Catching Up

I’m taking a short break so there won’t be any new posts for a bit. If you want something to read during the hiatus, here are some favourites from this year.

Long-form writing

• Aeon – Ant Farm
• Wired – The power of swarms
• Nature – Dynasty
• BBC (reprinted on blog) – Can We Apocalypse-Proof the World’s Knowledge with DNA?

Best of Not Exactly Rocket Science, 2013

• “We Gained Hope.” The Story of Lilly Grossman’s Genome
• Snug as a Bug in a Bug in a Bug
• Collars Reveal Just How Extreme Cheetahs Can Be
• Can We Save the World by Remixing Life?
• Resurrecting the Extinct Frog with a Stomach for a Womb
• Parasites Make Their Hosts Sociable So They Get Eaten
• How a quarter of the cow genome came from snakes
• The genes that built a home
• Dung Beetles Watch the Galaxy (That’s How They Roll)
• What Bit This Great White Shark? A Cookie-Cutter
• Bees Can Sense the Electric Fields of Flowers
• The Origin of the Friendly Wolf that Confused Darwin
• The Mucus-Lover that Stops Mice from Getting Fat
• 3-D Scans Reveal Caterpillars Turning Into Butterflies
• The Changing Science of Just-About-Birds and Not-Quite-Birds
• The Females of the Madagascar Sucker-Footed Bat are Missing
• Better Flu Vaccine Made from Self-Assembling Sculptures
• How Chickens Lost Their Penises (And Ducks Kept Theirs)
• Thresher Sharks Hunt with Huge Weaponised Tails
• Here’s What Happens Inside You When a Mosquito Bites