OK, so it’s time again for our monthly selection of links to items you may have missed the first time. There’s a lot in this month’s selection so here goes …

Science, Technology & Natural World

The mobile 5G technology is supposed to be the great white wonder but there are fears it could jam weather forecasting satellites (and others?).

Beavers are in the news again. New Scientist ran an article on a secret site in England where beavers control the landscape [£££]. And in Scotland they have been given protected status.

Researchers reckon that (some) wasps are able to reason using logic. If true they would be the first insect known to do so. And in other buzzy news scientists tell us that we really should appreciate wasps.

Health & Medicine

We know we’re all subtly different, but it seems that some of us harbour mysterious variations like extra teeth and extra nipples.

Recent work has suggested that having your appendix removed can make you more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease. The Conversation takes a look and discovers there really is no good evidence one way or the other.

There are medical reasons why some men need to be circumcised, usually in adulthood, but for a few this creates more trauma than beforehand.

Scarleteen is a great Sex Education resource. Here they talk to one woman about her experience of having an abortion. [LONG READ]

Staying on women’s health … Just what does the menopause do to the body? [Includes video]

Sexuality

How one couple rejuvenated their marriage and got out of a “sex rut”.

Environment

New York is banning glass-clad skyscrapers and iconic architect Le Corbusier warned against them. Now it seems academics are also coming to the conclusion that glass skyscrapers are an environmental folly.

So who would have guessed that urban greening can save species, cool warming cities, and make us happy.

Art & Literature

The genius of Leonardo da Vinci came up with ideas for things like helicopters. Some of them aren’t as far-fetched as it seems.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

A fossilised bone found years ago in a Tibetan cave turns out to be from a Denisovan, showing they were widespread across Asia. Which would account for the fact that Tibetan people carry a genetic mutation from Denisovans which allows them to function at high altitude.

New Scientist tells the story of the Yamnaya who conquered Europe about 5000 years ago in what seems to have been a fairly bloody era. [LONG READ] [£££]

Here we go again … Yet another academic thinks he has uncovered the secret of the Voynich manuscript. I wonder.

Somewhat echoing my sentiments, Oxford Historian Amanda Power sets out a case for not restoring Notre Dame but keeping it as a symbol of our flawed lifestyle(s). Oh and, I believe, as a teaching aid for historians and architects.

London

London is in danger of flooding and the Thames Barrier is coming to the end of its design life. So what can be done?

London is full of statues. Diamond Geezer looks at a selection of royal ones.

In North London there is a botanical garden that’s home to a variety of bits of London no-one else wanted. It sounds worth a visit.

We all know about the ravens at the Tower of London, but now they have their first raven chicks for 30 years.

Lifestyle & Personal Development

One Guardian journalist took a lot of tests to try to find out if she was being poisoned by modern life.

So you really need five reasons to be naked in your garden! OK, here they are.

Food & Drink

Finally, one to gladden the hearts of many of my friends … Belgian monks have resurrected a 220-year-old beer after deciphering the recipe. And they’re brewing it!

More goodies next month! Cheers! Hic!

So here we are for our last post of 2018, and this month’s links to items you may have missed before. As usual we’ll start with the scientific and get easier as we go along – so hang in there!

Science, Technology & Natural World

Forty-one years ago (that’s 1977) NASA launched the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes to investigate the outer planets. Voyager 1 left the solar system and entered interstellar space some six years ago. And it has now been confirmed that Voyager 2 passed the same landmark on 5 November 2018. Amazingly both probes are still alive and beaming information back to us using their tiny 20w transmitters, although their plutonium power sources will eventually run out and the probes will be dead on arrival at a nearby star in about 40,000 years time. What an incredible achievement! It is feats like this that make me proud to be a scientist.

We know earthquakes mostly happen along the boundaries of tectonic plates. But not all do; some happen far from plate boundaries. Seismologists are now beginning to think that (some of) these “remote” earthquakes may be caused by rivers moving huge amounts of material over the millennia.

Benjamin Franklin is well known for many things, one of them being his experiments with kites and lightning which led to his development of the lightning conductor. But he had another great electrical discovery to his credit: turkey tenderisation – in the process of which he nearly killed himself.

I wonder if anyone can tell us what glitter is, and how it’s made?

Apparently the Leaning Tower of Pisa is leaning a little less.

Wasps. And why we might miss them.

Where grows the mistletoe?

Health & Medicine

1918 saw the destructive Influenza Pandemic. What progress has been made since then?

Meanwhile we have few clues about Disease X, the next pandemic to hit London – as one surely will sooner or later.

Researchers reckon they’ve discovered a genetic cause that links erectile dysfunction and Type-2 diabetes.

Are you shitting comfortably? Actually, probably not. [LONG READ]

So why are more boys born than girls – especially when there are more adult women than men?

Sexuality

The Going Medieval blog dissects the very idea of No Nut November. [LONG READ]

Environment

The Guardian suggests 24 ways in which we can embrace an anti-capitalist life in a capitalist world.

And then here are four actions would help tackle the global plastic crisis.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

Researchers reckon they’ve found stone tools which suggest that human ancestors spread into north Africa much earlier than previously thought.

Analysis of various records has highlighted London’s murder hotspots.

Meanwhile in the River Thames there is the mystery of the skeleton still wearing his thigh boots.

When and where were the first traffic lights? Answer: Parliament Square in 1868 – long before the motor car.

Lifestyle & Personal Development

Some thoughts on how to be a better spouse from Scientific American.

And finally for this year …

Since 1904, King William’s College on the Isle of Man has set an annual general knowledge test. In the past pupils sat the test twice: once unseen on the day before the Christmas holidays, and again when they returned to school in the New Year, after spending the holiday researching the answers. The test (now voluntary) is highly difficult, a common score being just two correct answers from the 180 questions, with best scores of 40 to 50 for the unseen test. The quiz has been published in the Guardian since 1951 – and you can find the 2018 test in the Guardian or on the King William’s College website. Good luck!

That’s all for this year, so here’s wishing everyone a peaceful and successful 2019. The Kindly Ones permitting we’ll be back after the fireworks.

So here’s our monthly selection of links to items you may have missed, but will wish you hadn’t. As usual we’ll start with the science-y stuff and go downhill from there.

Science, Technology & Natural World

Astronomers are still on the hunt for “Planet 9” which they think lies way beyond Pluto. And they’ve found a strange, but small, object – nicknamed “The Goblin” – which may provide more clues on where they should be looking.

At home, researchers are looking at the effects of climate change and rising sea levels, and asking which cities will sink into the sea first. The answer may not be what one would intuitively expect.

Talking of the sea, it’s long been thought that few things predated jellyfish, but this turns out to be wrong.

Meanwhile on land it is being suggested that cats are pretty useless at catching rats and prefer smaller prey. Well they had better not tell our felines that!

However the ability of crows to make tools is giving some insights into how the brain generally works.

I wasn’t sure whether this next item belongs here or under “Environment” but it is sufficiently technical I left it here … It is being suggested that we could store unpredictable energy, like solar and wind, using compressed air. It sounds crazy, but might work.

Health & Medicine

There’s a muscle-weakening disease popping up in America which affects children and looks a lot like polio (but isn’t). And weirdly it seems to have a two-year cycle.

Are you like me and have problems with sleep? If so it may be that you’re over-tired.

Still thinking bout sleep, a researcher seems to have worked out why it is that we take so long to wake up and get going in the mornings. And that caffeine doesn’t actually help.

But then it is being recognised that people sometimes just give up and die.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are women who suffer from tokophobia: an extreme fear of pregnancy and childbirth.

Finally in this section, here’s a piece about the medicinal leech and how to farm it. They’re strange beasties with 10 stomachs, 32 brains and 18 testicles!

Art & Literature

No good adventure story, and many others, would be complete without a good map. Here a few writers tell of their favourite literary maps.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

There’s a puzzle in ancient historical research: how do we know which historical accounts are true? And as one professional demonstrates it isn’t as simple as all oral history is make-believe.

Opium has been known and used for more than 7,000 years. There’s a new book Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium by Lucy Inglis, reviewed in History Today.

King Henry I is said to have died of a surfeit of lampreys, and now archaeologists in London have found lamprey teeth in a medieval layer near the Mansion House. Although lampreys were a medieval delicacy, their teeth are rare (these are the first found in London, and only the second in the UK) as they are made of keratin (like nails and hooves) rather than dental enamel.

Someone has found an old red velvet bag (right) in a Tudor house once occupied by Walter Raleigh’s son and widow. They think it may have been used to carry around Raleigh’s mummified head. It looks more like a 1970s girl’s gym kit bag to me!

London

Have you ever wondered just how much stuff any city transport system actually owns. Here Diamond Geezer looks at Transport for London’s assets, and the scale is somewhat frightening!

Lifestyle & Personal Development

One scientist is annoyed that the likes of the media won’t recognise that her doctorate confers the title “Dr” – because she’s not medic. I find the medical profession are the worst offenders in this regard.

We all doodle, at least sometimes. It turns out your doodles could be important and meaningful.

The ability to do simple, “order of magnitude”, calculations on the back of an envelope is important for learning, verifying your answers and demystifying things like geological time. It is something I was taught, at school as a teenager, to check if answers to science/maths exam questions were likely to be right – and it has turned out to be an invaluable skill.

And finally this month … A Buddhist look at trigger warnings and fixing the world. TL;DR: don’t.