Jack El-Hai, Discover
The investigator, dressed incongruously in sweater and tie and holding a small metal box, stands in a bullring. He taunts a bull with a gesture of his hand. Suddenly the bull faces him and charges. Taking a couple of steps back, the investigator presses a button on the box to send a radio signal, and the bull halts in mid-stride. It turns away. The animal’s natural aggression has evaporated.
Philip Ball, BBC Earth
Is our Universe one of many?The idea of parallel universes, once consigned to science fiction, is now becoming respectable among scientists – at least, among physicists, who have a tendency to push ideas to the limits of what is conceivable.
Malcolm & Willis, ABC Science
At least one in five Australians lives with chronic pain, and often the cause is unknown. Scientists are just now discovering the crucial role the brain plays in how pain is experienced, and how it might pave the way for innovative treatment, write Lynne Malcolm and Olivia Willis.
Joshua Horton, Science-Based Medicine
I read a study recently that alarmed me: acute bronchitis is a condition that rarely requires antibiotics, but three quarters of patients presenting with this condition receive a prescription for antibiotics. Even more worrisome, this statistic has not changed in 20 years. To those of us on the cusp of a career in medicine – I am a fourth year medical student – this is terrifying because we are going to have to deal with the consequences.
Steve Savage, Forbes
I dont buy organic foods. In fact I specifically avoid doing so. Its not my place to tell anyone else what to do, but Id like to lay out three, seriously considered factors that have shaped my personal stance on organic:
Zach Zorich, Nautilus
In less than five milliseconds, a Hydromantes salamander can launch its tongue—including the muscles, cartilage, and part of its skeleton—out of its mouth to snag a hapless insect mid-flight. Among amphibians, it is the quick draw champ. Frogs and chameleons are comparative slowpokes when it comes to their ballistic anatomies.
Mads Moltsen, ScienceNordic
How to feed the world is one of the most pressing global problems that we face right now and in the future as the world’s population continues to grow.But some scientists think they may have found a solution, deep below the sea.
Matthew Davidson, The Conversation
Do you think that the machine you are reading this story on, right now, has a feeling of “what it is like” to be in its state?What about a pet dog? Does it have a sense of what it’s like to be in its state? It may pine for attention, and appear to have a unique subjective experience, but what separates the two cases?
Ross Pomeroy, RCScience
Though difficult to fathom, just 1,500 years ago, English was a wisp of a language, spoken by a smattering of Germanic tribes as they migrated from mainland Europe to the island of Britain. Today, linguists whisper and wonder: will English eradicate all other languages?
Philip Moriarty, Symptoms Universe
I’m going to put this as bluntly as I can; it’s been niggling and nagging at me for quite a while and it’s about time I got it off my chest. When it comes to publishing research, I have to come clean: I’m a hypocrite. I spend quite some time railing about the deficiencies in the traditional publishing system, and all the while I’m bolstering that self-same system by my selection of the “appropriate” journals to target.
Hilda Bastian, PLoS Blogs
Spin doctoring is deliberate manipulation. I don’t think everyday research spin is intended to deceive, though. Mostly it’s because researchers want to get attention for their work and so many others do it, it seems normal. Or they don’t know enough about minimizing bias. It takes a lot of effort to avoid bias in research reporting.
Maria Konnikova, The New Yorker
Late last month, on “Good Morning America,” “CBS This Morning,” and other political talk shows, Marco Rubio called Donald Trump “a con artist.” (“We’re on the verge of having someone take over the conservative movement and the Republican Party who’s a con artist,” he said, on “Today.”)
Ethan Siegel, Forbes
There’s something eerily similar about the start of our Universe, a period of cosmic inflation, and the driver of the ultimate fate, the accelerated expansion of dark energy, that leads one to speculate if they might be related. In fact, this week’s chosen question comes from Andrew Gillett, who wants to know:
Kate Horowitz, Mental Floss
Abraham Lincoln's life has provided material for scores of historians. But one aspect of his history is being investigated by a very different kind of expert: geneticists. Lincoln’s appearance and medical history have some convinced that he had a condition called Marfan syndrome.
Lucas Mearian, Computer World
As vehicles become more wirelessly connected, communicating with each other and the infrastructure around them, traffic lights may become an unecessary impediment in getting from A to B.Instead of stopping for traffic lights, sensor-laden vehicles would communicate with each other and perform a kind of ballet around each other, according to a new study by MIT.
Melissa Dahl, Science of Us
Are you demanding too much from your relationship? This is the intriguing question that opens a new investigation into the science of relationships, published Wednesday by the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
