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
