Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
It is arguably the greatest scientific crime ever committed in Britain. In December 1912, Charles Dawson, an amateur antiquarian and solicitor archaeologist, presented part of a human-like skull to the world which he claimed was the “missing link” between ape and human. While the discovery made waves at the time, new dating technologies in the…
Image: AP What do bong-ripping Olympian Michael Phelps, artisanal snake oil saleswoman Gwyneth Paltrow, and chicken aficionado Jessica Simpson have in common? If you somehow guessed “they’ve all tried the scientifically dubious practice of cupping,” congratulations! You get a gold medal! Last night, as the aforementioned Phelps won his 19th gold medal, Olympics viewers may…
Since the Australian government launched its ‘No jab no pay’ campaign on 1 January 2016, thousands of children have been vaccinated for the first time, as parents who previously refused to immunise their babies faced family payment cuts of up to $15,000 a year. In just seven months, 5,738 extra children have now been vaccinated,…
1. When you spend so much time working you see science everywhere. Follow mudda @mjosizzle Beyonce look like the rough endoplasmic reticulum with ribosomes attached to it 9:13 PM – 2 May 2016 41,16441,164 Retweets 37,51737,517 likes 2. When someone implies women are too emotional to do science. View image on Twitter Follow Amy Remeikis ✔@AmyRemeikis I’m really…
On his physics-insider blog, Résonaances, theorist Adam Falkowski titled his latest post “After the Hangover.” He’s not talking about a party. He’s talking about particle physics—and the decline and fall of this year’s most-exciting-discovery-that-was-not. On July 29, Falkowski declared what CERN, the European organization that runs the Large Hadron Collider, hasn’t yet: The Standard-Model-busting maybe-particle…
1. When you spend so much time working you see science everywhere. Follow mudda @mjosizzle Beyonce look like the rough endoplasmic reticulum with ribosomes attached to it 9:13 PM – 2 May 2016 41,17941,179 Retweets 37,51537,515 likes 2. When someone implies women are too emotional to do science. View image on Twitter Follow Amy Remeikis ✔@AmyRemeikis I’m really…
Peter Thiel at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Photo: Getty Images Peter Thiel, the tech billionaire-turned-Trump delegate who successfully bankrupted Gawker Media, has long been obsessed with anti-aging technologies. He believes people have been conned by “the ideology of the inevitability of the death of every individual,” and has funded startups dedicated to extending…
Happily, her work on the application had required that she meet with Mr. Sturtevant. When he asked her out for drinks at the Barclay Hotel bar in Midtown Manhattan, she wore a little navy dress from Ohrbach’s, with her hair in a bun. After a few martinis, she walked him back to her apartment. A…
Image via AP. Jill Stein, the Green Party’s presidential candidate and also an actual medical doctor, doesn’t appear to be anti-vaccination. But she’s sort of anti-vaxxer adjacent, giving a series of mealy statements to the Washington Post and in a Reddit AMA about whether vaccines are safe. Jill: you don’t have to do this! It’s…
Visitors flock to the New York Botanical Garden all summer long for a whiff of its fragrant blooms. On Friday, they were drawn to an altogether less inviting odour. Known as the “corpse flower”, it emits a pungent odour of rotting meat, luring pollinators that feed on dead animals. The six-foot plant – it…