I’m compiling a list of my top 12 science long-reads of the year (defined here as features longer than 2,000 words). Here are one, two, three and four. Read them all and follow the series on twitter with the hashtag #12longreads.

“It’s quality and content of the information that matters to press freedom, not the people spreading it.” – wise words on bloggers and journalists by Becca Rosen.

From the Big Picture: the 50 best photos of the natural world from 2011

“We can see the unborn brain flowering into a neurally connected marvel” – My, Vaughan Bell writes beautifully.

“I watch as Christina controls Prof Haggard’s fingers like a marionette”- great Tom Chivers pieces on