Srikar D

Is America Ready for a Global Pandemic?

The epidemics of the early 21st century revealed a world unprepared, even as the risks continue to multiply. Much worse is coming.

Has the quest for top-down unification of physics stalled?

After the success of the Standard Model, experiments have stopped answering to grand theories. Is particle physics in crisis?

Brains May Teeter Near Their Tipping Point

In a renewed attempt at a grand unified theory of brain function, physicists now argue that brains optimize performance by staying near — though not exactly at — the critical point between two phases.

Freeman Dyson: “I kept quiet for 30 years, maybe it’s time to speak.”

One of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, Freeman Dyson, is as much known for his significant contribution to science as he is for courting controversy throughout his life. Over six decades, he built a body of work that sits alongside some of the most renowned physicists, mathematicians, and intellectuals of our time.

Explainer: How scientists estimate climate sensitivity

The sensitivity of the Earth’s climate to increases in atmospheric CO2 concentration is a question that sits at the heart of climate science.

Joe and the Whale (via Nature Briefing)

Joe Howlett gave his life to save an animal that may already be past the point of no return. After ten centuries of annihilation, is there any way to undo the damage done?

Iran’s ancient engineering marvel

Dating back around 3,000 years, the qanat is an ingenious and sustainable solution to Iran’s dearth of easily accessible water.

The bizarre story of Australia’s floating hotel and its 14,000km round journey to North Korea

Australia was once home to the world’s first floating hotel, and over the past 30 years it’s been on a wild ride, from Singapore to the Great Barrier Reef — and eventually to North Korea.

The Boys From the Banlieues

The vast sprawl of suburbs and satellite towns around Paris, disdained by some as a breeding ground for crime and terrorism, is home to the greatest pool of soccer talent in Europe.

What Makes a Baseball Team Great?

Inside the wide-ranging search—led by economists and psychologists—for the elixir that turns good squads into great ones

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New issues are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

Inside the battle against Russian influence at FIFA

Russia’s World Cup caps a decade of unrelenting efforts to speed that nation’s return to sporting superiority, employing some of the same tactics Vladimir Putin has used in politics.

The Politics of Now: The Last World Cup

The evidence for the premise that international sport spreads peace and goodwill has always been fairly thin: every major tournament is dressed up that way but the legacy is more often mothballed stadiums and simmering resentment, as was the case after South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014. Rarely, though, has a regime so brazenly signalled its indifference to the niceties of international sport, which require at least the pretence that bad behaviour gets put on hold. As the saying goes, hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue, and this is the currency in which Fifa likes to trade. But Putin isn’t having any of it. He seems to have treated the award of the tournament as a licence to try his luck.

How Not to Scout for Soccer Talent

Two new books raise interesting questions about the ethics and effectiveness of the sport’s selection system, with its early and intense winnowing process for aspiring players.

Coder-Physicists Are Simulating the Universe to Unlock Its Secrets

Computer simulations have become so accurate that cosmologists can now use them to study dark matter, supermassive black holes and other mysteries of the real evolving cosmos.

In her short life, mathematician Emmy Noether changed the face of physics

Noether linked two important concepts in physics: conservation laws and symmetries

Digging for Clues to an Ancient Extinction — and the Planet’s Future

If volcano-driven climate change was behind the Permian-Triassic land extinction, scientists might learn something crucial about our own fate.

The Endling: Watching a Species Vanish in Real Time

On the frontlines of extinction in the Gulf of California, where the vaquita faces its final days.

China Is Genetically Engineering Monkeys With Brain Disorders

A visit to a facility in Guangdong province, where researchers are tinkering with monkey brains in order to understand the most severe forms of autism

The Wounds of the Drone Warrior

Even soldiers who fight wars from a safe distance have found themselves traumatized. Could their injuries be moral ones?

The North Korean Axe Murders That Almost Started a War

In 1976, two American soldiers were axed to death over a poplar tree. What came next threatened to change the course of history.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New issues are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

What Is Dark Matter and Why Hasn’t Anyone Found It Yet? 

Five-sixths of the universe’s stuff seems to be missing, and we just can’t find it. It’s called “dark matter,” and scientists have gone looking for it with some of the world’s largest, most expensive experiments. 

Time and time again, these experiments come up empty handed.

Plate Tectonics May Be Essential for Life 

Life needs more than water alone. Recent discoveries suggest that plate tectonics has played a critical role in nourishing life on Earth. The findings carry major consequences for the search for life elsewhere in the universe.

There Is a Whole World Inside Every Plant 

Plants have microbiomes, too, and they’re full of untapped secrets.

The only emotions I can feel are anger and fear 

One in ten people struggle to recognise their emotions. New research suggests a vital link between our ability to sense our physical bodies and knowing how we feel.

The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver 

One of the world’s most hazardous jobs is known for its intense pressure.

Yashin 

A great interactive on feature Lev Yashin, Russian who went from making bullets to becoming one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time. He is also the only goalkeeper to win the Ballon d’Or. 

Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry 

People who are short on relatives can hire a husband, a mother, a grandson. The resulting relationships can be more real than you’d expect.

Tales from the far-flung Faroes 

A visual peek into what life is like in the Faroe Islands. 

Also See: Islands in the sky (video)

Secrets of the World’s Super-Explorers 

For 111 years, a Manhattan mansion has been the gathering ground for adventurers who risk everything to reach the ends of the earth, depths of the oceans, and heights of the heavens.

The Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke 

Two decades before Jamestown, settlers arrived in what is now North Carolina. What happened to them is a mystery, but there are some clues.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New issues are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

Ringing the chords of the Universe: how music influenced science

It’s no surprise that mathematics has influenced music. But did you know that the influence goes both ways?

Saving Africa’s wildlife

A 21st-century Noah’s ark transports animals back to places where they’ve been wiped out.

Training the Polar Bear Patrol

A grassroots guard learns how to keep people and polar bears safe in a small Arctic community.

Visiting the Mysterious Fairy Circles of the Namib Desert

In the landscape where Mad Max: Fury Road was filmed, a scientist is trying to understand a natural phenomenon that has eluded explanation for decades.

Shedding New Light on the Mysteries of Antarctica’s Long, Dark Winter

The continent’s winter months present one of the most challenging—and surprising—research environments on Earth.

What’s really behind ‘gluten sensitivity’?

As data trickle in, entrenched camps have emerged. Some researchers are convinced that many patients have an immune reaction to gluten or another substance in wheat—a nebulous illness sometimes called nonceliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS). Others believe most patients are actually reacting to an excess of poorly absorbed carbohydrates present in wheat and many other foods.

The Mass Murder We Don’t Talk About

In Uganda, Ethiopia, and a small number of other countries, the Bush and Clinton administrations lavished development and military aid on dictators who in turn funneled weapons to insurgents in Sudan, Rwanda, and Congo. In this way, Washington helped stoke the interlinked disasters that have claimed millions of lives since the late 1980s and still roil much of eastern and central Africa today.

Why some countries come together, while others fall apart

Nations come with a vast array of peoples, languages and histories, but the strong ones share three simple things

The Best Books on Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece’s legacy can be seen all around us, including in our political system — but many of us don’t know that much about it. Fortunately, we have someone who has devoted his life to studying this remote time and place to give us a reading list. Chris Pelling, Emeritus Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford, recommends his top five books on Ancient Greece.

Marianne Vos Is the Boss

The world’s best bike racer is a woman: Vos, a 31-year-old Dutch superstar with more than 300 podium finishes. She’s also an activist, taking on the fight against gender inequality in a sport whose future has to involve knocking down a few doors.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New issues are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

10 stories to read this weekend • Issue 228 • May 25, 2018

What Is Consciousness?

Scientists are beginning to unravel a mystery that has long vexed philosophers.

Was Science Wrong About Being Right?

Handedness is an ancient trait, but researchers are rethinking its roots.

Extreme Athletes an Human Endurance

What extreme athletes can—and can’t—tell us about human endurance

Age of Enlightenment: The Promise of Circadian Lighting

The impacts of artificial lighting on human health are not fully understood, but many scientists say enough is known to warrant dramatic changes now.

Also see: A visual history of light (video)

Why there is no drug for Alzheimer’s disease

Over a century after Alzheimer’s was discovered, we still don’t have a good way to treat it. Why? Because the disease is way more complex than researchers ever thought

He Was Dying. Antibiotics Weren’t Working. Then Doctors Tried a Forgotten Treatment.

The treatment Strathdee had fixed on as a last-ditch hope is almost never used in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration has not licensed phage therapy, keeping it out of pharmacies and hospitals. Few physicians have used it even experimentally, and most civilians have never heard of it. But phages are a natural phenomenon, frequently deployed in the former Soviet Union. When used properly, they can save lives.

Native Knowledge: What Ecologists Are Learning from Indigenous People (via Robert Macfarlane)  

From Alaska to Australia, scientists are turning to the knowledge of traditional people for a deeper understanding of the natural world. What they are learning is helping them discover more about everything from melting Arctic ice, to protecting fish stocks, to controlling wildfires.

Also see: Watchers of the earth

This Popular Parrot ‘Talks’ Like Us. But We’re Silencing It.

Scientists are using forensic techniques to help save African gray parrots, among the most illegally trafficked birds in the world.

How North Korean hackers became the world’s greatest bank robbers

The Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea’s equivalent to the CIA, has trained up the world’s greatest bank-robbing crews. In just the past few years, RGB hackers have struck more than 100 banks and cryptocurrency exchanges around the world, pilfering more than $650 million. That we know of.

How the American Aircraft Carrier Became King of the Seas

From makeshift beginnings to the ultimate power projection platform.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New issues are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

We Depend on Plastic. Now We’re Drowning in It.

Imagine five plastic grocery bags stuffed with plastic trash, Jambeck says, sitting on every foot of coastline around the world—that would correspond to about 8.8 million tons, her middle-of-the-road estimate of what the ocean gets from us annually. It’s unclear how long it will take for that plastic to completely biodegrade into its constituent molecules. Estimates range from 450 years to never.

Also See: Plastic Bag Found at the Bottom of the Mariana Trench

Explainer: Six ideas to limit global warming with solar geoengineering

From sending a giant mirror into space to spraying aerosols in the stratosphere, the range of proposed techniques all come with unique technical, ethical and political challenges.

The Jaguar Is Made for the Age of Humans

A writer comes face-to-face with the cat deep in the Amazon jungle and left with a new understanding of its surprising resilience to poaching and habitat loss.

How Useful Is Fear?

Evolution has installed phobias in humans that are proving hard to shake.

Behavioral economics from nuts to ‘nudges’

Story and the description below were found via The Browser

Nobel laureate Richard Thaler recounts the growth of behavioural economics, and his own work in the field building on the founding insights of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. “Random errors cancel out on average. But if errors are predictable, departures from rational choice models can also be predictable. This was a crucial insight. It implies that, at least in principle, it would be possible to improve the explanatory power of economics by adding psychological realism”

On David Foster Wallace, Georg Cantor, and Infinity

Broadly speaking, there are two versions of infinity. The woollier, more mystical one, which might be called metaphysical infinity, is associated with ideas like perfection, the absolute, and God. The more hardheaded version, mathematical infinity, is the one that Wallace set out to explicate.

The spectacular power of Big Lens

On 1 March, regulators in the EU and the US gave permission for the world’s largest optical companies to form a single corporation, which will be known as EssilorLuxottica. The new firm will not technically be a monopoly: Essilor currently has around 45% of the prescription lenses market, and Luxottica 25% of the frames. But in seven centuries of spectacles, there has never been anything like it. The new entity will be worth around $50bn (£37bn), sell close to a billion pairs of lenses and frames every year, and have a workforce of more than 140,000 people.

A Silver Thread: Islam in Eastern Europe

The world of Islamic Eastern Europe is an undiscovered continent. Exploring its history means spelunking in obscure journals and forgotten offprints. Even with a good research library at your back, it is a struggle. For literature, the situation is even worse. But there are treasures waiting for the enterprising translator.

The Pearl of Lao Tzu’s Twisted History

A tale of ancient philosophers, alien abductions, murder-for-hire—and how the world’s largest pearl came to be the centerpiece of an 80-year-old hoax

Barcelona star Lionel Messi manages to stay hidden despite his fame

Lionel Messi only seems like the least interesting man in the world. Listen closely and his silence speaks louder than most athletes’ shouts.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

When Mountains Fall into the Sea 

As glaciers melt, unstable slopes are being exposed and are on the precipice of collapse.

California burning: life among the wildfires 

People used to roll their eyes at my gloomy talk of climate change. Then the big blaze came.

How Posture Makes Us Human 

The philosophy and science of standing up straight.

When Homer envisioned Achilles, did he see a black man? 

The Greeks didn’t have modern ideas of race. Did they see themselves as white, black – or as something else altogether?

Palmyra 

On this latest visit, I went into the town to find streets clogged with war detritus, water and sewage pipes crumbled and buildings collapsed with their innards exposed to the elements. Barely a hundred people out of an estimated pre-war population of 70,000 have returned

Sick building syndrome: is it the buildings or the people who need treatment? 

In Finland, people whose sickness is linked to certain buildings fear being labelled as mentally ill, while scientists search for evidence that their condition is ‘real’.

How the Manhattan Project’s Nuclear Suburb Stayed Secret 

Oak Ridge, Tennessee, once home to 75,000, went up fast and under the radar. But it was built to last, too.

The forgotten founder of ornithology 

Elizabeth Yale relishes a biography of Francis Willughby, a seventeenth-century polymath with a gift for collaboration.

The Marathon World Record Holder the World Forgot 

Two weeks after Kathrine Switzer made headlines at Boston in 1967, 13-year-old Maureen Mancuso quietly shattered the women’s world record. Few people noticed.

The Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code 

Bill Benter did the impossible: He wrote an algorithm that couldn’t lose at the track. Close to a billion dollars later, he tells his story for the first time.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

Alzheimer’s disease: Following a couple from diagnosis to the final stages (via Nature Briefing) 

For 10 years, Dr. Jon LaPook has been checking in on Carol Daly, a woman diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and her caregiver husband, Mike. After a decade, the disease has had a devastating impact on each of them

Why do the temperamentally blessed sail through life’s storms? 

Just one in five people will be lucky enough to avoid mental health problems throughout their life. How do they do it?

Who Keeps Track of All the Craters on the Moon? 

For generations, women have been critical to bringing order to the chaos of the solar system.

How Dyson Saw Feynman

Nine letters by Freeman Dyson portray his relationship with the Nobel Laureate.

How Picasso’s Journey From Prodigy to Icon Revealed a Genius

Intense, provocative, disturbing, and captivating, the legendary artist led a life of restless brilliance.

Bombers and Pterosaurs Were Both Before Their Time 

The evolution of B-2s and lizards.

The Puzzles and Pitfalls of Reconstructing the Largest Ever Land Mammal 

Piecing together a giant prehistoric rhinoceros is as hard as it looks. 

Explorers Journey Into Africa’s Okavango Delta 

A multinational team of conservationists spent a grueling, transcendent four months on a 1,500-mile expedition to save the Okavango Delta—but the mission’s just beginning.

What Refugees Face on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route 

A doctor on a boat that rescued hundreds of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea recounts how these trips are becoming more dangerous for NGOs and refugees.

Copenhagen Architect Jan Gehl Takes on Smart Cities 

Architect and planner Jan Gehl looks back on how he helped transform Copenhagen into one of the world’s most livable cities and talks about how people can reclaim the streets.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

How to blow up a star 

Supernova simulations are resolving a 50-year-old mystery about stellar death throes.

Can Dirt Save the Earth? 

Agriculture could pull carbon out of the air and into the soil — but it would mean a whole new way of thinking about how to tend the land.

The Unlikely Upside of Cape Town’s Drought 

Surprising, even beautiful things can happen when it feels as if the world is about to end.

How DNA Transfer Framed Lukis Anderson for Murder (via The Browser)  

We leave traces of our genetic material everywhere, even on things we’ve never touched. That got Lukis Anderson charged with a brutal crime he didn’t commit.

Pasta Is Good For You, Say Scientists Funded By Big Pasta 

Facing pressure from the low-carb movement, Barilla and other companies are funding and promoting research that argues pasta is healthy.

Mas Subramanian’s Quest for a Billion-Dollar Red 

The world has never had truly safe, stable, and bright pigment. The trail may start with YInMn, the first blue created in two centuries

In Search of the Vanished Destination 

The Bering Sea is one of the deadliest places on the planet. But for the fishermen who harvest crab there every winter, their work had steadily been getting safer—they hadn’t lost a boat in a decade. That all changed on February 11, 2017, when the 110-foot Destination disappeared off the coast of Alaska with its six-man crew.

How China Is Buying Its Way Into Europe 

The continent saw roughly 45 percent more China-related activity than the U.S. during this period, in dollar terms, according to available data. 

The volume and nature of some of these investments, from critical infrastructure in eastern and southern Europe to high-tech companies in the west, have raised a red flag at the European Union level

The Avengers: How Joss Whedon & Marvel Made the Battle of New York 

Joss Whedon, Kevin Feige, and other creatives weigh in on how they pulled off the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s defining moment.

Floyd Landis: The Man Who Brought Down Lance Armstrong 

Floyd Landis, a former teammate of the cyclist’s, just won more than $1 million in a legal case against Armstrong. Here are his thoughts on the suit, cycling, and his onetime rival.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

The Hunt for Wonder Drugs at the North Pole 

In a race against antibiotic resistance, a Norwegian research team sails into the Arctic darkness.

How a cocktail of live viruses can work when antibiotics fail

When antibiotics fail, could phage therapy succeed? The germ’s-eye view of infection might open up revolutionary treatments

How the sufferings of one generation are passed on to the next 

War, famine and persecution inflict profound changes on bodies and brains. Could these changes persist over generations?

What can we learn when a clinical trial is stopped? 

An early halt to a trial of deep brain stimulation for depression reveals little about the treatment but more about the changing nature of clinical trials.

The Bloody Toll of Congo’s Elephant Wars (via Digg) 

In Garamba National Park, in Democratic Republic of Congo, 13 park rangers have been killed in the past three years, and 256 elephants have been taken for their tusks—and these days, the poachers often arrive in uniform, with an arsenal of weapons to match.

The Spinal Tap That Changed My Life 

After a spinal tap led to a cerebrospinal leak, my life of travel and food changed overnight. To mark ten years of long term travel, I wanted to share what really happened after the lumbar puncture, and during the craziness of these last seven months trying to fix the leak.

How to get rich quick in Silicon Valley 

Corey Pein took his half-baked startup idea to America’s hottest billionaire factory – and found a wasteland of techie hustlers and con men

The murder that shook Iceland 

In a country with one of the lowest murder rates in the world, the killing of a 20-year-old woman upended the nation’s sense of itself

Stan Lee Needs a Hero: Elder Abuse Claims and a Battle Over the Aging Marvel Creator 

At Marvel in New York in the ‘60s, he created the comic book characters that dominate the box office today. But at 95 and reeling from his wife’s death and a fight with his daughter, Lee stands at the center of a nasty battle for his care (and estate) as one friend pleads for help: “He’s in need of a superhero himself.”

James Harden Isn’t Playing Around 

The outrageous blossoming of the NBA’s most exciting player.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

How gravitational waves could solve some of the Universe’s deepest mysteries 

With the first detections behind them, researchers have set their sights on ambitious scientific quarry.

Your Body Is a Teeming Battleground

It’s time to rethink the quest to control aging, death, and disease—and the fear of mortality that fuels it.

I’m a Neuroscientist Who Studies Mental Illness. Here’s What Happened When I Lost My Own Mind. (via Digg)  

I’ve studied mental illness my entire career. Yet when I began my descent into the very same sort of madness that I’d researched, I had no idea what was happening. This is the story of my journey into insanity—and back.

Rescue on the Killer Mountain 

When two climbers were stranded near the summit of Nanga Parbat last winter, they sent out a desperate call on their satellite device. A hundred miles away, a Polish team of extraordinary climbers answered the call, prompting one of the most daring rescues in mountaineering history.

Chasing the Man Who Caught the Storm: An Interview With Brantley Hargrove 

Samaras was a tornado chaser with a simple but absurdly treacherous goal: to get close enough to a twister to glean data from within its core. Hargrove, who spent months on the road chasing tornadoes for the reporting of the book, retraces and recreates Samaras’ most dramatic missions, culminating on May 31, 2014 in El Reno, Oklahoma, where he would face off with the largest tornado ever recorded. That same tornado would take Samaras’ life along with those of his son, Paul, and fellow chaser Carl Young.

The Boat at the Bottom of the Sea (via Digg)  

More than a year after a Seattle-based crabber vanished in Alaska’s Bering Sea, its final hours remain a mystery. The surviving family of the Destination’s crew—and one intrepid investigator—seek to uncover the secrets the ocean still keeps.

The dizzying story of Symphony of the Seas, the largest and most ambitious cruise ship ever built (via NextDraft)

This is the inside story of how cruise ships went from pensioners’ pastime to floating cities engaged in an all-out entertainment arms race

As Innocuous as Plant No. 1 

William Vollman enters the radioactive red zone to visit the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Life Inside China’s Social Credit Laboratory 

The party’s massive experiment in ranking and monitoring Chinese citizens has already started.

The World’s Emptiest Airport Is a Red Flag (via @DamnInteresting)

In a remote corner of Sri Lanka, China built billions of dollars of high-end infrastructure that now sits virtually abandoned. Was that the plan all along?

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

New evidence about the human occupation of Asia is cascading in 

New evidence about the ancient humans who occupied Asia is cascading in: the story of our species needs rewriting again

How We, The Indians, Came to Be 

A breath-taking new study, with some of the most well-regarded names in population genetics, archaeology and anthropology as authors, unpeels the layers of our pre-history concerning the Indus Valley, Vedic Aryans and Dravidian languages.

When the Heavens Stopped Being Perfect 

The advent of the telescope punctured our ideals about the nighttime sky.

What makes a tree a tree? (via Kottke.org) 

Despite numerous studies and 30-plus genomes under their belts, scientists are still struggling to nail down the defining traits of these tall, long-lived, woody plants

How science fiction feeds the fuel solutions of the future 

Fantasies about new power sources for human ambitions go back a century or more. Could these past visions energise our own future?

How to survive climate change: a lesson from Hurricane Maria 

The rest of the world can learn from Puerto Rican communities rallying together to recover from a natural disaster fuelled by climate change.

A People in Limbo, Many Living Entirely on the Water 

Floating villages spread across the surface of the Mekong River’s waterways, playing host to ethnic Vietnamese whose status in Cambodian society is perpetually adrift.

The ISIS Files: When Terrorists Run City Hall 

We unearthed thousands of internal documents that help explain how the Islamic State stayed in power so long.

Why good people turn bad online 

Meet the scientists finding out how we can defeat our inner trolls and build more cooperative digital societies.

How a Young Woman Lost Her Identity 

Hannah Upp disappears for weeks at a time, forgetting her sense of self. Can she still be found?

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

How human embryonic stem cells sparked a revolution 

After 20 years of hope, promise and controversy, human embryonic stem cells are reshaping biological concepts and starting to move into the clinic.

Divided by DNA: The uneasy relationship between archaeology and ancient genomics 

Two fields in the midst of a technological revolution are struggling to reconcile their views of the past.

Meet Vaclav Smil, the man who has quietly shaped how the world thinks about energy 

Through dozens of books, Vaclav Smil has helped shape how people think about the past and future of energy.

The World’s Water Crisis Explained

Many more cities than Cape Town face an uncertain future over water. But there are emerging solutions.

Nathalie Cabrol Searches the Earth for the Secrets of Life on Mars 

In some of the world’s most extreme and dangerous environments she hunts for organisms that live in conditions like those on the red planet.

Why He Kayaked Across the Atlantic at 70 (for the Third Time) 

For Aleksander Doba, pitting himself against the wide-open sea — storms, sunstroke, monotony, hunger and loneliness — is a way to feel alive in old age.

The World’s Best Hitchhiker on the Secrets of His Success 

People generally believe hitching takes no particular know-how, but it takes a tremendous amount of skill to travel quickly, safely and in the right direction like Juan Villarino. 

Also see: Tragically Lost in Joshua Tree’s Wild Interior 

Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women 

Lonely seniors are shoplifting in search of the community and stability of jail.

Masha Gessen: Inside the Gulags of the Soviet Union 

The Gulag was not a single entity—there were dozens of them: the Gulag of Timber Production, the Gulag of Railroad Construction, and the like. The Gulags contained camp directorates, which in turn contained multiple lagpunkts—“camp units”—the individual camps that made up the archipelago. But the camp itself was a vanishing act: It was created for a specific task—a construction project, a dig, a mine—and when the job was completed, when the tower was built, when the canal was dug, when the mine was depleted, when the forest was decimated—the camp disappeared, often without a trace.

The last whalers: commuting from the North Sea to Antarctica 

Men from the Shetland Islands worked the whaling expeditions to the Antarctic. Until the whales were gone

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

David Reich Unearths Human History Etched in Bone 

The geneticist at Harvard Medical School has retrieved DNA from more than 900 ancient people. His findings trace the prehistoric migrations of our species.

A primer on the primal origins of humans on Earth 

Our history is complicated. Our pre-history, even more so.

The shape of life before the dinosaurs, on a strange planet 

The ancient Earth was profoundly alien. How do we distinguish between the living and non-living in the fossil record?

Welcome to the Center of the Universe 

For the men and women who use the Deep Space Network to talk to the heavens, failure is not an option.

On Mount Everest, the world’s highest lab is uncovering the secrets of extreme fitness 

Medical research team Xtreme Everest set up a lab in one of earth’s most oxygen-starved places. What they discovered could save thousands of lives around the world

The Island that Disappeared 

An Englishman searches for what’s left of Providence, a failed Puritan colony in the Caribbean.

Germany’s Refugee Detectives 

Inside Germany’s high-stakes operation to sort people fleeing death from opportunists and pretenders

The roaming empire 

As buying a house becomes harder and remote working simpler, should we remain wedded to the idea of settling down? Jonathan Beckman meets the people who hope to find a home wherever they wander

I Want My ChessTV 

It’s perhaps an unlikely eSport, but tens of thousands of viewers are tuning in for the fast-playing, trash-talking, chair-throwing, high-stakes world of online chess.

The History Of Stress Balls (via Narratively) 

America’s favorite squeezable knick-knack, explained.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

How Einstein Lost His Bearings, and With Them, General Relativity 

By 1913, Albert Einstein had nearly completed general relativity. But a simple mistake set him on a tortured, two-year reconsideration of his theory. Today, mathematicians still grapple with the issues he confronted.

The chemistry of the microbiome 

Our gut bacteria are carrying out chemistry on our behalf, but without us knowing much about it. Scientists are starting to examine their enzymes, find out what they’re up to, and see if they can be harnessed to help us

There’s No Scientific Basis for Race—It’s a Made-Up Label 

It’s been used to define and separate people for millennia. But the concept of race is not grounded in genetics.

Why Earth’s History Appears So Miraculous 

The strange, cosmic reason our evolutionary path will look ever luckier the longer we survive

How a Canadian slaughterhouse keeps the world’s premature babies alive 

Foam from cow lungs can be transformed into a lifesaving treatment for premature infants struggling to breathe. We take you to a slaughterhouse in Canada where an unusual sort of craftsmen retrieve this precious liquid before it’s shipped around the world.

Photographing These Abandoned Space Shuttles Made Me a Russian Target 

How one man broke into a secret facility housing the last of the Soviet Union’s experimental space ships.

Cornelius Gurlitt and the Dilemma of Nazi-Looted Art 

The discovery of more than 1,500 artworks in a flat in Munich serves as an inconvenient reminder of one of the unresolved wrongs of the Third Reich.

The Olympian Who Believes He’s Always On TV 

An Olympic sailor suffering from Truman Show Disorder attempts to wrest control away from the Director.

The Lost Kids on the Line 

The sport of slacklining lifts you above the earth and carries trouble from your mind. Sonya Iverson leads a band of practitioners who take the sport to children who need it, wherever they are, whoever they may be.

Nick Kyrgios: talent to burn (via Conor Friedersdorf’s excellent newsletter) 

Five short pieces about one of tennis’s most misunderstood players

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

Welcome to the Age of Climate Migration 

Extreme weather due to climate change displaced more than a million people from their homes in the US last year. It could soon reshape the nation

The unwelcome revival of ‘race science’ 

Its defenders claim to be standing up for uncomfortable truths, but race science is still as bogus as ever

The Massive Prize Luring Miners to the Stars 

Mining asteroids might sound like science fiction, but it’s inching closer to reality—and it could be incredibly lucrative. Currently, the most valuable known asteroid is estimated to be worth $15 quintillion.

How close are we to a cure for Huntington’s? 

Twenty-five years after the discovery of the gene behind Huntington’s disease, Peter Forbes reports on the potential first treatment for this devastating condition.

The Arctic Helped Me Heal After the Death of My Brother 

When I needed to process my grief, the polar cold and isolation proved to be exactly what I needed

Nappies, takeaways and bubble wrap: could I remove plastic from my life?’ 

It’s polluting our oceans and killing our wildlife, but how easy is it to get by without it? Four writers find out

The Reckoning 

Thirty years ago, an acclaimed series of documentaries introduced the world to an isolated tribe in Papua New Guinea. What happened when the cameras left?

Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet? 

For centuries, lexicographers have attempted to capture the entire English language. Technology might soon turn this dream into reality – but will it spell the end for dictionaries?

When Twenty-Six Thousand Stinkbugs Invade Your Home 

These uniquely versatile bugs are decimating crops and infiltrating houses all across the country. Will we ever be able to get rid of them?

The Lottery Hackers 

Jerry and Marge Selbee were two Michigan retirees who figured out how to make millions playing the lottery

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

The Secret History of Gravitational Waves 

Contrary to popular belief, Einstein was not the first to conceive of gravitational waves—but he was, eventually, the first to get the concept right. 

…Like most scientific concepts, that of gravitational waves emerged over many years, through the work of numerous architects. Those architects were neither naïfs nor plagiarists. They were merely scientists working in sometimes friendly and sometimes not-so-friendly competition, seeking to solve a long-recognized problem.

First, There Were Microbes. Then Life on Earth Got Big. 

How did life go from tiny organisms to large, complex creatures? Scientists see clues in fossils from as far back as 570 million years ago.

Some of the World’s Biggest Lakes Are Drying Up. Here’s Why. 

Warming climates, drought, and overuse are draining crucial water sources, threatening habitats and cultures.

China’s great leap forward in science 

Chinese investment is paying off with serious advances in biotech, computing and space. Are they edging ahead of the west?

What Is the Perfect Color Worth? 

Inside the mysterious art — and big business — of color forecasting.

The oddness of Isaac Newton (via The Browser)

Priest of Nature is certainly not the first book to acknowledge that Newton was a deeply religious man. It is, though, one of the first to argue seriously that Newton’s faith was as important to him as his natural philosophy – if not more so. Over the past fifteen years or so a series of private papers have emerged that reveal he invested enormous industry and rigour of thought in studying Christian origins.

Hominin Burial - Who First Buried the Dead? 

We have learned a lot by trying to figure out what makes humans unique. Now, it’s time to focus on what we have in common with the rest of life.

The secret on the ocean floor 

A wave of pioneers is poised to scoop up treasure from the deep sea.

But was this ocean mining boom sparked by a 1970s CIA plot?

In Sudan, Rediscovering Ancient Nubia Before It’s Too Late 

Long ignored by white archaeologists as a mere footnote, modern scientists are now racing to document what’s left of the ancient African civilization.

The Sabermetric Movement’s Forgotten Foremother 

You might not know Sherri Nichols’s name, but if you care about baseball, you’ve felt her influence on the game. Meet the woman whose precedent-setting work left a vital legacy in a field largely populated by men.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

The Giant Magellan Telescope Will Revolutionize Astronomy With a 119-Ton Mirror 

To be housed in a building 22 stories high, on a plateau of the Atacama Desert of Chile, the Giant Magellan Telescope will be the largest optical telescope ever built.

Tracing the tangled tracks of humankind’s evolutionary journey 

The path from ape to modern human is not a linear one. Hannah Devlin looks at what we know – and what might be next for our species

The offloading ape: the human is the beast that automates

It’s not tools, culture or communication that make humans unique but our knack for offloading dirty work onto machines

Larry Smarr: The Man Who Saw Inside Himself 

For years, Larry Smarr has used a supercomputer to monitor his health and peer at his organs. Recently, he used his knowledge to help direct his own surgery.

Think ‘Birdbrain’ Is an Insult? Think Again. 

Meet Figaro, a Goffin’s cockatoo. He taught himself how to turn cardboard into a tool. Birds, it turns out, are actually brainiacs.

The Epic Journeys of Migratory Birds 

We’re learning more about what they endure as they fly thousands of miles—and how humans and climate change are making it tougher for them.

Francis Gooding reviews ‘Palaeoart’ by Zoë Lescaze

For nearly two hundred years palaeoart has been a playground wherein tyrannosaurids, plesiosaurs and their fellows have not only illustrated scientific knowledge, but acted as scaled and feathered proxies for the anxieties of contemporary life. None of us has ever seen one, but who doesn’t know what a dinosaur looks like?

The Strange and Twisted Life of “Frankenstein” 

After two hundred years, are we ready for the truth about Mary Shelley’s novel?

Get Schooled in the No-Nonsense Art of Survival 

Students in the Extreme Polar Training course, a two-week freeze-fest held near the Arctic Circle on Canada’s Baffin Island, learn how to live in Earth’s coldest conditions. Still, nothing really prepares you for 72 hours of a sled-pulling, pathfinding ordeal on a skinny pair of skis.

A Macedonian Tennis Racket 

How a 20-year-old from the land of fake news tricked Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams, and the BBC.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

If we talk about hurting ‘our’ planet, who exactly is the ‘we’? 

The Anthropocene feels different depending on where you are – too often, the ‘we’ of the world is white and Western

The Trees That Sail to Sea 

Driftwood makes an enormous if underappreciated contribution to the food web connecting the forests and the sea. From streams to estuaries to the deep ocean floor, driftwood shapes every environment it passes through. While there’s an awareness that temperate rainforests are enriched with nitrogen from the marine environment, delivered by decomposing salmon, less well known is the fact that dead trees from those same forests travel to the sea and become a vital source of food and habitat. Driftwood is in need of a PR campaign, celebrity spokesperson, or publicist at the very least. Driftwood, it turns out, is also rapidly disappearing.

Highway of riches, road to ruin: Inside the Amazon’s deforestation crisis (via Longform) 

Highway BR-163 cuts a brutal path through Brazil’s conflicting ambitions: to transform itself into an economic powerhouse and to preserve the Amazon as a bulwark against climate change. Stephanie Nolen travelled 2,000 kilometres along the dusty, dangerous corridor, and found a range of realistic — and often counterintuitive — ways that the forest could work for everyone

How Humans Sank New Orleans 

Engineering put the Crescent City below sea level. Now, its future is at risk.

Who Killed More: Hitler, Stalin, or Mao? 

On the sixtieth anniversary of the Great Leap Forward, Ian Johnson takes another look

North Korea: what war with the US would look like 

A full-blown war with North Korea wouldn’t be as bad as you think. It would be much, much worse.

The Supersonic Parachutes Carrying NASA’s Martian Dreams 

A new generation of space scientists is using high tech materials to resurrect the long-neglected supersonic parachute.

Why Paper Jams Persist 

A trivial problem reveals the limits of technology.

The House That Spied on Me 

Thanks to the Internet of Things, I could live in my very own tech-mediated Downton Abbey. That’s the appeal of smart homes for most people, and why they are supposed to be a $27 billion market by 2021. But that wasn’t my primary motivation. The reason I smartened up my house was to find out whether it would betray me.

How New Zealand made Edmund Hillary, the man who conquered Everest 

Hillary also doubled down on what would be an easy meal ticket all by itself — being the man who climbed Everest — and became much more than a mountaineer. He became an Antarctic explorer, a Yeti hunter (briefly and unsuccessfully), a humanitarian who built schools and hospitals for the Sherpas who got him to the top of Everest, an explorer-for-hire, a filmmaker and author, and a diplomat.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

The White Darkness 

On November 13, 2015, Henry Worsley set out from the coast of Antarctica, hoping to achieve what his hero, Ernest Shackleton, had failed to do a century earlier: to trek on foot from one side of the continent to the other. The journey, which would pass through the South Pole, was more than a thousand miles, and would traverse what is arguably the most brutal environment in the world.

Big Bounce Models Reignite Big Bang Debate 

Cosmologists have shown that it’s theoretically possible for a contracting universe to bounce and expand. The new work resuscitates an old idea that directly challenges the Big Bang theory of cosmic origins.

Two psychologists followed 1000 New Zealanders for decades. Here’s what they found about how childhood shapes later life 

Dunedin study has tracked physical and mental health, finances, and social relations, making its participants one of the most closely observed populations on Earth.

How warp-speed evolution is transforming ecology 

Darwin thought evolution was too slow to change the environment on observable timescales. Ecologists are discovering that he was wrong.

A Kingdom from Dust 

On a summer day in the San Joaquin Valley, 101 in the shade, I merge onto Highway 99 past downtown Fresno and steer through the vibrations of heat. I’m headed to the valley’s deep south, to a little farmworker town in a far corner of Kern County called Lost Hills. This is where the biggest irrigated farmer in the world — the one whose mad plantings of almonds and pistachios have triggered California’s nut rush — keeps on growing, no matter drought or flood. He doesn’t live in Lost Hills. He lives in Beverly Hills. How has he managed to outwit nature for so long?

In pursuit of the tortoise smugglers 

Stuffed in suitcases or strapped to passengers’ bodies, more and more rare species are finding their way on to the black market. But a radical new wave of wildlife detectives is on the case

Forensic Science Put Jimmy Genrich in Prison for 24 Years. What if It Wasn’t Science? (via Ed Yong)

A special investigation reveals a disastrous flaw affecting thousands of criminal convictions.

Women Once Ruled Computers. When Did the Valley Become Brotopia? 

How the tech industry sabotaged itself and its own pipeline of talent.

‘Fiction is outperforming reality’: how YouTube’s algorithm distorts truth 

An ex-YouTube insider reveals how its recommendation algorithm promotes divisive clips and conspiracy videos.

The kill chain: inside the unit that tracks targets for US drone wars 

Amid Kansas bean fields military analysts watch live video of far-off suspects’ lives … and mark them for death. The killings, and accompanying civilian casualties, take an emotional toll

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

Charles Mann: Can Planet Earth Feed 10 Billion People? 

Humanity has 30 years to find out.

Excerpted from the book, The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World

Falklands Model Wildlife Preservation, Save Habitat After Wars 

The isolated Falklands, best known for sheep and a brief war, offer a living lesson in what happens when nature is allowed to flourish.

Fossil Discoveries Challenge Ideas About Earth’s Start 

A series of fossil finds suggests that life on Earth started earlier than anyone thought, calling into question a widely held theory of the solar system’s beginnings.

Science in flux: is a revolution brewing in evolutionary theory? 

Is evolutionary science due for a major overhaul – or is talk of ‘revolution’ misguided?

The Era of Quantum Computing Is Here. Outlook: Cloudy 

Quantum computers should soon be able to beat classical computers at certain basic tasks. But before they’re truly powerful, researchers have to overcome a number of fundamental roadblocks.

The Fields Medal should return to its roots 

Forgotten records of mathematics’ best-known prize hold lessons for the future of the discipline, argues historian Michael Barany.

Q&A: How do climate models work? 

In the first article of a week-long series focused on climate modelling, Carbon Brief explains in detail how scientists use computers to understand our changing climate…

Other articles in the series: Timeline: The history of climate modelling | In-depth: Scientists discuss how to improve climate models | Guest post: Why clouds hold the key to better climate models | Explainer: What climate models tell us about future rainfall

The Disaster Tourist 

Inside the world of dark tourism, where for just $2,500 you too could be responsible for a geopolitical calamity.

How a new technology is changing the lives of people who cannot speak 

Millions are robbed of the power of speech by illness, injury or lifelong conditions. Can the creation of bespoke digital voices transform their ability to communicate?

Why the 747 Is Such a Badass Plane 

The plane that’s a ship. The ship that’s a plane.“

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

How many dimensions are there, and what do they do to reality? 

Relativity says we live in four dimensions. String theory says it’s 10. What are ‘dimensions’ and how do they affect reality?

A Brief History of the Stick 

The Stick Is an Unsung Hero of Human Evolution

Does Your Gut Hold the Secret to Performance? 

The microbes in our digestive systems can affect everything from our mental health to our weight and vulnerability to disease. So why not athletic performance? New science is set to revolutionize the way we eat, train, and live.​

The way music moves us shows the mind is more than a machine 

Music reminds us that the mind is more than a calculator. We are resonant bodies as much as representing machines

The Limits of Empathy 

Thanks to recent efforts in the virtual reality space, audiences can get up close and personal to folks living very different, and difficult, lives. But can attempts to foster empathy through simulation hurt more than they can help?

Mazviita Chirimuuta Tells Us How We Should Be Defining Color 

An argument for a new definition of color.

Why People Wait in Lines (via Digg) 

A sociocultural history of the line.

How the Olympics Turned China on to Skiing 

Behold the astonishing explosion of alpine sports in the People’s Republic—as directed, promoted, and financed by the Communist Party in the run–up to the 2022 Beijing Olympics

From Nazi Germany to Australia: The Incredible True Story of Oskar Speck and History’s Longest Kayak Journey (via Digg)

With Germany in tatters, his small business bankrupt, Oskar Speck got into his kayak in 1932 for what would become an epic, seven-and-a-half-year paddle—30,000 miles, packed with hero’s welcomes and near-death escapes, all the way to Australia. But as Speck battled sharks, hostile locals, and malaria, Hitler rose to power and W.W. II began. This is the story of Speck’s voyage, an adventure nearly lost to history.

Breaking Bad Cast Interview – How Breaking Bad Became a Phenomenon (via Digg) 

Creator Vince Gilligan, stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, and others reflect on how an offbeat show about a drug-dealing schoolteacher revolutionized television forever.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

Physicists Aim to Classify All Possible Phases of Matter 

A complete classification could lead to a wealth of new materials and technologies. But some exotic phases continue to resist understanding.

Has the time come for a quantum revolution in economics? 

Money and brains are both quantum phenomena – so it’s not surprising that economics is overdue for a quantum revolution

Why Do We Need to Sleep? 

At a shiny new lab in Japan, an international team of scientists is trying to figure out what puts us under.

My Father’s Body, at Rest and in Motion 

His systems were failing. The challenge was to understand what had sustained them for so long.

This Cat Sensed Death. What if Computers Could, Too? 

Can we teach a computer to predict when it’s time to say goodbye

American reams: why a ‘paperless world’ still hasn’t happened 

In a world seduced by screens, the future of paper might seem uncertain. But many in the industry remain optimistic – after all, you can’t blow your nose on an email.

Why experts believe cheaper, better lidar is right around the corner 

Lidar used to cost $75,000. Experts expect this to fall to less than $100.

Don’t Be Evil (via Axios)

Fred Turner is one of the world’s leading authorities on Silicon Valley. A professor at Stanford and a former journalist, he has written extensively on the politics and culture of tech. We sat down with him to discuss how Silicon Valley sees itself, and what it means when the tech industry says it wants to save the world.

In New York, Drawing Flood Maps Is a ‘Game of Inches’ 

As FEMA revises the maps to account for climate change, deciding who is in the flood zone will be a battle with millions of dollars at stake.

How the heroin trade explains the US-UK failure in Afghanistan

After 16 years and $1tn spent, there is no end to the fighting – but western intervention has resulted in Afghanistan becoming the world’s first true narco-state.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

How a Melting Arctic Changes Everything: Part III: The Economic Arctic

Laying down stakes at the top of the world isn’t easy.

Also See: Part I | Part II

Meet The Loneliest Rhino In The World 

Humans have all but eradicated the northern white rhinoceros from the planet. Sudan, the last male northern white rhinoceros on Earth, is the last hope to bring the species back.

The non-binary brain

Misogynists are fascinated by the idea that human brains are biologically male or female. But they’ve got the science wrong

Losing Conner’s Mind 

The race to save a child from a genetic death sentence.

Adderall Risks: Much More Than You Wanted To Know

Meanwhile, Adderall works for people whether they “have” “ADHD” or not. It may work better for people with ADHD – a lot of them report an almost “magical” effect – but it works at least a little for most people. There is a vast literature trying to disprove this. Its main strategy is to show Adderall doesn’t enhance cognition in healthy people. Fine. But mostly it doesn’t enhance cognition in people with ADHD either. People aren’t using Adderall to get smart, they’re using it to focus.

Making China Great Again 

As Donald Trump surrenders America’s global commitments, Xi Jinping is learning to pick up the pieces.

Also See: A New Silk Road

Minecraft (via The Browser)

Lessons in market economics from the virtual economy of Minecraft.

The scammers gaming India’s overcrowded job market

As competition for jobs among India’s youth intensifies, the offer of a lucrative career in a call centre can be difficult to turn down – even if the work turns out to be operating a scam.

Can Hollywood Change Its Ways? 

In the wake of scandal, the movie industry reckons with its past and its future.

“Oh My God, This Is So F—ed Up”: Inside Silicon Valley’s Secretive, Orgiastic Dark Side 

Some of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley are regulars at exclusive, drug-fueled, sex-laced parties—gatherings they describe not as scandalous, or even secret, but as a bold, unconventional lifestyle choice. Yet, while the guys get laid, the women get screwed. In an adaptation from her new book, Brotopia, Emily Chang exposes the tired and toxic dynamic at play.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

The Arctic Dilemma 

Scientists came to explore the fabled waters of the Arctic — but their work could also change its future.

Bird Guide: Endangered Species and Why They Matter 

They help the environment, but they also help our souls. In 2018 we’ll explore the wonder of birds, and why we can’t live without them.

Scientists Are Designing Artisanal Proteins for Your Body 

The human body makes tens of thousands of cellular proteins, each for a particular task. Now researchers have learned to create custom versions not found in nature.

Light-Triggered Genes Reveal the Hidden Workings of Memory 

Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa’s lab is overturning old assumptions about how memories form, how recall works and whether lost memories might be restored from “silent engrams.”

The monster beneath 

Everyone has heard of Vesuvius but the caldera of Campi Flegrei is a far more dangerous volcano. Helen Gordon travels to Naples to understand the enormous threat it poses

The Robots Are Coming, and Sweden Is Fine 

In a world full of anxiety about the potential job-destroying rise of automation, Sweden is well placed to embrace technology while limiting human costs.

One Man’s Stand Against Junk Food as Diabetes Climbs Across India 

India is “sitting on a volcano” of diabetes. A father’s effort to ban junk food sales in and near schools aims to change what children eat.

How bike-sharing conquered the world - The bicycles that broke free 

A two-wheeled journey from anarchist provocation to high-stakes capitalism

How Big Oil Lost Control of Its Climate Misinformation Machine 

One of the longest and most consequential campaigns against science in modern history is becoming more extreme—and turning against its originators.

The Secret History of the Russian Consulate in San Francisco (via Om Malik) 

Overflights, mapping fiber-optic networks, “strange activities.” Moscow’s West Coast spies were busy.

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year! 

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

The Person in the Ape (via The Browser) 

We know that apes remember past events and plan for the future; they can understand spoken language and communicate with gestures and abstract symbols. They are highly intelligent, self-aware, autonomous individuals. The more we accept the deep similarities between humans and other apes, the more pressing it becomes to address the unresolved tension in the sinews of our relationship: whether we need to change our definition of a human — or, more profoundly, what it means to be a person.

Imagining the Jellyfish Apocalypse 

The stinging, gelatinous blobs could take over the world’s oceans.

Jim Simons, the Numbers King 

Algorithms made him a Wall Street billionaire. His new research center helps scientists mine data for the common good.

Portugal’s radical drugs policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it? 

Since it decriminalised all drugs in 2001, Portugal has seen dramatic drops in overdoses, HIV infection and drug-related crime.

Ada Blackjack, the Forgotten Sole Survivor of an Odd Arctic Expedition 

In the early 1920s, 23-year-old Blackjack endured a two-year stay on frosty Wrangel Island.

Extreme Digital Detox, Siberia Edition 

Last winter, the author ventured to the tundra with an extreme tour company promising the ultimate digital renewal—ten days living with nomadic reindeer herders in one of the planet’s last remaining off-the-grid dark spots. Is it really possible to totally unplug?

On the Ancient Silk Road, a Walk Shadowed by a Mystery 

As his journey around the world continues, writer Paul Salopek encounters the enduring spirits of one of history’s great trade routes.

In China, a Three-Digit Score Could Dictate Your Place in Society 

China is taking the idea of a credit score to the extreme, using big data to track and rank what you do—your purchases, your pastimes, your mistakes.

What Putin Really Wants 

Russia’s strongman president has many Americans convinced of his manipulative genius. He’s really just a gambler who won big.

Inside the Secret World of Football in North Korea 

North Korea has a pedigree when it comes to the World Cup and was considered one of Asia’s stronger teams. But the facts on the ground had changed.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

Deep beneath the Earth’s surface life is weird and wonderful

The Earth is not a solid mass of rock: its hot, dark, fractured subsurface is home to weird and wonderful life forms

Ice Apocalypse 

Rapid collapse of Antarctic glaciers could flood coastal cities by the end of this century.

Down the River: The Allure and Perils of Hydropower 

Damming rivers may seem like a clean and easy solution for Albania and other energy-hungry countries. But the devil is in the details.

The Leap into Quantum Technology: A Primer for National Security Professionals

via The Browser:

Written for national security professionals, but accessible to the general reader. Quantum technology involves the manipulation of individual atoms and sub-atomic particles to process data exponentially faster than current digital technology can do. Quantum technology already enables the ultra-accurate clocks needed for GPS. It can provide completely secure communications channels. Quantum computers, now in development, are likely to make all existing cryptography obsolete.

The Last of the Iron Lungs 

via The Browser: 

American hospital wards used to be full of iron lungs — mechanical breathing machines to help victims paralysed by polio. When vaccines developed in the 1950s swiftly eradicated polio, iron lungs became obsolete: No more manufacturing, no more service engineers, no more spare parts. Half a century later, a last three aging elderly polio survivors rely on iron lungs to keep them alive. “What these iron lung users have in common are generous, mechanically skilled friends and family” 

If we can beat Ebola, why not sleeping sickness too? 

A disease that killed millions in the 20th century still lingers – and with it the threat of a new epidemic. Why? Michael Regnier investigates.

Why we should bury the idea that human rituals are unique 

Evidence of burial rites by the primitive, small-brained Homo naledi suggests that symbolic behaviour is very ancient indeed

The following are two profiles of an incredible athlete. Both are great in their own way and i had a hard time choosing one over the other. 

Mikaela Shiffrin, the Best Slalom Skier in the World 

She seems to be a sure bet to win gold at the next Olympics. But so much could still go wrong.

Mikaela Shiffrin Does Not Have Time for a Beer 

Or a movie, or a game of spoons. The alpine racer isn’t dusting the competition by slacking off. She’s putting in the work, and then she’s taking a nap.

Inside the fake Facebook profile industry 

You receive a Facebook friend request. Judging by the photos, she’s a young woman. You don’t know her, but she’s lovely, and you’re intrigued. Why not? You accept her request. You’ve just unknowingly triggered the first mechanisms of a sextortion trap. 

While investigating the world of fake Facebook profiles, my colleague Marie-Eve Tremblay and I have discovered a massive network of fraudulent accounts that catfish their male victims using stolen photos of young women and adolescent girls. This is the story of the months-long investigation that allowed us to piece together the inner workings of this network of online bandits.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

The catalogue that made metrics, and changed science 

When 19th-century computing pioneer Charles Babbage suggested counting published papers as a measure of scientific eminence, few were convinced — but he was prophetic, says historian Alex Csiszar. The subsequent boom in catalogues and metrics can teach us important lessons about the current culture of ‘publish or perish’.

Science is a public good in peril – here’s how to fix it 

Perverse incentives and the misuse of quantitative metrics have undermined the integrity of scientific research

Does the flow of heat help us understand the origin of life? 

The cliché that life transcends the laws of thermodynamics is completely wrong. The truth is almost exactly the opposite

China’s Race to Find Aliens First 

As America has turned away from searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, China has built the world’s largest radio dish for precisely that purpose.

Drilling for Muons 

Ice Fishing for Neutrinos. Ignorant and lucky at the bottom of the Earth.

How an Amateur Astronomer Became One of History’s Greatest Solar Observers 

Hisako Koyama is finally getting scientific recognition for her decades of patience and precision.

The woman who can’t forget 

Some people can remember every single event in their life – what’s it like?

The Zombie Diseases of Climate Change 

What lurks in the Arctic’s thawing permafrost?

Smuggled, Beaten and Drugged: The Illicit Global Ape Trade 

The New York Times tracked international ape smugglers from Congolese rain forests to the back streets of Bangkok. Here is what unfolded.

Something is wrong on the internet 

Someone or something or some combination of people and things is using YouTube to systematically frighten, traumatise, and abuse children, automatically and at scale, and it forces me to question my own beliefs about the internet, at every level.

YouTube says it is taking steps to address the issues described in the post above. 

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

The new thermodynamics: how quantum physics is bending the rules 

Experiments are starting to probe the limits of the classical laws of thermodynamics.

Earth-sized alien worlds are out there. Now, astronomers are figuring out how to detect life on them 

Finding a specific gas—oxygen, say—in an alien atmosphere isn’t enough without figuring out how the gas could have gotten there. Knowing that the planet’s average temperature supports liquid water is a start, but the length of the planet’s day and seasons and its temperature extremes count, too. Even an understanding of the planet’s star is imperative, to know whether it provides steady, nourishing light or unpredictable blasts of harmful radiation.

The Atomic Theory of Origami 

By reimagining the kinks and folds of origami as atoms in a lattice, researchers are uncovering strange behavior hiding in simple structures.

Why do humans have numbers: are they cultural or innate? 

Where does our number sense come from? Is it a neural capacity we are born with — or is it a product of our culture?

Deborah Friedell reviews ‘The Inkblots’ by Damion Searls 

Bear, Bat, or Tiny King? A critical history of the Rorschach ink blot test

Why you shouldn’t exercise to lose weight, explained with 60+ studies 

Physical activity may have less to do with weight loss than we think.

The Scientist Who Reads a Lost History in the Mud 

Hard working and tough as nails, Grace Brush did what others couldn’t—she teased out the mystery of the Chesapeake Bay.

How Trust Shapes Nations’ Safety Rules 

How does a country decide what risks are acceptable in everyday life?

Inside Fort Botox, Where a Deadly Toxin Yields $2.8 Billion Drug (via NextDraft)

It’s based on the substance that causes botulism. That’s part of what protects Allergan’s $2.8 billion Botox empire.

A Very Old Man for a Wolf 

He was the alpha male of the first pack to live in Oregon since 1947. For years, a state biologist tracked him, collared him, counted his pups, weighed him, photographed him, and protected him. But then the animal known as OR4 broke one too many rules.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

We Should Be Talking About the Effect of Climate Change on Cities 

But we’re not. Instead, the effects on cities tend to be edited out or statistically minimized.

The race to save coffee 

America’s favorite beverage is under attack from climate change and other woes. Science may offer a solution.

The Loneliest Polar Bear 

Reporter Kale Williams has chronicled the life of Nora, a 2-year-old polar bear who spent about a year at the Oregon Zoo in Portland.

With photographers and video producers, he visited zoos in three states and also traveled to Alaska to trace Nora’s lineage and to understand some of the challenges she faces, as well as those facing her distant cousins.

This series is based on more than a hundred hours of interviews Williams has conducted since October 2016 with zookeepers, curators, veterinarians and animal behavior experts.

The Scientist Who Cracked Biology’s Mysteries With Math 

D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson pioneered mathematical biology. Imagine what he could he have done with modern computational methods.

Why we still don’t understand sleep, and why it matters 

For the first 20 years of his life, Henry Nicholls had a healthy relationship with sleep. Shortly after his 21st birthday, he began to experience symptoms of narcolepsy, a debilitating disorder that’s plagued him ever since. Sleep research is progressing, so why are he and others like him still waiting for a cure?

The Family That Built an Empire of Pain 

The Sackler dynasty’s ruthless marketing of painkillers has generated billions of dollars—and millions of addicts.

The Ghosts of the Tsunami 

The 2011 earthquake and tsunami killed thousands in Japan. Those left behind were haunted by the dead, and some were possessed by them.

Thinking Like a Mountain

Forty years ago, John Berger called the zoo “an epitaph to a relationship” between people and animals. Today those words could be applied to much of middle-class mass culture: it has become a kind of memorial to the nonhuman world, revived in a thousand representations even as it disappears all at once.

Blue Zones of Happiness Author Dan Buettner on Denmark, Costa Rica and Singapore 

What do Denmark, Costa Rica, and Singapore have in common? Their people feel secure, have a sense of purpose, and enjoy lives that minimize stress and maximize joy. Here’s how they do it.

How Martin Luther Changed the World 

Five hundred years after he started the Reformation, his ideas and his ornery personality remain as potent as ever.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

Tragedy of the Common 

The extinction crisis extends far beyond rare and endangered species.

The Rock Solid History of Concrete 

How limestone, rocks, and volcanic ash built the modern world

The Secrets of Sleep 

Why do we need it, and are we getting enough?

Dark chocolate is now a health food. Here’s how that happened.

The Mars company has sponsored hundreds of scientific studies to show cocoa is good for you.

The scientists persuading terrorists to spill their secrets 

Expert interrogators know torture doesn’t work – but until now, nobody could prove it. By analysing hundreds of top-secret interviews with terror suspects, two British scientists have revolutionised the art of extracting the truth.

The Thoughts of Chairman Xi (via The Browser) 

Xi Jinping is tightening his grip on power. How did one man come to embody China’s destiny?

The Cultural Axis 

We do not normally associate Hitler and Mussolini’s violent and aggressive regimes with “soft power.” But the two dictators were would-be intellectuals—Adolf Hitler a failed painter inebriated with the music of Wagner, and Mussolini a onetime schoolteacher and novelist. Unlike American philistines, they thought literature and the arts were important, and wanted to weaponize them as adjuncts to military conquest.

How Stalin Hid Ukraine’s Famine From the World 

In 1932 and 1933, millions died across the Soviet Union—and the foreign press corps helped cover up the catastrophe.

The Murderer Who Helped Make the Oxford English Dictionary 

The story of the OED’s most prolific contributor, a sex-addicted murderer who lived in an insane asylum

The Battle Between Baseball and Cricket for American Sporting Supremacy 

We could have had a very different World Series.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

The best introductions to Economics — a Five Books interview 

Nearly every aspect of our life is determined by economics, and yet it’s easy to go through life understanding very little about it. Author and columnist Tim Harford (aka the ‘Undercover Economist’) introduces the best books to get you thinking like an economist.

Speaking of Tim Harford and Economics, the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Richard Thaler so here are some behavioural economics books to enjoy

How the world’s greatest financial experiment enriched the rich 

Western governments have printed trillions of dollars to boost their economies. While the asset-rich have reaped the benefits of quantitative easing (QE), millennials and the poor have lost out.

How Leonardo da Vinci Made Mona Lisa Smile 

How Leonardo da Vinci engineered the world’s most famous painting

The Loneliest Neuron (via The Browser) 

…no part of the brain exists in isolation from the rest. It is all one giant connected system. Like my headphone cable (seriously, where is the end of this knot?). So where do the loneliest neurons send their pictures of the world? They tell us that perhaps the biggest question in neuroscience is: 

Why doesn’t every neuron know about everything?

How Ether Transformed Surgery from a Race against the Clock 

Before anaesthesia, surgeons battled patient agony during each procedure. But another foe awaited them next: postoperative infection

My sudden synaesthesia: how I went blind and started hearing colours 

Out of the blue, Vanessa Potter lost her sight. As she recovered, her senses mingled – hearing and touch changed the way she saw colours. Her quest to understand why introduced her to new tech that uses sound to help blind people see.

How the US college went from pitiful to powerful 

In its first century the American higher-education system was a messy, disorganised joke. How did it rise to world dominance?

The Woman Who Smashed Codes: America’s Secret Weapon in World War II 

How “know-nothings” Elizebeth Smith Friedman and William F. Friedman became the greatest codebreakers of their era.

The science of spying: how the CIA secretly recruits academics 

In order to tempt nuclear scientists from countries such as Iran or North Korea to defect, US spy agencies routinely send agents to academic conferences – or even host their own fake ones.

How Steve Kerr revolutionized the Golden State Warriors’ offense on a charcuterie board 

In the past three years, the Warriors have won two NBA titles with the most explosive offense in history. This is the inside tale of how it all began – on a plate of appetizers.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

How the Benzene Tree Polluted the World 

The organic compounds that enabled industrialization have unintended, long-lasting consequences for the planet’s life.

They Migrate 800 Miles a Year. Now It’s Getting Tougher. 

The Nenets, reindeer herders in Russia’s Arctic, face modern obstacles in their long journey: climate change and a giant natural gas field.

Saving the Ocean One Outfit at a Time 

Examining the impacts of fast fashion on our oceans and rivers

Why can’t we cure the common cold? 

After thousands of years of failure, some scientists believe a breakthrough might finally be in sight

How a Volcanic Eruption Gave Birth to Frankenstein and Dracula 

Three years of darkness and cold spawned crime, poverty, and a literary masterpiece.

The Chinese World Order 

Beijing cares chiefly about political stability at home and economic access abroad, and not about promoting its authoritarian political model to the rest of the world. Nor do China’s leaders seek, as some have suggested, to expel the United States from Asia, or to “rule the world.” They are, however, pursuing two goals that clash fundamentally with important American interests.

The Coming Software Apocalypse 

In traditional programming, your task is to take complex rules and translate them into code; most of your energy is spent doing the translating, rather than thinking about the rules themselves. In the model-based approach, all you have is the rules. So that’s what you spend your time thinking about. It’s a way of focusing less on the machine and more on the problem you’re trying to get it to solve.

The Last Invention of Man 

Physicist Max Tegmark imagines how artificial intelligence could take over the world. 

“….but they were all in, 100 percent, for much the same reason that many of the world’s top physicists joined the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons: They were convinced that if they didn’t do it first, someone less idealistic would.”

How Essential Oils Became the Cure for Our Age of Anxiety 

Aromatic oils have become big business. But are they medicine or marketing?

‘This is the Most Inexplicable Story in Sports of the Last 20 Years’ 

An interview with Erik Malinowski, author of ‘Betaball,’ which details the improbable rise of the Golden State Warriors.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT 

The secret to Germany’s scientific excellence 

With a national election this month, Germany proves that foresight and stability can power research.

How Air-Conditioning Invented the Modern World 

A new book by the economist Tim Harford on history’s greatest breakthroughs explains why barbed wire was a revolution, paper money was an accident, and HVACs were a productivity booster.

How the Internet of cells has biologists buzzing 

Networks of nanotubes may allow cells to share everything from infections and cancer to dementia-linked proteins.

What if dinosaurs hadn’t died out? 

Imagine a world where an asteroid hadn’t wiped out the dinosaurs. What would have happened afterwards – and how might their presence have affected mammals like us?

Snopes.com and the Search for Facts in a Post-Fact World 

When you take a look at the internet’s favorite myth-busting site, you see just how hard it is to pin down the truth

For the US National Parks, a Time of Reckoning 

The managers of the nation’s wild places were already in the throes of a climate-driven identity crisis when Trump was elected. Where to from here?

These Women Are the Last Thing Standing Between You and Nuclear War (via Longreads) 

As tensions rise between the United States and North Korea, an elite squad of Air Force officers wait for the call the world hopes never comes.

‘The pressure is just really insane’: Youth tennis has a cheating problem 

Rising costs, parental pressure and a lack of umpires all contribute to a major issue for the sport at the youth level.

Inside the Cleveland Indians clubhouse during their historic 22 game win streak 

In watching the Indians on their historic streak, it became clear the most remarkable thing about the team wasn’t the wins.

From Ghost Town to Havana: Two Teams, Two Countries, One Game 

Two baseball teams — one from the tough streets of West Oakland and the other from Havana — decide to play each other. When they meet in Cuba, a Berkeley documentary filmmaker captures it all.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT