience at an incarnation of Story Collider–the wonderful event where people tell personal stories about science. Mine was about what Attenborough has meant in my life, and what it was like meeting him… but it’s also a little meditation on science heroes, and why we should always question them.
 

Why Does This Weird Insect Flash Warnings After An Attack?

"But Umbers noticed something unusual about its displays: the katydid only flashed its colours after an attack. That made no sense. Animals are meant to use deimatic displays to avoid attacks. It’s no use screaming, “I’m dangerous,” when beaks are already grabbing you or teeth are already sinking into your flanks. (Image: Kate Umbers)
 

More good reads

“The lizard was produced in the laboratory by mating two other species, and its creation defies conventional ideas about how new species evolve.” By Carl Zimmer
How to write a science feature. I’d quote a line but every one is golden. By Cassandra Willyard.
"We predict complete societal collapse within a year or so." Jack Gilbert and Josh Neufeld on what would happen in a world without microbes.
Oversold prenatal tests spur some to choose abortions. Beth Daley on the awful consequences of false positives in screening tests
A lovely historical tale of communications technology versus oppression
John Colapinto profiles graphene-discoverer and frog-levitator Andre Geim for The New Yorker
The self-tracking movement is conceptually genderless, but in practice, it's excluding women. By Rose Eveleth
Veronique Greenwood on the clever robots that package our food and how to hack your taste buds       
 

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.

-Ed